Cool Course: Games and Play in Education

Playful pedagogy teaches grad students how to engineer learning experiences one dice roll at a time.

Students sit at a desk with cards and a laptop. — Photo by David Song.

“Now, I used to be a Dungeon Master, so you’ll see that part come out of me a bit,” Maurice Boothe Jr.—NYU Steinhardt Administration, Leadership, and Technology (ALT) doctoral scholar, research assistant and adjunct instructor—warned his graduate students at the start of a recent class session.

Drawing winkingly on his Dungeons & Dragons experience, Boothe Jr. then facilitated a different kind of role-playing for a game called Extreme Event. Over the course of an hour, students took on occupations (business owner, local government representative) and situated themselves in neighborhoods of the fictional town of Riverdale, which faced escalating crises following a flood. Teams were asked to make difficult decisions (use a generator for the hospital or a nursing home?) while balancing the needs of particular sectors with the good of the entire town.

Maurice Boothe Jr. stands at the front of the class teaching. — Maurice Boothe Jr. Photo by David Song.

This activity was an example of what Boothe Jr. calls a “gameful joust,” or an in-person activity designed to reinforce class lessons in the Games and Play in Education course he teaches. Throughout the semester, students learn how to analyze the gameplay mechanics of both commercial and educational games, and practice designing games that have educational value.

In designing the course, Associate Professor of Learning Analytics and ALT Doctoral Program Coordinator Xavier Ochoa employed what he calls “playful pedagogy,” writing the syllabus in the style of a fantasy game. A list of supplementary readings is labeled as “Unearthed Arcana,” while the section on playing and analyzing commercial games is called “Slaying Monsters.” Even the grading for the course is gamified: students receive points based on their performance on various activities throughout the semester, and must amass 235,000 in total to achieve an A.

“I said, ‘Let’s have some fun, let’s do something different,’” Ochoa recalls. “I always wanted to do a course like this.” Boothe Jr., who is teaching the current semester, was one of Ochoa’s first students, and brings a shared love of games to his classroom.

Cards in stacks for the disaster game. — Photo by David Song.

Separate from the points earned as part of their grades, Boothe Jr. maintains another point system for the daily “gameful jousts.” As students garner points, they climb or descend on the leaderboard, with the top three receiving prizes at the end of the semester. For their final projects, they can work individually (a “Quixotic Quest”) or in a group (a “Fellowship Adventure”) to propose a design for a game with well-defined learning objectives.

“I’ve had students doing three times the amount of work just because they feel motivated. And that's the idea of games, games drive that into you,” says Ochoa.

Extreme Event, for example, was a part of the students’ exploration of different play-informed media, which includes serious games, simulations, and normal games used for learning. It was used to show students how this kind of immersive activity has the potential to teach skills like communication and quick decision-making in an educational context, Boothe Jr. says. The students played the game after a brief lecture on different types of educational activities.

Students stand around a classroom. — Photo by David Song.

“It really walks the walk as a class about games that encourages us to play a game every class period and discuss afterwards,” says Kelly, a Steinhardt graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in Games for Learning. “Professor Boothe’s enthusiasm for this topic is infectious, and the unique grading system implemented keeps me reviewing and reflecting on my progress more closely than a traditional grading system,” she says. “I initially thought I wouldn't like having to choose my own assignments, but it’s actually made me more invested in my success in this class.”

That lesson about motivation is the one Ochoa and Boothe Jr. most hope will stick with these future educators and designers, even as they’re also learning about the mechanics of different styles of games.

“Learning is about getting experience and gaining levels. It’s about getting better and it’s very satisfying,” Ochoa says. “Sometimes we start seeing learning as something we despise, but it doesn’t have to be like that. It could be something enjoyable.”

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