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A variation of traditional target-shooting games that employs logical reasoning
Design Challenge
Oftentimes the transition to college requires a big leap. There are the social, emotional and personal adjustments that inadvertently magnify the intellectual challenges one faces at the post-secondary level. Learning how to think like an engineer, specifically understanding circuits, can be an even more complex task as one is suddenly hears the seemingly cryptic uses of AND, OR, NOT and XOR. Digital logic equations are fundamental to introductory engineering curricula and grappling with the concepts of circuits, gates and the binary system (i.e., digital numbers 0 and 1) can be confusing enough to drive many college freshmen crazy.
Such was the experience of one graduate student at CU Boulder. However, thanks to hours of hard work and practice, she eventually made it through. Even better, she came out of the course with the drive to improve things for others who may face similar challenges in the future. In the course Gamelet Design for Education, she created Gates, an applet that converted digital logic operations into a game of strategy and play. Created on AgentSheets, Gates challenges users to systematically combine different gates to reach the target output: shooting multiple blocks with matching colored bullets in a single, simultaneous firing of cannons. It utilizes graphics/ visual cues to make relationships more explicit and provides delayed feedback so users can strategize carefully beforehand. The challenge thus shifts from having to decipher the still unorthodox uses of AND/ XOR to playing a substantially complex target shooting game.
Context/Client
Gates was not created with a target demographic in mind but rather for a specific purpose - to introduce beginners to the fundamentals of digital logic. It was borne out of the creator's personal experience during a course on digital logic, which was required as part of her undergraduate curriculum in engineering. As she explained, "I enjoyed learning about different gates and how to operate with them, but it took me a while to understand the basics before I could get to the point that I found them enjoyable. This was one the main reasons for which I decided to work on this particular topic."
A second incentive for the creator was to promote engineering to younger audiences, and what's a better way to do that than getting them to play games! She lamented about how, before going to college and sometime even while in college, many students do not fully comprehend what particular college majors deal with and tend to roll the dice when making high stakes decisions about their future. "I wished to provide the students with something that would introduce them to the engineering field" so that they can make even just one more informed consideration about their pursuit of further education.
Approach
Set on a background that resembles popular games like Tetris, Gates requires players to shoot down colored targets. It seems easy enough on the surface, and there is an element of chance that may lead to success. However, the underlying strategy that will guarantee a win requires the player to select the proper combination of gates. In doing so, all targets are correctly hit in a single, simultaneous firing - a parallelism to typical engineering circuits. The game uses the traditional shapes/icons and terminology associated with logic gates. The colors red and green were used to represent the logical values 0 (LO) and 1 (HIGH) in order to lighten the mental burden on players. As a rationale for this design decision, the creator explained that the use of colors is familiar if not intuitive for most people, and the matching of circuits with bullets and the blocks makes the goals more explicit.
As a starting point, players can use the tutorial
, which gives players basic instruction on game play and also provides a no-stakes space for practice. This is useful particularly for those with no prior experience with and understanding of circuits and digital logic. The tutorial slowly guides the players to understanding how to play the game, and in doing so, also gives them the introduction they need to start understanding the learning objectives. "While the tutorial is designed to slowly guide and introduce the concept of digital logic and (the mechanics of) the game, the game (itself) is designed to practice these principles," explains the creator. There is also an accompanying document cum "cheat sheet" to help review the concepts, e.g., XOR, OR, and their icons, and hints are provided during game play. Finally, players are encouraged to mark the resulting output on each gate as red or green and receive immediate feedback BEFORE the cannons are fired. This allows players one chance for review before confirming their answer.
Like most drill and practice applications, the complexity of the circuit increases when a player successfully completes a level. In doing so, the game is able to keep the players at an optimal level of challenge and maintain player engagement. Furthermore, the repetition will increase a player's familiarity with the effects of gates on the circuits and (ideally) enable the player to transfer that to digital logic problems outside the game. As the instructor put it, "(Gates is) a reasonable balance between learning and fun."
Testing
Testing or in the instructor's terms "playtesting" was a very critical process in the development of the design as it led to key modifications that improved Gates' functionality, particularly on the pedagogical level. The value of delayed versus immediate feedback was one such design consideration that was addressed by playtesting. Players exploited the immediate feedback mechanism by randomly cycling through the available gates and instantly seeing the resulting color thereby enabling them to get the desired result without learning anything. In delaying feedback, a player must think through the entire circuit and set up all the gates before they could test it. By requiring players to mentally consider the effects of using a particular gate before feedback is provided, players use logical reasoning to set-up or modify the circuit.
Another important result borne out of user feedback was the decision to simplify the game. Playtesters found it hard to keep track of what output each gate would have and had to back-track a whole lot on really complex circuits. The creator toyed with added features that could potentially increase the "fun" aspect of Gates such as having games move. "But at the end it left the kids confused and frustrated that they were not able to think through the gates in time before all the bricks fell down. Version 2, with a simple concept, produced more results than Version 1 with the moving bricks." In the words of the instructor, "Less is more: the initial design activity included the need to layout gates and to put in the wires. This was complex and did not add much to the learning."
Team
Unlike the other projects featured in this chapter, Gates is the product of a single person's efforts: Shibani Basava. From conception to finish, Shibani put in the hours to create a working prototype that met the goals of the course for which it was being required.
This is not to say that Gates was created in a vacuum and void of all external influence. On the contrary, external review was very much a definitive process that shaped the final product. Collaboration came in the form of feedback and user testing rather than during the initial design stages. Professors and peers, some of who, at the time, found themselves very much in need of an educational applet like Gates, engaged in what the instructor terms as "playtesting", which then led to major revisions in the design.
"The project was iterated heavily based on user feedback," explained the instructor. "(Although) this was an individual effort, she listened to the user and reacted in good ways to the feedback. She (also) created an interactive tutorial" to help users become more familiar with the rules of the game.
Looking Back & Moving Forward
At the time of writing, Shibani Basavawas a Computer Science Master's student at Colorado University at Boulder focusing on Software Engineering. Simultaneously, she was interning as a software developer at Gambro BCT. She is working with applications and systems for blood bank facilities worldwide in addition to maintaining a donor-donation database. As she explained, "my experience as an intern (at Gambro BCT) has allowed me to learn architechture designs for large-scale software applications by interacting with the permanent employees. Also, my projects here entail me to look into existing designs that are released in the market and learn from them by enhancing them or adding to them."
Reflecting back on her experience designing Gates, she comments not about the hard labor that went into its development. "Gates has been a really enjoyable project to develop as it was the first of its kind that allowed me to directly interact with potential "customers" or "clients" and get their opinions on how to improve it such that they will find it an enjoyable experience. It has also allowed me to see first hand how my project will affect their learning."
In designing Gates and weighing the multiple design considerations, Shibanisaid, "there can be further improvements that can be made to make the game more "fun." (But) I believe the simpler the game you present to the kids for advanced educational goals, the better results will be." Indeed, learning + technology = good learning technology design.