Presented at LILAC 2016

1. PLAYING FOR
KEEPSG A M E D E S I G N A N D I M P L E M E N T A T I O N F O R L O N G - T E R M L E A R N I N G
C A T H E R I N E F A H E Y , M L I S
S A L E M S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y
M A R C E L A Y . I S U S T E R , M L I S
M C G I L L U N I V E R S I T Y

2. READY, SET...

3. GAMES AND INFORMATION LITERACY
Learning through games
VS
Games that teach mechanics or test knowledge
(scavenger hunts, library Jeopardy)

4. THE GREAT INFORMATION LITERACY
GAME AT SSU
• Designed for Summer Bridge Academy 2015
○ Program for Students on Conditional Acceptance (6 weeks)
○ Information Literacy Course (1.15 hs a week x 5 weeks) taught by librarians.
• No class prep between classes
• Teams investigate a topic or “mystery” in depth, gaining access to research tools as
they advance levels.

5. CHOOSING YOUR AUDIENCE
• Who is your audience?
• What kind of skills do
they have?
• What is their attention
span?
• What are their needs?

6. SETTING LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• What is the overarching goal?
• What do you expect
participants to learn?
Keep it simple and realistic

7. THE NEW ACRL FRAMEWORK
Six Frames:
• Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
• Information Creation as a Process
• Information Has Value
• Research as Inquiry
• Scholarship as Conversation
• Searching as Strategic Exploration

8. CHOOSING THEMES
• Vehicle for learning skills
• Makes the game interesting
• Stay current
• Look for links with your
institution and/or audience

9. WRITING THE RULES
• Inspiration from casual games (Angry
Birds, Solitaire, Candy Crush)
• Mechanics to reinforce learning, not to
learn game mechanics
o Level based
o Collaborative/Co-operative (player
with player, not player vs. player)
o Harry Potter House Cup Rules for
classroom management

10. DEVISING A SCORING SYSTEM
Inspiration from existing source evaluation
models: CRAAP, SMELL
• Adaptable
• Scalable
• Winnable

11. CHOOSING YOUR MEDIA AND
PREPARING MATERIALS
• Public domain images
o Google Images - Usage Rights filter
o Flickr - Creative Commons filter
o Wikimedia Commons
o https://pixabay.com/
o http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/
o http://search.creativecommons.org/
• MS Publisher is your friend
• Google Docs is also your friend
• Stationery stores

12. ...GO!

13. REACTIONS

14. SCORING
• Using a rubric, students rank sources
o Good sources get more points
• Scoring done by other teams
o Peer assessment
o Student-led learning
o Flipped classroom
• Teams had to be able to justify why their scoring
o Accountability
o Knowledge of materials

15. PRIZES
• DO NOT make it all about the
prizes
• They do not need to be
expensive
• The next level is the reward

16. SUCCESSES
• Game was implemented by three other
librarians
• Game can be easily used in subsequent
years (just change the themes)
• High levels of student engagement
• Ownership over learning
• Serendipitous learning led to valuable
lessons
• Covered the entire curriculum
• Immediate assessment
Oh, I get why
we are doing
this!
I can't use my
cellphone, I'm in
the library class!

17. LESSONS LEARNED
• Playtest. Playtest. Playtest.
• Describe the mystery scenarios more fully
• More focused themes
• Monitor time carefully
• Coordinate rules and prizes with other
librarians

18. BONUS ROUND

19. CREATE YOUR OWN GAME
Planning
• Who are your players?
• What do you want to accomplish?
– What is Winning?
– What are they Learning?
• How much time do you have?
– One-shot class vs. semester?
Constraints:
• No Trivia Games
• Playable with pencil & paper (and library computer)

20. QUESTIONS?
COMMENTS?
CONCERNS?

21. COLLABORATIVE GAMES
• Pandemic
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic
• Escape the Room Games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-life_room_escape

22. CASUAL GAMES
• Solitaire/Patience
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patience_(game)
• Candy Crush Saga
http://candycrushsaga.com/

23. CLASSIC LIBRARY GAMES
• Scavenger hunts – e.g. Library Amazing Race
http://www.geneseo.edu/~costello/website/Amazing%20Race_lesson.pdf
• MLA Jeopardy
http://web.arc.losrios.edu/~library/mla_jeopardy.ppt
• The Library Game (gamification of library usage and services)
http://librarygame.co.uk/

24. GAMIFICATION IN LIBRARIES
• Designing Gamification in the Right Way. (2015). Library Technology
Reports, 51(2), 29-35.
• Gamification in Education and Libraries. (2015). Library Technology Reports,
51(2), 20-28.
• Walsh, A.(2014). The potential for using gamification in academic libraries
in order to increase student engagement and achievement. Nordic Journal
of Information Literacy in Higher Education 6(1): 39-51.

25. GAMES IN EDUCATION
• Faiella, F., & Ricciardi, M. (2015). Gamification and learning A review of
issues and research. Journal Of E-Learning & Knowledge Society, 11(3), 13-
21.
• Holmes, J. B., & Gee, E. R. (2016). A framework for understanding game-
based teaching and learning. On The Horizon, 24(1), 1-16.
doi:10.1108/OTH-11-2015-0069

26. THANK YOU!
C A T H E R I N E F A H E Y
C F A H E Y @ S A L E M S T A T E . E D U
M A R C E L A Y . I S U S T E R
M A R C E L A . I S U S T E R @ M C G I L L . C A