Prosocial behavior, measured through simulated after-school adventures.
Gameplay becomes a standalone behavioral assessment, no curriculum changes required—built specifically to measure prosocial behavior, not just general classroom conduct.
A Bus Ride Home, Real Prosocial Behavior
Students play as themselves, navigating an afterschool program through three moments that actually matter — a basketball game, homework time, and the bus ride home. They make the same small social calls kids make every day: who to help, who to include, how to respond when something doesn’t go their way. Each choice uncovers real prosocial behavior — the depth and breadth of it — along the way.
None of it feels like a test. All of it counts.
Platform
Webapp
Audience
Middle School
Genre
Adventure
Content
Water Science and Argumentation
Status: Finalization
vSchool is currently being commercialized and should be available for the 2027-2028 school year.
View Developer RoadmapSupported by
vSchool is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research program.
Meet the Devs
Somebody on this team can explain prosocial behavior research and somebody else can explain why a basketball scene needs better pacing — usually in the same meeting. Here’s the crew who’s bringing vSchool into the future.
Joe Griffin
Class
Projects
- vSchool
- Kaldi’s Coffe Simulator
- Mission HydroSci 1.0
Title
Founding Director
Power-Ups
Nachos
Joe Griffin is the Founding Director of Adroit Studios (adroit.missouri.edu) housed in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. Since coming to MU, Joe has collaborated on grants totaling over $18 million by providing Game Production expertise as well as other game development services. Joe has designed game-based learning and support systems for individual learning, for collaborative learning, and for nontraditional educational contexts. Joe has worked on the development of iSocial, a 3D VLE for youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Joe was recently working with a team of researchers and developers awarded $10 million to scale up Mission HydroSci (mhs.missouri.edu), a game-based 3D virtual learning system, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education. Joe is also currently working on vSchool, a game based assessment to be used in middle school SEL education funded with $2 million from IES.
Carolyn Jarecki
Class
Projects
- Mission HydroSci 1.0
- vSchool
Title
Character Artist
Past Missions
The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon
Power-Ups
Soft pretzels
My name is Carolyn Jarecki, and I’m a graduate of the Texas A&M Visualization program. As an artist, I primarily create character-based work such as animation and illustration, but I also really enjoy doing UI design and general 3D work. In my spare time, I like to work puzzles, play video games, and learn languages!
Christi Bergin
Class
Projects
- vSchool
Title
Associate Dean of Research and Innovation
Power-Up
Milkshake
Christi Bergin is the Associate Dean of Research and Innovation in the College of Education and Human Development at Mizzou. She is the director of the Prosocial Development and Education Research Lab with over $16 million in grants. Her mission is to make the world a kinder place by teaching parents and teachers how to bring out the best in kids – so that they grow up to be people we want to have work at Adroit! She is working on vSchool, a game based assessment of whether kids behave kindly in virtual worlds, as an indicator of their behavior in real life.
Brian Nielsen
Class
Projects
- Mission HydroSci 1.0
- Kaldi’s Coffe Simulator
Title
Lead Developer
Past Missions
Final Fantasy VIII, Overwatch, Children of Morta, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima
Power-Ups
Peanut Butter
Sidekick
Rascal (Cat)
Hello! My name is Brian. I’ve just made the switch from full time Civil Engineer to Game Programmer! I’ve been developing games as a hobby for roughly six years and am very excited to be part of the team here at Adroit. Outside of game development I’m a big fan of all things martial arts. I’m currently focusing on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. My favorite video games are Final Fantasy VIII and Overwatch.
Charles Sielert
Class
Projects
- vSchool
Title
3D Modeler
Past Missions
Simulation, FPS, Horror
Power-Ups
Any and All Snacks
Sidekick
Rikki (Cat)
Charles Sielert is a 3D artist who has a passion for constantly creating and learning. Originally from Sturgeon, Charles came to the University of Missouri to study Architecture, moved on to Arts & Science, then to Information Technology were he would stay and graduate in the Fall of 2020. Working with different professors and companies across Columbia on Virtual Reality projects, Charles hopes to continue constantly improving upon his designs and their functionality to best suit the needs of those he works with.
