Ryan M. “Rylish” Moeller

Rylish teaches rhetorical theory, professional writing, and computer game culture at Utah State University where he is currently working toward tenure. Along with working on Peer Factor as author, he has also worked as a producer on a game modification (or mod) of Neverwinter Nights called Aristotle’s Assassins for the international game research consortium, the Learning Games Initiative. The mod allows players to interact with complex non-player characters and plots set in ancient Greece. Rylish’s work has appeared in Technical Communication Quarterly, Kairos, fibreculture, Computers and Composition Online, Works and Days, and in edited collections.

Abstract

We see the computers and composition community rapidly accepting the idea that using computer games in the classroom can be a very effective way to teach writing.

Introduction

The Peer Factor game is designed to be an easy-to-use, interactive Flash game. In two separate episodes, Peer Factor introduces students to the full process of peer review:

Game Pedagogy: What is the Game Factor?

The Game Factor is the term we use to describe the educational potential of games to teach student players complicated concepts and processes.

Convergence: Theory into Practice

In this section, we would like to discuss our processes for designing the game. In software and game design terminology, what we do here could be referred to as a postmortem: we describe what went well, what went wrong, and why.

Rethinking the Textbook: Toward a Participatory Paradigm

Just as the word book is an inadequate term to describe the electronic media and platforms that are creating book alternatives, textbook is a less than adequate term for emerging digital learning tools.

References

This webtext draws upon these resources and experiences to discuss how we took the next critical step and designed an interactive educational text that employed game elements.