A Scalable Online Social Game for the Development of Academic Research Skills

A Scalable Online Social Game for the Development of Academic Research Skills Karen Markey, Chris Leeder, Fritz Swanson, Gregory R. Peters, Jr., Brian J. Jennings, Beth St. Jean, Victor Rosenberg, Soo Young Rieh, Geoffrey V. Carter, Averill Packard, Robert L. Frost, Loyd Mbabu, Andrew Calvetti info@bibliobouts.org

OutlineThe ProblemThe Solution = GamesThe BiblioBouts information literacy gamePlaying bouts and winning BiblioBoutsLearning objectives of BiblioBouts boutsBiblioBouts demonstrationGame-play incentivesInvolvement of instructors and librariansBenefits of playing BiblioBouts (see also LOEX proceedings)Our next steps in the BiblioBouts ProjectProject outcomesThe ProblemInformation literacy and reaching all studentsStudents overestimate their information literacy skills and knowledgeA minority of institutions have first-year programs with information literacy contentFaculty ceding classrooms to librariansStudents wanting just-in-time assistance that is tailored to their specific situationThe Solution = Games!Gaming reinforces principles of good learningResults by trial and error, experimentationSelf-discovery Repetition and practiceFeeling of satisfaction from getting it rightTransfering lessons-learned to later problemsMeaning and knowledge are built up through various modalities, not just wordsPurpose of our TalkHow to play and win the BiblioBouts information literacy gameHow students benefit from game playBased on an evaluation of the game, how our project team is redesigning and enhancing BiblioBouts for game play in 2011What are the outcomes of the BiblioBouts ProjectBiblioBouts ProjectDesign, develop, deploy, and evaluate the online BiblioBouts gameBiblioBouts gives students practice using library research tools while they do their assignmentsBiblioBouts enables students to leverage their research efforts finding sources, assessing their usefulness, and choosing the best sources with their classmates efforts so that everyone benefits 3-year project funded by IMLSBiblioBouts OverviewA collection of mini-games or bouts that defines a specific subset of skills within a much larger skill-set and helps students structure their library research effortsPartner with faculty who assign students a library research and writing assignment on a broad-based topicDigital writing and electracyBusiness plans for Web 2.0 technologies HamletLiterary argumentsIntercultural communicationThe Bouts of BiblioBouts-1Beta BiblioBouts to be deployed in 2011Donor bout (2 weeks, concurrent with Closer)Search the web & scholarly databases for relevant sources on the broad-based topicSave information in Zotero (which passes it to BiblioBouts)For scoring, meet the Donor quota, exceed = capCloser bout (2 weeks, concurrent with Donor)Choose your best 4 sources!For scoring, meet the Closer quota/cap of 4 sourcesThe Bouts of BiblioBouts-2Rating & Tagging bout (2 weeks)Tag the content of their opponents sourcesAudience levelFormat (journal article, blog, newspaper article)Subject matter (3 big ideas)Rate their opponents sourcesCredibilityRelevanceThe Bouts of BiblioBouts-3Rating & Tagging scoringQuota, no capFor scoring, multiple assessments per source: 4 students rate and tag each closed sourceBiblioBouts scores based on average of the 4 assessments Quota: if 4 closed donations per student in a 20-student class, each student rates and tags 16 closed donationsExceed quota for bonus points The Bouts of BiblioBouts-4Best Bibliography bout (3 days)Disclose the specific topic of their written research paperWhat 3 big ideas their paper will discussChoose the 10 best sources for your paperTo Win BiblioBouts:Be the first to play a boutMeet all quotas, exceed them for bonus pointsMatch the same credibility and relevance ratings that opponents give to sourcesMatch the same tags opponents give to sourcesChoose high-rated sources for your Best BibliographyChoose sources tagged with the same big ideas as the big ideas your paper will coverChoose the same high-rated sources for your Best Bibliography that your opponents choose for theirsBe the first to donate sources that your opponents choose for their Best Bibliography Learning ObjectivesDonor: Become experienced users of online library tools for finding relevant information on an academic topic Closer: Become efficient finding and saving digital full-texts, assessing their relevance, and choosing the best ones on an academic topicRating & Tagging: Develop proficiency evaluating sources based on indicators of their quality, their relevance to the topic, and their usefulness to potential audiences Best Bibliography: Gain experience specifying a research topic and choosing the best sources for writing a paper on this topic BiblioBouts DemonstrationChris will demonstration the alpha version of BiblioBoutsThis is alpha BiblioBouts that was deployed and evaluated in 13 classes at 4 universities in this academic yearEvaluating BiblioBoutsEvaluated in 13 classes at 4 universitiesMulti-methodological evaluationFocused-group interviews (students)Pre- and post-game questionnaires (students)Online diary forms (students)Follow-up interviews 4 months after game play (students)Pre- and post-game personal interviews (instructors)Game logs of student game-playBeta version of BiblioBouts available for deployment and evaluation in 2011 Game-Play IncentivesStudents must receive incentives for playing gamesInstructors must:Incorporate game play into their course syllabusSet the parameters of minimum-level game play for for receiving course credit (e.g., BiblioBouts quotas)Examples of course credit:Extra creditA choice between playing the game or completing a different assignmentRequired game play with credit that is based on game-play performanceInvolvement of InstructorsStudents react positively when instructors are involvedLet students participate in broad-topic selectionSuggest relevant databases, keywords for online searching, relevant online journals & web sitesTell students how to determine whether the authors of the sources they find are expertsTell students how to distinguish between scholarly and non-scholarly sourcesAdditional ideas at our Instructor FAQ

Involvement of LibrariansWhen students play BiblioBouts, they want librarians toAwaken them to the librarys database portalTell them where to start: Suggest relevant databases, keywords, online journals & web sitesDemonstrate BiblioBouts including sign-on, show them its troubleshooting FAQ, game videos, game instructionsDemonstrate database searchingShow them how to use ZoteroHelp them understand online texts: citation, abstract, full digital text, bibliographyBiblioBouts BenefitsRealizing that library-portal databases yield sources that are qualitatively better than Google, Wikipedia, and the webGetting practice using a step-by-step approach to library research and learning a methodology for evaluating sourcesFinding relevant sources for their assignment that other students donated to BiblioBoutsReducing procrastinationPutting more effort into reading, scrutinizing, and comparing sourcesBenefits in their Own WordsI think BiblioBouts would be really useful because I am like a sucker for procrastinating and writing my paper and finding all of my sources 1 or 2 days before its due So this BiblioBouts forced me to start thinking about the paper and start finding sources weeks ahead of the due date.Benefits in their Own WordsI think it helped us to read the articles. Like when I was sorting, I read through, especially like rating, tagging, and sorting, I had to read through and it helped me find the articles that I used for my paper.Benefits in their Own WordsUsually I use Google just, you know, and like comparing the results I would get from Google to these [library] databases is a huge difference and like I really realize that now, that the material that I was getting was not that reliable and not that scholarly and to be writing research papers and stuff, I need to be using like databases and stuff like that.Benefits in their Own WordsI think [the game] is good because youre not realizing at the time that youre learning about research. Like, you might not want to think, Oh, I want to go learn about library research today. Youre playing the game and youre learning about it without doing that.Our Next Steps-1Based on evaluation results, we are now redesigning and enhancing BiblioBouts:Simplified set-up procedureGreater feedback enables students to assess how their game play compares with that of their opponentsStreamlined BiblioBouts with more interrelationships between boutsSee our latest interim report for a full list

Our Next Steps-2Deploy and evaluate BiblioBouts in winter and fall 2011 classesIn winter 2011, we will evaluate the game at our 5 participating institutions (Baltimore, Chicago State, Michigan, Saginaw Valley State, Troy-Montgomery) What is your interest in deploying BiblioBouts at your institution in fall 2011?In academic coursesIn for-credit bibliographic instruction coursesInvite you to play demo BiblioBoutsProject OutcomesMake BiblioBouts available as open-source game software so that librarians can incorporate it into their information literacy programsFind a permanent home for BiblioBouts to ensure technical support and upgrades for usersConfirm and add to our game-design premises list and generate a model of best practices for the design, development, and deployment of information literacy games to guide others in game developmentinfo@bibliobouts.org

http://bibliobouts.si.umich.edu/