Quest for Engagement:

Innovative Library Instruction with Games-Based Learning

Maura A. Smale, msmale@citytech.cuny.edu, @mauraweb

Mary Snyder Broussard, broussm@lycoming.edu

Scott Rice, ricese@appstate.edu

ACRL National Conference, Indianapolis, April 2013

Games-Based Learning

• Encourages student engagement
• Promotes active learning in a low-risk environment
• Offers friendly competition that can motivate students
• Leverages research behaviors that are intrinsic components of many games
• Embeds assessment within the game experience

Level Up!

• Beginner: Quality Counts

• Students and instructor agree on criteria for a reliable source
• Groups of 3-4 students search for internet sources
• Groups earn points for credible sources, group with the most points wins

• Advanced: Lyco Map Game

• Available at http://www.lycoming.edu/library/game/lycomap.html
• Uses smart phones and social media (no advanced programming required!) to physically explore campus history
• Can be easily adapted to exploration of library

• Expert:  Library Adventure Game / Info Lit Game / Virtual Scavenger Hunt

• Available at http://guides.library.appstate.edu/games 

Tips and Best Practices

• Iterate, iterate, iterate

• Develop, playtest, develop some more
• Ask students to test it out during the process
• Test as often as feasible

• Fail forward

• Use failures to inform future development

• Level up: start small, build to big
• Link gameplay to skills you want to teach

• A game that gives information in addition to gameplay is not as powerful as creating a game that requires players to use that information to play

• Have a plan for getting players

• They usually won’t play educational library games for fun or prizes
• Work well as part of a library class or orientation activity
• Collaborate with other librarians/faculty

• Include assessment of players' skills

• Give them lots of feedback
• Require them to master key skills

• Make it fun

• Develop from players’ perspective

• Find a friend

• Join game developing communities such as: http://connect.ala.org/node/167042

Bibliography

Getting Started with Games-Based Learning

• Gee, J. P. (2005). Good video games and good learning. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 85(2), 33-37. http://www.jamespaulgee.com/node/17 

Using Games in Information Literacy Instruction

• Broussard, M. J. S. (2012). Digital games in academic libraries: A review of games and suggested best practices. Reference Services Review, 40, 75-89.
• Broussard, M. J. S. (in press, preprint available). Using games to make formative assessment fun in the academic library. Journal of Academic Librarianship.
• Harris, A., & Rice, S. E. (Eds.). (2008). Gaming in academic libraries: collections, marketing, and information literacy. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries.
• McDevitt, T. R. (Ed.). (2011). Let the games begin! Engaging students with interactive information literacy instruction. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.
• Smale, M. A. (2011). Learning through quests and conquests: Games in information literacy instruction. Journal of Library Innovation, 2(2), 36-55. http://www.libraryinnovation.org/article/view/148