Professor<\/strong>: Dr. Samuel McCready Famously, Friedrich Schiller (1794) claimed that persons were \u2018most human\u2019 when they were at play. More recently, digital media and learning theorists have suggested that learners may learn best when they are \u2018at play,\u2019 where serious play and educative\/learning action coincide. This course examines play as it is currently developed and popularly imagined in digital games in order to more closely examine what is \u201clearned\u201d and at play in those immersive environments.<\/p>\n Although computer gaming represents, for some people, something unfamiliar, potentially subversive, and antithetical to education\u2019s intellectual and social goals, play has always been a powerful vehicle for learning. There is little doubt that young people today, who represent computer gaming\u2019s largest and fastest-growing audience, are learning a great deal in and through digital play, but what is it they are learning and how? The purpose of this course is to give serious attention to and careful analysis of the contemporary digital forms of gameplay.<\/p>\n This course is intended to give an overview of theories of play, including their application in\/to digital environments, review the cultural and social aspects of digital game play and the use of digital games for learning and in schooling more generally, and, finally, to consider game design strategies and approaches that best suit educational aims and purposes. The primary goal of the course is to consider the scholarship on games, game culture, play, and digital game-based learning within the context of 21st century educational discourses and policies, including the requirement in many educational jurisdictions to provide a code-based curriculum for K-12 learners. This course will cover, in broad strokes, theories of play, game culture, representation in games, digital game-based learning, and thinking through game design. The course is intended to give a balanced overview of the key\/pivotal ideas and theories and research in the area. Further, the course is intended to challenge you to think like a game designer who is designing game-based learning environments while being attentive to the representational issues present in gameplay culture more broadly.<\/p>\n This course and its related assignments, discussion, and activities are directed toward the following goals:<\/p>\n This course is meant to provide an opportunity to examine the current and past literature on play, games and representation, game design approaches, and digital game-based learning. It is organized into a discrete set of activities, each of which has its own associated readings and assignments. Your challenge is to create your own way through the activities, with some crucial individual and whole group check-in points along the way. Note: you can begin this course from any of the activities; they are meant to be complementary, and assignments are designed for discrete consideration of readings\/issues\/problematics.<\/p>\n You will choose to complete six Individual Intellectual Productions (collectively worth 30% of your final grade), each related to one of the following selection of eight topics:<\/p>\n Activity 1: Theories of Play Assignments for this course are divided into the following 4 categories:<\/p>\n Individual Intellectual Productions (30%) 1. Individual Intellectual Productions *includes required readings<\/strong> 2. Videogame Review<\/strong> 3. Synchronous Events: Required group synchronous attendance (15%):<\/strong> 4. Collaborative Final Project<\/strong> ETEC 544 – IP #1: Digital Games and Learning Perspectives<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nSemester<\/strong>: January 2026
\nCourse information<\/strong>: https:\/\/met.ubc.ca\/courses\/etec-544\/<\/a>
\nCourse Website<\/strong>: https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec544met\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDescription<\/h1>\n
Learning Objectives<\/h1>\n
\n
Activities<\/h1>\n
\nActivity 2: Learning Through Game Design
\nActivity 3: Foundations of Digital Games & Learning
\nActivity 4: Learning & Digital Games, Meta Empirical Reviews
\nActivity 5: Learning Through Games: Classroom-based Studies
\nActivity 6: Intersectional Perspectives on the Culture of Digital Gameplay
\nActivity 7: De-Colonizing Videogames
\nActivity 8: Game Design Redux: Approaches & Challenges to Designing Differently<\/p>\nAssignments & Assessment<\/h1>\n
\nVideogame Review (15%)
\nSynchronous Events \u2013 Required Attendance (15%)
\nCollaborative Final Project (35%) and Project Proposal (5%).<\/p>\n
\nUnless clearly indicated, your job is to choose 6 out of the 8 activities to complete for your intellectual productions. Those are required to be posted to your own website that you create and share with the course instructor\/whole class.<\/p>\n
\nWith direct reference to the principals of games outlined in Ian Bogost\u2019s text, your job is to review a videogame of YOUR choice. The review should make sure it draws on and analyses the game with a view to also figuring out what, if anything, could be recognized as \u201clearning\u201d while playing.<\/p>\n
\nWhole Group: Syllabus Tour (First week of official class start date) \u2013 2.5%
\nWhole Group: Discussion of Text \u2013 Bogost, I. (2011). How to do things with video games. University of Minnesota Press \u2013 5%
\nSmaller (assigned groups): Check-In Re: Videogame Design Choice \u2013 2.5%
\nWhole Group: Presentation and Demonstration of Final Project \u2013 5%<\/p>\n
\nIn a small (no more than 4) group or, if you choose, individually, the final project is to design an analog or digital game that has a learning mechanic at its very core. Part 1 of the assignment is to come up with a videogame\/analog game design document (5%) based on one of the design templates explored in this course. Part 2 is to collaboratively design a game using any of the free tools available: Twine, RPG Maker, GameMaker, Unity, or Construct 3 or similar, but NO scratch projects will be considered. If you choose the analog game route, you have to design all playable elements, and there must be an accompanying rule sheet + video that demonstrates gameplay.<\/p>\n
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