ISLT 7384: Open to Learn: An OER Publication Game – Design Document and Prototype Progress

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In ISLT 7384: Designing Games for Learning, we will create a digital design game for learning prototype. The project allows us to develop a prototype scene with project requirements to highlight the main mechanics and scoring. This design document provides the game details and prototype progress of Open to Learn: An OER Publishing Game.

Game Title

The game’s title, Open to Learn: An OER Publishing Game, alludes to the subject matter of publishing open educational resources (OER) using Creative Commons (CC) licenses for copyright.

Game Overview

Dozens of students gather at the quad to protest the university’s latest tuition increase. “We can’t pay for our books!” One bellows in a sing-song voice through a megaphone.

“Guess this school is just for looks.” The rest shout back angrily. Bystanders stop and join in. Costs just keep going up with no relief in sight. Students pass on buying textbooks—and they cannot complete the required readings and assignments. 

And then the university’s Center for Teaching and Learning provides a solution.

Open educational resources (OER).

As OER become a more viable resource for teaching and learning, educators can use the six CC licenses to publish their own course materials—saving students money as well as creating a community of teaching and learning. In Open to Learn: An OER Publishing Game, you play as Chris, a librarian with the Center who evaluates the proposed publications of faculty, staff, and students at the university. If successful, the Center will gain support to expand the OER initiative for the university. 

Using only the information shared for the publishing request, you race against demands and impending deadlines to accurately choose the best CC license—before time runs out!  

Learner/Player

Open to Learn players are adult educators (faculty, instructional designers, librarians, K-12 teachers, etc.). Although aware of OER, they might be unfamiliar with how to use CC licenses to copyright their course materials. 

The game’s role play lets learners experience what Caillois named mimicry by allowing players, as Kapp (2012, p. 139) describes, to “assume the role of others or a role they do not currently poses [sic]”. Players categorized as Bartle’s “Achiever” player type would be best suited to play Open to Learn. They would enjoy the challenge of evaluating the best CC license for the OER publication as it allows players to “gain rewards” and “move from simple to more challenging scenarios” (Kapp, 2012, p. 133). Additionally, the game lets achievers gain status if they earn the ability to share their final score through an end-of-the-game reward.

Subject Area

Open to Learn focuses on finding copyright solutions using Creative Commons (CC) licenses to publish open educational resources (OER). Wiley (n.d.) defines OER as materials categorized by the “5 R’s”: Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute. Creative Commons includes six CC licenses which allow educators to publish OER based on their copyright permission needs (Creative Commons, n.d.).

Knowledge Domain

The game focuses on the rules-based knowledge and conceptual knowledge domains. In rules-based knowledge, “rules provide parameters dictating a preferred behavior with predictable results” (Kapp, 2012, p. 177). Open to Learnasks players to roleplay and “play a situation in which they have to apply a rule” (Kapp, p. 177). However, the game also provides a conceptual knowledge domain. As players learn to apply CC license copyright rules to various scenarios, they “must apply knowledge of the attributes of the concept and either place content in the right location or try to match one concept with another” (Kapp, p. 173).

Learning Objective

Mager’s (1975) ABCD method of writing learning objectives allows designers to assess the degree to which learners achieve learning goals. In Open to Learn, the learning goal states after playing the game, learners will determine the best Creative Common (CC) license for the open educational resource (OER)publishing scenario within two attempts of the time limit.

Learners show they reach the learning goal by choosing the best CC license for the publishing scenario. Scoring comes from accuracy within a time limit. This role play connects to the subject matter and learning domain of educators finding copyright solutions using CC licenses to publish OER for their classrooms and students.

Game Goal

The game goal closely aligns with the higher-level thinking requirement of the learning goal. In Open to Learn, the game goal indicates players must evaluate the open educational resource (OER) publishing scenarios to choose the best fit of the Creative Common (CC) license. 

Players should strive to achieve at least 90 percent accuracy with the increasingly difficult scenarios.

Game Description

Hanson (2023) states “college tuition and fees have risen over 80% in the past 12 years” “textbook prices are rising roughly 3 times the rate of inflation.” In the survey, students reported the need to work extra hours or skip meals to afford their books as well as forgoing buying their textbooks due to the expense (Hanson, 2023). This creates a problem for the reputation of higher education, and the students looking for employment after graduation. OER provide a solution—but educators need to use CC licenses protect their creative work while choosing how to allow it to be used by the teaching and learning community. As a digital game for learning, Open to Learn seeks a transfer of knowledge which allows the player to evaluate CC licenses as copyright for OER—and impact their students and learning community. 

Environment

Many universities build a Center for Teaching and Learning to provide faculty support and opportunities for professional development to help them improve their teaching. This realistic setting makes it the ideal environment for players to learn about OER and copyright. 

Aesthetically, players encounter a modern, minimalistic style. A desk with a notebook and laptop computer lay prominently in the foreground. They see the suggestion of an open office with whiteboard with post-it notes on the wall and plants around the room. The game uses the actual CC icons to familiarize the player with using them. Players use their mouse to select their choices and control the game.

Story/Narrative

Open to Learn’s story uses an inciting event (students protesting rising costs) which creates conflict (the university must find ways to alleviate the costs), provides a challenge (players must choose the best CC license for the scenario), and ends with a resolution (winning opens opportunities to expand the OER initiative while failure shuts it down) (Table 1). The story progression displays through periodic cut scenes.

Characters

In Open to Learn, you play as forty-something Chris, a librarian in the Center of Teaching and Learning at the university. Chris wears a striped sweater, khakis, and thick black glasses. He interacts with the non-player characters (NPC) of faculty, staff, and students who provide information (or lack of information) about the OER they hope to publish. 

Core Dynamic

Due to the higher-level thinking requirements of the learning and game goals, Open to Learn contains a solution core dynamic. Some of the game’s mechanics include:

• Pieces: Desk; computer; publishing scenario; CC licenses (icons); hint menu; timer; score
• Actions: Reviewing a scenario; selecting a CC license and copyright solution; reviewing the hint menu for CC icon order 
• Rules: Players must select a solution before the timer runs out; if players fail a scenario two times they restart

Gameplay

In Open to Learn, the core loop requires the player to review an educational publishing scenario (which may include missing or misleading information) and evaluate the best solution. CC licenses stack on each other, so they must be placed in order. While most of the game occurs in one location, the cut scenes provide story and visual cues to show the game’s progression.

Scoring, Reward, Assessment

For assessment, players encounter a scenario and a choice—and their decisions are either correct or incorrect based on whether they chose the correct use case for the CC license. Learner performance will be assessed via accuracy within a certain amount of time; players must achieve the correct answer within two attempts in the given timeframe to advance in the game. 

The game uses a meter scoring system based on 100 percent. This allows for a game which can be adapted to 100 or 1,000 points (to make the percentage math easy; phase 1 of the prototype includes a number score). Players receive an incremental increase in their meter for correct choices. Incorrect choices reduce the meter by half an increase. 

As a reward for completing the game with a final score of 90 percent and above, players can share their score on social media (of particular use for LinkedIn). This leads to an engaging social message for recruiting additional players: 

Can you beat my score? I published 90 percent of open educational resources using CC licenses. Play Open to Learn  now! 

Gee Principles

The game includes Gee’s (2013) Principles in Gaming: identity principle and pleasantly frustrating. In Gee’s identity principle, learning in a game invites the player to try new activities and become a new person (Gee, 2013). Learners play as Chris, a librarian familiar with OER and copyright. By taking on this role, the player can evaluate publishing solutions—and apply them to their own needs. Additionally, the game fits Gee’s pleasantly frustration principle. While finding a publishing solution might not always be easy, players know they can achieve the goal by putting in effort—which creates an opportunity to lose a sense of time while problem-solving (Gee, 2013).

Reporting Construct 3 Prototype Progress

Prototype Description

The Open to Learn digital game prototype demonstrates the player achieving the learning goal. The prototype includes choosing a solution (correct and fail state); a timer; game over; hint menu, and scoring. Choosing a solution will be drag and drop, and players must correctly order the CC license icons to gain the points for the round as well as continue to the next scenario. A player must choose within the timeframe with two attempts or the game ends. Incremental scoring comes from correct or incorrect choices.

Tutorials

Over the past few weeks, I explored several Construct 3 tutorials. Initially, I reviewed tutorials related to platformer games, including the Guided Tour (Construct 3, n.d.), Beginner’s Guide to Construct 3 (Gullen, 2017), How to Make a Platformer Game (Kyatric, 2020), and Getting Started With Timelines (Gullen, 2019). Additionally, I trialed a few templates and mechanics. While I determined the learning goal did not fit with a platform game, these tutorial helped me gain familiarity with using Construct 3. After I changed to a drag-and-drop style game, I referred to Creating a Simple Drag & Drop Game on Construct 3 (Sulaiman Surani, 2021), Beginner’s Guide to Construct 3: Keeping Score (Gullen, 2017), and Construct 3: Scoreboard with Coins (Game Design with Reilly, 2021). 

Resources

Open to Learn is based on the Creating a Simple Drag & Drop Game tutorial (Sulaiman Surani, 2021). It includes several text-based items. I created a solid color background image using Affinity Publisher 2. This may be exchanged for a royalty free illustration. While I’m currently using an image resource provided by Sulaiman Surani (2021), I anticipate changing this for my final prototype. Additionally, I am using Creative Commons license icons. Attribution for these icons will be added to the Credits screen.

Prototype Progress

Currently, the game includes a scenario with the option to drag and drop the CC licenses in the correct order. A timer counts down from 60 seconds, and the players score displays underneath. At the end of 60 seconds, a Game Over overlay appears over the screen (Image 1).

Several mechanics in the game prototype need adjustments, including:

• Simplify drag-and-drop and remove the color changes which denote correct answer prior to playing full choice.
• Add a CC license order cheat sheet hidden and made visible via selection.
• Timer should end at 0.
• Score erratically adds points.

Due to the number of events needed for this single puzzle, the simplification of the drag-and-drop will be necessary to keep the game within the 40 events provided in the Construct 3 free account (Image 2).

Conclusion

Creating an effective digital game for learning prototype requires an iterative process. As designers, we must listen to feedback, remain flexible, and test the design. Only then can we ensure opportunities for the player to reach the learning and game goals.

References

Creative Commons. (n.d.). About CC licenses. 

Construct 3. (n.d.). Guided Tour [Tutorial]. 

Game Design with Reilly. (2021). Construct 3: Scoreboard with coins [Video]. YouTube. 

Gee, J. (2013, November 13). Jim Gee: Principles on gaming [Video]. YouTube. 

Gullen, A. (2019, October 16). Getting started with timelines. Construct 3. 

Gullen, A. (2017, September 20). Beginner’s guide to Construct 3: Keeping score. 

Hanson, M. (2023, November 3). Average cost of college textbooks. EducationData.org.

Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for training and education. Pfeiffer. 

Kyatric. (2020, February 21). How to make a platformer game [Tutorial]. 

Mager, R. F. (1975). Preparing instructional objectives. Feardon Publishers.

Sulaiman Surani. (2021, September 30). Creating a simple drag & drop game on Construct 3 [Video]. YouTube.  

Wiley, D. (n.d.). Defining the “open” in open content and open educational resources. improving learning.