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Playing with Games at Curtin Library
- 1. Playing with games at Curtin University Library
- 2. Blogging to increase awareness
- 3. Curating with Curtin Teaching and Learning
- 4. Curtin Library Innovation Initiative – library orientation game
- 5. AHEAD in Schools: LinkUp program – library sessions for Year 8s, 10s and 11s
- 22. Video of Year 8 students playing ‘What a Kahoot’ http://youtu.be/LPDrb4xW6uQ
- 23. Future directions to consider and explore • Re-design Pace the Space for face-to-face groups and simplify it as self-paced activity • Create an online version of the ‘tour’ using the video content we created • Look at potential of Edventure Builder for a mobile app game / scavenger hunt • Build augmented reality capacity into our existing mobile app • Design learning activity for Curtin Challenge Platform
- 24. Thanks! Karen Miller Learning Services Coordinator Curtin University Library Email karen.miller@curtin.edu.au Twitter @infoliterati Blog infoliterati.com
Editor's Notes
- Games emerged on the Curtin library agenda around a year ago, in 2013, and we set out on the journey acknowledging that it was new territory, that we had a lot to learn, that we should progress in small steps and take an experimental approach without fear of failure. This cartoon encapsulates what games in teaching and learning is about for me – striving for some kind of balance between the learning and the fun, and that can be quite difficult to get it right.
- The first step we took was to increase our awareness of what was happening in the gamification world, both generally and more specifically in the academic library context. We established a blog to post news and information about gamification - Jennie Martin and John Brown have been our main contributors to the blog – between them they have 75 blog posts since it started in October 2013 http://blogs.curtin.edu.au/gamification/
- We also recently started contributing to a Scoop It that Curtin Teaching and Learning have established. So these avenues have been a good way for us to look at different examples of how libraries are using games. http://www.scoop.it/t/games-gaming-and-gamification-in-higher-education
- Two opportunities to start developing some games presented themselves in late 2013. The first opportunity was through the library's innovation initiative – this is a program where library staff put forward innovative ideas which are then are then voted on – in early 2014 the idea that won the most votes was to create a scavenger hunt style orientation game for new students to the library using the mobile game app SCVNGR.
- The second opportunity for game development arose when the library was invited to be a part of a revamped LinkUp program. LinkUp is part of AHEAD (Addressing Higher Education Access Disadvantage) and is an education program for high school students from low socio-economic backgrounds, to introduce them to campus life and to encourage them to aspire to a university education. The program, which works with around 12 schools - is designed to build on the prior year experience with participants returning throughout their high school education to participate. When we discovered that LinkUp intended to purchase 30 mini ipads to use for the visiting student groups, we decided to design some game-based activities around the use of the ipads. This image illustrates our two main aims: to help develop students' digital literacy skills by exposing them to some apps they may not have encountered, and secondly to help them learn some things about the library. Each of the 3 activities we have created have employed a different style of game. I’ve been fortunate to be leading both of these projects, with the help of four library technicians who have put in a lot of work - Jo Comerford, Rowena Holland, Jenny Lee and Michele Gradisen - both projects have been developing conncurrently with each other, and we’ve had a lot of fun doing it. It has been very much a learning process for us, with a lot of consultation, a lot of experimenting, a lot of changes being made - and it has been very interesting to see how each activity we have developed has been shaped by our experience of what went before. I’ll briefly run through the various games we designed in the order that we created them.
- The first groups of students we designed activities for were Year 11 students whose teachers were very keen for them to learn some research skills to help with their study. So we designed Publish or Perish, and used the SCVNGR app to provide the framework for a challenge based activity where the students earn points for completing challenges.
- These images are not from our game, but from a sample game we created for the purposes of testing – it shows the way the challenges look on the mobile screen.
- The students worked in pairs to complete four challenges which involved watching videos that we had created and then doing various activities with apps that put the learning into practice – they were activities around searching, evaluation and referencing information.
- When their challenges were complete, they then created an ebook using the Book Creator app, complete with title page and verso and correctly referenced information and illustrations, which they then viewed in iBooks.
- After the year 11 activity we then moved on to the Year 10s - we were reliably informed that this age group were at their best if they were kept physically active, so we decided to create a scavenger hunt style game called Pace Space Race - again using the iPad minis and a range of apps.
- This game involved the group spitting up into three teams and exploring 3 levels of the library - we used QR codes to access floor maps and they worked in pairs to find particular reference books or various facilities or spaces, where they would use Aurasma, an augmented reality app, to find a secret word or hidden message. The students absolutely loved the augmented reality – I don’t think any of them had experienced it before - and some of them were really excited when we were able to show them how to create them for themselves on their own devices.
- Video showing the kinds of ‘auras’ we created for the game. (not filmed in situ - filmed later in our office)
- We were quite buoyed by the success of our Place Space Race game, and wanted to adapt the model we used to our other project, the self-paced library orientation game for undergraduates.
- As I mentioned earlier our intention was to use SCVNGR but by this time we had realized the limitations and problems with the app (and its just as well we didn’t because it isn’t available anymore). However we designed the game around a similar structure, with a three treks one on each level of the library, and within each trek there was a set of challenges that involved moving around the library.
- Initially we were going incorporate the use of a few different apps as we had done with the year 10s, but in the end we tried to simplify by running the game out of the one app, Aurasma. Participants followed a map to find locations in the library where they then accessed information about the resources and services offered by the library through videos, which were triggered by the images on posters located at particular spaces. We also introduced a gamification element into the game by having quiz questions at each location where they could accumulate points.
- Video showing the interactivity of the augmented reality on one of the posters. With this game, we are currently at the playtesting phase - we have asked groups of library staff and our student assistants to play the game and provide feedback. Some teaching staff have also incorporated it into their teaching, and we’ll be seeking feedback from them as well. From the feedback we have had so far, it is clear that the game is far from perfect. Aurasma is great for creating the augmented reality content and thus the ability to deliver the content in an interesting way, and we got very positive feedback about these aspects. However the app isn’t well suited to this kind of game, - there are a number of technological barriers to overcome to get set up and the game mechanics are quite clunky. But we are keen to learn from the experience and continue to modify and improve it.
- It has also been a great learning experience for us – we have learnt the use of many tools and apps including Crazy Talk animation software, Imovie, Publisher, Bitstrips, Mysketch, Animoto, and Aurasma.
- A lot of what we learned from our mistakes in Pace the Space has been beneficial in developing our latest game, for the year 8 LinkUp students, which I think is our most successful activity so far. The focus for the year 8s, as their first visit to the campus, is to introduce them to John Curtin and the leadership values that he has the capacity to inspire – we had a wealth of educational resources and archives to work with from the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library.
- Drawing on archival material from the collection we created 10 posters covering aspects of Curtin’s life, and included augmented reality content, layering some storytelling via cartoons, some videos, some textual or graphic information. The students were formed into ten teams and each team was asked to create one quiz question each based on the information from one of the posters, and at the end each team would all play the quiz. So the students are learning through interacting with the content on the posters, and also through their investment in creating and contributing to the game.
- An example of the digital storytelling that we layered over the poster images.
- The interactive online quiz creator – Kahoot – which the students participate in using the ipads.