Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Gaming in Education Voices of Spoon River School of Learning Sciences Department of Instructional Technology Utah State University Evaluation of an Educational Interactive Fiction Game A Case Study of the Development of an Educational Interactive Fiction Game by Instructional Game Students Design of a Multi-User Game for Learning Science Students

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Voices of Spoon River Set up an interpreter ( –Windows - Frotz 2002 –OS X - Zoom Open the game file –VOSR_r1.1.z5 VOSR_r1.1.z5 Read the ReadMe.rtf

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Voices of Spoon River S.M. Duncan & Brett Shelton, Ph.D. Department of Instructional Technology Utah State University A Case Study of the Development of an Educational Interactive Fiction Game by Instructional Game Students

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference The VOSR Team Jared Bernotski Tom Caswell Marie Duncan Marion Jensen Jennifer Jorgensen Jon Scoresby Tim Stowell Brett Shelton (advisor)

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Instructional Games Class at USU ourses/instgames/index.htmhttp://itoutreach.ed.usu.edu/%7ebshelton/c ourses/instgames/index.htm Coming soon - most materials via Instructional Technology -> Instructional Games

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Spoon River Anthology - The Book Courtesy Ms. Mudd from Springfield, Illinois

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Spoon River Anthology - Benefits Out of copyright – Non-linear 9th grade English Primary objectives –reading comprehension, poetry literary device Secondary objectives –problem solving, orienteering, confidence

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Why Interactive Fiction?

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Instructional Technologists as Game Designers Combines their experience with traditional instructional design theory with new exposure to game theory Become mini-content experts –English instruction –Spoon River Anthology –Computer science and game development

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference A Few of Group B’s Instructional Goals Learners will identify the poetic device of repetition Learners will understand the use of symbolism in poetry Learners will read and comprehend poetry Learners will use a variety of problem solving techniques

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Activity-Goal Alignment Game-like activities should be aligned with the instructional goals of the game

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Clusters Sibley’s Secret (Mrs. Sibley & Editor Whedon) Hamblin’s Article (Carl Hamblin & Editor Whedon) Cooney’s Contentment (Cooney Potter & Fiddler Jones) The McGees (Fletcher McGee & Ollie McGee)

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Design & Development Process Cluster-based activity within design/development groups combines: –Characters –Locations –Artifacts –Resolutions –Game-related activities –Learning objectives Iterative testing Integration of game/code modules

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Important Lessons Learned Whole-game -> Clusters Chaos -> Organized Readme’s –Things that didn’t work –Wordings/situations lacking clarity –Difficulty level of resolution –Suggested Improvements

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Basic Process (part 1) Read Spoon River Anthology Identified instructional goals Identified a game premise Identified character relationships Developed game challenges that: –Utilized existing character relationships –Met instructional goals

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Basic Process (part 2) Developed and tested each cluster independently Combined and tested intra-group clusters Combined and tested group clusters Departmental kick-off

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference I.F. Development online/editors.htmhttp:// online/editors.htm Windows –IF-IDE OS X –JIF

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Next steps… Research the game in-use with 9th grade English students –Motivation and activity-goal alignment –Expected and unexpected learning outcomes Making VOSR accessible to those with disabilities

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Voices of Spoon River S.M. Duncan, Jon Scoresby & Brett Shelton, Ph.D. Department of Instructional Technology Utah State University Evaluation of an Educational Interactive Fiction Game

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Current Questions Were the learning objectives achieved and was the game motivating to play? If yes, in what ways? If no, why not? What are the motivational impacts of unit discussion and unit game play? Was the motivation within the game truly gender-neutral as the game was designed? What are the instructional benefits of using VOSR during an instructional unit on SRA? What is the game environment overhead in VOSR?

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference ARCS –Attention –Relevance –Confidence –Satisfaction Keller, J.M. (1988, April). Tools for enhancing and assessing learner motivation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Society of Performance and Instruction, Washington, D.C. Motivation Measures CPU –Challenge –Proclivity –Uncertainty Shelton, B. E., & Wiley, D. (2006, April 7- 11). Instructional designers take all the fun out of games: Rethinking elements of engagement for designing instructional games. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2006, San Francisco.

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Anticipated Sample Five 9th grade English classes, each with about 32 students (≈160 total subjects) Classes last 50 minutes Two treatment-groups –Gameplay followed by discussion (G) –Discussion followed by gameplay (D)

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Procedure (1) Consent & assent forms sent out and collected the week prior Classes randomly assigned a treatment group Students complete pre-unit surveys Classes complete their group’s first intervention Students complete intervention specific surveys

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Procedure (2) Classes complete the second intervention Students complete a unit test Initial data analysis to identify a specific pool of students to further analyze One-on-one interviews

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Procedures/Analysis Diagram

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Expectations & Implications Effective classroom implementations As related to instructionally designed games, a glimpse of potential: –Instructional benefits –Downsides

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference School of Learning Sciences S.M. Duncan, Tim Stowell, Bobbe Allen & Brett Shelton, Ph.D. Department of Instructional Technology Utah State University Design of a Multi-User Game for Learning Science Students

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Rafael’s School of Athens

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Types of Interactions Challenge (i.e. goal/mission) Non-directed exploration Creation or modification of Non-Player Characters (NPCs) Design and creation of new Challenges Creation or modification of the game environment

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Platform Requirements Multi-User Environment Supports –Ambiguous (e.g. MUD/MOO) interactions –Game-like interactions Windows, OS X, Linux support Relative ease of development & expansion (open) Cost (lack thereof)

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference I.F. vs. Visual Interactive Fiction –Fast and easy to develop and modify –Platform independent (e.g. Windows, Mac, Palmpilot, etc.) –Machine independent (e.g. don’t need the latest greatest graphics card) –Can initially, be very intimidating to players

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference I.F. vs. Visual Visual –Daunting to develop and modify –Might be ported to multiple platforms –Machine dependent (e.g. performance will be effected by graphics card) –Initially welcoming to players

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference Platforms Reviewed Quake III Unreal Engine/Tournament mod ($$) Orge 3D (Single Player Only) Crystal Space (Bad Reviews) Power Render 6 - Personal Edition (Windows Only) Active Worlds (Windows Only) Multiverse.net (Windows Only)

Philadelphia Area Educational Technology Conference The Creative Learning Environments Lab at USU… Instructional simulations Educational games New media design and experiences Augmented reality and education Learning Sciences Data visualization theory and practice Interactive immersive learning environments.