Design Ideas for an Issue-Situation-Based Board Game Involving Multirole Scenarios

Abstract

In learning based on socio-scientific issues, teachers primarily use role playing in situation learning to promote students’ knowledge and responsibility and to teach them how to reach a consensus in multirole scenarios. However, if participants only engage with the material from the perspective of having one role, they will ignore comprehensive information on said issue. Therefore, the roles students play during multirole situational learning lead to diversity biases in learning results. To help participants enhance their competencies related to issues and eliminate learning gaps, we developed an issue-based board game named Water Ark based on the following four design ideas: multirole simulation, reflective goal, systemic situation, and interactions of society. The results indicated that after playing the game, participants’ knowledge and responsibility regarding water resource adaptation improved significantly. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the gap between the learning outcomes of participants with different roles in the game was not statistically significant, except in terms of students’ personal willingness to act. Thus, these design ideas could improve the utility of board games for learning about socio-scientific issues with multirole scenarios.

Gamification to prevent climate change: a review of games and apps for sustainability

“…Similarly, adding a visualized component to water meters via an app which simultaneously set water conservation goals, provided incentives for water conversation, and allowed for social comparison with other users resulted in reduced water consumption [50]. Boardgames such as "Water Ark" have been found to increase knowledge about and perceived personal responsibility for water resources [51,7]. Likewise, adolescents who played "Ocean Limited," another boardgame, demonstrated increased cooperative problem solving related to marine sustainability (e.g., planning a response to or preventing future oil spills) [52].…”

“…Gamification helps create an environment in which individuals are intrinsically motivated to engage with material related to the area where behavior changed is desirable [6]. In the context of boardgames, researchers have emphasized specific principles for effective gaming including offering a multitude of roles an individual could take on to address the problem under consideration, mimicking the interactions of society, and having goals that cause players to reflect on their behavior [7]. While there are several reviews of gamification in the context of sustainability, most are purely theoretical and discuss only a small sample of games which usually have not been evaluated in controlled trials [8,9,10,11,12,13].…”

Towards an Integration of the Multi-role Dimension in the Design of Learning Games: a Review of the Literature

“…Furthermore, the aim is not to create a video game, but to structure a game, to be guided during the scenario creation process and to define the paths, objectives and particularities of each role. We can note that multirole games can be in a physical environment: they are not device-dependent, as several games prove it here [6,9,11,15,27]. The paper presented by Agustin [1] is the closest to what we are looking for: they propose "a conceptual graph model to represent the concept of gaming" and a "building block of the engine to run and control the game".…”

“…a game, a model or a tool) and 3) the public (to find if it is usable by anyone). [11] Water Game General public Li et al [15] Doudizhu (Poker like) Card-playing framework CNN Specialists Warin et al [27] Information System Project Game Students Argenton et al [2] Gliding Game General public Arif et al [3] Transactions activities Game General public Babu et al [4] Post disaster management Game General public Bierre [6] Game design Game Students Burton [9] Irrigation Game Professionals Lee et al [14] Manufacturing industry consultancy Game Students Schrier [22] 21st century skills Game Students Schulz et al [23] Health and care Game Professionals Sequeira et al [24] Environment AI General Public Stroe et al [25] Fire-safety Game Students…”

“…As technology facilitates their creation for designers, the number of SG is constantly growing as well as their popularity in the world of education. A special approach of SG, role playing, is particularly interesting as Cheng et al [11] said:"Role playing allows participants to attain knowledge in a different manner and improve their approach to problem solving in a real-world context." It is thus necessary to define a role, as Warrin et al did [27]: "in a game, the set of objectives, behaviors, rights, and duties assigned to a person or a group of persons is called a role.…”