Ariel Dagan

Research and Evaluation in Library and Information Services

Contents

Impact

Buy-in

Project Design

Evaluation Methods

Definitions

IntendedAudience

Project Sample

Previous Research

Need for New Research

Research Questions

Ethical Issues

Confidentiality

Personnel, Time, and Budget

Communications Plan

References

Definitions

Alibrary media center may also be called a library, media center, resource center, information center, instructional materials center, learning resource center, or some other name is an organized collection of printed and/or audiovisual and/or computer resources which is administered as a unit, is located in a designated place or places, and makes resources and services available to students, teachers, and administrators. (Ingels et al 2004).

Gamification is best defined as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts (Deterding et al. 2011). Gabe (Zichermann, 2011) defines it as "the process of game-thinking and game mechanics to engage users and solve problems”. It is used where the goal is to create greater engagement, fun or motivation among users of a tool or interface.

IntendedAudience

School administrators and educators may use study results for understanding what actions motivate patrons to increase their use and access of resources available to them through the school’s library media center.

Analysis of the data will help administration better understand whatfunctions performed by patrons and designed for this purpose, wereaccessed and completed by the greatest number of users.

Once data has been analyzed internally it can be shared with other school districts who may want to conduct a similar survey within their high schools. Should the data reflect a significant increase in use of library resources it would be beneficial to share the finding with American Association of School Librarians.

Project Sample

This project is seeking to obtain user feedback from staff

and students of a vocational high school with population

from the following communities in Massachusetts:

Franklin, Medfield, Medway, Millis, Norfolk, North

Attleborough, Plainville, Seekonk, Sherborn, Walpole and

Wrentham who represent voc public high schools in US

Participation in the study is dependent on voluntary

participation in part 1 and 2 of RQ3. RQ1 and RQ2 cant

be implemented without user input for RQ3.

Previous Research

Many authors have referred to the New Media Consortium’s Horizon Report for

higher education and mention that implementation will be evident within two to

three years (Johnson et al., 2013). One might conclude that colleges are

designing gamification because of its natural tendency for teaching and learning.

Liz Danforth (2011) describes collaboration between University of Michigan's

School of Information and George Mason University's Center for History and

New Media. Librarians created BiblioBouts (http://bibliobouts.si.umich.edu/),

where students collect database resources to enhance their information literacy

skills. .

According to Kim Bohyun, (2012) NCSU Libraries added gaming elements to

their orientation by creating a Mobile Scavenger Hunt; and the University of

Huddersfield Library in the UK designed "LemonTree”.

Need for New Research

Farkas (2014) describes how UCF Orlando provides its students badges when they

complete information literacy missions throughout their college experience. She notes

thatALAYALSA will be rewarding badges for YA librarians who master competencies.

Because: “students are expected to think critically in order to solve problems, game-like

simulations can be leveraged in any discipline to reinforce the real world applications of

concepts” (Johnson et al., p. 21).

This study aims to explore

Usage of Library Media Center and its Resources by Vocational Technical

High school community

Impact of gamification on circulation

Impact of gamification on interaction of patrons with LMC and its

resources

Research Questions

Has gamification lead to a gradual increase in circulation of library

collection?

Has gamification increased the amount of visits a patron makes to

the library media center?

Do the answers on the exit questionnaire show a significant

increase in use of library resources as compared to the numbers

recorded on the entrance questionnaire?

Need for New

Research

In their report (Braun et all, 2014) ALA leadership

presents facts that require educators to think critically

what role they might need to take with regards to the

findings in their report.

This study intends to explore if gamification, as used in

higher education, might be applied to high school

library media centers for the purpose of

change.

behavioral

Ethical Issues

User identification – Since online

use of avatars, a person might not

Confidentiality – knowing what a

accesses may violate MA General

Section 7.

gaming permits the

be identified.

user reads or

Laws Chapter 78

Free from academic/shop requirements – gamification

activities must remain a non required activity to

enable valid measures of research goals.

Confidentiality

Leaderboards will feature student ID numbers to maintain privacy of users.

In order to use this gamification element in the research at the library media center, the new social media policy will need to incorporate the elements that will permit social media sharing through gamification.

Study finding will need to address permission to release users data. It will be up to Stephen Dockray, District Superintendent to share the finding with any institution outside of his District

Impact

The findings resulting from this research will enable to

evaluate if the method users take in interacting with the

resources may help them take a different approach on how

and why they use the media center and what resources

they engage with. .

The study will evaluate, based on successful

implementation in higher education, if enabling

gamification in the high school library media center using

game elements can achieve behavioral changes outlined in

research questions RQ1 and RQ2.

Buy-in

In their book (Salen and Zimmerman, 2004) the authors explain that rewards are used to engage people and motivate them to complete target behaviors. Kim (Bohyun, 2012) mentions that everyday activities in the nongame context can turn into gaming opportunities that can in turn be rewarded with badges, points, rankings, and statuses.

Studies have shown that the awarding of virtual badges forcompletion of learning modules can have a positive impact onstudent learning and the overall student experience (Phillips &Popovic, 2012, and Shin, Sutherland, Norris, & Soloway, 2012)

Project Design

RQ3 - Project will analyze user data collected from

questionnaire that will be implemented at start and end of

research period.

RQ 1 & RQ2:

Design gamification frame that will enable exposure to

the behavior that could lead to independent action by

the users.

Analyze user data collected.

Write up report and submit to stakeholders.

a.

b.

Evaluation

Methods

Prior to the end of the current academic year students and staff

will be asked to complete an online questionnaire. The

questionnaire will feature questions that have to do with

their current use of the library media center and its

resources.

Prior to the end of the academic year or research period,

students and staff will be sent a second questionnaire. The

questionnaire provides the data needed to answer RQ3. *It is

important to note that both questionnaires will not be linked to

the gamification design. No badges, rewards or points will be

awarded for participating in this part of the research.At end of academic year data collected from gamification will help answer RQ1 and RQ2.

Personnel

Project Leader - Ariel Dagan

Library Media Center Clerk for project- TBD.

Consultants: Rick Mitchell, Jay Aguiar and DJ Johnson

gaming professors at New England Institute of

Technology

Mark Leblanc, Tri County RVTHS Director of

Technology- IT liason

Time

RQ3 (part 1) two weeks prior to end of school year.

End of - Start of school year - design, build and script the

platform.

Gamification design is not simple as many items need to be taken into

consideration. The most successful examples of gamification are those that are

mindful of their audience and focus on achieving concrete benefits from the first

moment of consideration through the implementation of the final product. The

design strategy of gamification needs to make typically boring tasks fun by

transforming labor into an action oriented and interactive game.

Start of - End of school year: gamification data collection

RQ3 (part 2) two weeks prior to end of school year.

End of - Start of school year - Data analysis and report write up.

Budget

$XX,XXX will cover:

$XX,XXX part time LMC clerk at 20 hours per week

$XX,XXX designcost.

$XX,XXX data analysis and report writeup

Communications

Plan

Dedicated webpages to host gamification plan and stats.

Written report submitted to all stakeholders upon

completion of project.

Additional communication of project outside of Tri-

County District subject to approval from District Director.

ReferencesBecker B. W. (2013) Gamification of Library Instruction, Behavioral & Social

Sciences Librarian, 32:3, 199-202

Bilandzic, M., and D. Johnson. (2013) “A Hybrid place making in the library: designing digital technology to enhance users’ on-site experience” The Australian

Library Journal, Vol. 62, No. 4, 258–271

Bohyun Kim, (2012) "Applying Game Dynamics to Library Services," ACRL TechConnect Blog, acrl.ala.org/techconnect?p=1333.

Bohyun, K. (2012): “Harnessing the Power of Game Dynamics: Why, How to, and How Not to Gamify the Library Experience.” ACRL TechConnect 465–469.

Bohyun Kim, (2012)"Why Gamify and What to Avoid in Library Gamification" ACRL Tech-Connect Blog, acrl.ala.org/techconnect/?p=1633. 2. American

Library

Braun, L., Hartman, M., Hughes- Hassell, S., Kumasi, K. (2014) “The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: a c Call to Action” ALA.org-

YAFORUM-Project Report

Danforth, L. (2011): “Gamification and Libraries.” Library Journal 84

Deterding, S., D. Dixon, R. Khaled, and L. Nacke. (2011). “From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining ‘Gamification’.” In Proceedings of the 15th

International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments. Tampere: ACM.

Gates B. & M. Foundation (2011), 'Gates Foundation Announces Portfolio of Innovative Grants to Develop New Teaching and Learning Tools that Support

Teachers and Help Students', http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ press-releases/Pages/common-coretools- 110427.aspx.

infolit.ucf.edu/faculty/badges

Ingels, S. J., Pratt, D. J., Rogers, J. E., Siegel, P. H., & Stutts, E. S. (2004). Education Longitudinal Study of 2002: Base Year Data File User's Manual. NCES

2004-405. NationalCenter for Education Statistics.

ReferencesJohnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Estrada, V., Freeman

, A., & Ludgate, H. (2013). NMC Horizon Report: higher education edition.

Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium

"Lemon Tree," University of Huddersfield, https://library.hud.ac.uk/lemontree/leaderboards. php.

McGonigal J. (2011), Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World .New York: Penguin Press, 3, 311

Phillips, V., & Popovic, Z. (2012). More than Child's Play: Games Have Potential Learning and Assessment Tools. Phi Delta Kappan, 94(2), 26-

30.

Priebatsch S.(2010), "The Game Layer on Top of the World | Video on TED.com,"

www.ted.com/talks/seth_priebatsch_the_game_layer_on_top_of_the_world. html.

Salen, K., and E. Zimmerman. 2004. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Sheldon L., (2012) The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game (Boston: Course Technology/Cengage Learning), 6 and 26.

Shin, N., Sutherland, L. M., Norris, C. A., & Soloway, E. (2012). Effects of Game Technology on Elementary Student Learning in Mathematics.

British Journal Of Educational Technology, 43(4), 540-560.

Spina, C. (2013). Gamification: Is It Right for Your Library-The Rewards, Risks, and Implications of Gamification. AALL Spectrum, 17, 7.

Zichermann G. and Cunningham C., Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps. Sebastopol, CA:

O'Reilly Media, 2011, xiv.