Along with the development of technology, a lot of inaccurate information is scattered around the social media. Therefore, each level of the society should develop the skill of ‘information literacy’ to obtain accurate and qualified information. However, information literacy is a skill that has to be honed in order to understand complex information.

For millennials, the easier access to information is not followed along with a better ability to understand and use information. In order to answer this problem, we need a creative strategy to teach millennials about the importance of information literacy. This has to be done with a variety of strategies.

In order to address this issue, The Johannes Oentoro Library of UPH becomes the first university to design a board game with an information literacy concept named as ‘Wide Wit War’. This game is designed to adjust to the trend and needs of the millennials, to increase their interest to understand and practice information literacy. Every aspect of this game, starting from the stages of the war, how to play, and the visual of the game and even the pawns for the game, everything is a result of the creativity of The Johannes Oentoro Library UPH team.

An approach that uses this board game is based on the trend that is currently popular among young people. The evolution of board game is marked with the rising popularity of cafés that provides board games for their consumer to play with while hanging out with friends. UPH sees this as an opportunity to use board games as a way to introduce information literacy to the public, especially the millennials.

“The concept of the game is not really different compared to a regular board game, it’s more like Monopoly. This board game combines a war-like theme where players would have to collect resources. In order to buy more resources (wealth), players have to answer questions about information literacy. The system is whoever answer the questions correctly, they will receive a point. Players with most points or who last the longest can win,” said Dhama Gustiar Baskoro, Manager of The Johannes Oentoro Library UPH.

The ‘Wide Wit War’ was first introduced to the public during a regional competition around Jabodetabek with 11 participating teams. Each team consisted of three persons and the competition was held in the Living World Mall, Tangerang on February 29, 2020. This competition was a part of the Literacy Information Movement which was held together with Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN) and Swiss German University (SGU).

Information literacy itself is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.

The board game competition was followed by High School and University students who are divided into several groups with three students in each group. This game has 8 turns and the scoring will be done by representatives from UPH and UMN.

Aside from playing board games, participants would also play physical games. They would have to use the coordination between their mind and body to create a strategy that has to involve bodily movements in order to win the game.

“In addition to a mission in understanding information literacy, to win this competition, participants are challenged to be active as they will have to play physical games like moving plastic cups with rubber bands. This competition is the complete package filled with physical activities and mental activities that require participants to practice information literacy,” said one of the score counter.

Hopefully, this board game will be available in every library so it can be enjoyed by everyone and maybe, even on a national scale. This will be a great thing to increase millennials’ interest in information literacy. (mt)