Project Sequoia: Support Education with Quality Online Interactive Assessments

By: Mona O, Liam E, Veronica H, Brendan G

Problem Statement

According to iSpring Solutions, a survey conducted in the College of Business at James Madison University showed that a primary complaint of students when it comes to online learning is that they find classes ‘boring.’ They reported that they weren’t passionate about the subject, there were too many lectures, teachers ‘taught at them instead of to them’, and instructors read too much off PowerPoint slides. Similarly, in reviews collected by Get Educated, students complained about the poor quality of their course design – in particular, too much reading and lecturing, and too few visual aids and activities to keep them engaged.
An infographic posted on Learn Dash explains that 80% of students say they’d be more productive if their classes were more game-like. 89% say that a point system would increase their engagement, and 60% would be motivated by leaderboards and competition.

Objective

Through Project Sequoia, we hope to assist teachers in creating fun, quality learning material that keeps students engaged, motivates learners to accomplish their tasks, and strengthens relationships and collaborative skills within the classroom.

Proposed Solution

Project Sequoia (Support Education with QUality Online Interactive Assessments) is an online platform that allows teachers to test their students’ knowledge through interactive web-based games, in place of your run-of-the-mill assessment. Instructors can fill out a simple form to select one of multiple educational game templates. Based on their chosen template, they will be able to add questions and answers and customize sprites and backgrounds. Then, with the mere click of a button, a game will be available to send out to students, whose scores will be recorded and posted on a leaderboard.
An example playing option that teachers can choose from could be a platformer game – where, once a question is posed, obstacles labelled with possible answers will appear around the screen. Students can then use their computer’s arrow keys avoid wrong answers and run into correct ones, allowing them to earn points as the game progresses. Another available option would be a fighting game, in which students can fight virtual monsters by clicking on the correct answers to questions.
We intend to implement Project Sequoia as a plugin that can be embedded in learning management systems.

Related Works

Most learning management systems keep learners motivated through badges and awards – a method known as ‘gamification.’ There are some systems with bingo cards, vocabulary games, and other playing options for classes, but only Project Sequoia merges lessons with online game genres that kids are proven to enjoy in their free time, and allows teachers to customize the assigned games to this extent.

Methodology

With this in mind, our goal is to start by preparing an online form that teachers can fill out to customize the game (Phase 1 – Hackathon Prototype). We’ll start by creating fields for questions and answers (one correct answer and several distractors). The finished game will be available for students to play through a website.
Next, we plan on polishing the game, adding customization options, and implementing it as a custom pod in Adobe Connect (Phase 2 – Year 1). The teacher will be able to assign varied amounts of points to the different questions, and to choose from a small library of sprites and backgrounds to make the game more visually appealing for students. Scores will be displayed on a leaderboard that both teachers and students will be able to view.
For the third phase of our project (Phase 3 – Future Vision), we may implement a multiplayer option that allows students to collaborate or compete, depending on the playing option chosen by the teacher. Through this, we hope to instill a sense of community in the class, similar to what students would experience bonding together in a physical classroom.

Results

We were able to create a simple demo of a customizable game where a teacher could input a question, the correct answer, and four distractors on a form.

Once the teacher clicks on the Start Game button, a basic platformer game is generated, wherein the user has to navigate towards the correct answer and avoid hitting distractors. It works, and could be further improved for more accurate collision logic, better graphics and more complicated levels. The demo was coded in HTML/JavaScript so that it could easily be modified into a plug-in. Adobe Connect custom pods, for example, are now compatible with HTML/JavaScript, so we hope to see our demo fully developed and integrated into our OHS classes someday!

References

Ferriman, Justin. “Gamification in Education Stats.” LearnDash, 9 Jan. 2020, www.learndash.com/gamification-in-education-stats/.
Westfall, Brian. “Back to School: The Top Learning Management System Statistics Impacting Education.” Capterra, July 2020, www.capterra.com/learning-management-system-software/user-research/.
Hodges, Tim. “School Engagement Is More than Just Talk.” Gallup, 12 June 2021, www.gallup.com/education/244022/school-engagement-talk.aspx.
de la Tour, Kevin. “How to Boost Student Engagement in Online Learning.” ISpring, 12 Feb. 2021, www.ispringsolutions.com/blog/student-engagement-in-online-learning.
Ingwersen, Halden. “6 Gamified Learning Management Systems Compared.” Capterra, 24 Jan. 2018, blog.capterra.com/6-gamified-lmss-compared/.