Mouse Party

Mouse Party

This is a very successful e-learning lesson on the effects of various drugs on the body, in this case, experimental mice.

Colorful, attractive, and humorous animation provides an effective  attention-getting device. The cool music track evokes the sense of being at a drug party, not that I would know that personally.

The user immediately engages with the material by being invited to pick up one of many variously stoned mice hanging out in a lab cage. You can point to see which drug each mouse is imbibing, and then pick it up with your rubber gloves and drop the wriggling culprit in a chair. From there the user is introduced to the learning content, systematically presented using diagrams, animation, and audio.

Instructions were clear, including text, arrows, and voice-over narration, so I had a clear idea of what I needed to do next. My confidence was further increased by clear navigational controls.

This site would be highly relevant to high school health students studying the effects of drugs, and I shall recommend to our school's health teacher.

Learn Genetics With Rigglefish

Rigglefish is an educational game designed to immerse middle school students in genetics and the process of scientific inquiry. Developed by VelScience, Rigglefish represents a collaborative effort between the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Texas A&M and it was a gold medal winner at the 2011 Serious Play Conference.

You do have to request a guest login to access the game and you should plan to spend at least an hour investigating the game world.

Attention: Sensory bling and a good story
Rigglefish grabs your attention from first with a bit of sensory allure in the form of a video that introduces a mystery. You’re Dr. Waters, sent to an underwater lab to breed a superior race of fish that can produce the lipid, Omega-X, a protectant against a deadly bioweapon. That’s the emotional hook that adds to your perceptual arousal, but that’s not all you'll need to do. There are other desired genetic traits you need to select for— like pressure insensitivity, spikelessness, and less wriggle—in order obtain a fish that’s easier to handle in the lab.

These multiple thinking challenges sustain your attention, along with the different tasks you need to complete as you:

• Catch fish for breeding (use your trusty bathysphere!) 
• Characterize them in the sample lab 
• Breed them and then characterize their offspring

Relevance: Real (though virtual) lab work with lots of personal control
While playing Rigglefish, you’re focused on relevant real-world genetics tasks (characterizing, selecting, and breeding fish to obtain desired traits in their offspring) while your curiosity is stimulated to solve an imaginary problem. You have quite a bit of control over different aspects of the game, which enhances your sense that the game is personally meaningful. For example, you can choose which fish to catch and at what depth to catch them (which has an impact of fishes’ traits—there are more yellow fish at lower depths). The satisfying “glug glug” sound the bathysphere makes as it descends is also pretty cool!

Back at the lab, you can choose to characterize fish in sample tanks or make the riskier choice of going straight to the breeding tank. Although the game has some “rails,” you can make varied decisions along the way and get feedback as you breed fish with more or less desirable traits. The game also matches the motives of players by allowing you to choose whether you receive points or not. I did choose scoring to see what it was like when I explored the game.

Confidence building: Help when you want it
Although genetics can be a daunting subject, there’s lots of ways to build confidence in the game. The introductory video (which can be skipped) sets the stage for what you need to do to succeed in the game. Additionally, you can access a help icon at any point and pull the information you need (versus being forced to proceed linearly through a tutorial).

You also get feedback as you breed fish. Choose the right genotypes and you’ll get more yellow, less spiny fish, for example. Although the visual feedback you can obtain from “your” offspring is an extrinsic motivator, it’s intimately connected to the intrinsic satisfaction of mastering a genetics puzzle, so it’s actually a lot more satisfying than the points feedback, in my opinion.

From time to time you’ll get an audio message from someone on the surface who will comment on your progress and pose challenge questions, providing verbal reinforcement and further opportunities to consider your actions.These are unexpected and variable in timing, which tends to make them interesting and more satisfying.

While your fish sampling can be a matter of luck (not all genetic traits are readily connected to visual cues or phenotypes), your breeding outcomes can be stacked in your favor by your own skill in picking the right types of fish to breed, enhancing your feeling of satisfaction.

Conclusion
This is one of those rare educational games that’s engaging, fun, and manages to achieve some learning objectives along the way.I think this is because the learning objectives are integrated with the mechanics of the game (versus being tacked on as an afterthought). The only downside is that you only have access to the game for 24 hours at a time so give yourself a bit of continuous time to enjoy it. It’s worth it!

 

Toastmaster's International

Now I know our focus is more on finding the ARCS model in gaming, but as I wandered through several internet sites in search of a good one to post about, I stumbled on the Toastmaster's International website. Lo and behold, on their front page, the following techniques were listed to make one's speech motivational:

• Be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is contagious! Before you present your ideas, think about the aspects of the subject that you find most interesting, and don’t be afraid to let that interest come through in your voice.
• Use quotes, stories and anecdotes. Along with their obvious entertainment value, quotes and stories can lend authority to your topic and provide concrete examples that people can relate to.
• Speak with confidence. Deliver your message loud and clear. Maintain eye contact with your listeners. Don’t mumble or slouch.
• Say you and we, not I and me. Instead of telling people what you want them to do, present ways for them to work together to achieve their goals. Involve listeners in the success of the group.
• Keep it simple. People aren’t motivated by what you say; they’re motivated by what they understand. The best way to ensure audience understanding is to break down complex ideas into simple components.

If you look at the five elements to making a speech motivational, you can see how each one fits into either attention, relevance, confidence (a bit loose but it works) and satisfaction.

When a speaker is enthusiastic during their speech, the audience's attention is maintained. Think back to when you heard both good and bad speeches. What was different in the speakers' enthusiasm? I know we can all relate this to a teacher of the past (you know the one I am talking about - that one who is brilliant in the books, but HORRIBLE at communicating such knowledge). If these brilliant types learned how to project enthusiasm into their lessons, the student would more than likely walk away with the lesson's objective.

Likewise, using quotes and stories to supplement the content being provided gives both attention, and relevance to the listener. Again, look at the teacher example. Which teacher in your past incorporated stories or motivational quotes or even jokes on occasion? How did that influence your participation in the class? How about a speaker you've heard?

The speaking with confidence element may sound like it just applies to the speaker, but think about it - if you have a confident speaker providing you with information, will you feel more confident about what you are hearing? What speakers that you've heard in the past who were less than confident? How did you feel about the material? Or were you too distracted feeling bad for the poor sap?

The using "we" element pertains to relevance and satisfaction. If the speaker can tie in how their information is applicable to the individual listener, odds are that the listener will retain motivation throughout the speech because in the end, we all are thinking: "What's in it for me?"

The final element listed above - Keep it simple - or KISS - speaks directly towards satisfaction. The speaker's goal is to get their message across to their audience in the most effective way - sometimes this means keeping it short and to the point. Think back to the bad speakers in your past - you know - the ones that ended up rambling on and on and on... What did you walk away with? A recent speaker I experienced who was a bit long winded left me with one thought: "Wow that was a long speech, I am glad its over so I can now go to the bathroom!".

After finding this site and pondering over how ARCS was incorporated, it makes me think about how many other aspects in our lives we unknowingly use these elements of ARCS. Think of athletic coaches, teachers (of course), managers, parents, etc...

Here is the link to the Toastmaster's site:

http://www.toastmasters.org/MainMenuCategories/FreeResources/QuestionsaboutLeadership/ConflictResolution/MotivationalSpeechTechniques.aspx

-Ann Bassolino