Starting up our gaming and education seminar

This week I’m teaching my gaming and education seminar for Georgetown University’s Learning, Design, and Technology program. I’d like to share my plans for it here.

The goal of the class is to dive into how we can use gaming in education, with an emphasis on higher ed. Every class meeting focuses on one particular form of gaming (computer, tabletop, role-playing) or an aspect of gaming. We read scholarship on the topic, play one or more sample games, write notes in the class learning management system, and do some hands-on game design work. I offer a mercifully brief introductory presentation for each one.

Students get to shape some of the class. They develop their own final projects, which are educational games. They collectively determine two class topics, along with how we explore them. And we work together to decide how class sessions should be conducted, online and off-.

This is a very intense and fast class. It’s only six weeks long, including one national holiday, yet it’s a full semester of work.

Steve Jackson Games produced a massive board for Ogre, and Hunter appreciates it.

I’ve taught the class once before, in 2020. This time I’ve made some changes based on my reflections and student feedback. Other changes occur because the first version took place during the pandemic, so was entirely online. So far, this summer’s class will be in person, albeit with all of…