Miacademy Research

Overview:

This page includes my work on a research contract conducted for the Miacademy K-8 Online Learning Program from late May 2021 to late July 2021.

The Goal

The contract was focused on improving the student learning experience through further gamification of the present systems. This involved a study of the reward systems and methods present in the student games, examining present gamification literature and research, and making suggestions for improvement based on my research findings.

My Role:

To accomplish these goals I conducted 3 projects over the course of a month. These included:

1. A deep heuristic analysis of Miacademy's reward systems and core loop at the time of this study

2. Deep analysis of "edutainment" and long term engagement strategies used in competing remote learning program and popular casual use applications

3. Additional research into Gamification studies, including GDC talks and multiple published research papers

My Impact:

My findings helped shape Miacademy's update of their system and was fundamental in their game system revamp.

What I learned:

This job was my first solo contract gig and a space for me to apply the knowledge I had learned in class and through my previous game jobs. I made a few missteps early on due to a lack of understanding of my goals, but I was able to use some of the communication skills I learned on the Museum of Mechanics- Fishing project to properly request time from my boss to clarify.

I also learned that highly detailed notes are not always helpful, especially if key points aren't highlighted. I had the idea to deeply analyze the suggested research materials under the idea that every piece of info would help the project. I accomplished this goal and created detailed pages of notes, but much of the info I gained didn't help with the central goal of the study and only resulted in me combing through my notes to find the relevant info. This taught me the importance of keeping the research goal in mind - highlighting the points most relevant for solving the research goal and keeping any extra interesting notes as generalized and simple as possible.

After realizing this, I was able to more quickly analyze the target research materials (published papers, articles, and video essays) and deliver simple, actionable data for the remainder of my contract.

My notes and contributions created during this project are listed below.

Student Learning Module Analysis

Overview:

I conducted a heuristic analysis of Miacademy's reward systems by playing through the main syllabus of the 3rd grade education track and exploring the main social hub and casual gaming area.

The below are a summary of my findings after this phase was completed, and my research notes on the two areas I studied.

Miacademy Research

Key Findings

Miacademy Research

Academic and Casual Feature Notes

What I Did:

I played through the core subjects in the 3rd grader education track, noting on the core play loop, reward systems, and the behaviroal reinforcements used.

I did the same for Miacademy's "My World": the casual mini game hub and main social area.

My Impact:

After conducting this research I logged all my findings and engagement boosting suggestions and sent them to my contact at Miacademy. My findings were key to Miacademy's systems revamp and successfully met our target goals.

Gamification Research (Duolingo)

Overview:

To meet our second research goal I conducted a close analysis of Duolingo to explore its gamified education systems.

Duolingo Research

Key Findings

What I did:

I conducted a heuristic analysis of Duolingo's engagement systems over 2 weeks, focusing on its weekly streak rewards and behavior encouragement systems.

My Impact

I found finding multiple engagement strategies and data points for Miacademy's engagement goals, which I shared with my contact at the end of the contract.

Gamification Research -
Literature and Seminars

Overview:

As part of our final research goal I researched multiple video lectures and academic papers on gamification and system design to find additional methods of gamification, and to support my suggested changes.

Gamification Research

Gamification & System Design GDC Videos

Key Findings

Gamification Literature

Key Findings

What I did:

Conducted research into a handful of video essays suggested by Miacademy, additional essays and seminars found by my own research, and a few academic papers. I summarized my findings in the docs above and used the info I gathered to back up my suggestions for Miacademy's revamp.

My Impact

My findings further supported my suggestions from my initial systems notes, and gave my improvement suggestions more scientific backing, which was crucial in Miacademy's system revamp.