The problem / intent

How do you provide a Soft scaffolding for a predefined task?
How do you encourage learners to publish the task outcomes on-line?

The context

This pattern isn't necessarily limited to games. It applies to a broad range of situations where learners are required to follow a set sequence of actions and share the products of these actions. It refers specifically to Educational Contexts which employ a web browser based medium of communication, but could probably be extended to other scenarios. For example, the active worksheets could be provided as word templates.

The pattern

Scaffold learners work by an on-line worksheet which they edit as they go along the task.

1. Provide learners with task instructions in an editable medium.
2. If the task required tools or other digital objects to work with, they should be embedded in and downloadable from the worksheet, preferably as Objects to talk with.
   
3. If the products of the task are digital artifacts, than the worksheet medium should support embedding of these artifacts.
4. As learners progress through the task, they 'fill in the slots' or replace the instructions with their own content, derived from the activity.
5. When the task is completed, learners submit / publish it according to the rules of the activity / game.

Figure 1 illustrates a schematic Active Worksheet for task "My thing":


Figure 1: Schematic active worksheet

Related patterns

Leads to: League chart, Task in a box
Follows: Semi-automated meta-data
Elaborates: Soft scaffolding
Elaborated by:

Notes

Examples

• Guess my Robot and Guess my Garden used a game template to scaffold challenge postings.
• Several games used Active worksheets as an Objects to talk with to kick-off Post ludus discussions.