I’m continuing to work through designing a digital game for learning prototype for ISLT 7384. The Balancing Scoring, Rewards, and Achievements activities aided with thinking through these elements of a digital game. Additionally, instructor feedback helped me consider how to achieve the higher-level learning outcome of the game.
Open to Learn: A Publishing Digital Game Prototype
I started with a tentative title of CC/Creative as the subject pertains to Creative Commons (CC) licenses for publishing open educational resources (OER). However, I’m considering titling it Open to Learn: An OER Publishing Game, which plays on the idea of open licensing and OER.
As OER become a more viable and recognized resource for educators, it’s imperative to understand the six types of CC licenses used to publish creative work. Open to Learn’s game and learning goals work together to help the player learn to evaluate when and how to publish their OER using CC licenses (Table 1).
| Game Goal | Learning Goal/Objective |
|---|---|
| Players must evaluate the open educational resource (OER) publishing scenarios to choose the best fit of the Creative Common (CC) license. | After playing the game, learners will determine the best Creative Common (CC) license for the open educational resource (OER) publishing situation within two attempts. |
In Open to Learn, the core loop requires the player to review an educational publishing scenario (which may include missing or misleading information) and evaluating the CC license and copyright. Players interact with the scenarios in a Center for Teaching and Learning context, and they must figure out which CC license to use for the various open educational resources published by the educators on campus.
The game contains a solution core dynamic. Some of the mechanics include:
- Pieces: Desk; notebook or computer; publishing scenario; CC licenses; hint/tips menu
- Actions: Reviewing a scenario; selecting a CC license and copyright solution (this might be either point and click or drag and drop)
- Rules: Players must select a solution before the timer runs out; if players fail a scenario two times they start the level over
For assessment, players encounter a choice—and their decisions are either correct or incorrect based on whether the chose the correct use case for the CC license. They must achieve the correct answer within two attempts to advance in the game.
Originally, I planned to do a points-based scoring mechanism—players earn 50 points for correct choices and lose 25 points for incorrect attempts; however, I plan to explore a meter scoring system. This would act in a similar way: 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 certain percentage (perhaps 90 percent and above), players can share their score on social media with their score. This could lead to an engaging social message for recruiting additional players:
I published 90 percent of my open educational resources (OER) in Open to Learn . Can you choose the right CC license and beat my score?
Design Process and Digital Game Prototype
As with designing our narrative and analog games, the design process required research, design, and feedback. However, this process felt more involved than with the previous games.
While reviewing Construct 3 and tutorials gave me ideas for types of mechanics to explore, I found I spent too much time focused on the technical side. However, this still feels like a necessary part of the process—it allowed me to understand the tool’s capabilities as well as consider if the mechanic would allow the player to reach the intended learning outcome.
It took me some time to land on the game type and mechanics of the game. Initially, I saw Open to Learn as a platformer. However, I changed my mind as I reviewed the work of my peers as well as discussed the game idea with our professor.
I explored several Construct 3 tutorials including the Guided Tour by Construct 3, Beginner’s guide to Construct 3, How to make a platformer game, and Getting Started With Timelines. I’ve trialed a few templates and mechanics (endless platformer, space blaster, bouncing balls, and even a card memory matching template) (Image 1).
I’m no longer creating a platformer; however, the Timelines tutorial allowed me to understand some technical features of Construct 3 (Image 2; Image 3).
Initially, I considered using a whimsical theme, but it did not fit the subject or intended audience of the game. I plan to use the CC license icons (available at Creative Commons). While I would love to include a minimalist feel, this can be addressed as part of the design document if I’m unable to do it myself.
Instructor Feedback
While I did not receive peer feedback this time, I found the instructor feedback quite valuable for refining how to bring a higher-order thinking learning outcome into game design. Where I first saw the game as platformer, a more context-influenced game will allow the player to reach the evaluation piece of the outcome. Additionally, she discussed using metered versus points-based scoring as a general principle, and I’m considering if it makes sense in for Open to Learn’s context.
Final Thoughts
As mentioned above, the design process for the digital game for learning required more a more involved process—and I’m still working my way through several ideas to improve the game design. Overall, the project shows the depth of considerations necessary to create a successful digital game for learning.
References
Creative Commons. (n.d.). About CC licenses.
