learnability matters

Laadli is a game designed to raise awareness of sex identification and female foeticide. This game was launched by Zapak and Population First (Read the more about at the original post). The main objective of the game is to make a ‘move against female foeticide’. Zapak and Population first has identified the potential learners as the youth (very abstract… who is the youth?).

About the game:

The interface and the graphics are really nice. This is especially true because of the simplicity of design. You need to roll the dice (actually it is a die) to move the car forward. The car moves that many blocks forward as shown in the die. This game is in a question answer format. When the car stops, a question pops up.

If you get it right, it says correct and if you get it wrong it says wrong. If you get it right, the conscience meter fills a little and the score gets added on. Then, you go back to rolling the die to move forward. When you come to a block with a balloon, a statement pops up. You need to either use a pin to break the myth or use a highlighter to mark it as a fact. The logic is that of true and false questions.

If you don’t have either a pin or a highlighter (as in this case), you do not get a chance to check your answer. You just skip it and move ahead. As I kept playing, I realised that I skipped (without reading the statement), when I did not have a pin and/or a highlighter.

The logic they have used to design this game is fairly simple. Every time the car stops, the gamer has to attempt a question (exception being when you stop at a block with pin or highlighter).

End of game shows a score.

You need to get 90 to go past the sex determination clinic.

Hitches:

1. There is no rationale for right or wrong answer. I wished they could tell me what the right answer was so that my awareness increased further.
2. I found the background music very distracting. I put it on mute right at the beginning.
3. Why should I have to collect a pin or a highlighter. When I played this, I never stopped at a block with the highlighter. How am I supposed to mark a fact?
4. I did not read a fact or myth statement if I did not have a pin or a highlighter. I won’t benefit from it anyway.
5. Because the instructions at the beginning read “Collect pins + highlighters on the way to burst myth balloons or highlight fact balloons.”, I was busy trying to “gather” these by furiously clicking on them. I was so confused! Then, I realised that the die decides whether you get the pin or the highlighter.
6. Again, why do I have to pass the sex determination clinic? I was not motivated to go through the same sets of questions to pass this clinic as it meant nothing to me.

The name ‘Laadli’ had me fooled. I actually thought there may be a storyline with a character named Laadli. Every game should have an introduction or a storyline. The story can be either interpreted from the goals or spelt out before the game actually starts. Even Donkey Kong, an old Nintendo game, had a storyline of a character trying to save his princess from the gorilla. The couple in the car and their dog don’t make any sense. Why are they trying to get past the clinic? If you want leaning to happen, you need to ensure that you get all the elements in place.

Now let us look at the game from the learning perspective.

As mentioned previously, the target audience was zeroed down (?) to the youth. Here’s a question…What is the motivation of the “youth” to learn about female infanticide? Motivation to learn is driven by the relevancy. How is this game relevant to the learner? Can the learner relate to content? Do we know what their prior knowledge on the topic is? Remember the goal is to increase awareness of female infanticide among the youth. Shouldn’t we at least given them a brief introduction on the terms used or about the social problem before the game begins?

We know that if the relevancy factor is not met, learning will not happen. I could be wrong, but there do not seem to be any compelling reasons (social, personal, or financial) for them to learn. Will learning happen? My prediction is no! The reasons why learning is not going to happen are:

1. The learner is not going to get the ‘what’s-in-it for me’. Learners will not be able to relate to theme (or the lack of it) or the content.
2. The motivation to finish the game will be mainly to see what happens in the end. (The learner may be really curious to understand why the car goes past the sex determination clinic!)
3. There is no link between the questions. Learning would happen if there is logically line of questioning.
4. The strategy adopted basically tests how much the learner knows already and does not teach anything additional. The game actually tests how socially aware the person is and, therefore, does not meet the learning objective.
5. Lack of rationale for feedback doesn’t help. When I get an incorrect feedback, how do I know which is the right answer?
6. Even if I reattempt the questions, I am not going to remember the content I read. This is again because the motivation is not to learn, the motivation is to finish the game.
7. The learner may remember the fact and myth statements. But then again, if I thought the myth was a fact, I need some rational to change my mind about it.

Therefore, my verdict is that the learners are not going to remember anything after the game is over.

Now, coming to a more interesting question… What was the main objective of launching this game? The game seems to be a marketing gimmick for Zapak. As per the rules of the game, you need to get a 90% to win the game. Funnily, the site has a high score list. Can you score more that 100%? Whose names will you update on the high score list?

Now, lets analyze which strategy may have been more effective in meeting the goal. Just off my head, I have jotted down a theme that may have worked:

You are a detective. Weird things have been happening at Reth City. Reports show that the number of males have been accelerating rapidly and no one seems to know the reason behind this. You have been offered this case. You need to go to the city to understand what is happening. You can talk to the city dwellers. If they seem secretive, you can look around the city for clues. Your assistant, Shweta, will hand out reports, newspaper clippings to help you crack the case. Hurry!

The logic is that the learner can unfold the social factors that result in female infanticide. The theme aims to raise the learners’ curiosity and capture his/her interest.

This is obviously not the only approach. If you think of any, please feel free to share them with us. You can also form your own opinion about Laadli by playing it here.

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