Quest Forward Learning Introduces Courses
The Quest Forward Learning quest library now contains over 1,000 quests and continues to grow, covering a wide range of subjects, topics and standards. With so many quests, learners and mentors have struggled to focus their work on the quests that are relevant and meaningful for their learning pathway.
To enable learners to explore in a more relevant context, we recently released the “course” feature in the Quest! app. A course may be subject-specific, like a 9th grade math course for an entire semester, or might address empathy skills like our 12-week “Me to We” course. Borrowing some experiences from game design, courses are built out of levels with each level focused on a particular concept, theme or skill.
Within a level, course designers specify “core quests,” which learners are required to complete when working through the level, as well as a number of “choice quests,” from which learners may choose a certain number to complete the level.
With this design approach, learners focus their discovery and learning in a more structured, ordered manner, while preserving their ability to access quests based on their interests, and to work at their own pace and depth.
For now, the OE team provides course building support to Quest Forward schools. In the future, we plan to enable schools to build entire courses on their own with our Community Manager app.
The following screenshots were taken from our Foundation Phase (9th Grade) Reading, Writing and Thinking course and illustrate the course levels.
The screenshot above shows the first four levels of the Quest Forward Learning Reading, Writing and Thinking course. Learners must first complete the requirements in Levels 1 and 2 before unlocking later levels. The use of levels (instead of “units” or “chapters”), as well as the visual design, was inspired by various online and offline games.
Within a level, learners can see the groups of Core or Choice quests, as well as their progress through the level’s requirements.