HI James,
Thank you for your comment! We have been recruiting teachers through the school district and personal contacts. We have been using E-Rebuild as a web-based platform on Chromebooks (with even the oldest version) for the past years. Teachers and students can employ this in their classrooms as long as the Internet is available. The only feature that is currently in need of a regular desktop/laptop is the level editor.

Dear Amy,

Thank you for your encouraging comment!

Hi Devon, thank you for the great question. This web-based cyberlearning game is available anywhere with access to the Internet. Parents or even kids themselves can play and learn at home. The learning curve is really a great question since learning should not only be fun but also challenging. Thus we have designed learning supports to scaffold the students. In terms of the learning curve of the game actions, from my personal observations with the participants (in groups, individually, face-to-face, and online), the average time spent on the "training levels" is around 30-40 minutes, and this is quite consistent with all the participants I have observed. After the training levels, the participants can generally maneuver smoothly. Nice question! Thank you. 

Thanks for the answer, I really think this has some great potential. For those that maybe don't have a computer at home but have a tablet do you see it also being available in an app form in the future? 

Thanks

Yes, developing an app for tablet is one of our future goals.

Hi DeLene, thank you so much for the nice questions. Speaking as a researcher/ research assistant, I think all the aspects of this project are challenging. The greatest ones are design and implementation in schools. For any cyberlearning projects, sometimes, unpredicted situations happened, for example, the Internet issues, hardware and technology issues; but as different iterations being implemented in this design-based research project, we can gradually address these challenges.

The most fascinating findings for me is the gaming and learning interactions along with the behaviors demonstrated by the participants. In-game actions, and how it interacts with different design features to promote engagement and learning in the game are really interesting to be observed during the gameplay processes. Hopefully, we will have some more sound research findings to be shared in the near future. 

HI DeLene,

I want to concur with Chih-Pu on the challenge we face in implementing this platform in diverse classroom and learning settings. For example, old-version Chromebook in addition to unstable Internet access in certain classrooms did make us think more on how to balance functionality and aesthetics.
The most fascinating findings for me are not only the positive learning outcomes reinforced by the platform usage but also the dynamic interactions between game features, implementation arrangements, and learner agency.

Thank you Fengfeng Ke, this is so intriguing.  It fascinates me how the interactions engage students. 

Hi Michael, thank you so much for the feedback. This is a web-based learning game, you can also find the link to the game above in the title of this video showcase next to the video. I hope you enjoy it. 

HI Stacey,

These are all good questions! We did cancel an infield study with the schools this spring due to the Covid-19 situation. We are planning a "home learning" study this summer. There is an increased interest in using the site during this time. We have been hosting regular teacher workshops for teachers who are looking to integrate E-Rebuild in their classroom. We have also shared a series of mini tutorial videos on the web site (https://mileresearch.coe.fsu.edu/erebuild/videos/) based on teachers' request.

HI Benjamin,

Thank you for your comment! We have implemented E-Rebuild in multiple infield studies in the classroom during the past 3 years, when we iteratively studied and refined the design of E-Rebuild. Typically the classroom usage involves game-based learning sessions in a math or a digital literacy class twice a week for 6-8 weeks. So far, students were found to be most engaged with the game actions that allow them to be involved in environmental storytelling, such as building and placing (or arrangement). On the other hand, we found that students tended to adopt a random trial-and-error gameplay strategy and avoided effortful thinking during game-based problem solving. Some of them would not necessarily reflect on or refine their gameplay strategies to be a mindful gamer or problem-solver. Such an observation has pushed us to refine our learning support features to make them better aligned and intrinsically integrated with gameplay to support purposeful problem representation/analysis and story-telling related motivation.

Thank you very much for your details. Great information.  Your project is fascinating. 

Thank you, DeLene!