how student game designers design learning into games

How Student Game Designers Design Learning into Games

Charlotte Lærke WeitzeAssistant Professor, ILD-lab: IT and Learning DesignDapartment of Learning and PhilosophyAalborg University, Copenhagen Campus, Denmark

Games Learning Society 12Madison – August 18th 2016

• Investigation:– How to support students in creating learning designs for specific

learning goals in analogue and digital games as a means of learning– Learning trajectories emerged in the digital games created by the

student learning-game designers • Findings:

– Students succeeded in developing and implementing specific learning goals in their games

– Students developed learning trajectories through the games by designing various learning and evaluation opportunities for the player/learner playing the game


Research Design Aim

• Within a big Game (a gamified process), this project experimented with letting the students make small digital games for learning and aimed at embedding specific learning goals in the games. The aim was not only to work with the creative game design processes, but also, in a dedicated way, to scaffold and evaluate the learning process for the novice teachers and students within game design. The purpose was also to facilitate the learning process for the other players/fellow-students who would later play the games.

• This gamified learning design should facilitate a deep learning process within the subject matters through the creation of the learning games



Weitze, C.L. (2015a).

Participants and Setting • 1st and 3rd: Adult students from two full time upper secondary general education program classes • 2nd: Children in the 7th grade - Creative use of IT

Project Iteration

Period Participants

Form Subject matters Pedagogical Approach: Constructionism & PBL

Game tool

1st iteration

Spring 2014

17 adult students, 3 teachers

3 student workshops, 4 hours, 1-week interval

History, religion, and social studies; fixed learning goals

Fixed overall learning goals. Part of the evaluation process. Students had already been introduced to the subject.

Game Salad

2nd iteration

Fall 2014

14 children in 7th grade, 1 teacher

1 student workshop, 2 hours

Own choice of subject matter and learning goals

Problem-based approach. Students chose subjects and found content themselves.

Scratch

3rd iteration

Spring 2015

19 adult students, 2 teachers

3 student workshops, 5 hours, 1-week interval

History, English as a second language, and source criticism; fixed learning goals

Fixed overall learning goals. Problem-based approach. Students had to find information about the subject during game development, learning in that process.

Scratch & RGB maker

Table 1: The three iterations in the project (Spring 2014 to Spring 2015).


The structured game design process


CLWeitze (2014)

Workshops • Each team developed learning-game concepts • Documented learning goals for the game• Students brainstormed to create games - encompass learning goals • The Smiley Model


CLWeitze (2016). Smiley Model – game design model for creating engaging learning games

Prototypes - materials for learning


Learning design processes contained within one another



CLWetze, 2017

• Designing learning games, creating learning situations and building learning content into these games

• Discussed the subject matter, found content, negotiated how to implement learning • Reached their learning goals

• explain, discuss, and critically think about the concepts from the curriculum


Students’ learning trajectories when building small digital learning games



Imagining the Unknown – First Iteration• Difficulties

• Understanding learning design concepts • Describing the learning design for the game

• Mainly quiz games • Difficulties in imagining a mental model for how to build a learning game

• Teachers asked for a learning game example in the actual game tool

• Findings• The quality and characteristics of the learning situations built into the

games - important for the depth of the students’ learning processes• Investigate:

• How can students be supported to create a learning design for specific learning goals in analogue and digital games as a means of learning? • What learning trajectories emerge in those digital games that succeed in

creating learning events in games beyond quiz games?

Creating Supportive Artefacts for Students Learning by Designing Games• Two artefacts were constructed as support

• Simple learning game example (Scratch) • Related mind-map - how the learning design was illustrated in the learning game example

• Purpose• Clear concepts of learning design• Discuss learning goals, learning activities, evaluation in the game • Help the students start reflecting on how to design their own games to facilitate specific learning goals


Mind-map illustrating and discussing the learning game example.

• New assignments in 2nd and 3rd iterations• No quiz-games• Facilitate subject matter learning • Evaluate • Create learning situations or a small communities of practice

• Student game designers were asked to describe • What can the characters do? • What does the character learn?• What does the player/learner learn?

• 2. & 3. iteration tried this out – it worked!


http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/31359632/

Choice, Development, and Implementation of Learning Goals

• Findings:• Helped the students create a mental model of a learning situation • Students found content for their learning goals • Designed learning situations and narrative in their games• Students learned in this process


Result -> more complex games -> more cognitive complex learning possibilities


CL. Weitze (Oct, 2016).

Quiz

Inviting the player/learner to be an apprentice – to learn

• Teaching and learning trajectories for/with the non-human actors inside the small digital games• For example

• Questions and conversation were exchanged • Conversations between two non-human actors in the roles of student and teacher

Examples of Learning Activities and Learning Trajectories in the Digital Games How Student Game Designers Design Learning into Games

You can use Events , when you for example: would like to use buttonsto change something and there are also many other possibilities

Game/story about how to build in scratch Game about human rights

Learning-by-doing• Create small learning situations in the games• Build the learning activities into the game mechanics

• Type of knowledge facilitated through the games• Declarative knowledge • Procedural knowledge

• Possible for the players/learners to do things that they learned in the games


Learning by experience • E.g.: Character that embodied a person from history

• Experiencing - identifying with this person’s situation and experiences • Learned about the historical period and historical events

• Various choices when meeting other characters in specific contexts• Different questions they could ask other characters• Character could choose to do in the game


Learning from ‘direct information’ - narratives• Information about the historical period and historical events relevant to this context in the learning situation in the game


Or information simply added to the narrative…

You go into a world and a story begins

Learning from authentic hints• Hints on how the historical person could overcome a challenge in the game world

• E.g. travelling on the Underground Railroad - helping enslaved people flee from the South to the North • Determine whether a house was a safe house, with people who would help

• Solution was not supplied directly - only in hints


Later …

Learning through stealth assessment • Assessment happening as part of the story through real (game) world consequences • Find and learn this information in the game • The player/learner could choose which path to take in the game – but specific pieces of knowledge needed to move on

in the game


Harriet Tubman

Learning by consequence• Learn about habits, human rights traditions, and culture from that period

• Historical character asking historically inappropriate question, given the historical period and the characters’ positions in the situation in the game

• Character was set back


Learning from just-in-time additional knowledge• Additional knowledge and information about that particular subject or period - more

detailed information about the subject

• Conclusion • Supplement to teachers guidance and game design documents:

• Learning game example combined with learning design concepts • Created and implemented specific learning goals in their games

• Games they designed should • Facilitate learning about the subject matter and learning goal• The facilitated learning should be evaluated• Encouraged to create learning situations/ community of practice in their game

• Future experiments • New learning-game examples involving - learning trajectories as inspiration


References• Weitze, C.L. (2017). Learning and Design Processes in a Gamified Learning Design in which Students Create Curriculum-Based Digital Learning Games;

Nordgold, Ild-Lab – Nordisk Antologi , - Submitted 1st September 2015 • Weitze, C.L. (2016a), in press nov16) Designing for Learning and Play - The Smiley Model as Framework. Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal

- IxD&A, special issue: Player and Learner eXperience, 2016.• Weitze, C.L (2016b). How Student Game Designers Design Learning into Games. In Proceedings of the games, learning, and society conference.

Pittsburgh, PA: ETC.• Weitze, C. L. (2016c). Emerging Learning Trajectories when Students Implement Learning into Digital Games, Proceedings of The 10th European

Conference on Games Based Learning, 6 - 7 October 2016, Paisley, Scotland.• Weitze, C.L. (2015a). Learning and Motivational Processes When Students Design Curriculum-Based Digital Learning Games, Proceedings of the 9th

European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL), Nord-Trondelag University College, Steinkjer, Norway, 8– 9 October 2015. Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited

• Weitze, C.L. (2015b). Designing for Learning and Play - The Smiley model as framework,CHItaly 2015 - Public, private and community-based interaction, Paper presented at: PALX – Player And Learner Experience – Can We Design For Both? Rome, Italy, 28. September 2015. Retrieved from http://palx.inf.unibz.it/papers/Weitze.pdf

• Weitze, C. L. (2014a) Developing Goals and Objectives for Gameplay and Learning. In Learning, Education and Games: Volume One: Curricular and Design Considerations. Ed. Karen Schrier. Vol. 1, Carnegie Mellon University ETC Press, 2014. p. 225–249.

• Weitze, C. L. (2014b) “An Experiment on How Adult Students Can Learn by Designing Engaging Learning Games”, Meaningful Play 2014: Conference Proceedings, University of Michigan Press.

• Weitze, C. L. (2014c) “Experimenting on How to Create a Sustainable Gamified Learning Design That Supports Adult Students When Learning Through Designing Learning Games”, Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Games Based Learning, Berlin, Germany, 9–10 October, 2014. Vol. 2 ACPIL, p. 594–603.

• Weitze, C.L. & Ørngreen, R. (2012) “Concept Model for Designing Engaging and Motivating Games for Learning: The Smiley-model”, [online], Electronic Proceedings in Meaningful Play Conference 2012, MSU, http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu/proceedings2012/ mp2012submission148.pdf (retrieved on 15.06.15).

• Weitze, C.L. (2011): Concept development of a motivating and engaging game for learning music, Unpublished Master’s Thesis in Digital Design and Communication, IT-University, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Contact:Charlotte Lærke Weitze@[email protected]@learning.aau.dk


http://palx.inf.unibz.it/papers/Weitze.pdf

http://vbn.aau.dk/en/persons/charlotte-laerke-weitze(18e46aa8-9fdf-4687-a40f-7034276134e3).html

http://vbn.aau.dk/en/persons/charlotte-laerke-weitze(18e46aa8-9fdf-4687-a40f-7034276134e3).html