11 steps to create a Minecraft tutorial

Many students love Minecraft, even older students. I use Minecraft Education Edition with my students and even they like it. No matter the age of the students, if you want to increase student engagement, then Minecraft Education Edition may be the answer. Here are some steps to create a Minecraft tutorial.

1. Minecraft Education Edition

The first step you’ll need in creating a basic Minecraft lesson is to have Minecraft Education Edition licenses for your students. Although it is not free, it is very cheap. Minecraft can be installed on almost any device, including Chromebooks.

2. Build in creative mode

There are 3 game modes for Minecraft: Creative, Survival and Adventure. In creative mode, players have unlimited materials. In survival mode, they have to collect materials. It should be noted that students can FLY to explore the world in creative mode, but not in survival mode.

3. E for inventory

After starting a world, press E for inventory to add resources to your hotbar and inventory. Using Minecraft Education Edition, I suggest you start by adding:

• board
• sign
• NPC spawn egg
• camera
• portfolio

There are other materials you’ll definitely want, such as wooden boards, but this short list is what you’ll need to create a tutorial.

4. Turn on World Builder

Use the slash /wb command to turn on the World Builder. This allows you to design the world.

5. Place characters, NPCs, boards

Place items in your hand, such as a plaque, board, or an NPC spawn egg in your hand. Right click to place them on the ground.

NPC – Non-player character

If you don’t have World Builder set to true, you won’t be able to place the NPC spawn egg. An NPC is a non-player character and may have some dialogue for the student to read. There may also be a button that takes them to a website or teleports them to another part of the tutorial.

When you first start creating tutorials in Minecraft, take advantage of the opportunity to add a website link to an NPC. This can take the student to an instructional video or take an online test.

6. Design an experience

You’re just getting started, so relax a bit! What if students just run around in the Minecraft world and take notes on chalk boards? This is good! Get students used to importing a world and recording their actions using the in-game camera and portfolio. The pictures students take in the game can be exported as a PDF and sent.

7. Go back to Start

Where do you want your students to emerge (begin) in the world? Go to that place as if you were a student and watch what you want them to watch. Now use the slash /setworldspawn command to set the worldspawn to show where students should enter the world.

8. Turn off World Builder

Before handing out to students, don’t forget to TURN OFF the world builder!! /wb set to false.

9. Check the settings

Press Escape and check the settings again. You built the world in Creative mode, do you want to switch it to Survival or Adventure?

10. Test copy

There is NO undo button!

If you test the activity, you might accidentally mess it up and not be able to reset it. Don’t forget to make a copy of the world and test the activity in the copy.

11. Export world

Once you’re happy with your activity, export the world. This will download as a zip file for you to share with students. Students will import the entire zip file to begin the activity.