ISLT 7384: Curation: A Learning Game Analog Game Prototype

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View the presentation: ISLT: 7384: Analog Game for Learning Prototype Presentation [4:58] and read the transcript. You can also view the Curation Presentation [PDF].

Curation: A Learning Game Instructions

For two or more adults (works best with teams of three players).

In Curation: A Learning Game, players assume a role and collaborate as a team to curate the best instructional resources for a given scenario. Instructional designer (ID) define the learning goals, librarians find resources, and subject matter expert (SME) sort the content. Teams must justify their choices to the opposing teams—and earn the most points to win the game!

Subject Area and Learning Domain

Curation allows players to explore curating an instructional content collection. Bishop (2022) writes “as educators, we need to curate content to provide accurate, relevant learning resources.” Novices often lack the schema to know what they need to learn—and “extraneous cognitive load impedes learning” (Bishop, 2023). Content curation differentiates resources as need-to-know and nice-to-know. Subject matter experts might find it difficult to remember being a beginner—so working with instructional designers and librarians improves their ability to focus on the learner’s needs and find quality resources. 

Statement about Learning

Instructional designers work with complexity—and they often need to consider the learners, context of the organization, gaps, needs, and learning goals. Designing the best resources for a learning solution requires instructional design, quality resources, and domain knowledge, and, most importantly, collaboration and flexibility between all involved. Curation seeks to allow players to experience this collaboration as “working together and achieving a goal is the winning state of cooperative play” (Kapp, 2012, p. 32).

Kapp (2012, p. 26) states “a game may be regarded as a dynamic model of reality.” Curation seeks to immerse instructional designers and their collaborators into a space where they can practice and consider how their choices affect the outcome. Improper resources or learning solutions can cause major disruption in some contexts—and Curation allows player to test their theories without dire consequences.

A game’s goals should be well structured to provide meaning and motivate learners (Kapp, 2012, p. 29). Curation’s game and learning goals work together to motivate the player to collaborate with their team to choose the best resources—and the game goal ties directly into the learning goal (Table 1). The game’s replayability comes from the opportunity to try to reach the goals using different choices, techniques, and strategies.

Mentor Games

Curation includes elements from two Mentor Games: Portal (2007) and Zoombinis (2015). While Portal and Zoombinis are digital games rather than analog, Curation engages players in problem-solving just like these games. I kept the matching and solution core dynamics from both games. Additionally, Curation uses the sorting (of resources) found in Zoombinis as well as a hint of unreliability (through wild cards) found in Portal.

Game Components

Scenario Cards

Scenario cards (25) describe the learners, context, and learning goals to provide needs assessment or gap analysis (Image 1). Each round requires one scenario card.

Resource Cards

Resource cards (50) help the team find the best resources for the scenario’s context, audience, and learning goals (Image 2). Resources come from a variety of sources—the card’s value depends on the source’s reliability. Players draw and discard resource cards based on their role. 

Wild Cards

Wild cards (10) redefine a scenario card (Image 2).

Miscellaneous

• Scorecard – Use to keep track of what teams earn each round and to tally the final scores at the end of the game.
• Timer – Use the timer to keep track of each round.
• Reference book – Use the reference book for strategies and ideas.

Playing Curation

Roles

In Curation, players assume a role for the duration of a game. Players can choose to switch roles in subsequent plays of the game to provide varied experience.

• Instructional Designer – The instructional designer draws scenario cards and provides input about the alignment of resources to learning goal.
• Librarian – The librarian draws cards as well as vets and identifies quality resources.
• Subject Matter Expert – The subject matter expert must sort the resource cards into keep (need-to-know) and discard (nice-to-know) piles. 

Setting Up the Game

• Teams should include three players. The team determines the role each player will assume: instructional designer, librarian, and subject matter expert. 
• All components should be placed on the table. 
• Cards should be shuffled. Scenario cards get their own pile while resource and wild cards mix.
• Use a coin toss to determine which team starts the game. Teams alternate drawing the scenario cards each round.

Playing the Game

1. Before a team plays, set the timer for 5 minutes. 
2. The instructional designer draws a scenario card and reads it to their team.
3. The librarian draws 7 resource cards from the pile. The timer starts when the librarian hands the resources to the subject matter expert.
4. The subject matter expert sorts the cards into keep (need-to-know) and discard (nice-to-know) piles. The instructional designer and librarian can provide input during this process.
5. Wild cards instructions should be followed first. Place near the scenario cards as they alter the context.
6. The team must choose the best 3 resources for the scenario before the timer goes off.
7. The instructional designer gives the explanation of choices.
8. The opposing team may dispute the choices. If censuses cannot be determined between the teams, consult the Reference Book.
9. Record the final resource cards points on the scorecards at the end of the round.

Winning the Game

After 10 rounds, the team with the most points wins the game. For ties, additional rounds can be played as a tiebreaker.

Reference Book

Strategies

In the real world, designing instructional content requires understanding the context as well as domain knowledge. The context the learner interacts with the content matters. Players should consider:

• Who wrote, created, published, or shared the resource?  
• What type of source (primary, secondary, seminal, professional, etc.) is it ?
• Is the information need-to-know or nice-to-know?
• Does the learner need to remember or perform a task?
• Does the learner need to know how to find the information again?

Context is key. Different types of resources might support the learner’s information processing—or cause cognitive overload. Some nice-to-know information might be helpful as a just-in-time resource for learners who want to know more. 

Adding Difficulty With Constraints

After several play throughs of the game in different roles, players may choose to add additional constraints to add difficulty to the game. A few suggestions can be found below.

• Order of Resources – Players must order the resource cards in a context that makes sense for the learners to reach the learning goals.
• Scenarios – Each round, all teams play the same scenario cards. The team with the best resources wins the round.
• Teams of One Player – Instead of teams of three, each player forms a team. Players can use the moves of all three roles to create learning solutions.

References

Bishop, J. M. (2023). Creating learner-centered instructional content. Jessica M. 

Bishop. 

Bishop, J. M. (2023). ISLT 7384: Curation: A learning game analog game prototype [Weblog 

post]. Jessica M. Bishop. 

Bishop, J. M. (2022, March 29). Curating an instructional content collection for teaching and learning. Model eLearning. 

Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: Game-based methods and

strategies for training and education. Pfeiffer.

Portal [Video game]. (2007). Valve. 

Zoombinis [Video game]. (2015). TERC.