Microcore: A Playable Case Study for Improving Adolescents' Argumentative Writing in a Workplace Context

A playable case study is an immersive, transmedia story controlled by a puppetmaster (i.e., teacher), but played by participants who advance the plot through their contributions and interactions with fictional characters. They are also explicitly educational, consisting of both the immersive, transmedia story, as well as in-game and out-of-game materials provided for educational scaffolding and reflection. We present the Microcore playable case study to illustrate the potential of this new type of experiential simulation that incorporates aspects of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) to increase immersion. We present results from a pilot test of Microcore with an undergraduate course, identifying design strategies that worked well and others that led to improvements that are currently being incorporated. We also provide questions to prompt future designers of playable case studies and discuss our findings in a broader context of educational simulations.