Starting my gaming in higher education seminar

Next week I’m launching my gaming in higher education seminar for Georgetown University’s Learning, Design, and Technology program. I am very excited, as ever, because it’s a great topic and one I’m eager to see my students engage. I have many plans and ideas, which are about 99% set. Here I’ll share those plans and ideas, partly for feedback, as well as to document some of my teaching practice in the open.

This is a class I’ve taught before. The idea is to introduce students to the many ways higher education can use gaming, so that they can make informed decisions about the subject in their subsequent professional lives. For example, they might go on to be part of educational design teams in academia or elsewhere.

So, the way the class works is a mix of activities. They play example games and compare notes, both in person and through writing. They discuss scholarly readings. I briefly present on each type of game. Gradually they build up a final project, either an educational game or a detailed plan for a gamified class.

A student and I trying out an early version of a tabletop game.

We begin by introducing tabletop, role playing, and computer games in order to give students a sense of the full field. (I point to sports, but don’t address them much unless students do.) Next we dive into college and university uses, emphasizing teaching. We try out educational computer…