TheGreatHistoryConundrum

Alex MoseleyUniversity of Leicester

Key Features: ARGs for Higher Education

1. Problem solving at varying levels (graded challenge)

2. Progress and rewards (leaderboard, grand prize)

3. Narrative devices (characters/plot/story)

4. Influence on outcomes

5. Regular delivery of new problems/events

6. Potential for large, active community

7. Based on simple, existing technologies/media

In 2007…

Introducing ARG Features

1. Problem solving at varying levels (graded challenge)

2. Progress and rewards (leaderboard, grand prize)

3. Narrative devices (characters/plot/story)

4. Influence on outcomes

5. Regular delivery of new problems/events

6. Potential for large, active community

7. Based on simple, existing technologies/media

Student Learning Outcomes

• Know where and how to search for a variety of historical

resources on and off line

• Be able to critically analyse internet resources to

determine their suitability for academic purposes

• Have engaged in collaborative activity online to arrive

at a shared consensus

• Obtain a number of transferable skills

(problem solving, numeracy, team working, IT skills)

Puzzles/Problem Examples

Basic / non-cryptic Narrative / cryptic

Puzzles/Problem Examples

Communal (minor) Communal (mass)

Motivation: Leaderboard

Motivation: Automated Marking and Return

354 Gracechurch St.

Community/Collaboration: Forums

Community/Collaboration: WIKI

Community/Collaboration: WIKI

Results

• 190/200 students took part over 4 weeks

• They solved 3301 puzzles (average 17 each)

• They posted 4387 messages in the forums

(average 23 each)

• Visited over 50 online/offline resources, covered wide

range of topics during discussions

• 181 passed the course (90%), 92 achieved 60%+

Activity

• Over the four weeks

• By hour of day

Student Quotations

• “The Great History Conundrum was both incredibly

challenging and entertaining…. a fundamental part to

understanding what the HS1000 course was about”

• “It taught me a lot of skills that I probably wouldn't have

learnt in lectures, for example the actual processes involved

with research on a practical level, rather than being told

about them”

“We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the

bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness

and travel and explore and tell the world the

glories of our journey.”

John Hope Franklin (US Historian researching Black American history).

Alex Moseley

Faculty of Arts • University of Leicester

alex.moseley@le.ac.uk