Discovery Tour games let players and students freely roam the immersive worlds of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and the Viking Age to learn more about their history and daily life. These curriculum guide are meant for teachers to develop customized lesson plans and printable classroom materials. The theories applied to develop the guides were the Technological, Pedagogical, Content Knowledge framework (TPACK, Mishra & Koehler, 2006), the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM, Davis, 1989), and the Learning Mechanics-Game Mechanics framework (Arnab et al., 2015).
The guides are delivered through an interactive website with four sections: 1) Curriculum Map, learning goals are selected from existing standards and then gameplay and classroom activities are suggested; 2) Gameplay Map, all possible "in-game" play behaviors are described and links are made with learning outcomes; 3) Lesson Plans tailored to different subjects, ages, and instruction modalities; and 4) Adoption Tips, addressing common technical and practical barriers.
What is Discovery Tour?
Curriculum guides launch video.
Description of the guides.
How to use the guides: walkthrough.
News
Partners and Funding
Publications
R. Sharma, C. Tan, D. Gomez, C. Xu, A.K. Dubé
American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, USA, 2024
Discovery Tour Curriculum Guides to Improve Teachers' Adoption of Serious Gaming
C. Xu, R. Sharma, A.K. Dubé
E. Champion, J. Francisco Hiriart Vera, Assassin’s Creed in the Classroom History’s Playground or a Stab in the Dark?, 2023, pp. 35-64
J. Brisson, C. Xu, A.K. Dubé
Les usages pédagogiques des jeux vidéos Assassin's Creed, Presses de l'Université Laval 2023, 2023
Discovery Tour Game Curriculum Guides for Teachers: Assassin’s Creed
C. Xu, R. Sharma
Antiquity in Media Studies Conference, 2022
C. Xu, R. Sharma, A.K. Dubé
Technology, Mind & Society Conference, 2021