It has been a busy few weeks and the project development has slowed down a little. On the plus side, Kelvin has managed to make real headway with the 4 station Xbox cabinet with the help of some sixth formers…
… the XBOX station designed and built by students. We used different materials: wood for the case, 3D printed brackets for the monitors and speakers and metal for the monitor bracket pivot.
With the forethought that this literacy course may be best employed as an intervention, I decided to write the resources as an online course, through GameLab® – a quest-based learning platform where teachers and students play, design, and share quests and badges to personalised learning.
Somewhat ironically, given we are using an Xbox title, complete with episodes and achievements, Gamelab operates in a similar way. By earning experience points, rewards, and achievements, players “level up.” The course is designed in such a way that access to the Xbox is governed by your rank. Rank is achievement by successfully submitting great literacy quests, which earn you experience points, and we all know what points make…
It is a really exciting platform and a powerful motivator, as well as a great tool for moderating access to the Xbox.
Move forward two weeks and few late nights, we now have 80+ learning assets or quests written, ranks and rewards defined (badges, achievements and awards). There are a wide range of skills explored, reading (reading the script, reading the instructions, researching, reading the in-game text), writing (descriptive, scripting, creative, marketing), and speaking and listening (listening to the game, explaining to others), the Alan Wake literacy project on Gamelab is ready for launch.
Exploring literacy through Remedy’s critically acclaimed psychological action thriller, Alan Wake on the Xbox 360.
Students will play, explore, reflect, on their game experience and the games design and creative narrative. With this experience and knowledge they will write, design and create a range of Alan Wake quest responses.
I estimate approximately 60-80 hours depending on the level of the student. I have even managed to get one or two guinea pigs students to test the first rank of quests.
Last night I went through the maths behind the course.
There are 8 categories, introduction and episodes 1-6 to coincide with the six Alan Wake episodes and one category, ‘Anytime’ which are released on set XPs totals. These focus more on the technology behind the game, and act as ‘extra-lives’ in case students fall short of a marker.
7600 XPs for the Quests
350 XPs for Badges – mainly for cooperative work.
1420 for Achievements, somewhat back loaded. Recognising progress in the game, with a 800 for submitting quests and a whopping 500 for reader the Alan Wake Files (a book about the game, written by one of it’s characters)
1380 XPs for Awards, the arbitrary points.
| Rank Name | Points |
| Private | 0 – 299 |
| Corporal – Ep1 Nightmare | 300 – 1199 |
| Sergeant – Ep2 Taken | 1200 – 2199 |
| Officer – Ep3 Ransom | 2200 – 3199 |
| Lieutenant – Ep 4 The Truth | 3200 – 4499 |
| Colonel – Ep 5 The Clicker | 4500 – 5999 |
| General – Ep 6 The Departure | 6000 – 9999 |
| Field Marshal | 10000 + |
The final hurdle may look like a significant task, and it is, but there are some big rewards on offer, for some tough but very rewarding Awards. I am looking forward to getting started.
Just remember…
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