A toolkit report for design research method course in ECUAD. By Kelvin Han and Akina Zhang

1. Project 3
Co-creation
toolkit report
Kelvin Han & Akina Zhang
SOCS-309-SU01
H. Hamouda
20th Jun. 2016
Abstract
To determine whether a playful approach will enhance
the users interest in learning Chinese characters, a
toolkit toy was employed with quantitative and qualitative follow up studies. Findings will be
used as a database for the improvement of traditional learning methods and to increase the
users’ study efficiency of the Chinese language. Methods used to make the toolkit include
research, interview, and questionnaire. The toolkit involves 5 activities. By studying the method
to enhance learning, the users can benefit by establishing interest in a subject that did not
appeal to them before.
Keywords:Chinese characters, Chinese cultural background, learning activities
Introduction:
From primary research, we found there are lots of children who were born in Vancouver, with
their families having Chinese cultural background. Most of their parents are Chinese. The
parents expect and encourage their kids to learn the Chinese language and Asian culture.
However, since the children grew up in an English-speaking environment, it is very difficult to
nurture their interest in learning Chinese. We chose the target users to be 7 to 10 year-olds
because they have strong learning potentials. We hope this toolkit will help the children to
learn Chinese in an easier and funnier way.
Context
Throughout the initial interview with the client who participated in the Design Core Project, we
clearly understand that the kid was not willing to speak Chinese, because she thought Chinese
characters are too complicated compared to English. Once we established the problem,
we addressed it by creating an assembly game that combines active learning with concept
visualization. Assembly game programs, such as the Dr. Recess Assembly & Playgrounds, have
gained much popularity due to its effectiveness in helping children become active learners.

2. Developmentally appropriate games not only
helps children to discover joy in the learning
process, it also raises their level of interest in
learning by teaching them social/emotional
skills, thinking skills, and motor skills (PlayFit
Education). For example, award-winning
teacher and author, Curt Hinson, Ph.D.,
created the Trouble-free Playground program
exactly to achieve this goal (PlayFit Education).
After the initial learning, review and practice
are essential activities that can reinforce
the participant’s memory of the learned
materials. Research has shown that review and
practice newly learned vocabulary increases
the learner’s memorization of the materials
learnt (Vliet, 2013). A researcher interviewed
language experts, authors, translators, and
bloggers for their best method of memorizing
new vocabularies (Vliet, 2013). Out of the
diverse answers the interviewees gave, review
and practice turned out to be two of the most
common techniques they mentioned (Vliet,
2013). Finally, to enhance association between
the different concepts and further reinforce
the learners’ memories, concept visualization
will be employed. The use of visualization has
span diverse subjects (Uttal and O’Doherty,
2008). Visualization helps the participant to
learn because they make complex information
easy to understand (Uttal and O’Doherty,
2008). Visualization allows the learner to
think about the information in a different
way than initially presented, thus facilitating
the learning process (Uttal and O’Doherty,
2008).
Main Research Question:
Can toys help users enhance their interest of
learning Chinese?
Sub Question:
During the toy-playing procedure, can the
ability of assemble and visual association
help users enhance their interest of learning
Chinese?
Target Users:
7 to 10 year-old children who come from
families with Chinese backgrounds, who are
learning Chinese and who lack the interest to
learn Chinese.
Purpose of the Toolkit:
The purpose of this toolkit is to help the
users memorize the characters they learnt
and increase their interest of Chinese learning
through a playful approach.

3. Result of Toolkit:
First, qualitative data shows the learning product of the review and practice activity by assessing
whether the users have effectively reproduced the Chinese Character, “pin yin”, and definition
learnt in the previous step. Second, the order in which the users reproduced the Chinese
Character, “pin yin” or definition reveals underlying meanings. If the user reproduced the
Chinese Character prior to the other components, he or she likely is the most interested in
visual expression. Since it is most likely that the user thinks of the most appealing component
first before writing it done. If the user reproduced the “pin yin” prior to the other components,
he or she likely is the most sensitive to sounds. If the user reproduces the definition first, he or
she likely is excellent at comprehension. These results give the researcher more clues about
whether if the user is apt at using visual representation, auditory memory or comprehension
related memory to learn new material.
Co-creation
activity
Pre-toolkit Questionnaire
Please complete the questionnaire according to the instructions shown on the paper.
Time: 5 minutes
1. Have you learnt anything about Chinese characters before?
Yes No
2. Do you listen or speak Chinese in your daily life?
Yes No

4. 3. Do you observe lots of Chinese characters in your daily environment?
Yes No
4. If yes, how long do you speak Chinese during the day you have to use Chinese?
o 30 minutes or less
o 1 hour
o 2 hours or above
5. In what situation you will use Chinese to speak with other people?
o Study/ School
o Working area
o Home
o Entertainment areas
o Others: _______________
6. What type of game do you like to play the most?
o Assembly Game (e.g. Lego)
o Board Game (e.g. Monopoly)
o Card Game
o Puzzle
o Role-playing
o Others: _______________
7. Do you like Chinese? If yes, choose the most interesting part to you (Listening, Reading,
Saying, Writing) If not, list the reason and explain.
8. On the scale from 1 to 10, 1 being the least interested and 10 being the most
interested, what is your level of interest in learning Chinese characters? (Circle your answer)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5. Activity 1 Warm up
Pick a favorite part from the pile of Chinese Character parts. Chinese characters stem from
the objects that visually resemble their figure. Imagine what your part represents. Let your
imagination roam!
Time: 10 minutes
Activity 2 Character Assembly
Choose a Chinese character from the pages in the back on the Instruction Booklet. Use the 2D
templates of Chinese Character that we provided to assemble the character you chose on a
Working Sheet. Color every single part of Chinese Characters by using the users’ favorite colors.
After assembly of the 2D structure, go to the Instruction Book and check the “pin yin”, English
and Chinese deffiination of the word that has been chosen.
Time: 20 minutes

7. Activity 3 Review and Practice
On the next day, review and practice writing the character, “pin yin” and definitions on the
Practice Sheets provided in the toolkit.
Time: 5 minutes
Activity 4 Visual Inspiration
Pick a favorite character you have learned during the last activity. Examine the parts of the
character and relate it back to English letters. What does each part look like? Draw out your
imagination on the paper provided. Be creative!
Time: 10 minutes
Definition:

9. Activity 5 Survey
Answer the question on the paper provided: rate your level of interest for learning Chinese
Characters after the use of our toolkit.
Time: 5 minutes
Thanks for your cooperation!
On the scale from 1 to 10, 1 being the least interested and
10 being the most interested, what is your level of interest in
learning Chinese characters? (Circle your answer)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

10. Instruction Booklet
Co-Creation
Session
instruction
introduction
In this co-creation toolkit,
participants are going to
learn and create Chinese
characters. Based on the
learning process, quantita-
tive and qualitative data
will be collected.
ingredients
* Chinese Character Text Book
* Parts of Chinese Characters
* Working Pages
* Color Markers
* Pen & Pencil
chi
zài
*eat; take; make
*exist; be living
*in process of; in course
of
LEVEL 2
qín
e, a, a
*a general name for
certain musical instru-
ment
*play up to; pander to;
cater for
ACTIVITY 1
Pick a favorite part from the
pile of Chinese Character
parts. Chinese characters
stem from the objects that
visually resemble their figure.
Imagine what your part rep-
resents. Let your imagination
roam!
ACTIVITY 2
Step 1:
There are 3 levels: Easy, Normal and
Hard. Choose a Chinese Character
from the following pages on the
instruction booklet.
Step 2:
Use the 2D templates of Chinese
Character that we provide to assem-
ble the character you chose from “Ac-
tivity !” on Working Page.
Step 3:
You can color every single part of Chi-
nese Characters by using your favour-
ite colors.
Page 1
Page 3
Page 2
Page 8 Page 9

11. How and why
Questionnaire
The questionnaire is used to achieve a primary understanding of their level of interest, in order
to establish a database that serves as a standard of comparison for later data.
Activity 1 Warm up
This is a sensitizing activity in order to draw user’s attention to the toolkit and gradually
engage into the later and major activities. This activity respond to step 1 in path of expression,
immersing the user in current experience. The ingredients of this activity include 2D templates
of Chinese characters provided in the toolkit and the user’s imagination. The purpose of this
activity is to prepare the user’s mindset into one that pays attention to Chinese characters and
prime the user’s brain with visual cues and imagination related to these Chinese Characters.
1
2
3
4

12. Activity 2 Character Assembly
The second activity establishes an initial concept of the Chinese Characters, which raises
thoughts about the close-knit relationship between the shapes, pronunciation, and meaning of
the character. Research has shown that assembly games are effective methods to engage the
children’s attention and raise the level of interest in learning new concepts (PlayFit Education).
The ingredients of this character assembly activity include 2D templates of Chinese Characters
provided in the toolkit, working sheets, an instruction book, and color markers. The purpose of
this activity is to increase the user’s interest in learning Chinese Characters by actively engaging
the user’s brain in building structures and associating related concepts. This also facilitates better
memorization of the structure of Chinese Characters. This activity respond to steps 1 and 2 of
the path of expression, immersing the user in the current experience and active memories,
respectively.
1
2
3
4

13. Activity 3 Review and practice
Research has shown that reviewing and practicing newly learnt material could drastically
improve future recall (Vliet, 2013). Therefore, the purpose of the review and practice activity
is to prepare the user’s memory for easier future recall. The user may develop further interest
once he or she masters the memorization of Chinese Characters. The ingredients of this
activity include practice sheets provided in the toolkit and the instruction book. This activity
respond to step 2 of the path of expression, active memorization.
Activity 4 Visual Inspiration
The purpose of the visual inspiration activity is to understand how the participants use
additional visual cues to represent the character when they are learning a new character they
had not known before. The ingredients used in this activity include the practice sheets provided
in the toolkit and color markers. This activity respond to step 3 and 4 of path of expression,

14. dream about future possibilities.
1
2
3
4
Activity 5 Post-toolkit Survey
The post-toolkit survey allows the user to rate their level of interest for learning Chinese
Characters again. The purpose of the post-toolkit survey is to gain data that can be used
in comparison to the pre-toolkit questionnaire. This allows the researchers to gain insight
into the effectiveness of the toolkit and draw conclusions for the research question. This
acitivity respond to step 4 of the path of expression, generating new ideas relating to a new
experience.
Toolkit Making Process
At the beginning, we create a low quality toolkit which consist of ten parts of Chinese character
and all of them are colored already since we want children to pick the color they like to
assembly the character. Later we realize it is much more easier to let children to use marker to
color the parts of Chinese character as they want and also create a set of same part in different
colors is time wasting. We also add working booklet and papers in our toolkit because if we
prepare more for participants, it can let them feel this toolkit is well-developed and they can
foucus on activities.

16. Initial Responses
In pilot testing, two participnts who has Chinese background attend our acitivity and provoid
feedbacks. They said that it is hard to pick out the part they want from a pile of parts of Chinese
character. Those participants are chinese speaker and they still feel hard so we can imagine the
difficulty for the children who are still learning Chinese. According to this, we decide to arrange
the character parts and put them on the table separately.

17. Conclusion
In this toolkit, we try to find out whether toys or playing activities can encourage children's
interest to Chinese and help them to learn Chinese character. Five activities are included in the
co-creation process and qualitative data will be collected and analysis. The activities include
questionnaire, Chinese character assembly and visual inspiration. It is important to see the
feedback and data that from actual children participants. This toolkit still has potential to be
improved and wish it can solve actual problem in Chinese studying area.

18. reference
Vliet, N. V. (2013). 38 Language-Learning Experts Reveal their Favorite Method for Learning
Vocabulary. Retrieved June 17, 2016, from http://www.smartlanguagelearner.com/experts-
reveal-method-learning-vocabulary/
PlayFit Education. (n.d.). Dr. Recess Assembly & Playground Games Program. Retrieved June
17, 2016, from http://www.playfiteducation.com/dr-recess/for-parents-teachers/3-dr-recess-
assembly-games-program
Uttal, D. H., & O’Doherty, K. (2008). Comprehending and learning from ‘visualizations’: A
developmental perspective. In Visualization: Theory and practice in science education (pp. 53-
72). Springer Netherlands.