Designing a research with profound practical impact

Abstract

Based on his knowledge and expertise in information and library science, computer and design science, e-learning and psychology, Dr Samuel Chu has created an e-quiz platform, Reading Battle (RB), which is highly effective in boosting primary students’ reading interest and motivation, as well as strengthening their reading comprehension ability in both Chinese and English. As a deliverable of a Quality Education Fund project (HK$2,846,000), RB has benefitted over 6,000 students from 50 schools/libraries in Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, and the US. The platform is unique in its application of game mechanics and content, with 4 kinds of questions (fact finding, integration of ideas, drawing inferences, and evaluation) specifically designed for each book, according to the standard of the international reading ability test, PIRLS. The 4 question types also map to Bloom’s Taxonomy, which classifies the spectrum of educational learning domains into 6 levels. In addition to the well-designed questions that tap into students’ comprehension ability, another key element that contributed to the success of RB is the utilization of gamification principles, which successfully turned something usually considered by students as boring and dreadful (reading quizzes) into an exciting and rewarding experience (visually attractive and challenging reading comprehension 'games'). In this seminar, Dr Chu will share how he has worked with frontline practitioners in schools to conceptualize the project, and how he has collaborated with researchers from various disciplines, professional game designers and programmers to transform his ideas and expertise into a highly practical research that has impacted thousands of students.