I worked on project at Amplify Education about Edgar Allan Poe Quest as user experience director / designer.

1. ELA QUEST Studio at

2. Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? ELA QUEST Studio
Amplify’s ELA Quests leverage the power of digital technology to provide teachers
with a resource that they wouldn’t have the time, specialized knowledge, or technical
know-how to create on their own.
We brought together designers, developers, educators and playwrights to help students
tackle challenging texts by creating a prepackaged, collaborative learning experience
that sharpens critical English Language Arts skills for middle schoolers.
There are a lot of challenges in education. Today’s teachers have a precious little class
Introduction to ELA QUESTs

3. Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? ELA QUEST Studio
time to teach important skills, and use their off-the-clock hours everyday to prepare
lessons. To boot, they’re trying to teach a diverse room of students who all learn
differently: some by seeing, some by doing, etc. Most teachers, if not all, simply don’t
have the capacity to create an immersive, highly-curated multimedia lesson that appeals
to digital natives.

4. Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? ELA QUEST Studio
Imagine walking into class and being asked to solve a murder mystery—a murder that
you may have committed. But in order to solve it, you need to close-read texts for clues,
analyze evidence like a detective, and write persuasively to make your case.
As students begin the Quest, they learn that Edgar Allan Poe has been murdered –
Introducing
Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe?
Watch Intro Movie
http://goo.gl/BhizjK

5. Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? ELA QUEST Studio
a scenario based on the famous poet’s mysterious death. Students choose among
peculiar, haunted characters from Edgar Allan Poe’s world, and play that role as they
work to find out who the killer is.
Each of them must interrogate the other characters in order to find and interpret clues;
if they want to catch the killer, they must collect evidence via a custom animation and
close-read a host of literature, from Poe’s stories (Such as The Raven) to primary source
documents (his actual obituary). At the close of the Quest they make their accusation
and defend it with evidence, practicing their analytical skills and descriptive writing.

6. Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? ELA QUEST Studio
We’ve tested this in classrooms across the country and have seen how students take
ownership over their own learning. The Quest empows them to read difficult texts and
helping them to teach each other what they’ve learned.
It takes teachers a lot of effort to create and coordinate elaborately crafted learning
experiences. At Amplify, we made this kind of engaging learning experience accessible
and scalable.
Combining design, technology, pedagogy and storytelling, we are empowering teachers
to create an amazing learning experience in their classroom.

7. Evidence
Photograph of a dead body
Students take on the
role of one of Poe’s
characters and work
in groups to solve the
crime by reading like
detectives and writing
like investigative
journalists.
They are asked to read
from character cards,
which contain both
information that is
public, and information
that they must keep
to themselves until
another sleuth comes
along and asks about it.
Choosing your
own character

8. Choosing your
own character
Choosing your
own character

9. Evidence
Photograph of a dead body
Character Cards
Students read through
primary source
documents, Poe’s
poems and short
stories, and evidence
materials over the
course of several
class periods until
they reach the final
chapter and have
enough information to
synthesize a cohesive
accusation using
evidence they’ve
gathered in their
detective notebooks.
Each class period is
structured so that the
students have time to
go over their character
cards, read through
the documents they’ve
been introduced to, and
interrogate each other,
all while taking notes
on all the evidence
they’ve gathered.

10. Evidence
New Paper Scrap, Letter
Map of Poe’s House
Students use this map
to understand spacial
relationship

11. Evidence
Official Police Report
Chapter 1 Character
Information Card
Students use this card to
answer questions during
interrogation.

12. Detective Notebook
Students take notes to
gather information, analyze
and write conclusions.
Timeline
Students track movements
of suspects
Students gather so
much information
throughout the Quest
that it is impossible
for them to figure out
the mystery unless
they write down as
much information
as they can.
See students in
action during an
interrogation round
http://goo.gl/VWclXo

13. Note for each character
Students take notes for
information they gather
from interrogation.
The Accusation
Students write their
final conclusions.
At the end of the Quest,
students present their
findings to the class,
as an attorney, and
accuse the character
they believe committed
the crime.
They’re introduced
to concepts like
conjecture, red herring,
and with the guidance
of the teacher, students
learn to cite evidence in
order to backup
their claim.

14. Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? ELA QUEST Studio
This completely radical approach to learning entices students unlike anything we’ve
seen before. This allows them to retain the material at unprecedented levels. For the
teacher, it creates an incredible scenario where the students are actively coming to
them for information, rather than feeding information to the students.
The teacher guide is thorough enough that any teacher running a Quest for the first
time can quickly pick it up and make it their own experience. We aim to mentally remove
students from classrooms and take them on new experiences with all of our Quests.
In order to be successful in this venture,
students need to read thoroughly and
comprehend complex text. We add to that
an interactive and beautifully designed
experience that is otherwise unseen
in the classroom.

15. Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? ELA QUEST Studio
Innovation Summaries
functionality
• User Interface is intuitive and easy to use.
• Implementation is easy for teachers with
our teacher guide app.
originality
• This completely radical approach to teaching reading
comprehension and writing submerges students in
these worlds so they feel personally vested in learning
rather than feeling like it’s a chore.
beauty
• Simple and intituitve User Interface
• Dynamic illustrations and spectacular
sound design
• Beautiful Animation
sustainability
• Digital format creates less waste while the storyline
sustains itself in students’ minds forever.
depth of user insight
• We understand what teachers face today and
how difficult it is to create an elaborately crafted
learning experience.
cultural impact
• For the teacher, it creates an incredible scenario
where the students are actively coming to them
for information, rather than the traditional model
of feeding information to the students.
business impact
• Scalable and accessible for ELA teachers
with the power of digital technology.
• This product is the first of its kind. The experience
built into it would take teachers months to create
on their own. The experience now comes in simple
student-facing app and teacher guide app.

16. Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? ELA QUEST Studio
Credits
Writing
Anna Ziegler
Carrie Huges
Chris Compton
Niccolo Aeed Moretti
Patrick Sheridan
Editing
Barbara Crook
Art / Design
Design Strategy
Alex Dreyshner (Sound)
Chris Kalb
Chris Leathers (3D)
Daniel Barrett
Ian Cinco (Film / Photography)
Jean-Pierre Dillard
Kathleen Tobin
Martin Collet (3D)
Rosina Bosco
Sooji Han
Takao Umehara
Tech Development
Clayton Rabenda
Daniel Russo
Eli Burmin
Elisabeth Goebel
Han-Ting (Tim) Lin
Jeff Decker
Mike Lynch
Neil Sambol
Nicole Bieber
Raquel Bujans
Te Yi Liu
Quality Assurance
Mayank Sheth
Sajjad Hossain
Technical Writing
Robert Hill
User Research
Claudia Aguilar
Kendra Brewster
Lauren Gabriele
Lauren Chesler
Wendy Pepper
Production
Management
Cesar Parra
Robin Yeung
Sarah Smirnoff

17. Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe? ELA QUEST Studio
Thank you