#hcil Designing Collaborative Learning into Alternate Reality Games (Beth Bonsignore)

what is an alternate reality game? an interactive story scattered across many different media that people are already familiar with; pervasive gaming; collaborative learning environments
how do you design to promote collaborative learning?
components: individual accountability; positive interdependence; promotive interaction; group processing
Arcane Gallery of Gadgetry (AGOG): civil-war era; focused on invention and patent office; 60 students participated
content learning goal: engage with history
cooperative learning goal
positive interdependence: secret society with 4 skill specialities
individual accountability: earn badges for individual training
promotive interaction: multi-channel communication, in-game character to model positive feedback
group processing: daily check-ins, mid-point meeting, final debrief and survey
final mission focused on positive interdependence
data collection from the game and interactions, field notes, artifacts, post-game survey
findings: badges were very important for individual accountability; sought help from each other for positive interdependence; in-game character was important for promotive interaction; wall of evidence and mid-point meeting important for group processing
conclusions: deeply engaging for students; fostered critical thinking; interlocking tasks drove positive teamwork experiences in learning