JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 2, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2010, ISSN 2151-9617

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Teaching Taxonomy and Content

Management Systems (CMS) via Game-
based Learning Approach
Mazeyanti M Ariffin, Nazleeni Samiha Haron

Abstract— Looking at potential of games for educational purpose, authors adopted game-based learning approach to teach
Taxonomy and Content Management System (KMS) module in a private university in Malaysia. This paper discuss on the
design of a game called ‘Creating a Hypermarket’ which was compared with a multimedia-based learning approach. An
experimental study with 129 students was conducted with respect to knowledge retention and learning efficiency. The empirical
result shows that the game increase student’s performance improve long-term learning results and lead to higher knowledge
retention as compared to traditional learning approach.

Index Terms— taxonomy, content management systems (cms), game-based learning approach.

——————————  ——————————

1 INTRODUCTION

I magine you have a shopping list and were asked to do

the shopping in a hypermarket in your hometown.
Based on the list, the shopping should not take more
than 15 minutes but you end up spent nearly an hour to
find all things in your shopping list. You wished that
hypermarket has better arrangement of goods and defi-
nitely to label the aisle so that you do not have to waste
your time in searching those goods.
Visualize the same scenario happened to an employee
who wants to find information in his organization’s
Knowledge Management System (KMS).You can imagine
how frustrated they are. Based on studies done by IDC,
15% to 35% of employees’ time is spent on searching for
information only [1]. And in 2001, only 21% of the res-
pondents agreed that they found the information at a rea-
sonable time while 40% of corporate users can not find
the information on their organization’s system [1]. It
means, this will reduce the productivity of the employees
and increase time for them to complete the task and in
worst case it will lead to inclination of employees from
using the KMS.
Looking at how critical it is to help users in finding what
they need at the right time and at the right place, authors
suggest the most important thing to do is to educate the
developer of KMS on the importance of good design of
taxonomy and CMS. The developer in this study refers to
students who are taking Knowledge Management (KM)
course as their specialization.
In this paper, authors suggested to use a game-based
learning approach to teach on the importance of taxono-
my in a KMS. A game called ‘Creating a Hypermarket’ is
————————————————
 Mazeyanti M Ariffin is with the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Ma-
laysia.
 Nazleeni Samiha Haron is with the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS,
Malaysia.
introduced to students. The scope of this study is on Tax-
onomy and Content Management System (CMS) module.
Objective of this study is to evaluate the knowledge reten-
tion and learning efficiency of students in game-based
learning approach as compared to multimedia-based
learning method in classroom.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Taxonomy and CMS
Taxonomy is an orderly classification of plants and ani-
mals according to their presumed natural relationships
[2]. Taxonomy is also known as a classification system [3].
Taxonomies are widely being used in many fields such as
botany to classify plants. With the advancement of Inter-
net, there has been increased interest in using taxonomies
for structuring information for easier management and
retrieval. The Dewey Decimal System use taxonomy as a
basis of their classification schemes and indexing systems
in information management [3].
Taxonomy plays a critical role in developing a KMS. Tax-
onomy can (1) assist user to navigate and (2) classification
of experts in an organization [3].
2.2 Game-based learning approach
Researchers start to realize the potential effects of games
for educational purpose years ago. As stated by [4], many
experienced writers of textbook and methodology ma-
nuals argued that games are bit more than just time-
filling activities but have a great educational value. As
stated by [5], games help and encourage players to sus-
tain their interest and work. A similar opinion is given by
[6] where he indicates that games are highly motivating
and entertaining and they can give shy students more
opportunity to express their opinions and feelings.
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2 METHODOLOGY
1.0 To create taxonomy
2.1 Instructional media 1.1 obtain product items from in-
structor
In this study, two media sets were used to teach students 1.2 categorize the product items
on Taxonomy and CMS. The content and scope of each set 1.3 decide on the possible sec-
are explained as the following tions/labels to represent the
• Conventional – students were taught on prin- product items
ciples of taxonomy & CMS using Power-point-based 1.4 decide the location of each sec-
presentation. The presentation covered on taxonomy de- tion/label in the hypermarket
finition, its importance, benefits and the application of 1.5 paste the sections/labels on the
taxonomy. The slides were available for the students to given hypermarket area
view and download from the elearning. 1.6 paste the product items accord-
• Game – the game was called “Creating a Hyper- ing to the labels/sections
market’. It was conducted during tutorial session. The 2.0 To do the shopping
2.1 obtain the shopping list from
game was adopted from Dave Snowden training kits for
instructor
KM practitioners. This game was designed to teach stu-
2.2 search product items on oppo-
dents on the definition of taxonomy and CMS, its impor- nent’s hypermarket
tance in real environment and where to apply taxonomy. 2.2.1 if successful
2.2.1.1 identify the
2.2 Participants profile
path to find the
The participants were students of a private university in product item
Malaysia with specialization in KM. These students were 2.2.2 else
from Second Year Second Semester Business Information 2.2.2.1 keep search-
System (BIS) program. Table I provides description of the ing for the product
sample population items
2.3 repeat step 2.2 until complete
TABLE I. SAMPLE POPULATION PROFILE
the shopping list
Semester/Batch No of stu- Media sets Figure 1. steps to play “Creating a Hypermarket”
dents game
July 2008 36 Multimedia
January 2009 93 Multimedia and
Game-based learning 2.4 Experimental study
approach  Project on taxonomy and CMS
Both batches were given an assignment on taxono-
my development. Students were asked to design tax-
2.3 Game structure onomy and create a KMS based on the taxonomy for a
Students were divided into groups of 4 people and were virtual company. Once their KMS were available on-
given products items (pictures). Students were free to line, other groups were required to find a list of know-
design their own taxonomy of a hypermarket. Once they ledge assets given by instructor. The Project was eva-
finished, the instructor will create a shopping list based luated based on the design of the taxonomy, user navi-
on the group’s taxonomy. The other team will ‘do the gation and time taken for user to find the requested
shopping’ on the opponent’s hypermarket. Fig 1 shows knowledge assets.
the steps to play “Creating a Hypermarket” game. There  Test on taxonomy and CMS
are two winners in this game – (1) the fastest group that Both batches were tested on taxonomy develop-
complete the shopping list (2) the owner of taxonomy of ment. It comprises of several questions that asked stu-
the fastest group work on. dents to apply the taxonomy principle and designing a
taxonomy based on the predefined knowledge assets.
 Final Exam
Questions on the application of Taxonomy and CMS
were asked to both batches. The questions were de-
signed to test on the student’s understanding on Tax-
onomy and CMS. Students need to reflect and use the
knowledge that they have learnt in order to answer the
question.
 Reflection session
After play the game, a reflection session was con-
ducted to get feedbacks on the activity. Students were

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encouraged to identify the importance of having clear

taxonomy, identify the drawbacks of dreadful tax-
onomy and so on. The following questions will be
asked to the winner and loser (1) Explain how you
win/loss this game? (2)Explain why you win/loss this
game? (3) What can you say about the taxonomy of
hypermarket that you worked on?(4) What are the
challenges that you faced during the game play?

3 RESULTS & DISCUSSION

Figure 4. Final exam result for semester July 2008

and Jan 2009
Based on Fig. 4, the knowledge retention rate for seme-
ster Jan 2009 is higher as compared to semester Jul 2008.
Students who played the game performed better and able
to answer analytical question related to Taxonomy and
CMS. It shows that the level of understanding for stu-
dents in semester Jan 2009 is higher than semester July
2008. Based on Fig. 4 also, there is a decrease of 32% of the
failure rate in Taxonomy and CMS question.
Figure 2. Test result for semester July 2008 and Jan 2009
TABLE II. PARTICIPANTS FEEBACK/RESPONSE
Based on Fig. 2, there is a significant increase of 59% in
semester July 2009 test result. It shows that students in Feedbacks
this semester were able to absorbed and reapply the tax- Winners Losers
onomy principles during the test. This clearly shown that Easy to navigate Hard to navigate
student’s learning was improved if lecturer is using Labels/sections are Can not find the label
game-based approached as compared to conventional clearly defined and
learning method. shown
Design of the taxono- Labels are not reflecting
my is familiar on the items that it
represent.
Items are located in in-
appropriate sections
Label is not cor-
rect/misleading

One of the aims of creating a good taxonomy is to help

Figure 3. Project result for semster July 2008 and Jan
2009
Based on Fig. 3, 85% students in semester July 2009
managed to complete the tasks given in the project ques-
tions. There is an increased of 35% as compared to the
previous semester. The failure rate is also reduced to 15%
as compared to Jan 2008 semester. It shows that students
who play the game able to produce better project as com-
pared to students who did not play the game.
users in navigating the KMS and find the right informa-
tion at a reasonable time. From the Table II, it shows that
students who play the game were able to reflect and learn
on the importance of having a good taxonomy and also
can imagine the difficulty faced by users when they can
not find the information that they want. From the Table
II, it clearly shows that they were able to deduce that
labeling is an important aspect that they need to focus on
when designing taxonomy of a KMS. It is also important
to ‘correctly’ store the knowledge assets under the ‘cor-
rect’ section / label to avoid confusing.
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4 CONCLUSION
As a conclusion, combining conventional learning me-
thod with game-based learning can improve student’s
learning process. With the right content and context to
simulate the real scenario, game-based learning is able to
capture student’s attention and sustain student interest
on the subject. Therefore, it helps to increase knowledge
retention and helps to improve students learning process.

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