Hitting it out of the park with game-based learning for FYEs and libraries

Abstract

Mississippi State University (MSU) Libraries recently held its first library-centered First-Year Experience course. To develop an appealing class for first-semester students, the authors turned to game-based learning in conjunction with a portion of the school identity to teach the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy that they hoped would resonate with the students. This article discusses the games that were implemented along with the corresponding IL framework and assessment of the course. The authors were able to increase student scores from 66.4% (pretest average) to 84.31% (post-test average).