Case study of an educational alternate reality game made possible by Conducttr

1. Case Study:
Educational ARG
Alternate Reality Game
Contact
robert@tstoryteller.com
USA: +1 415 287 4150
Europe: +44 207 193 4567

2. About the Client
• Doubletake Studios (DS) is a creative agency
based in Tampa, Florida
• DS pitched and won a project to provide a
connected learning experience to 13-17 year
olds across 17 schools in the state of Florida
• DS handled all client liaison
Doubletake Studios
• DS created all story and production content
• Transmedia Storyteller Ltd worked with DS as
silent partner providing consultancy and our
Conducttr platform as a managed service to
deliver the learning experience

3. Background and Results
• Production Team
– 1 fulltime person at Doubletake Studios (plus team as
needed for story, web design, video & graphics production)
– 1 person part-time from Transmedia Storyteller Ltd
• Results
– More that 600 students took part
– Conducttr handled more than 4000 character-to-student
interactions
– Engagement: 38%
Engagement measured as ratio of student action to character call-to-action.

4. Workflow timeline
• Aug 2011 Doubletake Studios consult with Transmedia
Storyteller Ltd on use of Conducttr
• Sept 2011 Doubletake Studios wins the project
• Dec 2011 First play test for teachers and DS’ client
• Jan 2012 Second play test for project financial sponsors
• Feb 2012 Live with students Feb 6th-Feb 24th (3 weeks)
In the play test, the 3 week experience is compressed to 3 days with one day = 1
week. After each test the experience is reset to be run again.

5. Story
• Cosmic Voyager Enterprises (CVE) is a space cargo company
based in Florida.
• CVE employs many people in the neighboring towns and takes
its corporate social responsibility seriously
• On Feb 6th 2012 a CVE rocket crashes into the small town of
Millisville, FL causing physical and possible long-term
environment damage from the payload
• The CVE executive team must complete a report for the board
& investors that explains their action plan.

6. Experience
• Students form into teams of five to play a C-level executive role:
CEO/COO/CMO/CFO/GC
• Communications come from fictional characters inside and outside the
company
• Each student gets role-specific communications (e.g. the CEO only gets
information intended for the CEO)
• Students must collaborate inside the classroom to share knowledge and
discuss solutions
• They are given a fictional budget that is insufficient to cover all their
needs. Hence they are forced to make compromises which generates
ethical and financial discussions
• Business partners from the local community visited classrooms to support
teachers.

7. Learning objectives
• Teach ethics and economics
• Simulation of real-life scenario
• Self-guided problem solving
• Collaborative working
• New media comprehension

8. Engagement
INTERACTION
• Personalized replies to incoming emails & Tweets from fictional characters
ETHICAL DECISIONS
• “The Whistleblower”
• Employee who contacts the students claiming that the payload was over
weight
• “The Extortionist”
• Dept. Environment agent that proposes a pay-off for him to write a more
favorable report.
GAME-STYLE REWARDS
• Rewards based on involvement:
– “I like what you’re doing, I’ve recommend a bonus increase at the next pay
review board”
– “You’re asking great questions, you can have use of the company seats behind
the catcher…”

9. Production materials
• Videos – YouTube and embedded on website
• Facebook & Twitter profiles
• “Corporate website”
• Report documents (PDFs)
• Teacher & project funder support
– Lesson guide
– Weekly advanced “cheat sheet”
• Interactive communications
– Emails, Tweets, Facebook status updates

10. Students love to role-play
Fictional environmental activist

12. Conducttr
• Manages all student registrations
– “I want to register as CEO for Royal Palm Beach”
– students tagged by role and school
• Manages all teacher registrations and assistance
– “tell me the story so far” -
• Manages all social media and email communications
• Allows re-run of experience after tests & annually
• Produces all performance metrics

13. Next steps
• Re-run the experience for new students
• Create new stories & scenarios
• Tackle new topics & learning objectives

14. Contact
• Conducttr: Transmedia Storyteller Ltd
• Educational ARG: Doubletake Studios
Transmedia Storyteller Ltd Doubletake Studios
Robert Pratten, CEO Terri Hall, President
robert@tstoryteller.com 105 S. Fielding Ave. Suite B
USA: +1 415 287 4150 Tampa, FL 33606
Europe: +44 207 193 4567 Tel: 813-251-6308