Presentation delivered by Daisy Abbott, Glasgow School of Art at the Still Game to Learn event organised by College Development Network, 9th December, 2016.

1. “How to Fail Your Research Degree”
A game to enhance research skills
Daisy Abbott
D.Abbott@gsa.ac.uk

2. Academic Context
• GSA Core Research Skills programme
– Range of modules delivered to PG (taught) students
– Similar programme for PG (research) students
– Specific module: “Academic Skills for Masters
Research”
• Challenges
– Limited class size restricts access
– Lecture-based delivery
– Subject can be seen as ‘dry’

3. Rationale for a serious game
• Deep understanding of research skills
• Embed knowledge/skills into practice
• Motivation/enjoyment of research
• Winning-by-losing/learning-by-failing
• Risk-taking (in a safe environment)
• Memorable, enjoyable, high-impact

4. Game Design: Content
• Based on the curriculum for the Academic Skills for
Masters Research taught module
• Players build a fictional research project – and hope that
catastrophic events don‘t destroy it!
• Deliberately abstracted, simplified, light-hearted. Not a
simulation!
• Gameplay aimed at groups to enhance learning outcomes
(but solo play still possible)
• Inspire discussion and analysis after gameplay ends

5. Game Design: Style
• Simple rules: focussed on learning outcomes, not skill of
gameplay
• Fairly short (under 1 hour) to allow for play and discussion
within a lesson/tutorial context
• Student-centred:
– fun and light-hearted;
– memorable;
– directly relevant to students‘ situations;
– of practical use in reinforcing the learning outcomes of the
course.
• Principle of learning by failing/winning by losing

6. Game Design: Learning Outcomes
• Highlight various risks of research and suggest
their impact on projects
• Reinforce dependencies between tasks at
different stages of research
• Reinforce the interrelations of different risks
with the activities to negate or mitigate them
• Replicate the time-critical nature of short
research projects

7. Evaluation: Lessons
1 1
32 22
2 14 3
Strongly agree Slightly agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Slightly disagree Strongly
disagree
What did the game teach you (or reinforce in
your mind) about doing research?
Less experienced than a Masters researcher
Masters/early PhD level researcher
More experienced than a Masters researcher
0
10
20
30
40
50
Strongly
agree
Slightly
agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Slightly
disagree
Strongly
disagree
The game taught/reinforced my
knowledge of the different types of risks
that can be faced during research

8. Evaluation: Lessons
1 1
32 22
2 14 3
Strongly agree Slightly agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Slightly disagree Strongly
disagree
What did the game teach you (or reinforce in
your mind) about doing research?
Less experienced than a Masters researcher
Masters/early PhD level researcher
More experienced than a Masters researcher
0
10
20
30
40
50
Strongly
agree
Slightly
agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Slightly
disagree
Strongly
disagree
The game helped me to understand the
impact of risks on research

9. Evaluation: Lessons
1 1
32 22
2 14 3
Strongly agree Slightly agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Slightly disagree Strongly
disagree
What did the game teach you (or reinforce in
your mind) about doing research?
Less experienced than a Masters researcher
Masters/early PhD level researcher
More experienced than a Masters researcher
0
10
20
30
40
50
Strongly
agree
Slightly
agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Slightly
disagree
Strongly
disagree
The game helped me to understand how
early activities can affect later activities

10. Evaluation: Lessons
1 1
32 22
2 14 3
Strongly agree Slightly agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Slightly disagree Strongly
disagree
What did the game teach you (or reinforce in
your mind) about doing research?
Less experienced than a Masters researcher
Masters/early PhD level researcher
More experienced than a Masters researcher
0
10
20
30
40
50
Strongly
agree
Slightly
agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Slightly
disagree
Strongly
disagree
The game reflected the time-critical
nature of short-term research projects

11. Qualitative Evaluation: Lessons
• The interconnectedness/dependencies in
research activities.
• The importance of planning.
• The impact of both internal and external events.
• That the game would be most useful played early
in the research process/course.
– “I wish we could have done this or had it required at
the beginning of our proposals.”
• Familiarising students, novice researchers, and
those with English as an additional language with
research terminology.

12. Evaluation: Experience
Major Categories Definitions Process Questions
Attention Capturing the interest of learners;
stimulating the curiosity to learn
How can I make this learning experience
stimulating and interesting?
Relevance Meeting the personal needs/
goals of the learner to effect a
positive attitude
In what ways will this learning experience
be valuable for my students?
Confidence Helping the learners believe/ feel
that they will succeed and control
their success
How can I via instruction help the students
succeed and allow them to control their
success?
Satisfaction Reinforcing accomplishment with
rewards (internal and external)
What can I do to help the students feel
good about their experience and desire to
continue learning?
• Keller’s Attention Relevance Confidence Satisfaction
(ARCS) model
• Uses an extensive review of motivational literature to
cluster motivational concepts into four categories
ARCS Model (Keller, 2010, p.45)

13. Evaluation: Experience
1 1
32 22
2 14 3
Strongly agree Slightly agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Slightly disagree Strongly
disagree
How did you feel while playing the game?
Less experienced than a Masters researcher
Masters/early PhD level researcher
More experienced than a Masters researcher
0
10
20
30
40
Strongly
agree
Slightly
agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Slightly
disagree
Strongly
disagree
The game gained and sustained my
attention

14. Evaluation: Experience
1 1
32 22
2 14 3
Strongly agree Slightly agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Slightly disagree Strongly
disagree
How did you feel while playing the game?
Less experienced than a Masters researcher
Masters/early PhD level researcher
More experienced than a Masters researcher
0
10
20
30
40
Strongly
agree
Slightly
agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Slightly
disagree
Strongly
disagree
The game felt relevant to my situation

15. Evaluation: Experience
1 1
32 22
2 14 3
Strongly agree Slightly agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Slightly disagree Strongly
disagree
How did you feel while playing the game?
Less experienced than a Masters researcher
Masters/early PhD level researcher
More experienced than a Masters researcher
0
10
20
30
40
Strongly
agree
Slightly
agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Slightly
disagree
Strongly
disagree
The game helped to increase my
confidence about undertaking
academic research

16. Evaluation: Experience
1 1
32 22
2 14 3
Strongly agree Slightly agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Slightly disagree Strongly
disagree
How did you feel while playing the game?
Less experienced than a Masters researcher
Masters/early PhD level researcher
More experienced than a Masters researcher
0
10
20
30
40
Strongly
agree
Slightly
agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Slightly
disagree
Strongly
disagree
I found playing the game a
satisfying/rewarding experience

17. Qualitative Evaluation: Experience
• “Thoroughly enjoyed playing.”
• “This game is extremely interesting. It can
make me to understand quickly.”
• “I think this was very accurate to myself”
• “I hope my classmates do this”

18. Longitudinal Evaluation
– “I think overall the game had a positive impact on
my approach to planning my research project, as I
took a lot of it into consideration when planning
the next stages of my project.”
– “It was a good laugh at the time but now, more
than half way through the dissertation project, I
can appreciate the take home message from the
game more.”

19. Conclusions
• Succeeds emphatically in all four intended learning
objectives.
• Experience is very strongly positive in three of Keller’s four
motivational categories (attention, relevance, and
satisfaction).
– Implies increased motivation for learning and embedding
research skills into practice.
• Slightly positive results for increasing confidence.
– Negative outcomes can have very strong learning potential
– Frustration over pure luck/lack of control
• Unexpected outcome: much wider applicability than just
being used to teach Master’s students.
• Unexpected outcome: success relies heavily on tutor
guidance, interpretation, performance.

20. Future Work
• Work in progress!
– Tweak rules to increase player agency (i.e. give
more control over success)
• Future:
– Digital delivery? (Esp. pedagogical considerations,
game is deliberately analogue at present)
– Make game widely available
– Adapt or ‘skin’ game for different learning
contexts

21. Play the game!
and…
Questions?
D.Abbott@gsa.ac.uk