Katrina and I collaborated on the Design Thinking Challenge to develop a unique solution that would apply to both of our digital learning environments. We invite you to take a look at our solution and browse our interactive design interface below! 

The Context

The authors work in two vastly different contexts that share a vexing commonality: when students have bypassed certain requirements, an extensive amount of human resource ‘man-hours’ are required to rectify the situations. In the first author’s case, prospective students are applying to a university program of study and have failed to complete one or several of the application requirements. In the second author’s context, first year students must complete a writing course that requires applying grammar appropriately to write academic-quality productions while adhering to uninteresting, detail-specific academic integrity standards that many do not apply effectively. In both contexts, failure to complete the appropriate actions demands time-consuming follow-up from various staff members. A better system with internal regulating mechanisms is needed.

Enter the ‘Kingdom of Writing’ game. A future ‘Kingdom Series’ gaming solution could be utilized successfully in each context, but for this paper, the decision was made to apply it to the writing course, given the beneficial “cognitive outcomes and attitudes” (Vogel et al., 2006, p.235) of gamification. Applying interactive gaming to topical content in a first-year course is a novel way to support better engaged students and achievement of learning outcomes, while ensuring compliance with institutional requirements.

A first-year college writing course has institutional mandates for written clarity and adherence to academic integrity standards (Conestoga College, n.d.). Students come from various backgrounds, in terms of international and domestic academic environments, as well as level of written fluency and accuracy instruction therein.  Given that some students will be intensely familiar with, for example, sentence-, paragraph- and essay-structure, a self-directed learning environment is preferred, allowing students to choose their learning pace. Vogel et al.’s meta-analysis confirms that when a learner controls their navigation throughout the game, cognitive gains were significant (2006, p.234).

Similarly, as a theoretical framework for this use of gaming, self-determination theory supports “human psychological needs to make choices, to compete and collaborate with others; all of which can be afforded in the gamified environment” (Alsawaier,2018, p.60). For this design, there are aspects of cognitivist theory as well, in that learner autonomy is important, as are scaffolded incremental learning steps (Dron & Anderson, 2014) to the writing process. Also, a constructivist approach functions in the game, in which the learner experiments and questions (Dron & Anderson, 2014) varying written components, and works to solve written problems and internalize rules about writing.

The Game: Kingdom of Writing

Chan (2021) Infographic H5P image adapted from multiple clipart images from Clipart Library.

Students will complete a series of short writing micro-learning modules that will eventually lead to the writing of a 1200-word APA style academic essay. The micro-learning challenges will be completed through ‘The Dragon,’ and demonstrating appropriate mastery of the skill will result in earning a ‘Tablet.’

The Dragon 

The Dragon hosts micro-learning modules that cover each of the learning objectives for the written course, in which students will learn to: write proper sentences, correct sentence errors, identify and construct paragraphs (topic sentence, body sentences, conclusion sentence), complete their own research to support their topic, use APA style to incorporate research, write paragraphs that demonstrate appropriate paragraph structure and APA-style research support, develop a research question based on their major and/or interest, and expand research skills to essay-length depth (Conestoga College, n.d.). Writing pieces will be submitted in each challenge in order to complete the Dragon and earn their Tablets.

Create the Scroll and Unlock the Castle

Students will then apply the skills and knowledge acquired through the micro-learning modules to create a summative written product, ‘The Scroll’; they will write a 1200-word APA style academic essay on their topic of choice. Upon completion of the Scroll, the instructor or moderator will check the submitted assignment against institutional rubrics. Successful completion of the Scroll will ‘Unlock the Castle,’ and a course completion certificate will be generated.

Other Components of the Game

Since the correct use of APA-Style referencing is a common problem for early higher-education learners (Library Services, n.d.), activities to develop APA competence are an important feature of the Kingdom of Writing game. Here, students will obtain ‘Coins’ when accurately including citations and references to support their writing, and a minimum number of coins will be required to proceed to the next Dragon.

Another component necessary for a learner is the “Ask the Wizard’ section.  This will include both a ‘frequently asked questions’ section, and an ‘Ask’ form that will receive an auto-generated answer. These features will significantly reduce the man-hours previously needed to address student questions by a live person.

Finally, students will be able to ‘Consult the Guild,’ which is a peer forum offered through the game. Here, auto-generated forum headings will help create user-friendly subtopics from the various Dragons. Additionally, a ‘Speakeasy’ subtopic will allow other discussions that do not fit under the given headings.

The Kingdom of Writing game will allow students to move through the writing process in a self-directed and engaging way. This novel approach to an entry-level writing course will free up instructors’ time away from administrative minutiae and towards more valuable learning tasks. The best aspect of the game, however, is the basic framework that could be adapted to various learning activities.

References

Alsawaier, R. S. (2018). The effect of gamification on motivation and engagement. The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 35(1), 56–79. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJILT02-2017-0009.

Conestoga College (n.d.) College Reading & Writing Skills. https://continuing-education.conestogac.on.ca/courses/COMM1085

Dron, J., & Anderson, T. (2014). Teaching Crowds. Athabasca University Press. https://www.aupress.ca/books/120235-teaching-crowds/

Library Services (n.d.). APA @ Conestoga, Conestoga College. https://lib.conestogac.on.ca/apa-getting-started

Vogel, J. J., Vogel, D. S., Cannon-Bowers, J., Bowers, C. A., Muse, K., & Wright, M. (2006). Computer gaming and interactive simulations for learning: a meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 34(3), 229–243.