Miacademy

A remote K-8 student learning program focused on “edutainment”. I joined Miacademy to assist in the further gamification of the student learning systems and worked as a contract researcher from May to July in 2021.

Project Background

My contract at Miacademy was focused on researching novel and unique gamification methods to implement into the core educational loop, to boost student engagement with the educational and entertainment elements of the website.

This involved a study of the reward systems and methods present in the student games, examining present gamification literature and research, and making suggestions for improvement based on my research findings.


My Contributions

To accomplish these goals I conducted 3 projects over the course of a month. These included:

  1. A deep heuristic analysis of Miacademy's reward systems and core loop at the time of this study

  2. Deep analysis of "edutainment" and long term engagement strategies used in competing remote learning program and popular casual use applications

  3. Additional research into Gamification studies, including GDC talks and multiple published research papers 

My Impact & What I Learned

My Impact:

My findings helped shape Miacademy's update of their system and was fundamental in their game system revamp.

What I learned: 

  • The importance of asking for clarification early to prevent unnecessary research

  • Ways to apply the research skills I learned on my previous research project to convey a need for clarification clearly and respectfully

  • Detailed research is not useful if it isn't easily readable and understood

  • Methods for quickly analyzing target research materials (published papers, articles, and video essays) and delivering simple, actionable data.

Samples of my work conducted on this project are included in the following sections.

Heuristic Analysis - Behavior Reinforcement systems

Psychological research into Miacadmy’s reward systems

The first study I conducted inn this internship was a Heuristic Analysis of  Miacademy's reward systems. My process for this included:

  • Playing through the main syllabus of the 3rd grade education track, noting on the core play loop, reward systems, and the behavioral reinforcements used.

  • Playing through Miacademy’s “My World” (the casual mini game hub and main social area), and noting the same elements (core loop, reward systems, behavioral reinforcements) along with comparing the gold generated here with the gold rate in the Education mode.

My Impact: 

After conducting this research I logged all my findings and engagement boosting suggestions and sent them to my contact at Miacademy. My findings were key to Miacademy's systems revamp and successfully met our target goals. 

Parts of my research, along with links to the full papers, are included in this section.

Miacademy Psych Reward Systems

A summary of the overall project goals and a few key findings from my analysis into Miacademy’s systems

Miacademy- Reward System Analysis

A small sample of the research systems present in Miacademy’s academic and casual game loops

Gamification Research - Duolingo

Market & Similar Product Gamification Research

To meet our second research goal I conducted a close analysis of Duolingo to explore its gamified education systems. As part of this, I:

  • Conducted a close study of Duolingo's engagement systems

  • Played the game daily for 2 weeks, engaging with as many systems as possible

At the end of my research time I had logged all my findings in a google doc and highlighted key engagement elements to borrow for Miacademy. 

A sample of my Duolingo research and a link to the full document is included in this section

Gamification Research - Duolingo

A brief section of my findings from my Duolingo research study

Additional Gamification Research

Market Gamification Study

To meet our final goal I was tasked with understanding engagement boosting strategies common in the gaming industry. To this end I was given a small sample of GDC seminars and academic papaers on engagement to study, but was encouraged to seek out additional work on my own. To this end, I:

  • Watched every suggested video and read every article sggested by Miacademy

  • Conducted additional research through cited and (at the time) newly published papers referencing

This project helped me polish my research skills and taught me many, many ways to research more efficiently. A small snippit of my findings is insluced in this section, along with a link to the full document

GDC Seminar and Additional Gamification Key points and Summary Snippit

A brief section of my findings from my gamification research

Gamification Literature Summary Snippit

A brief section of my findings from my gamification research, specifically the gamificaiton literature.