Can students develop visual and ethical literacy by playing a tabletop card game? This is an important area of investigation due to the dearth of pedagogical tools currently available for teaching visual and ethical literacy in university classrooms. This research builds on the existing body of literature detailing the potential for games-based learning to enhance students’ comprehension, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. We propose a mixed-methods approach, using participant observation, surveys, and online focus groups. Research collection will be divided into two stages: (i) participant observation for game development, focusing on the mechanics of gameplay, and (ii) surveys with students and focus groups with lecturers following classroom testing, focusing on the efficacy of the game as a pedagogical tool. Enhancing understanding about the potential for gameplay as an effective tool toward promoting visual and ethical literacy could have wide ranging benefits for visual educators across a wide range of disciplines. While we are focused specifically on university-level education, our findings will have relevance across all educational levels, with potential for adaptation for the K-12 audience.

Problem Statement

Visual literacy education involves developing the students capacity to think critically about the ethics of image creation, production, and dissemination. Unfortunately, there are few tools available for educators seeking to support or supplement their visual literacy curriculum, especially in regards to visual ethics in particular (ACRL, 2011; ACRL, 2022; Thompson & Beene, 2024). This can be a particularly tricky topic to tackle, because ethical questions rarely have clear cut answers. 

Classroom discussion using case studies or example scenarios is one popular method of promoting critical thinking about ethics and instilling ethical awareness among students (Walker, 2003; Popil, 2011; Mahdi, Nassar, & Almuslamani, 2020). While this method can be useful, it can have mixed results. Students who are confident and vocal in class are quick to engage in classroom discussion, while students who are more reticent are often left out of the conversation (White, 2011; Mack, 2012). 

Another popular teaching method is to assign students listening to, reading, or viewing material in which different photographers describe how they have responded to ethical questions. The Photo Ethics Podcast has often been used as a tool for this kind of learning. While it can be beneficial for students to learn about the experiences of others, this method does not engage the student as an active participant in their learning. Given the challenge of tackling this topic in the classroom, as well as the dearth of pedagogical tools available to educators, we are interested in exploring the potential for using a tabletop card game to teach visual media ethics in higher education classrooms as a component of visual literacy education.

Our research questions include the following: 

RQ 1: Can students develop visual and ethical literacy by playing a tabletop card game?

RQ 1a: What is the efficacy of a tabletop card game for teaching students
how to ethically use visual information?

RQ 1b: What is the efficacy of a tabletop card game for teaching students
how to interpret visual information?

RQ 1c: What is the efficacy of a tabletop card game for teaching students
how to evaluate visual information? 

Significance

Game-based learning is a growing trend which has been applied across all levels of education. Game-based learning has been proven to aid student comprehension and information retention, as well as critical thinking and problem-solving skills (Crowell 2009; Klopfer 2008)). 

Games have also been proven to aid the development of key social skills like cooperation and collaboration. As Carol Record has written:

“Tabletop games are by their nature collaborative activities. They require players to adhere to a set of rules and work together to achieve the desired result of the game. … Game-based learning promotes socialization and cooperation by requiring students to work together.” (2021: 10-11)

Cooperation and collaboration are important skills to foster among students, especially as they relate to visual media ethics. Often ethical debates within the photography and visual media industries are characterized by a dissolution of cooperation and collaboration among peers and colleagues. These debates, which often play out on social media, usually do not offer a positive example for students of how photographers can learn from each other by offering and receiving constructive feedback. On the other hand, games offer potential to simulate a more positive and collaborative experience of ethical debate. As game designer Chris Crowell (2009) writes: “the act of playing a game is a constantly repeating loop of observation, analysis, planning, execution, and feedback.”