Cultivating College Knowledge Through Play: The Facebook Game Mission: Admission

• In Event: Innovating Through (Online) Games to Improve Educational Outcomes

Abstract

Purpose
The Mission:Admission project emerged from the premise that if one can “meet students where they are” in their digital use and engage them in entertaining and beneficial ways, then one may significantly affect how students prepare for and apply to college. Panelists will demonstrate how the Mission:Admission Facebook Application uses game mechanics to engage students in learning college knowledge and share mixed methods findings to illustrate growth of college knowledge among student players.
Mission:Admission can be found at: Collegeology.usc.edu/games

Theoretical framework
In his highly influential text on video games and learning, James Gee (2007) points out that video games can involve long and complicated play, yet young people stick with them for extended periods. Gee has posed the question: how can we entice learners to dedicate the same amount of time and attention on challenging material in school as they do on complex game play? We recognize that preparing for college can be complex, yet various facets of preparing for college follow predictable rules and involve a set vocabulary akin to games. Games require players to think in different ways, practice skills and apply higher order thinking. Mission:Admission’s approach is to entice students into learning about college and gaining expertise in application strategies through playful mechanisms.

Methods and Data Sources
The study sample was comprised of students from three Los Angeles area high schools serving low-income students. Researchers used a case study approach involving rigorous qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data to measure the project’s effect on students’ college knowledge. Case study data sets included: (1) observations of game play environments; (2) longitudinal student interviews (n=50); (3) collection of pre and post tests measuring changes in college knowledge; and (4) interviews with teachers and counselors.

Conclusions
In this demonstration, we focus on the relationship between playing the Mission Admission game and students’ scores on the post-tested college knowledge items. In a series of logistic regression models, we analyzed whether students who played Mission Admission at least once were significantly more likely to mark the correct answer on the post-test, controlling for their answer on the pre-test. Our findings indicate that playing the game at least once corresponded with significantly higher odds of choosing the correct answer for the following items: what colleges look for with regard to extracurricular activities in high school; identifying the potential campuses for applications; and understanding how to best strategize to solicit letters of recommendation. We also ran linear regression models that measured a summed scale of correct responses to the college knowledge items. The scale ranged from 0 to 10 with a mean of 5.5. Controlling for students’ pre-test college knowledge scale, we found that playing Mission Admission at least once correlated with significantly higher scores on the college knowledge post-test scale. Longitudinal interviews and observations of game play provide detailed evidence of college knowledge created and mastered through game play.

Authors

• Zoe Corwin, University of Southern California

• Kevin Eagan, University of California - Los Angeles