Quandary
What Is It?
Quandary is another product created by Half-Baked Software, Inc. Quandary is a tool for creating web-based action (or decision) mazes. An action maze presents students with a scenario, along with several actions, or decisions. The student must choose one of the actions based on the scenario given. Each action leads to more information and additional action choices. Students play out the scenario to whatever conclusions their action choices lead them.
There are also ways to enhance the actions built into a Quandary maze. Exercises can be timed, and transactions can be added into the maze. Transactions perform math functions, such as adding, subtracting and multiplying. Transactions relate to assets, which are items that can be acquired and/or lost during a maze. For example, a life jacket can be added as an asset in a maze, so if a student falls into a river during the course of a maze, the life jacket can be used to survive and continue through the maze. Also money could be added as an asset, and transactions can be added to links to add to or subtract from the amount of money. Below is an example of what the Quandary maze setup screen looks like.
- See a sample maze: http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary/version_2/examples/
Where Do You Get Quandary?
http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary.php
Quandary can be downloaded directly from the Half-Baked Software Inc. website. You can use the free download to make small mazes. However, Quandary is shareware, so you will need to register in order to use the full features of the program. The shareware cost begins at $50 for a single-user registration key.
Best Practices
Quandary mazes can best be used for encouraging critical thinking. Although the mazes can be designed so that they primarily test factual information, the mazes are at their best when they present students with problems that may or may not have a “correct” answer. For example, students could be presented with a medical maze where a patient comes in with certain symptoms. The students must then diagnose and treat the symptoms/illness.
The key to a successful Quandary maze is planning. Although creating the maze is a fairly straightforward process, it does require some thorough planning up front. You should carefully plan out all of your decision points. Once the maze has been created, you should walk through each scenario to make sure that they are accurate and do not overlap inappropriately.
Tutorial
http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com/quandary/version_2/tutorial/tutorial.htm