The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game

24th Annual International Conference on College Teaching and LearningJacksonville, Florida10 April 2013

Lee SheldonAssociate Professor

Co-Director Games and Simulation Arts and SciencesRensselaer Polytechnic Institute

TRADITION

THE VIDEO GAME GENERATION

How can we get them to focus like that in class???

Maybe with video games? Duh.

BUT WE’VE HAD VIDEO GAMES IN THE CLASSROOM FOR DECADES

Be careful with that research: Even bad games can get good results in classrooms.

BECAUSE EVEN BAD GAMES ARE BETTER THAN THIS

GAMES ARE NOT SIMULATIONS, THEY REQUIRE ABSTRACTION

Too literal? Why make a game at all?

ONE IDEA

• Video Games– Solo– Immersion– Engagement– Experience points– Leveling– Learning by Failure– Phat lOOt

• Multiplayer games & virtual worlds– Competition– Collaboration– Boss raids– Zones– Pick-up groups– Guilds– Community

A SECOND IDEA

A THIRD IDEA

• Alternate Reality Games– Real-time– Real world

The Skeleton Chase 2: The Psychic

“Good morning, you all have an F.”

“However you can all level up.”

CREATING AVATARS

(INVESTMENT)

STUDENTS TEACHING STUDENTS

LEARNING BY FAILING

GRADING BY ATTRITION

INTRINSIC REWARDS

GUILD VS. GUILD MIDTERM PREP

“Ah! We have a question from a member of the audience!”

“I can see that it might work in video game classes, but it would never work in others.”

• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute• Indiana University• Wake Forest University• Jesuit High School• Marked Tree High School• University of Arizona• Louisiana State University• Valencia Community College• Robert Louis Stevenson Middle

School• Texas Tech University• Ohio Valley College of Technology• Waunakee Community High School

GAME BOARDS

The Lost Manuscript

FINAL MANDARIN EXAM: A POLICE INTERROGATION

“But how do students who have experienced multiplayer classrooms do when they move on to more traditional teaching methods in later classes?”

• Students learn the same material with more retention than in non-multiplayer classrooms

• Class performance is ultimately measured in the same way as non-multiplayer classes

• Benefits of the multiplayer classroom are carried over to traditional classes.

ONGOING BENEFITS In the Multiplayer Classroom:

“Good morning, you all have an F.”

• Actively engaged classes (even students who were not gamers)

• Average grade on last midterm: A (up from C)

• Higher average grade overall: B (up from C)

• Almost perfect attendance• Students come early to class• Positive results from middle

school to university level• Positive results from poverty-

level students, special education students and English learners

• Positive results continue after leaving a multiplayer classroom, even if education continues using traditional methods

OBSERVATIONS

LEARNING BY FAILINGGRADING BY ATTRITIONINTRINSIC REWARDSGAMEPLAYSUSTAINED NARRATIVE

Sustained Narrative

THESE FAR HILLS

1852 an Gorta Mor (The Great Famine)

A New Land

Well you can bet tonight it's raining in DublinIn the morning or the evening about the sameAnd a thousand miles awayI miss you more and more each dayBut the strangest thing is how I miss the rain... -Kevin McKrell

Dublin

Climate Change in Ireland

Michael Donovan

Donal KateMatthew Beth Kevin

Michael

Raven

The Family Donovan

A New Land

The Green Hills of Ireland

The Red Hills of Mars

Well you can bet tonight it's raining in DublinIn the morning or the evening about the sameAnd a thousand miles awayI miss you more and more each dayBut the strangest thing is how I miss the rain... -Kevin McKrell

From the Outside Looking In

THESE FAR HILLS

The Story of a FamilyBuilding a New Life in a New Land

Teaching Engineering to a New Generation

THESE FAR HILLS

BOLDLY GOING FARTHER

September 2012

EMERGENT REALITYLAB

The Lost Manuscript 2: The Summer Palace Cipher

MARCH 2013

LEARNING BY FAILINGGRADING BY ATTRITIONINTRINSIC REWARDSGAMEPLAYSUSTAINED NARRATIVE

There is no shame in starting small. We all did.

Thank you!

Available Everywherefrom

Cengage Learning

sheldc2@rpi.edu

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