Location Based Learning Proves Popular with Information Systems Undergraduates

This autumn BEACONING project researchers from Coventry University have been working with college staff and students from CU Coventry on a small pilot testing out various aspects of the platform with third year undergraduate students who are taking the Information Systems (Advanced) module.

Over the six-week module, students experienced three different styles of BEACONING meta-narrative and a range of educational mini-game formats, played at workstations during course sessions. For the final week, in preparation for an end-of-module assessment, students were invited to try out a Location Based Game using QR codes and their own smartphones. The game was designed to introduce them to different student facilities within the main Coventry University Library whilst also challenging them to recall prior learning with a series of located mini-games, quizzes etcetera taken from the previous weeks’ Gamified Lesson Plans.

In a focus group at the end of this small pilot, students expressed enthusiasm at the added dimension of the Location Based Game: ‘going out to hunt’ for learning experiences ‘helps to refresh the memory’ (rather than the more traditional static hunting for information with online search engines) ‘it’s not the reward you get out of it, it’s the journey’ – in this case a collaborative journey as small teams working together with an edge of competition to be first to reach each new point.