Project Overview
Getting students engaged
How will the game be structured/played
Incorporating gaming concepts
Gaming resources

• It is an optional web-based activity. low-tech for those that are not technologically advanced or those with slow internet connections - some had some ‘add-ons’ that attempted toengage the more technologically advanced participants.

• Focus was on the mystery plot, not on the ‘orientation’ to services/resources – we tried to get them to participate in the mystery and then teach them about IS services/resources as tools used to solve the mystery.

• We recognized that access issues need to be considered for those students who have slower (or no) internet connections; an alternative access method was developed but has not yet been needed.

• Game was only one of the methods used to provide orientation information to first year students - we also offered web-based tutorials that were developed and available for those not wanting to participate in the game.

• We recognized that 'the game' can’t be too big of a time commitment - it was developed to take about 60 minutes to complete..

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GETTING STUDENTS ENGAGED

Suggestions were gathered from current Macalester students to get ideas on how to get first year students engaged in playing the game as an orientation tool. Here's what we were told:

-Give them a chance to use resources.
Don't just describe the various Information Services tools and resources to them, but give them a chance to use and interact with the resources.

-Provide opportunities to interact with each other online.
Having it be just about the library and campus computing is very boring! Give new students a chance to 'meet' and interact with their classmates online before arriving on campus and, as much as possible, learn more about the everyday things that make up being a student at Macalester.

-Don't make it too "instructional" - make it fun!
The 'game' shouldn't be a "now it's time to learn about library resources...click to the next slide please" type of step-by-step tutorial, instead make it an interactive and engaging activity where they work online with their classmates to solve the mystery - and along the way they learn about and use the various IS tools/resources to accomplish this - it will make it a more memorable learning experience.

-Make the ‘mystery’ challenging - just not too challenging.
The 'game' should make them think and be challenging, but at the same time it cannot be too time consuming. Need to make the mystery difficult and challenging - but not so difficult that it takes more than 60 minutes for each of the two parts.

-Use online resources that they are already familiar with.
To help engage new students, tie in online resources that they already use and are familiar with - like Facebook, YouTube, etc.

-Offer good prizes.
Give them a chance to win a variety of nice prizes!

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GAME CONTENT

While playing the game, first year students were invited to help two fictitious first year students solve the murder of Jean the Librarian. Who killed her and why? Along the way they were introduced to and given brief ''activities' built around resources such as Moodle, Library research databases, and Webfile among several others. Each time the student successfully completed an exercise, or gathered up information/clues to help solve the mystery, they acquired points.

STORYLINE
The story we used was very basic - mainly because of the limited amount of text that we could expect students to read onscreen. Paul and Maria discovered Jean the Librarian near death. Jean heads off to that 'great big library in the sky' but not before she gasps out some words to Paul and Maria. They run to get help but when they return, Jean's body is gone. There is no dead body, so no one believes them that Jean is dead. It must be a hoax, right? They decide to investigate on their own. They meet a variety of characters along the way, including Ellen the Archivist, Jesse the ITS Help Desk staff, Campus Security Officer Greeley, and Dean Carleton, Dean of Intermural Affairs - all of whom could be the potential murderer. They also learn about the history of the College - Who are James and DeWitt Wallace? What is East Old Main? etc - and they uncover an organization called the Aluminati - a secret society of Macalester alums whose goal is to protect the honor and history of Macalester College. Eventually, with the help of their first year classmates, they uncover the murderer and the reason for the murder.

ABILITY TO EARN POINTS

An important part of The DeWitt Code is earning points. The more points that each player acquires, the more they learn about the resources made available by the Library and Information Technology Services (ITS). To acquire points, they must use the resource (moodle, clicnet, library database, etc.) to answer a question that is tied to the murder/mystery storyline. They also earn points by gathering clues which are added to their diary. Each 'exercises' includes a brief explanation of the resource, why it may be important to the student and a tutorial on how to use it. Students can access as much of this information as they need to or want to in order to perform the task they must complete (using the resource) to acquire the points and move on in the game. Each player is part of a team based on their first-year course assignment - individual points eaned are applied to the overall team score.

GAME DIARY

DIARY ITEMS give players information that will help them to unravel the mystery and solve the crime. As players move through the game and interact with characters, complete exercises and learn valuable information, these tidbits are added to the player's diary which can be referred back to at any point throughout the game. Each diary item that is added to the diary earns points for the player and their team.

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HOW THE GAME WAS STRUCTURED/PLAYED

First year students are invited to participate via an email sent to their Macalester email account. Email account and login information was distributed by ITS by early August. The DeWitt Code remained availablethrough orientation weekend when they arrived on campus.

Game participants were asked to perform tasks loosely tied together by a mystery storyline. It was kept brief; just enough to move plot forward and to create an engaging mystery but not lots of on-screen reading. The game was available for four weeks (the month of August). It was divided into two parts which were distributed via Macalester webmail.

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INCORPORATING GAMING 'CONCEPTS'

-GAME PIECES:
Participants performed tasks (log into web mail, use web file, search for a book in CLICnet, find a full-text article, etc) in support of solving the mystery and acquire game cards (i.e. 'clue' and 'item' cards) upon successful completion of each activity.

-PLAYERS PAGE:
Participants were asked to upload an image that was put on a "players’ page" where basic info about each game player was shared (name, hometown, Mac email address, personal web page info, Facebook account info, etc); we provided generic images for those who prefered to use them. Also 'game pieces' that each player had acquired were displayed on this page (adding a competitive nature to the game. This page was updated several times each day so that players could not only track their progress, but also that of their classmates.

-COLLABORATION:
Collaboration among game participants was promoted; users were encouraged to participate in an online threaded discussion where clues were shared and discussed (players may have received different clues) -- they could also work together to solve the murder/mystery. This encouraged first year students to interact and 'get to know' each other before they arrived on campus.

-JUST-IN-TIME HELP:
Tutorials and other just-in-time help tools were incorporated into the game to give participants assistance as needed and to provide additional information about the various resources/services.

-SEARCH AND FIND:
As much as possible we tried to create a game where participants have to explore and discover some clues (we didn't just give all of the clues to them) within the "online game environment" that we created. (for example, mouse over an image of a book on the screen, realize it's a clickable link, click on it and be presented with a chance to chance to ).

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GAMING RESOURCES

A variety of resources were consulted and reviewed as we planned and developed our 'online game'. They included the following:

BOOKS CONSULTED-

-- Beck, John C., and Mitchell Wade (2004). Got game: How the gamer generation is reshaping business forever. Boston: Harvard Business School.

-- Adams, Ernest and Andrew Rollings (2007). Fundamentals of Game Design. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:Pearson Prentice Hall.

-- Aldrich, Clark (2005). Learning by Doing: A Comprehensive Guide to Simulations, Computer Games, and Pedagogy in e-Learning and Other Educational Experiences. San Francisco: Pfieffer.

-- Chandler, Raphael (2007). Game Writing Handbook. Boston, Mass: Charles River Media.

-- Dewey, B. (2001). Library user education: Powerful learning, powerful partnerships. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

-- Gee, James P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

-- Gibson, David; Clark Aldrich and Marc Prensky (2006), Games and Simulations in Online Learning. Hershey,PA:Idea Group.

-- Prensky, Marc (2001). Digital game-based learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.

-- Quinn, Clark (2005). Engaging Learning: Designing e-Learning Simulation Games. San Francisco: Pfieffer.

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ARTICLES & RELATED RESOURCES CONSULTED-

-- Abram, S., & Luther, J. (2004). “Born with the chip” [Electronic Version]. Library Journal. May 1, 2004.

-- Annetta, Leonard A., Marshall R. Murray, Shelby Gull Laird, Stephanie C. Bohr, and John C. Park (2006). “Serious games: Incorporating video games in the classroom.” Educause Quarterly Vol. 29 No.3; pp. 16-22.

-- Branston, Christy (2006). “From game studies to bibliographic gaming: Libraries tap into the video game culture.” Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 32; pp. 24-26, 29.

-- Barton, J. (2005). “Digital libraries, virtual museums: Same difference?” Library Review, Vol. 54 No. 3; pp. 149-154.

-- Beck, John C., and Mitchell Wade (2004). “Gaming the future.” Across the Board, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 48-54.

-- Dede, C. (2005). “Planning for Neomillennial learning styles” [Electronic Version]. Educause Quarterly Vol. 28.

-- de Frietas, Sara (2006). "Learning in Immersive Worlds: A Review of Game-based Learning." (JISC Report)

-- Dickey, Michele D (2005). “Engaging by design: How engagement strategies in popular computer and video games can inform instructional design.” Educational Technology Research & Development Vol. 53 No. 2; pp. 67-83.

-- Doshi, A. (2006). “How gaming could improve information literacy” [Electronic Version]. Computers in Libraries, Vol. 26 No 4.

-- Gee, James P. (2006). "Learning by Design: Good Video Games as Learning Machines"

-- Hawkins, Donald. T., and Brynko, Barbara (2006). “Gaming: The next hot technology for libraries?” Information Today, Vol. 23 No. 6; pp. 1, 51.

-- Hinton, Andrew (2006). “We live here: Games, third places and the information architecture of the future.” Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 32 (Aug/Sept 2006); pp. 17-21.

-- Kiili, Kristian. 2005. Digital game-based learning: Towards an experiential gaming model. Internet and Higher Education Vol. 8 No. 1; pp.:13-24.

-- Kipnis, D. G., and Childs G. M. (2004). “Educating Generation X and Generation Y: Teaching tips for librarians”. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 25-33.

-- Jones, Steve (2003). “Let the games begin: Gaming technology and entertainment among college students.” (Pew Internet & American Life Project).

-- Kirk, James and Robert Belovics (2004). Learning Circuits: An Intro to Online Training Games

-- Kushner, D. (2004). The Wrinkled Future of Online Gaming. Wired, Vol. 12 No. 6; pp. 98-110.

-- Levine, Jenny (2006). “Gaming and Libraries: Intersection of Services.” Library Technology Reports, Vol. 42 No. 5 (entire issue).

-- McFarlane, Angela; Anne Sparrowhawk,; and Ysanne Heald (2002). “Report on the Educational Use of Games: An Exploration by TEEM of the Contribution Which Games Can Make to the Education Process.”

-- Norman, D. A., & Spohrer, J. C. (1996). “Learner-centered education.” Communications of the ACM, Vol. 39 No. 4; pp. 24-27.

-- Oblinger, Diana (2003). “Boomers, Gen-Xers, & Millennials: Understanding the new students.” Educause Review, 38 (July-August): 37-47.

-- Prensky, Marc (2005). “’Engage me or enrage me’: What today’s learners demand.” Educause Review, Vol. 40 No. 5; pp. 60-65.

-- Squire, Kurt, and Constance Steinkuehler (2005). “Meet the Gamers.” Library Journal Vol. 130 No. 7; pp.38-41.

-- Stephens, Michael (2006). "Promoting gaming programs in libraries." [Electronic Version]. Marketing Library Services, Vol. 20 No. 2.

-- Van Eck, Richard (2006). “Digital game-based learning: It’s not just the digital natives who are restless.” Educause Review Vol. 41 No. 2; pp. 16-30.

-- Wright, Will (2006). “Dream machines.” Wired Vol. 14 No. 4, pp.110-112.

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WEB RESOURCES CONSULTED-

-- The Art of Computer Game Design. (Chris Crawford)

-- Entertainment Software Association.

-- Games-to-Teach Project

-- DiGRA: Digital Games Research Association

-- Fletcher Library (ASU) Game Project: Quarantined

-- Game On: Games in Libraries

-- Game Professor: Videogame Research, Academic papers, and Resources

-- Game Research: The Art, Business, and Science of Video Games

-- Gaming - Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki

-- Google Groups: Lib Gaming

-- Infoisland.org: Second life library 2.0

-- There: The online virtual world that is your everyday hangout. Makena Technologies. (2006)

-- Gaming, learning, and libraries: 2005 symposium. Metropolitan Library System. (2005).

-- FunBrain.com. Pearson Education. (2006).

-- The Virtual Bibliographic Instruction Project. Puterbaugh, M. D. (2006).

-- Social Impact Games: Entertaining Games with Non-Entertainment Goals

-- TILT - Texas information literacy tutorial. UT. (2004).

-- DiRBS: The Digital Rare Book Library System. Yumetech. (2003).

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