Morse Mania: An Educational Critique

Morse Mania is a mobile app designed to teach Morse Code, only available on Android devices. The app functions in a similar fashion to flashcards, a sequence of dots and dashes (or shorts and longs) are played and the player must choose which character the sequence represents on their keyboard. The content increases gradually, each level teaching two characters while also refreshing the player on previous characters, until all characters are learned and then the player is tasked with the translation of full words. Learning all alphabetical characters is free, however, numbers and words are locked behind a one-time paywall.

Learning Objectives

Prior Knowledge

• Literacy
• Smart device operation

Morse Mania offers a low barrier for entry, only requiring that the player know how to read and use a smart device. If you know the English alphabet and can type on a smartphone or tablet, you’re fully equipped for the lessons this game has in store.

Anticipated Learning

• Morse Code audio recognition

Morse Mania really only has one goal in mind: teach the player to understand Morse Code. More specifically, it aims to teach the player to recognize the patterns that make up each letter in Morse Code and translate them quickly (the timeliness is important, we’ll get to that). While the actual dot-dash pattern for each character is visible on the main menu, in between levels, and through hints, the primary focus is on teaching the player to recognize the overall audio patterns rather than memorizing visual dot-dash sequences.

Transfer

• Anything Morse Code related
• Pattern recognition skills

Since the goal of this game applies to such a specific topic, the possible transfer of the learned content is limited. When it comes to anything morse code related, the player will be equipped to understand what’s being communicated. The game’s focus on pattern recognition could also lend itself to improving the player’s pattern recognition, which could be applicable in any variety of ways (other games, strategy, music, etc.).

Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics

Mechanics

Each level is either teaching new characters or a challenge level of everything the player has learned so far. Once a level begins, a sound sequence of dots and dashes is played. The sequence played will always be one representing a character the player has been taught, or if it’s a new sequence the answer will be displayed to the player. If the player guesses correctly, the circle around the character guessed will fill in partially. All available characters must have their circles filled in to pass the level. The portion of the circle filled in with a correct guess is determined by how quickly the player guesses but this amount can be lessened by several other factors. The circles will fill in less depending on how many times the player listened to the sequence, number of hints used, and any previous incorrect guesses for that sequence. After all that calculation, another sequence is played and the game loop starts over.

Dynamics

• Replays and hints

After the sequence is played for the first time the player can press a button to repeat the sequence any number of times, although this will decrease how much the correct guess counts for. The player also has a hint button available to them. Hints come in 3 stages: revealing the visual dot dash sequence that was played, revealing the dot dash sequence for all characters on the keyboard, and revealing the answer. Hints affect correct guess “score” in the same way replaying the sequence does.

• Race against the clock

Another factor that affects correct guess “score” is how quickly the player responds to the sequence. If you’re like me and try to use as few replays and hints as possible, there’s a rushing feeling as you think about the “score” slowly slipping away with each second you spend trying to translate the sequence.

• Total recall

Every few levels is a challenge level rather than teaching new characters. In the levels that teach characters, characters the player has previously learned start out partially filled in so the player doesn’t have to worry about remembering them as much and can focus on the new characters. But on challenge levels, all characters learned up to that point are reset to be empty. As the character total builds up, a lot of stress can come with getting to that challenge level and knowing you’ll have to remember everything that’s been taught so far. To top it off, challenge levels don’t allow hints and only allow 3 incorrect guesses before resetting entirely.

Aesthetics

• Collection

Structuring the content such that the player is only learning two characters at a time creates a feeling of collecting knowledge. With each level passed a little more knowledge of Morse Code is added to the collection. The player may not even realize how big their collection has gotten until they reach each challenge stage and see how many characters they’ve been taught and can recognize.

Learning Principles

Feedback

• Correct and incorrect guesses indicated
• Response time, and assistive mechanics affecting progression

Morse Mania’s feedback is pretty straightforward. As you’d expect from any quiz-like game, correct and incorrect answers are indicated immediately after guesses are made. The game physically and audibly responds more to incorrect answers, but the player is always notified in some capacity whether or not they made the right choice. The player also receives feedback by taking notice of how much the circle fills in when guessing a character. The longer it takes for them to guess a character, the less the circle fills, meaning they haven’t mastered it yet and will receive more tests on that character.

Scaffolding

• Introducing two characters at a time

Learning Morse Code is akin to learning a language and as so the possibility for information overload is always present. Restricting each level or “lesson” to two characters at a time breaks the content up into much more digestible chunks and allows the player to learn at a reasonable pace.

Quizzing

• Recall previous characters while learning new ones
• Challenge levels

Each new character level also requires the player to recall the characters they’ve previously learned. The previously learned characters will start with their circles partially filled so that the new characters can be focused on but still forcing the player to remember what they’ve learned so far. These levels also allow for hints and using hints on mostly full circles of old characters isn’t as bad as using them on new characters. Challenge levels function as cumulative quizzes. They reset the progress of every character learned before and force the player to recall them all multiple times with minimal mistakes and no hints. These challenge levels must be passed before moving on to the next character levels to ensure that the player has mastered all the material up to that point.

Morse Mania is a great way to kill some free time and learn a new skill. Additionally, it’s a well executed example of the EDGE Framework. It’s learning objectives, MDA, and learning principles are clear, concise, and work very well together. The game is a mobile app, meant to be played in short quick sessions and it’s method of progression and quizzing reinforce this notion, especially the time penalty and challenge levels. If the player doesn’t know the sequence well enough to guess it quickly, it will take them too long to complete the level and they’ll have to come back and try again. Challenge levels test cumulatively, and consistently playing will improve the persistence of the cumulative knowledge needed to pass them. Each time the player comes back to the game, their knowledge is tested and/or they’re given the chance to learn the next piece of material and this makes for a somewhat tough but consistently rewarding learning experience. Morse Mania: 5/5.