Creating an alternate reality: Critical, creative, and empathic thinking generated in the Global Village Playground capstone experience

The Global Village Playground (GVP) was a capstone learning experience designed to address institutional assessment needs while providing an integrated and authentic learning experience for students aimed at fostering critical and creative thinking. In the GVP, students work on simulated and real-world problems as a design team tasked with developing an alternate reality game that makes an impact on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Researchers employed a qualitative case study approach to evaluate participant reactions to the course, their perceptions of the instructional design methodology, what they learned in the course, and the challenges they experienced during the pilot implementation of this capstone design. This article documents what students reported to have learned in the course as a result of their experience creating an alternate reality game.

► Key findings from what students reported to have learned in the Global Village Playground capstone learning experience include the following.
► Knowledge construction: creating new knowledge from prior knowledge and current experiences in the course.
► Respect for others: developing understanding of people from other cultures and a new appreciation from people within their own culture who are demographically different from themselves.
► Individual values: deepening awareness of the importance of being informed, self-disciplined, honest, and reliable.
► Openminded-ness: appreciating other perspectives, new technologies, and different ways of thinking.
► Social Responsibility: growing awareness of the relationship between self and society, need to protect the planet for future generations, and to do no harm.