Designing content
that inspires people to play and learn code.
Client
Student work for
Centennial College
Duration
3 weeks
Roles
Content design, Narrative design,
Game master.
Tools
Team
Miro, Word.
1 Collaborator
Quick rundown
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Problem and main goal: Making a gamified coding course. This course should use learning principles of mastery, belonging, independence and generosity. All this while focusing on the users' experience.
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The approach: In a group of 4, we brainstormed different ways to apply the learning principles. Our content strategy was to use a role-playing approach with strong storytelling elements. This strategy lets users interact and discuss while learning and engaging with one another.
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Content Design: We mixed the course's coding elements with a fantasy role-playing story. We hooked participants using story beats and a teamwork approach.
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Outcome: We created a balanced blend of gamification and learning principles. We kept students' attention through the activity and boosted class participation.
The problem
Understanding development tools like coding is paramount for any student. Unfortunately, Not all students are adept with these tools. Some students can't even muster enough interest in it. There's a difficulty barrier blocking their learning experience. Our goal was clear: how might we help students engage through a Development Tools course?
And so, we had an objective. Re-imagine this Development Tools course by applying learning principles and gamification elements.
The approach
Identifying our core
We started our work by assessing what we had. We needed to use some clear core principles of learning. We used the Circle of Courage (Brendtro, M., Brokenleg, M., Van Bockern, S. 2013), as our bedrock for the principles. The circle has four key experiences every person should live: Generosity, Belonging, Mastery and Independence (watch a beautiful explanation here). These principles are the core of our future work and will dictate our content strategy.
After identifying our core, we brainstormed potential ways of presenting them using gamification elements. We decided on elements like badges, storytelling, experience points, and rewards to start our project.
Ideas were coming and going, but one that stuck with us was "What if we make it an actual game?" After this simple yet potent epiphany, I felt particularly enlightened. It was clear, a role-playing game, with an engaging story, making students be part of it and interact with fun and interesting characters, students will be in the classroom, but we will take them to a world of fantasy that's only understandable by understanding code (Beautiful idea Daniel!).
Now the building blocks were in place. On to designing content that had our principles and gamified elements baked in. After these content blocks, I moved to write the narrative that defined our user's journey. I devised a world of fantasy and magic, but the rules and magic of this world were coding languages. Understanding coding languages would be essential for the students. This was a save the princess-style adventure that would, in turn, give them the outcome of learning code while having lots of fun.
Great idea, but words and magic can only push the experience so far in a classroom. At this point we added powerful imagery, sounds and performances, making it clear this was not your typical Development Tools course. Using image generation tools and Photoshop, we created the fantastical land of Coderia.
Describe your image
The Outcome
In the end, we created a balanced blend of gamification and learning principles that tangibly kept the students (and instructor) engaged and participating throughout a complete twenty-minute demo presentation. Displaying UX and Content Design dexterity, storytelling prowess and writing ability. One of the most entertaining works I've been part of at Centennial College. Check the entire demo deck here. 👇🏽
The Impact
The impact of this project on me was as a storyteller, copywriter and content designer. My team and the rest of the students got hands-on experience with principles of mastery, independence, belonging and generosity. This project and being part of the final product, individually putting the team first to master a new skill together and share our knowledge, know-how and camaraderie gave us a knew perspective on what it means to learn.