3D GameLab lets educators track experience points, use leaderboards, badges, achievements, awards and, most importantly, quests. Haskell reports that more than 1,000 teachers and 20,000 students are currently using the platform.
One of those teachers is Steve Isaacs, who uses a quest-based system to deliver his entire Grade 8 game design class at William Annin Middle School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
“First and foremost, choice in learning paths provide students with opportunities to find their areas of interest,” said Isaacs. “In my course, learning goals are covered through a variety of paths. There are coding quests that teach computational thinking, coding, problem-solving, etc. There are also quests that provide opportunities for students to use a variety of tools to create games.”
The quests have led Isaacs’ students to create everything from sophisticated Minecraft mini-games to paper towel flutes.
When he first waded into quest-based learning, Isaacs created one central quest path that his students followed at slightly varied paces, and he added some optional side quests that could be completed for extra credits.
“What I noticed was that kids would come in and start a quest they wanted to work on, only to be stopped by me a few minutes into class to return to my agenda,” remembered Isaacs. “After some thought, I realized that I had kids excited about learning based on choice. This was very powerful, and I got out of my own way and provided students with more autonomy over their learning.”
Playing School
Peggy Sheehy, a middle school teacher and librarian at Suffern Middle School in Suffern, New York, has drawn international attention for her use of "World of Warcraft" with her students. Sheehy worked with Lucas Gillispie, a North Carolina district tech coordinator, and lead teacher Craig Lawson to develop curriculum around the game, which is now available on their website as a free Creative Commons download.
The popular sword and sorcery video game makes extensive use of quests and quest mechanics, which Sheehy and her colleagues reworked to align with Common Core standards. Hearing about their work, the researchers at Boise invited her to pilot 3D GameLab, and she has been using it every since.
Sheehy has a wealth of stories about struggling students who flourished once they approached learning through the lens of games and quests.
“Reluctant or disenfranchised students are very likely to demonstrate renewed interest and engagement when presented with the game-infused option," she said. "Once the kids were granted some agency in the trajectory of their learning, they really wanted to succeed.” But she also recognizes that games may not be for everybody.
“If we associate quest-based learning with games, there will always be a few kids who are not interested. They are usually the kids who have mastered ‘playing school’ and excel at the textbook, notetaking, worksheet learning of which they are so familiar,” said Sheehy. “But even those kids, when quests take them to a video and then a quiz or request research and a short paragraph, appreciate the ability to retry, the ranks and badges, and the freedom to quest from home, thereby granting them multiple opportunities to advance at their own pace according to their own schedules.”
With quests titled “Random Acts of Epic Kindness” and “A Better World Online” that encourage reflection on online behavior, Sheehy not only seeks to nurture better students but also better digital citizens. The option to choose is fundamental to freedom, democracy and consumer culture, but there is little choice offered in the schools and classrooms that endeavor to prepare students for participation in society. Managing choice through decisions is a skill that requires practice, especially for a future that, if nothing else, will involve a deluge of information. The challenges produced by managing choices in the form of quests are important rehearsals for future decision-making.
One reported downside of quest-based learning sounds curiously promising.
