Next month I’m starting one of my favorite classes, and I wanted to share the draft syllabus with you all. It’s the gaming and higher education seminar for Georgetown University’s Learning, Design, and Technology program and I’m very excited about it.
The focus is, as you might expect, on the productive intersection of gaming with colleges and universities. The semester explores this connection through a range of gaming types, including tabletop, role playing, and digital games. I encourage each student to bring their individual and professional interests to the class, applying them to shape research and a final project.
Structurally, the seminar is a mix of discussion, mini-lectures, and hands-on work during sessions, plus scholarly readings, Canvas writing, and project work in between classes. Every week students play at least one game, read and discuss scholarly writing, and try their hand at making some gaming for education content.
An exhibit at the Strong National Museum of Play
Students play a major role in cocreating the seminar, as with most of my classes. Discussion is key, of course, since its a seminar. Their experience of playing games is important material for learning. They get to determine one week’s topic. And I’ll shape presentations and lead discussions with an eye towards their individual interests.
I have some questions about refining this class design over the next month:
- Is the amount of reading too much? I usually err on the side of too much reading.
- Which tabletop game or games should we use? I’ve tried Terraforming Mars in the past, but it seemed a bit much for the class, either the science fiction theme or the complexity. I’d like something which shows some tabletop mechanics and also fits the educational theme. Perhaps CO2?
- Which version of Twine is best for taking the branching narrative game further than Storyboard: Chapbook, Harlowe, Snowman, or SugarCube?
- I’m thinking of having each student present a game to the class, reflecting on its educational potential. Would this overload them?
SYLLABUS
Winter break reading: James Paul Gee, “Learning about learning from a video game: Rise of nations”. (Feel free to find a free demo of the game online or buy the full game on Steam.)
January 16, 2024 – Introductions and into the magic circle
- The idea and practice of the class
- Our individual experiences with gaming
- History of gaming
- Game: The Thing From the Future
- Technology: download and install Steam
- writing in Canvas:
- student self-description character sheets
- what is your game persona’s D&D alignment? (This quiz might help.)
- starting to explore our shared keywords document (Google Doc)
January 23, 2024 – Tabletop gaming
- Canvas discussion writing
- Readings: on the history on Monopoly; on the sociology of tabletop gaming; on the affordances of gameplay
- A look at simulation wargames
- Games: The Quiet Year; Terraforming Mars (here’s a quick tutorial on how to play)
January 30, 2024 – Role Playing Games
- Canvas discussion writing
- Introductory presentation
- Readings: Fuist, “The Agentic Imagination – Tabletop Role-playing Games as a Cultural Tool”; Garcia, “Privilege, Power, and D&D”
- Games: so1um or Year Zero (copy this character sheet)
- Design exercise: RPG for a higher education class
February 6, 2024 – Computer Gaming, I
- Canvas discussion writing
- Introductory presentation
- Technology: Storyboard
- Games:
- intro: Keep Teaching
- CivHero
- Quake
- Bali B&B
- Readings: Patrick Jagoda, “Videogame Criticism and Games in the Twenty-First Century”, “Worlds at Play Space and Player Experience in Fantasy Computer Games”
- Key theme: branching
February 13, 2024 – Computer Gaming, II
- Canvas discussion writing
- Technology: Twine (download to your machine)
- Games:
- Escape room: Lunium
- interactive fiction: Depression Quest; My Father’s Long, Long Legs; Howling Dogs
- taking interactive fiction further: Seedship
- Readings: de Zamaroczy, “Are We What We Play? Global Politics in Historical Strategy Computer Games”
(analysis of one game due February 20; no class )
February 27, 2024 – Education and Gaming, I
- Canvas discussion writing
- Reading: James Paul Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. (1-69; Appendix)
- Games: Spent; pick one from Molle Industries; A Game of College; Quantum Game; Go Viral!
- Introduction to context for one of next week’s games
(Spring break March 5, 2024)
March 12, 2024- Education and Gaming, II
- Canvas discussion writing
- Reading: James Paul Gee, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (71-219).
- Games:
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- Computer games, science and humanities: Bondbreaker; Waterworks!
- Role playing games: Reacting to the Past
March 19, 2024 – Gamification
- Canvas discussion writing
- Infographic
- Video: McGonigal, “Making a Better World”
- Readings: Ana Manzano-León et al, “Between Level Up and Game Over: A Systematic Literature Review of Gamification in Education”; Michael Sailer & Lisa Homner, “The Gamification of Learning: a Meta-analysis Meta-Analysis”
- Design exercises
- We gamify a class
- Each student gamifies a class in their area of interest
- Optional resource: Karl Kapp’s gamification LinkedIn videos
March 26, 2024 – Design for gaming and education, I
- Canvas discussion writing
- Reading: on empathy and game design; Dyson Tabletop RPGs on creativity.pdf
- Videos: making one Mario level;designing Space Invaders
- Game: A Dark Room
- Designing climate simulation games: compare En-Roads, Smogtown. and The Climate Game.
- Technology: Game Maker 2 (download and install)
March 29 – Plan for final project due
April 2, 2024 – Design for gaming and education, II
- Canvas discussion writing
- Reading: one university ARG; Resonant Games chapters 5 , 6, and 8 (if you want more theory, check out 2; for more game examples, look into 3 or 4)
- Videos: making one Mario level;designing Space Invaders
- Game: Levee en Masse.
- Technology: Game Maker 2
- Students collectively determine next week’s topics and work
- Optional: a Renaissance LARP
April 9, 2024 – Storytelling and games
- Canvas discussion writing
- Storytelling introduction (on Slideshare)
- Readings: Gordon Civic Creativity and Role-Playing Games in Deliberative Process; Alexander, “Gaming: Storytelling on a Small Scale” and “Gaming: Storytelling on a Large Scale”, from The New Digital Storytelling, pp 97-127
- Games: The Thing From the Future ; September 7th, 2020
- Quick survey: which generative AI tools have you used, and how?
April 16, 2024 – AI, gaming, and education
- Canvas discussion writing
- Readings:
- “Video Game Created Entirely With ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, and Midjourney”; Javi Lopez X thread; Angry Pumpkins
- Breen, “Simulating Ancient Ur with ChatGPT”
- Exercises:
- How to best use generative AI
- Use AI to create tabletop, RPG, and computer games
April 23, 2024 – students determine topic
- Canvas discussion writing
- Readings: TBA
- Games: TBA
April 30, 2024 – final project presentations
- Invite us to play and garner feedback
This is a topic very near and dear to me. I have been working on ideas around educational games and gamification. You should at least introduce your students to Yukai Chou’s work (he wrote the book Actionable Gamification) and has many videos. Best start at his TED talk – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5Qjuegtiyc
I found him more technical and detailed than McGonigal.
An early effort at an educational game is here – https://www.cali.org/timetrial/
Free to play.
The goal was to teach law students about important cases, laws and people by having them put them in historical order. It was not very popular, but I believe we can re-work the mechanics to make it something awesome. I am thinking we can create a tournament version where students play against each other or against faculty or create a “bracketology” tournament where schools play against each other.
Finally, don’t dismiss was are called “casual games”. Often people don’t have time to invest hours into a game, but they do have minutes-at-a-time and can play a little bit here and a little bit there. Think Candy Crush or AngryBirds, but with some educational element.
I will be looking at your readings to learn more. Happy to chat sometime.
Greetings, John, and thank you for this enormously kind post.
CALI Time Trial looks splendid. How much legal intro will students need to play it?
Yukai Chou’s Actionable Gamification looks terrific – but 500+ pages might be overwhelming. Do you know of any shorter works, or if I could assign chunks of AG?
Agreed on casual games. Some of the ones I shared are examples of those, like CivHero.
Delighted to connect with you.