skip to main content

Summary

In this lesson, students will test and provide feedback on each other’s video games, with the aim of improving them. They will also use this feedback to correct coding errors and make improvements to their game design and functionality.

Curriculum codes

Digital Technologies: AC9TDI4P05 AC9TDI6P06

Design and Technologies: AC9TDE4P05

English (Literacy): AC9E3LY02 AC9E4LY02 AC9E5LY02 AC9E6LY02

General capabilities

Critical Thinking: Analysing

Literacy: Speaking and literacy

a young boy sitting and playing with handheld gaming device

Learning intention

In this lesson, you will test and provide feedback on each other’s video games. You will then use this feedback to fix problems and make improvements to your games.

Prerequisites

Lessons 1 to 8

What you need

  1. Devices for game testing
  2. Feedback Questions worksheets from lesson 8 
  3. Access to the class Problem-Solving Board from lesson 7 
  4. Pencils 

Before the lesson

Familiarise yourself with LitterBox. This program may help you and your students to identify problems with a games coding. It is designed specifically for Scratch.

Activities

Introduction (10 mins)

  1. Tell teams to set up their games and Feedback Questions worksheets (and pencils) next to their devices, ready for other students to review their games.
  2. Explain that each team will have 15 minutes to review another team’s game and 5 minutes to write their feedback on the Feedback Questions worksheets.  
  3. Tell teams that quality feedback is always kind, specific and focused on the work, not the people. Discuss what quality feedback sounds like. Remind students that suggestions for how to improve a game are also really helpful!  
    Teacher Tip: If time permits, teams should review more than one game.

Main Activity (40 mins)

  1. Teams test games and provide feedback.
  2. Gather Feedback Questions worksheets and provide a few minutes for each team to read and discuss their feedback.
  3. Explain to teams that the next step involves making modifications to their games, based on the feedback they received in testing.
  4. Explain to teams that there are two types of modifications that each group will need to attend to: correcting errors and making adjustments.
    1. Correcting errors involves fixing problems with the game’s functionality, typically associated with programming. Feedback of this type indicates that an aspect of the game did not function as intended (or at all), such as ‘did not work’, ‘couldn’t …’ or ‘tried to …’.
      Teacher tip: Correcting these errors will need to be a priority for teams.
    2. Making adjustments involves making improvements to the game design or functionality, based on the reviewer’s feedback. Feedback of this type may read like an opinion, such as ‘I think it would be better if …’, or ‘I’d like it if …’.
  5. Tell teams they can either manually review their code, change it and test the new functionality, or use a digital resource to review their code, such as LitterBox.
    Teacher tip: Teams may need to revisit their design plan from lessons 3 to 5, in order to redesign certain elements of their game. Redesigning may also require additional or altered coding, which will also need to be tested for functionality.

Reflection/Sharing Tasks (10 mins)

  1. Discuss, as a class, the most helpful feedback each team received.
  2. Share common problems and consult with other teams on how they fixed them. Record these on the Problem-Solving Board from lesson 9.
  3. Ask teams to write a list of any parts of their game that require further work or testing in preparation for the final lesson.