Learning with games

Description

Video games have become an increasingly important source of culture and entertainment in our society. They are more popular than Hollywood movies, yet receive a fraction of the attention, especially in academia. In recent years, this has been changing, as scholars have begun to interrogate games from many levels: design, critique, and as a means of learning. In this course, we really have 3 separate, but overlapping goals: 1) to understand video games as a social and cultural phenomenon, especially important to youth culture; 2) to think of ways to teach about video games, as part of a (digital) literacy perspective; and 3) to investigate ways to teach with games, both off the shelf and ones that we design ourselves.

Goals

The course has two main goals. Firstly, it introduces students to a range of game genres that have been popular in education. Secondly, it covers a range of learning principles, research topics, controversies, and potential applications for video games and simulations in education, and gives students the foundations for applying both analog and digital games in educational contexts.

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Understand major topics in educational games and simulations
• Situate video games and learning in its historical manifestations - military exercises, simulations, game theory, board games and digital (video) games
• Understand the difference between exogenous and endogenous games, and design a simple endogenous game that can be used to teach a specific topic
• Understand the key differences between popular game genres
• Analyze and reflect on the potential of existing games and their potential in educational contexts

Materials

Books

There are no required books to purchase for this class. All readings and videos are available through the course website. Weekly readings will be posted on the course website.

Games

We will be playing several games during the semester, including some commercial video games that will have to be purchased. Total cost for games will be less than $100.

Class sessions

Online participation (30 points)

Your participation in the weekly online activities make the difference between having a fun class where we learn together, and a dry self-paced experience that will vary greatly for everyone. To earn full credit for participation:

• Complete all weekly assignments on time
• Don’t just do the minimum requirements
• Be engaged on Discord
• Find time to play some games with your classmates (we will organize them through Discord)
• Be respectful
• Don’t let your partner down (if you have one) for the final project
• Have fun!

Game study posts (30 points)

One of our goals for this course is to turn a critical eye towards games so that we can gain a better understanding of how they work, when they work, and what their possibilities are. This skill helps us to design our own game/play activities, to understand how to incorporate game for teaching, and to appreciate the role that games play in our society.

For this assignment, write 3 posts in the “Game Studies” forum on our class website. Before you post, play a game for at least an hour. Write a 500 word post on the forum (as a new topic, with its own title). The post should not be a book report! Do not recap the entire game. Do not summarize the rules. Do have a specific, interesting point that you want to make. You might describe a game play experience in detail and then discuss it. You might look at a specific mechanic. You may consider how the game can work for teaching and learning. Mostly, you want to try hard to make your post something that we all want to read and that offers new knowledge to the class. Some examples might be: “One night ultimate werewolf: why lying is so much fun,” “Animal Crossing and online friends,” or “Valorant defusing strategies when you’re the last player.”

Your post should offer a brief description of the game (with links as needed) before you move to your thesis. You should draw on the techniques and theories in our readings to bolster your argument. Discuss how the game “works” (mechanics, rules, components, user experience, art); where it fits in the field (is it groundbreaking? does it draw on and improve other games? is it a rip off of a better game?); and any critical analysis of the game (who is the expected “audience” of the game? does the game trade in stereotypes?). As needed, use photos, screenshots, videos, etc to illustrate your points.

Forum rules:

1. Post 3 times, once between weeks 1-4, once 5-8, and the final one between 9-12.
2. Any type of game can work. Consider mixing up the types/genres for your posts.
3. Read every post. Comment liberally. Don’t just say, “I really like what you wrote.”

Grading:7

• excellent (8-10 points): post is unique and interesting, it’s well written and edited, arguments show reflection and integration of the course discussions and readings, discussion is supported logically and by close examples from the game.
• good (5-8 points): meets all of the criteria as above, but may have minor flaws in editing or supporting arguments.
• satisfactory (3-5 points): either the writing and examples are not clear enough to fully support the argument, or the arguments don’t reflect the course readings or exhibit other clear flaws
• poor (0-2 points): the post fails to meet the basic criteria for the assignment

Game pitch (10 points)

Everyone will “pitch” a game. You will create and upload a 5 minute video where you pitch a game that you would like to design. This game can be analog (e.g., board game, card game, physical game, etc.) or digital games.

The idea of the pitch is to make your game sound exciting, valuable, “new”, and fun. You should convince us why it’s a great game, and why it would be worth making.

Scoring the pitch:

• 4 points: learning value (clear goals, effective pedagogy, hard-to-teach concepts or hard-to-reach audience)
• 4 points: game design (fun, original, creative, good mechanics, story, art, concept)
• 2 points: presentation (clear, engaging, well-prepared, good use of time)
• extra credit: up to 2 points for a great comments on every other pitch

Game design (30 points)

The third major grade will come from a game that you will design, either on your own or with a partner. The max team size is 2. You will design one of the games for learning that you or your partner pitched. We are not going to manufacture a game or wite the code for a digital game. We will be doing low-fidelity (paper) prototyping and testing.

It must have an educational component to it and it should encompass some of the aspects of game design that we have discussed. For the purposes of this assignment, I am more interested in the process you go through in designing this game than the final product. This process will include two play-testing sessions where you will have to organize an online/distributed play-test with the other students in the class. Your final product will also be evaluated on 1) how educational it is; 2) how clear the rules and guidelines are; 3) how well it incorporates good design principles and 4) how well you present it. We will be using various techniques for rapid prototyping and testing, whether creating a digital or analog game. By the end of the term, you must have a playable prototype that has gone through several iterations.

To submit this assignment, you will turn in the following:

1. A game design document (GDD) that outlines the game’s purpose, rules, mechanics, components, and art.
2. A play testing report that outlines the feedback you received and how you incorporated it into your game.
3. A discussion of the educational purpose of your game: what learning objects it addresses, why it’s an effective pedagogy, and why game-based learning is a good match for your goals
4. A reflection on the process of designing and play testing your game.

Your game design will be scored:

• 10 points: educational purpose and foundation
• 5 points: play testing
• 10 points: game design (rules, mechanics, components, art, etc)
• 5 points: reflection