The optimal level of children's participation in the design of games-based learning

Abstract

'Hart's Ladder' presents eight levels of children's participation as ascending rungs of a ladder, increasing from simple manipulation of children as 'tokens' at the base (level one) towards the freedom of children to initiate and direct a project as 'citizens' at the top (level eight). This paper summarises the methods and results of PhD research into participatory serious games design with children. Investigations have worked with secondary school children (11-16 years) to evaluate the hypothesis that serious games design projects modelled on higher rungs of Hart's Ladder, and hence higher participation of children will produce greater educational artefacts. Educational artefacts are context specific to each project but encompass the product, attendance and accreditation of the process by participants, facilitators and all stakeholders involved. Research has also experimented with design tools including online blogs and the game authoring software 'Game-Maker' to develop an optimal level of children's participation in the design of games-based learning products. The paper documents a serious games design project lead by children with adults in a supportive role (level eight of Hart's Ladder) via an extracurricular secondary school activity using self-selecting participants. Results are compared with a project lead by adults who inform and assign specific roles to children (level four) via a curricular activity using a sample class of school children. Finally, a project lead by adults who share design decisions with children (level six) is documented via a revised extracurricular school activity. Further work is documented working with adult offenders at risk of social exclusion and probation managers from a local probation service to evaluate the scalability of the participatory design approach to learners from a radically different demographic. The paper concludes that the shared design facilitation method at level six of Hart's Ladder produces the greatest educational artefacts from a serious games design project.