More info about the game
Research skills are challenging to teach in a way that is meaningful to students and has ongoing impact in their research practice. Constructivist and experiential strategies are shown to be effective for learning and deep understanding of postgraduate research skills. A range of research shows that Game-Based Learning can be a memorable and effective approach to teaching high-level, functional learning outcomes such as academic research skills.
How to Fail Your Research Degree was created to deliver knowledge and understanding of research processes and techniques, within the context of a postgraduate training programme at The Glasgow School of Art. The game initially was a piece of action research in response to a clearly observed challenge for my own students.
Development focussed on encouraging creativity and risk-taking within a safe game environment and learning by (potentially) failing. Game characteristics and intended learning outcomes were defined, leading to game mechanics and text that emphasise player agency, working within a time limit, and humour. Evaluation shows that the game is highly successful at delivering the intended learning outcomes and is a memorable and enjoyable complement to the existing course curriculum.
There are four cognitive learning outcomes. After playing this game, students should be able to:
- Understand the various risks affecting research and their impact on projects
- Recognise dependencies between tasks at different stages of research
- Understand the interrelations of different risks with the activities to negate or mitigate them
- Be aware of the time-critical nature of short research projects
There are also emotional and behavioural learning outcomes: breaking the fear of failure common in postgraduate student research; teamwork and collaborative learning; and encouraging students to really take ownership over risk management within their projects.
I have published peer-reviewed research papers covering the design principles and evaluation of this research game. The most useful research is listed below.
- Abbott, Daisy (2019) Game-based learning for postgraduates: an empirical study of an educational game to teach research skills. Higher Education Pedagogies, 4 (1). ISSN 2375-2696
- Abbott, Daisy (2015) "How to Fail Your Research Degree": A serious game for research students in Higher Education. Serious Games, 9090 (1). pp. 179-185. ISSN 0302-9743
The gameplay loops for this research game are shown below, identifying learning and game mechanics. These are explained more fully in the 2019 article above.
"The game taught various elements of research in a fun and interactive manner."
"I also felt I could relate to my own research process throughout the game."
"Really good tool to brainstorm process of research. "
"Very positive experience as it is very well organised and didactic and present a clear framework for approaching research."
"Really excellent way into thinking through the mechanics of research!"
"I remember at the time the game made me think about how carefully I had planned my research and prompted me to re-think the timescales required for things like ethical clearance. It also encouraged me to rethink my approach to backing up my work. I think overall the game had a positive impact on my approach to planning my research project, as I took a lot of it into consideration when planning the next stages of my project."
"I hope my classmates do this!"
How to Fail Your Research Degree is free to use and adapt on a not-for-profit basis. However, clearly there are costs associated with printing the game. Therefore you have two options, you can buy the game on a print-on-demand basis for cost. Or, you can have all of the game assets as a pdf file for free, to print and cut out yourself. Visit the Downloads page for all resources.
Important!
Before you buy the game, please make sure you familiarise yourself with how it works. The game requires a facilitor to contextualise the students' learning. All of the help materials are on this website, such as the video, tutor guide, and game rules.
If you use this game, please get in touch to tell me how it went!
How to Fail Your Research Degree is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
If you want to make an adaptation of the game, or translate it into another language, please get in touch.
Frequently Asked Questions
The short version is, yes!
Full evaluation results are published in Abbott, Daisy (2019) Game-based learning for postgraduates: an empirical study of an educational game to teach research skills. Higher Education Pedagogies, 4 (1).
In summary, the game has been tested with over 100 postgraduate students and supervisors. Players overwhelmingly agreed that the game taught them each of the intended learning outcomes: The game taught/reinforced my knowledge of the different types of risks that can be faced during research (93.8% agreed); The game helped me to understand the impact of risks on research (90.7% agreed); The game helped me to understand how early activities can affect later activities (95.9% agreed); The game reflected the time-critical nature of short-term research projects (80.4%) agreed.
Motivational factors for learning were also evaluated, with players showing high levels of agreement with three factors, and moderate levels of agreement with the fourth: The game gained and sustained my attention (93.3% agreed); The game felt relevant to my situation (92.0% agreed); I found playing the game a satisfying/rewarding experience (85.4% agreed); The game helped to increase my confidence about undertaking academic research (56.8% agreed).
This game works extremely well when played around a table with students all laughing together and learning from each other. The game uses kinaesthetic, social, and vicarious learning strategies which would be lost if it was played in isolation. However, there are some advantages to digital and remote delivery, therefore there is a digital demo version available on the Downloads page.
Furthermore, a fully functioned online multiplayer version is currently in development. This will be designed to closely replicate the experience of the tabletop game, with the same support from a research skills teacher.
The price to buy the game from gamecrafter is purely the cost to print the cards. The game does not make a profit for anyone. If you would like to print and cut out the cards yourself, there is a free pdf you can use. Cutting out the cards can take a long time though and you get a better quality product if you get it printed by gamecrafter (and a box to keep everything in!)
Depending on where you are, maybe. I can also run training sessions for your teaching staff/TAs to run future game sessions. Please get in touch to discuss.
Yes! And I would very much like to host it on this website too.
How to Fail Your Research Degree is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
If you want to make an adaptation of the game, or translate it into another language, please get in touch and I can supply you with an editable file.
