transmedia in education

Contactrobert@tstoryteller.com

USA: +1 415 287 4150Europe: +44 207 193 4567

Case Study:Educational ARG

Alternate Reality Game

About the Client

• Doubletake Studios (DS) is a creative agency based in Tampa, Florida

• DS pitched and won a project to provide a connected learning experience to 13-17 year olds across 17 schools in the state of Florida

• DS handled all client liaison

• DS created all story and production content

• Transmedia Storyteller Ltd worked with DS as silent partner providing consultancy and our Conducttr platform as a managed service to deliver the learning experience

Doubletake Studios

Background and Results• Production Team

– 1 fulltime person at Doubletake Studios (plus team as needed for story, web design, video & graphics production)

– 1 person part-time from Transmedia Storyteller Ltd

• Results– More that 600 students took part

– Conducttr handled more than 4000 character-to-student interactions

– Engagement: 38%

Engagement measured as ratio of student action to character call-to-action.

Workflow timeline

• Aug 2011 Doubletake Studios consult with Transmedia

• Sept 2011 Doubletake Studios wins the project

• Dec 2011 First play test for teachers and DS’ client

• Jan 2012 Second play test for project financial sponsors

• Feb 2012 Live with students Feb 6th-Feb 24th (3 weeks)

Storyteller Ltd on use of Conducttr

In the play test, the 3 week experience is compressed to 3 days with one day = 1 week. After each test the experience is reset to be run again.

Story

• Cosmic Voyager Enterprises (CVE) is a space cargo company based in Florida.

• CVE employs many people in the neighboring towns and takes its corporate social responsibility seriously

• On Feb 6th 2012 a CVE rocket crashes into the small town of Millisville, FL causing physical and possible long-term environment damage from the payload

• The CVE executive team must complete a report for the board & investors that explains their action plan.

Experience• Students form into teams of five to play a C-level executive role:

CEO/COO/CMO/CFO/GC

• Communications come from fictional characters inside and outside the company

• Each student gets role-specific communications (e.g. the CEO only gets information intended for the CEO)

• Students must collaborate inside the classroom to share knowledge and discuss solutions

• They are given a fictional budget that is insufficient to cover all their needs. Hence they are forced to make compromises which generates ethical and financial discussions

• Business partners from the local community visited classrooms to support teachers.

Learning objectives

• Teach ethics and economics

• Simulation of real-life scenario

• Self-guided problem solving

• Collaborative working

• New media comprehension

EngagementINTERACTION

• Personalized replies to incoming emails & Tweets from fictional characters

ETHICAL DECISIONS

• “The Whistleblower”• Employee who contacts the students claiming that the payload was over

weight

• “The Extortionist”• Dept. Environment agent that proposes a pay-off for him to write a more

favorable report.

GAME-STYLE REWARDS

• Rewards based on involvement:– “I like what you’re doing, I’ve recommend a bonus increase at the next pay

review board”

– “You’re asking great questions, you can have use of the company seats behind the catcher…”

Production materials

• Videos – YouTube and embedded on website

• Facebook & Twitter profiles

• “Corporate website”

• Report documents (PDFs)

• Teacher & project funder support– Lesson guide

– Weekly advanced “cheat sheet”

• Interactive communications– Emails, Tweets, Facebook status updates

Students love to role-play

Fictional environmental activist

Conducttr

• Manages all student registrations– “I want to register as CEO for Royal Palm Beach”

– students tagged by role and school

• Manages all teacher registrations and assistance– “tell me the story so far” -

• Manages all social media and email communications

• Allows re-run of experience after tests & annually

• Produces all performance metrics

Next steps

• Re-run the experience for new students

• Create new stories & scenarios

• Tackle new topics & learning objectives

Contact

• Conducttr: Transmedia Storyteller Ltd

• Educational ARG: Doubletake Studios

Transmedia Storyteller LtdRobert Pratten, CEO

robert@tstoryteller.comUSA: +1 415 287 4150

Europe: +44 207 193 4567

Doubletake StudiosTerri Hall, President

105 S. Fielding Ave. Suite BTampa, FL 33606Tel: 813-251-6308