Designing My First Quest

"Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another."
~ John Dewey, Democracy and Education

After carefully planning my first quest 'roadmap' to use in 3D Game Lab, I was very keen to get started and develop the actual quests my students would explore. Then I began to learn more about quest attractiveness and the impact this will have on the success of the quest and student learning, and I realised that I have much more to consider.

Dr. Chris Haskell defines this attractiveness as, "...the operational relationship of three components: capturing one's interest, sustaining one's effort, and ... a meaningful, personally relevant (highly rated) learning experience (2012). Thinking about this definition, I immediately slowed down to consider what this means for my design process.

• What can I do to catch students' attention? 
• What will appeal to them? 
• Once I have their attention, how will I sustain it? 
• What will I build into to the tasks to ensure students will be able to complete them once started? 
• How can I provide enough flexibility within the quest to support the different needs of different learners?

One of things I so appreciate about learning about quest-based learning in a quest-based environment, is that it allows me to think at my own pace; to stop and reflect at a time when it will be most meaningful to me. This was certainly one of those times.

I now feel better prepared to create a quest that will consider the student experience from beginning to end. Considering the three components of quest attractiveness will enable me to collect data on their effectiveness and to make revisions to the quests as I learn more from student feedback.


photo credit: tvancort via photopin cc