Games+Learning+Society 10 Conference

Empowering Student and Teacher Making through Games: Institute of Play in Quest Schools
Brendon Trombley, Shula Ehrlich

This workshop will provide an overview of games and learning; give concrete examples from our work with teachers and students at New York City public school, Quest to Learn; and cover the key components of game-based learning. Participants will see examples of game-based learning in action, play and modify a game that has been developed with teachers and students at the Quest schools, and engage in playful design activities to understand how games are effective tools for student engagement and for building 21st century skills such as complex problem-solving, empathy, collaboration, and creativity.

Iterative Design Process of Curriculum and Games
John Martin, Ryan Martinez

Designing games, like planning curriculum, is an iterative process – both are systems for learning allowing users/players agency to achieve learning. During this workshop, participants will work in groups to create a theme, design a related game and playtest each other’s games and offer feedback. The workshop will conclude with a discussion and breakdown of the iterative process of design.  Because of the level of participation needed from conference goers, we require that those attending the session be ready to get creative, collaborate with their peers, and come away from the workshop with a tangible product ready for play and debate!

Obligatory Games: The Impact of Social and Political-Economic Contexts on Games in US Classrooms
Casey O'Donnell, Louisa Rosenheck, Mark Chen, Peter Stidwill

Games designed and developed to be both "good fun" and educational is no longer novel. Increasingly, games are being developed to meet the needs of both teachers and students. However, the various organizations developing these games find themselves enmeshed in a complex ecology of interests placing a variety of demands on those making these games.

Perhaps most importantly, questions surrounding the relationship between games and the U.S. educational system loom large in the minds of both academics and developers. Does something "required" remain a game? To what extent do games in the classroom have a chance to change the total classroom ecology towards affording the learning conditions we associate with well-designed games – interest-driven learning, exploratory probing, an orientation towards mastery not performance, etc.? To what extent do they become coopted by the surrounding institutionalizations as yet another form of analytics and surveillance of students, teachers, and learning outcomes?

Let’s Prototype: Women at the Intersection of Learning, Games, and Design
Facilitator:  Amanda Ochsner
Panelists: Elisabeth Gee, Deborah Fields, Yasmin Kafai, Colleen Macklin, Mary-Margaret Walker  

GLS Joins the Conversation
There is a cultural shift taking place in the games industry. Each year at the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, there is a topic or theme or two that tends to dominate the conversation. In 2011, that topic was free-to-play social games and you couldn’t walk down a hallway in the conference hall without hearing the word Farmville muttered at least six times. In the spring of 2014, that topic was diversity. Recent years in the past have seen a single session at GDC relating to issues of diversity and gender. That session is a small session and there are often grumblings in the hallway, bemoaning the fact that those people are still talking about that stuff and why don’t they just shut up already? This year, however, GDC hosted an entire track of sessions around these topics—the advocacy track—and it was a big deal. Many of these sessions, such as the panel #1ReasonToBe, about developers’ reasons for persisting in a tough industry culture, and Manveer Heir’s talk Misogyny, Racism, and Homophobia: Where Do Video Games Stand? received standing ovations from audiences. This conversation about opening up the industry so that it is a more welcoming place for all aspiring developers to develop their creativity and grow the impact of games has struck a cord, and it is a conversation that is not just being had by underrepresented minorities or academics—newcomers and leaders alike are stepping up to the table with ideas and actions.

With the roundtables and panels on games and diversity gathering so much momentum at the Game Developers Conference in March, we decided to bring the conversation to the Games Learning Society, having a special panel with experts who innovate at the intersections of learning, games, and design. Our community’s unique blend of educators, game developers, academics, and hybrids of any combination of these is the perfect site for tackling some difficult, but essential issue. For example, are there approaches to teaching game design that are more inclusive or which foster greater diversity of ideas? How can educational institutions design introductory classes that are appealing and welcoming to a broad array of students? Can colleges and universities be more effective in providing mentoring opportunities for young developers? How can what we know about learning inform how we arrange design teams and approach the process of game design?

Join Us for Prototyping Through Networking


In the #1ReasonToBe panel at GDC, Colleen Macklin noted that the games industry has the power to tackle the diversity issues that it faces. “We’re designers,” she says, “we’re talking about systemic issues, and we design systems.” Continuing the theme of design, she argued that we need to fix the system: “Let’s infiltrate the established pattern and change it. Let’s start prototyping and making our field a place where we all want to be” (Wawro, 2014). In this session, the GLS community will start prototyping to design the spaces that we want to learn and work in.

We still start by holding a panel session, moderated by Amanda Ochsner, with Colleen Macklin and other well-known speakers joining us as invited panelists. These women are all leaders in our field, doing smart, innovative work to help build a better future for our field. Immediately following this session, we will host a special networking event for the women of the Games Learning Society community and their allies. Each person in attendance will write out on a notecard a single-sentence statement about what they’re going to do, starting that very day, to prototype a better games and learning community. That could be mentoring a young woman at their institution or workplace, or it could be a new, more inclusive approach to game design that is proven to foster diversity and creativity. When making an introduction with someone, participants will swap notecards and start their conversation with their proposed contribution. Participants will also be encouraged to tweet their statements using our special hashtag:  #GLSprototype. 

Discussant:  Seann Dikkers

Multiple Paths, Same Goal: Exploring the Motivational Pathways of Two Distinct Game-Inspired University Course Designs
Stephen Aguilar, Caitlin Holman, Barry Fishman
We explore gameful design in two large university courses: one offered within a social science discipline, and another offered within a school of information. Each course was designed by its instructor to mirror the motivational affordances found in video games, and while the foci of the gameful elements within each course’s grading system were distinct, both systems align with some or all of the three pillars of Self-Determination Theory (SDT): support for autonomy, belonging, and competence. We employ path analysis to understand the direct and mediated relationships among variables that measured students’ perceptions of the grading system’s features, and the adaptive outcomes associated with gameful course designs. Results indicate that both courses have similar path structures defined by positive relationships between grading system features, the perceptions of those features, and the adaptive outcomes. We conclude with design implications for would-be gameful course designers.

Gamification for Online Engagement in Higher Education: A Randomized Controlled Trial
David Leach, Brandon Laur, Tina Bebbington, Jilliane Code, David Broome
A randomized controlled trial was used to test if gamification tools can increase engagement and improve learning outcomes in a blended (online and in-class) second-year university course. Students divided into control and experimental groups accessed separate course management systems (CMS). On the gamified site, students earned badges and points for online activity and showed increases (versus control) in the personalization of online avatars; a doubling of visits to the CMS; and a reduction by 1.3 days in the time before deadline to complete weekly blog assignments. Female students used the gamified site more than males. In a post-class survey, 82% of students believed gamification was an effective motivation tool. However, there was no evidence of improved learning outcomes on graded assignments. This trial provides evidence that gamification can offer incentives for online activity and socializing but, on its own, may have little impact on quantifiable learning outcomes.

“Gradequest strikes Back” – The development of the second iteration of a gameful undergraduate course
Bob De Schutter
The use of game design techniques in a non-gaming context - or ‘gamification’ - offers the promise to make education more motivating and more enjoyable to students. While some best practices for the approach have emerged, the actual application of game design techniques in a class room still remains an experimental and uncertain endeavor for an instructor. This paper reports on the design of the second iterations of an undergraduate course (Ni1 = 17, Ni2 = 20) that incorporates a variety of game design techniques through an online application named ‘Gradequest’. The first iteration of the course was evaluated using a questionnaire, a focus group session and a teacher’s log, which led to a number of significant design changes. The paper discusses the expectations for the evaluation of these changes, as well as how other courses could learn from this design research project.

Massiveness in Educational Games
Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil, Dan Norton, Joel Levin

Many genres of commercial games have social elements where many players play at once and have various types of interactions. A few projects have integrated this type of massiveness into educational games as well. There are many benefits to this design element such as the ability to collect large amounts of data, access to large pools of collaborators, potential to find mentors, and a "live" feel to the game world. However, there are also drawbacks in the amount of infrastructure and resources needed to get massive games up and running. This panel will discuss the value of massiveness in educational games and whether it's worth the resources to build them, drawing on current examples of educational projects. 

Advancing STEM Learning with Games in Civic and Cultural Institutions: A Play, Critique, and Discussion Session
Edge Quintanilla, Barry Joseph, Marjee Chmiel, David Ng

In 2010 only 16% of U.S. undergraduates declared natural sciences and engineering as their primary field of study compared to higher rates in other countries. Science is seemingly not interesting to youth. This problem is being addressed in and out of school. However, out-of-school learning is crucial and helps youth connect learning that happens in school to learning that occurs in other areas through “ecologies” of learning. These ecologies provide pathways of engagement across the spaces where youth develop (Ito, 2013). The American Museum of Natural History, The Field Museum, Smithsonian Science Education Center and University of British Columbia have contributed to these pathways through the development of STEM games. This panel will explore what the driving ideas are for using these games. Panelists will discuss with the audience on how games are, and might be be used, for STEM learning using civic and cultural institutions as examples.

Tuning the Knobs and Dials: Empirically Maximizing Features for Serious Games
Rita Bush, Carl Symborski, Rosa Mikeal Martey, Tobi Saulnier, Beth Veinott

Games research has often treated the game as a black box; we introduce the game into a situation, observe the effects, and declare success. But we don’t know why the game worked. What was it about the game that made it a powerful tool for learning? Can games be used to teach not just concepts and knowledge, but to also spark changes in reasoning, judgment, and decision-making? This panel will address these questions.

Organized by Rex Beaber.

Where Do Teachers Fit? A Field-Wide Discussion
Constance Steinkuehler, Drew Davidson, Zack Gilbert, Steve Isaacs, Ellen Jameson, Joel Levin, Allisyn Levy, Jessica Millstone, Andrew Phelps, Kimberly Sheridan

The purpose of this panel is to spark continuation of a field-wide discussion around the role of teachers in the development of game-based learning. To accomplish this we have organized a diverse panel of representatives from academia, industry, and classroom education to offer perspectives on the investment in game-based learning. 

Gone Home, Playful Narratives and Classroom (de)Constructions of Contemporary Culture
Kelly Bergstrom, Negin Dahya, Paul Darvasi, Jennifer Jenson, Karla Zimonja, David Simkins

Gone Home is a first person exploration game that unearths a compelling family drama by means of discovering documents, artifacts and personal possessions in their home. Players become intimate with the family’s history that includes a queer young person “coming out”, a depressed and alcoholic parent, and another implicated in infidelity and spousal neglect. It is a highly visual, interactive and non-linear narrative that exemplifies a game’s power to relate a compelling story.

This panel provides a unique opportunity to converge three perspectives relating to games and learning: Gone Home’s developers, the teacher who used the game in his high school English class, and a team of university researchers with a focus on learning through play who observed the classroom where Gone Home was played and deconstructed as text. Presenters will explore intriguing directions for the future of games and learning in formal and informal schooling through narrative-based play.

Bridging the gap between researchers and entrepreneurs
Cameron White, Esteban Sosnik, Matt Messinger, Ira Sockowitz

Many researchers and entrepreneurs agree that high-quality games hold the promise of driving student achievement. At the same time, there is a stark, potentially counterproductive disconnect between the fast-paced, iterative logic of consumer game development and the lumbering process of creating and distributing educational games. Much of the best research is locked up inside universities while most experienced game designers are developing entertainment software; developers interested in applying their skills to educational games have limited access to leading thinkers and practitioners in the field. During this session, join the founding team of co.lab -- an edtech accelerator by NewSchools Venture Fund and Zynga.org – and the executive directors of Learning Games Network and the Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services, to brainstorm about how we can make research more actionable and create new opportunities for collaboration between startups and universities.

Are you finishing up your dissertation and thinking about going on the market?  Are you wondering where to go in the next phase of your career?  Come chat with David Simkins, Cynthia D'Angelo, Debbie Fields, & Trent Hergenrader about the various different directions you can go, and get advice from recent graduates who have a wide variety of experiences in the field!