How to Edit/ Create Worlds in the Library
Hello, is there a way we can create or edit a Library world in MCE?
For example, in the "Library" > "Subject Kits" > "Computer Science" > "Hour of Code" > "Hour of Code 2019 (AI)" world
There are pre-set activities that were coded with challenges for students to solve.
Question:
1) Can we as teachers create these activities (with some coding I assume)
2) Can we edit/ customise these activities? (e.g. Instead of this being a single world for 1 student, I would like to have a collaborative environment where a few students will join this same world and solve the challenges together).
3) Is there a community of such programmer/ teachers who comes together to build worlds for their students' learning?
Thank you!
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Hi David, I am interested in this as well. I assume that you can import "templates" into the MCEE on your students computers (or disseminate them to your students to import on their own.) I don't know exactly how the template files differ from the world files though, I'm interested to find out.
I don't know if there is a particular place for the programmer/teacher types to come together, other than just through these forums or their own web sites/YouTube channels/other groups. There are some really great creative programmers out there.
There have been several times I've come to the Forums with some rather technical map making or codemaker questions specifically for Minecraft Education Edition but searching doesn't really help me much and I don't have the time to read through everything. Perhaps take the questionnaire about the web site and request a Forum topic for Technical Lesson planning/Map making.
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Hi David, Aleece
In regards to your questions:
1. You can certainly create your own activities and lessons within Minecraft. Depending on how detailed and intricate you want to get, you'll need to understand how activities like this are built, so you'll need to understand commands, command blocks, redstone, and additionally how to modify certain elements that make up the .mcworld file. There really isn't very much "coding" per se unless you're using it to quickly build certain structures or structural elements in your activity (I find the coding agent very helpful for building domes and circles).
2. You can edit most lessons you find in the Library to customize it to what you need. This will be dependent on how the world had been put together. You'll need to know a lot about the subjects I mentioned above and backwards engineer the world. Some are modified easily enough by finding where the command block elements and redstone the provide the interactivity are hidden. Others you will need to export and unzip the .mcworld file and dig through it more. For instance, in some the /wb command disabled, so you'd need to figure out how it's been disabled.
3. As far as I know there aren't any official or formal communities for getting teachers together to collaborate (but that is an excellent idea - I'd recommend you post that idea separately in the WishList section). As Aleece noted, most of that occurs informally on these forums. I've personally connected with a few people here to work on projects or assist with the more technical side of activity construction.
I would note that a lot of the technical background on redstone, commands and working with elements in the .mcworld file have taken me a considerable length of time to learn and master (and there's plenty more still for me to learn). There's no central repository as it were... just lots of hours reading at sites and watching YouTube videos and experimenting until I figure things out. So if I can help either of you along on your Minecraft Education journey, please let me know and I can have a moderator share our emails.
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Hi Dan and Aleece, thank you for your response :)
Aleece, I recall there used to be some coding materials in this link education.minecraft.net with subjects grouped under "Coding Fundamentals", "Coding Tutorials", there were downloadable worlds there, are these the template files you mentioned? Unfortunately, the link does not seem to be active anymore and the downloadable worlds seem to have been removed.
We downloaded some of the worlds with inbuilt activities (e.g. Minecraft Space Center) ( but found them to be buggy in some cases. i.e. students could cheat by using the "radio' to reset the world to get to the next level. And sometimes, the code must be written in a specific way to advance to the next level even though another code using another loop will work too.
My initial question was raised because I was trying to see if I could fix the bugs, and expand some of the coding activities for my students.
Dan, thank you so much for your response! I saw your reply in another thread "make custom blocks in classroom", and the youtube video link was very helpful. Items such as command blocks and ender pearls are pretty new to me, but it seems a viable way to create worlds. It does look like a significant time investment though
Just to share, for coding lessons in Minecraft EE, I find that students learn better when they have a specific world theme and "story", just like the templates. However, if they can only do the code in ONE way only, then it kills their enthusiasm.
What I have done so far, is create worlds e.g. construction world, where students joining a hosted world and build their own house and garden at a designated area, and it is up to them to design the kind of houses they like. Then I will break down specific parts of the house to code, for example loops to make the floor, the walls, the roof etc. It's a lot more fun, students are more motivated, and there is a lot more creativity as it is not one answer. I typically check their code using the "Share Code" function, or just look at the output in the world.
A little background here, I was teaching python programming using the Minecraft Pi API and Minecraft java edition, and that was a great way to get students interested in python in a fun way. I was slightly disappointed when I started using the CodeBuilder in MC:EE and realised i could not import python classes among other things, and the activities and code were "Fixed". It feels like a restrictive way to learn.
On the subject of editing the worlds, I googled a bit and the names MCEdit and WorldEdit came up, just wondering if these would work for MC:EE worlds too, any advice?
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Hi David,
I'm actually trying to do a similar thing, where I take the words in "Library" > "Subject Kits" > "Computer Science" > "Python" > "Python 101", and modify them, so that my students can stay immersed in a world where there are high-quality buildings, while working on customized exercises...
did you ever get around to figuring out how to modify these?
Thanks
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Hi Paul,
I'm afraid not, it seems this will require command blocks etc. I didn't dig too deep down that hole.
When I do, I'll update here again :)
Might be some time though :P
Regards,
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I'm by no means an expert on this, but I have worked on the last couple Hour of Codes. There is a LOT of under-the-hood redstone, command blocks, coding, World Editing, etc. that has gone into all of them, which I think would make what you want to do (mod the world for different purposes) pretty much impossible.
The most recent one (TimeCraft) does allow for multiple coding solutions, which is helpful. I agree that allowing students to come up with different paths to success is important, as that reflects the reality of code. Your exercise of building a structure and allowing students the option to build different parts of the house with code is fabulous! And it does give them creative leeway in what they build and how they build it.
And I'd second what Dan Noble said above, which is that it's a big journey to learn all this and there is no central repository of knowledge. He's way further along this journey than I am, but I also wish there was a one-stop shop! I would recommend the Minecraft Education Edition Discord channel, as there are many super smart and helpful people there.
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On the subject of editing the worlds, I googled a bit and the names MCEdit and WorldEdit came up, just wondering if these would work for MC:EE worlds too, any advice?
I don't think MCEdit is up to date anymore. You can do some editing with Amulet but ALWAYS backup worlds before trying to use ANY 3rd party application in them since none of them come with any guarantees that things will work properly. I have used Amulet to copy and paste things from one world to another in education edition. It does not work on Entities at least not for education Edition. Chalkboards and NPCs won't transfer but it seems to work otherwise (the command blocks and their commands did transfer but I don't think the hover notes did.)
Anyway, minecraft map development has always been more advanced in Java, it came first. Many map developers will use Java to do most of their map building and then convert the world to bedrock before finishing up the map for bedrock. And then Education Edition is a step behind bedrock in development with some additional restrictions (though we do have a few extra handy tools, they don't always make up for other out of reach options.) Add to that the lack of certain development documentation....
But let me share the Minecraft Education Discord link since you can often get very quick assistance with questions there https://discord.gg/7fSQBdx
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