Digital game design as a complex learning activity for developing the 4Cs skills: Communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking

Abstract

In this study, digital game design is analyzed as a team-based knowledge modelling process. In the context of a graduate seminar, the students were organized in teams and were asked to design a serious game. In the early stages of the process, each team had the possibility to engage in a topic suggested by the professor or decide their topic of interest. Half of the teams choose a suggested topic (herd immunity, intergenerational communication, active ageing); the other half proposed a topic of their choice (inuits and micmacs, banker-customer relationship, French as a Foreign Language). In both cases, the students should engage in a participative design process which requires a learner-centered analysis. We analyze both the digital game design process and outcomes of the game design from the perspective of social participation and the 4C competencies deployed in the game design process: communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking.