Designing and Creating a Content Summary Quiz Game in Lectora Laura Gillenwater, Sun Life Financial

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1 204 Designing and Creating a Content Summary Quiz Game in Lectora Laura Gillenwater, Sun Life Financial

2 Handout for the Creating a Learning Game in Lectora Presentation 2009 elearning Guild Instructional Design Symposium Laura Gillenwater, Sun Life Financial Highlights Using and Designing Games When to Use o When a simulation is not possible/appropriate o As a reward after a substantial amount of content has been covered (usually at the end of a module or course). o Before a test, so learners can see which content they may need to revisit prior to test General Principals o Have fun! o Should have a theme of some kind be sure to vary themes to appeal to different demographics. Make sure that your theme works across cultures, if necessary. o Should have a competitive element either against the computer or against themselves. o Luck should not play the primary role in determining winning. Make sure the game is first and foremost about the content. o Winning should be achievable, but challenging. o There should always be an opportunity (and encouragement) for the learner to go through the game again if they don t answer all of the questions correctly. o Should have a reward for winning and recognition for good, but not winning, performance, especially if luck was involved o If the game is inherently engaging, fancy graphics, sound, etc., aren t really necessary, but they can add a bit to the fun factor. However, don t make the sound essential, unless you re sure that the learner has the necessary equipment and is in an environment that will allow for sound. o Keep graphics consistent in style and age appropriate. Page 1

3 Using and Designing Games Planning the Game General Principles o Critical part of the process don t shortchange it! o Design for the ideal, not just what you know you know how to do right now. o As with all e-learning, good instructional design is the most important thing, not the aesthetics. Planning the Game Basic Steps 1. Decide on the general type of game and a possible specific theme. 2. Look for clipart graphics for your theme. May need to adjust theme depending on available graphics. 3. Massage the clip art, as necessary. 4. Figure out the exact mechanics of the game and how it will be scored. Know exactly what you re going to need to track during the game and what the game will look like at each stage. 5. Figure out how and when learner will get to see the correct answers for any questions that they missed. 6. Write the plan down flow-chart it and/or storyboard it, if necessary. Look for holes in your plan. 7. Design the game s interface Where will the questions, graphics, and buttons go? 8. Create the quiz questions. Keep in mind the space available or plan to use a separate screen. Use sound test-construction design principles. Make sure quiz questions cover same basic content as test, although perhaps at a simpler objective level. Page 2

4 Creating the Game Page 3

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6 Activity page Question pages Question Pages and QVisited Variable o Start Race button goes to first question page. o Questions pages are in non-linear pages chapter. o Question pages set up to look different than standard. Page 5

7 o Question page has question functionality and all actions needed to change the horse position variables and results messages. o Variables remember and track/accumulate info can even do it throughout the course Example 1: Type your name at the beginning and use it later Example 2: On the third click of a button, something different happens Lectora-defined vs. user-created Variable manager Page 6

8 o Creating a new variable: o Use QVisited variable to track which question was just visited. Page 7

9 o These are all the actions on the main activity page that use the QVisited variable: Example: Page 8

10 Moving the Horses o The display of the horses moving is done differently in Lectora 2007 vs. Lectora In Lectora 2007, it involved having multiple horses that were shown and hidden as necessary. In Lectora 2008, a Move action was added that allows you to have just one horse for each player and move it along the track, which cut horse-moving actions and graphics down substantially. (Lectora v9 added a smooth move. ) o Use a variable to determine the position of the horse by using Add to Variable. If the user gets this question correct, then it increments the value of their horse by 1. If user got the answer wrong, it increases the value of the variable for the other horse instead. o Variable values are used on the main activity page to move the horses: Page 9

11 Showing Game Results o On the page, there are hidden graphics that announce the winner (or a tie). They re stacked on top of each other in the same spot and the game will only show the one that reflects the actual outcome. o There are three page-level actions that look to see if the game is over and, if so, compare the position variables to see who won and which message should be shown based on that info. Additional Info General Development Tips o Name your actions and variables (actually, all of your objects) clearly and specifically. o If something in your game isn t behaving properly and you have Lectora 2008 or later, you can use the Debug Mode to run the game and see exactly what Lectora thinks your variable values are at any given time and which actions are/aren t firing. Help Resources: o Help file or manual on CD o Trivantis on-line forum ( Lectora Lounge ) o Tech support o Local user groups, like New England Lectora Users Group (NELUG) o Me (Laura Gillenwater, Sun Life Financial, , lagil@sunlife.com) Page 10