CSS: General | Presentation
CSS: General | Presentation
September 26, 2005
Course: CEP 999 Dissertation
Instructor: Rand Spiro, PhD
Michigan State University; East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Dissertation Proposal (in progress)
Kym Buchanan (Email: buchan56 AT msu.edu)
Home page: KymBuchanan.org
See also:Instruments, Project Plan
The initial experience of a video game has a strong effect on a player's motivation to continue playing or desist. The experience is partially determined by a constellation of design choices. Hypermedia learning enviornments require similar design choices, with similar effects on learners' motivation.
This proposition is contextualized in my design work on Ink. Ink is an online multiplayer game for learning about writing. The target audience includes undergraduate students in writing courses. The initial experience of Ink will be critical for attracting players.
This proposition will be explored in two phases. In Phase 1, I will use found experiences (e.g., commercial video games) to identify specific, possible design choices. In Phase 2, I will create a variety of possible initial experiences, by combining different combinations of possible choices (i.e., for Ink). I will present these experiences to undergraduate students and ask for their preferences. ("Would you prefer to play game A or B?") These preferences, when traced back to design choices, will offer guidance for the design of Ink's initial experience, and the design of similar hypermedia environments.
I will gather data for Phases 1 and 2 during Fall 2005. I will finish analyzing the data and writing my dissertation in Spring 2006. I hope to defend at the end of Spring 2006, but I'm prepared to work through Summer 2006 if necessary. See Project Plan for more details.
My abiding research interests are illustrated by my recent paper, "'It's Just a Game:' Consent & Immersion in Persistent Alternate Worlds."
From the games side, I'm interested in how video games elicit receptivity from players. I'm especially interested in the critical "5-15 window": the first five to fifteen minutes of a game. Within this window, players choose whether to continue in the game, or spend their attention (and perhaps money) elsewhere. This is especially true of some persistent alternate worlds, like Ink. Such a game may only have fifteen minutes in which to catch and hold potential players' interest, before they move on to try other worlds. (Such games, including Ink, are free.)
A game can foster receptivity and immersion, or at least hold players' interest longer, if its designers make good choices about the interface, the interaction model, the user model, the epic or mythic scope of the game, protagonists/avatars players can identify with, etc.
From the education side, I'm interested in how educators and educational tools elicit receptivity from learners (e.g., hypermedia learning environments, ANGEL, educational MOOs). The 5-15 window is contextualized differently, since learners are usually extrinsically compelled to continue (e.g., to complete an assignment). However, receptivity is still an issue, as seen in research on situational interest and the like. Like games, educational tools can foster or impede receptivity and immersion. Such a tool can foster immersion, or at least not get in the way of learning, if its designers make good choices about the interface, the interaction model, the user model, etc. At the "deep end" of simulations and games, learners can become players. Immersive games can foster playfulness and risk-taking, which are valuable to authentic and constructivist pedagogy.
My dissertation will explore these issues. My exploration will include ideas about choice, identity, receptivity, immersion, and meta-contextual awareness in play and learning. I will focus on play and role-play in persistent alternate worlds (like Ink). I will seek possible implications for hypermedia learning environments. I'll touch on the connections among design choices, emergent gamplay, unguided learning, player/learner risk-taking, challenge, enjoyment, learning, and growth. I'll also touch on parallel and tangential issues, like whether it's necessarily bad for a game or tool to have a substantial learning curve, the relationship between the 5-15 window and designing a good endgame, etc.
I mediate these three areas of inquiry using my model of co-opting. Co-opting is a strategy for motivation and learning.
Interest promotes learning; apathy stunts it. Retention and recall are usually colored by emotional and sensory experiences (e.g., anxiety, symbols). Knowledge is seldom purely abstract or neutral-affect. Learning is influenced by contexts, including time, place, models, and social relationships (e.g., class time, classroom, diagrams, other people). Therefore, studying a variety of cases and contexts fosters broad and flexible learning.
Ideally, learning is a vivid interaction between a learner and a compelling context. Engagement starts with "catch" factors and persists through "hold" factors (Mitchell, 1993). Learning is the interaction of two unique, dynamic systems: the learner and the context. Educators can do little to influence learners background. So to improve learning, educators should evaluate and modify immediate contexts. For example, better tools foster more vivid and compelling interactions: the system is the solution.
Technology systems can model, preserve, and/or foster the application of knowledge. Many learners are engaged by recreational technologies and media (e.g., games, movies, music). Co-opting is a strategy of identifying and re-purposing such novelties. Co-opting tries to preserve the catch and hold factors of the novelties (e.g., gameplay), while fostering learning of more academic content (e.g., applied educational psychology). A re-purposed novelty can change a learner's interaction with the context(s) of a course.
1. design choices, initial experience
resolving tensions between choices
emergence, illusion of freedom, sense of place
relationship between initial experience and rest of game
representing complexity with fidelity, especially in initial learning
Phase 1 is a self-reflexive study, exploring how design choices affect my own initial experience.
For Phase 2, I will recruit instructors of 100 and 200 level writing courses at Michigan State University. Several instructors have already expressed enthusiasm in helping us develop Ink. The undergraduate students in their courses will be my subjects.
Phase 1. Compare contemporary examples in games and education. I will study the 5-15 window on several games (e.g., EverQuest) and several educational tools (e.g., ANGEL). I will devise a rubric to evaluate the 5-15 experience, and discuss each experience with respect to the purpose of the game or tool. This won't be an exhaustive comparison; rather, it will guide phase 2.
Phase 2. Experiment with a series of initial experiences. I will design a series of initial screens and interfaces for Ink. The initial experiences will be designed for easy statistical comparison, varying only one element at a time (e.g., a more or less mythic theme). I will collect data from a variety of possible players, including students and current MUD/MOO/MMOG players, by presenting them with a subset of the experiences, one experience at a time, and asking them to answer a few questions (e.g., "Which experience did you like best? Which game would you be most likely to play? Why?"). I will try to validate my theories on eliciting receptivity, by predicting which design choices should track learner/player preference. I may also probe follow-on benefits of initial engagement, including persistence and learning. I believe a compelling 5-15 window can have significant long-term benefits; it can "set the tone" for the whole gaming or educational experience, by eliciting receptivity, fostering playfulness and risk taking, etc.
This research will be intriguing and useful in game studies and game design. It will also be useful more broadly, for designing educational tools. I foresee an article like "Lessons from Video Games: Increasing Learners' Interest and Immersion in Technology-Mediated Environments." This research will also inform one or more chapters in a book we're writing about Ink.
As post-dissertation "phase 3," I'll be designing and evaluating an initial experience for Ink. Evaluation may including how the window changes based on player feedback, and how the window may affect the learning gains we hope to foster with Ink. However, phases 1 and 2 are designed to allow me to complete my dissertation in a timely manner. (Ink won't launch until Summer 2006.)
Mitchell, M. (1993). Situational interest: Its multifaceted structure in the secondary school mathematics classroom. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85, 424-436. CITE THIS
Moreno, R. & Mayer, R. E. (1999). Multimedia-supported metaphors for meaning making in mathematics. Cognition and Instruction, 17(3), 245-248. CITE THIS
Created by Kym Buchanan | http://KymBuchanan.org | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
