Fun Facts

This team wrote an extensive design document that describes their design considerations and articulates the multiple theoretical frameworks that shaped their design, which is a different approach from most other projects who build prototypes.

Design Challenge

In this day and age where science and math classrooms are continually under the scrutiny of parents, administrators and policy makers, equally rampant are conditions that plague students themselves: Math phobia. Computational paralysis. "Math just ain't for me." With these attitudes coming from both sides of the fence, mathematics seems like a battlefield soldiers would pay any price to avoid. Should it be this way? A team of five students at Penn State's Human Computer Interface design course thought otherwise, and they have a design prototype that addresses this very issue.

Math Quest was an interactive game that promotes the development and advancement of middle school math skills in a problem-based learning environment that resembles real-world scenarios. It was a multi-player environment that adapted to the individual user's abilities but also encouraged peer-to-peer learning. Most significantly, it incorporated affective components to combat the pervading problems of apathy, frustration and failure.

Context/Client

Math Quest content problems were designed for use in or out of the classroom and aligned with the Pennsylvania State Standardized Assessment for 5th to 8th graders. In addition, the design utilized multiple theoretical frameworks to address affective and cognitive issues: Social Cognitive Development theory (Vygotsky, 1978), Situated Learning (Lave & Wegner, 1991), and Keller's ARCS model (1983). As the creators themselves explained, "The game is intended to be educational and fun, promote confidence and positive attitudes towards math, and also promote empathy towards peer learners. The game is intended to be a tool that would effectively supplement classroom education and could be used as a classroom 'reward' if desired. It will also promote student interaction and peer tutoring through requirements of helping each other throughout the game."

Approach

Set in medieval times, MathQuest's players interacted in various locations to demonstrate their knowledge and practice related math skills in contexts that are meaningful, relevant and enjoyable, e.g., trading goods, measurement & construction. The application not only scaffolded players' math learning but also encouraged players to monitor their own progress by providing player profiles that indicate points earned, skills attained, weaknesses and strengths. It also provided separate spaces for practicing "outside" the playing environment and for accessing written texts on math lessons, akin to traditional book learning.

Worthy of note were the built-in features that foster peer-to-peer learning: greater rewards for helping struggling players, a virtual space for chatting with fellow players, building teams, and quick links between the player profiles and potential peer tutors who have demonstrated proficiency. The goal was therefore shifted from self-advancement to community progress in exploring new venues in the virtual world.

Testing ¹

Prior to creating their design, the team went through an extensive user needs analysis, wherein they identified the functional, usability and environmental requirements for the game and their target audience. They interviewed a 5th grader in a local suburb and later conducted a focused group discussion via video chat with students in a partner school in Baltimore. The interviews thus shaped both the technical and affective aspects of their design, validating their initial decision to create an open-ended, role-playing game and enabling the creators to better appreciate the struggles kids face in math, what game features may appeal to males and females, and the importance of realistic but optimal challenges.

Professor Hoadley notes, "Involving kids in the design process was great for this project. They consulted with teenage interface designers who were part of the KidsTeam group at the University of Baltimore--these middle schoolers were not only target users but also interface designers in their own right. The project team learned not only about this design domain, but also about participatory design processes."

Team

Given Math Quest's emphasis on social learning, it was not a surprise that the design was borne out of a collaboration of five students from Penn State's undergraduate program in information science and technology and the graduate program in instructional systems. The team grappled with tradeoffs like learning-by-doing vs. learning by teaching and linear progression vs. open-ended explorations. As creator Luis Almeida shared, "Honestly, I was skeptical about sharing my efforts with a group of people. I have always produced my own productions...After having the chance to "produce" MathQuest, I have to admit that participatory design makes a lot of sense. I might forget projects that I did through participatory design... but I certainly will not forget the process." In the end, the group put together a design document that clearly specifies their considerations for multiple design facets: teaching and learning, technology, interaction design, education design criteria, interaction design criteria and the design process.

Looking Back & Moving Forward ²

Nathan Bradleynow works as a technical consultant at Conversion Services International. Although he reports that his work is not directly related to learning technology design, he says that his current innovations continue to be informed by a design process similar to what used in developing MathQuest.

On the other hand, Luis Almeida and Joey Leecontinue to research on learning technology design as part of their PhD programs at Penn State. Luis' dissertation is a phenomenological study on student's experiences designing an educational on-line trivia game interface. Joey studies the use of gaming as learning interventions, particularly massively multiplayer online role playing games for K12 settings.

"I will also remember, upon completion of the project deliverable, the satisfaction of achieving (in our opinion) a moderately successful design that achieves effective learning while also being engaging and fun," says Joey Lee. As these creators forge forward in their respective fields of interest, they take with them their own learning experiences while designing an educational intervention. In the words of Nathan Bradley, "Even though it was all "smoke and mirrors", their excitement and engagement (towards) the prototype justified all the work that was put into it."

For More Details

http://trails-project.org/webapps/gorp/ViewCurriculet.do?id=91

Footnotes

¹ Due to the limited time available in the course, the actual game was not built. Instead, the team created a design document that described the prototype, complete with screenshots and sample movements through the game, and detailed their design process and considerations.
² At the time of writing, FengFeng Ke and Abram C Rafle could not be contacted for their comments.