Increasing Reading Engagement for Danish Gymnasium Students: The Hosier and His Daughter as a Serious Game

This study outlines how a serious game was implemented using transmedia storytelling to engage students in a Danish gymnasium when reading the mandatory novella The Hosier and His Daughter, written by the Danish author St. St. Blicher in 1829. The study is based on 52 students from two gymnasium Danish classes. The study’s novelty and importance lie in its focus on using a participatory design approach to involve the teachers as co-designers at a very early stage. The transmedia setup was based on the following procedure: read seven pages of the story in the textbook, play seven pages as a game that includes reading and voice-overs and then read the rest of the story in the textbook. A formative evaluation was administered using a questionnaire after the first reading and after the gameplay. Furthermore, there were in-depth interviews with both teachers and students. The findings indicate that the serious game improved reading engagement, leading to much higher immersion levels, ease of reading and enjoyment of reading the story. The story in the game was well told, and the learning outcome was achieved through increased engagement.