Postgraduate Course: Introduction to digital game-based learning (EDUA11153)
Course Outline
| School | Moray House School of Education and Sport |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will introduce participants to the application of digital games, narrative and role play in educational settings. As this is a developing field, with more potential than current manifestation, an inclusive definition of game-based learning will be used. The course will consider actual and potential application of existing commercial games in educational settings, games that have been specifically created with educational objectives in mind, and a wider array of practices in experiential learning that can broadly be described as game-informed. In parallel with this practical emphasis the course will provide a theoretical context for the relationships between games, play and learning.
Students from outwith the Digital Education programme wishing to enrol for this course or take it on a 'class only' basis must liaise directly with the course secretary before enrolling. |
| Course description |
The course is based on several threads of activity that run in parallel across the period of the semester.
The reading load, though challenging, is light relative to other courses on the programme, as there is an intention that participants should spend a significant amount of time in game play. Academic study is based around a number of themes relating to games, play and learning, and participants are asked to focus particular attention on only three of these themes, and thus to become expert consultants for their peers.
Interaction and discussion on the course is synchronised by a series of activities ¿ collaborative and competitive ¿ that unfold week by week. Participants will work ¿ either independently, or in teams ¿ to design playfully activities for other course participants to engage with.
Game play can be both individual and collective. The collective play will make use of World of Warcraft and Minecraft.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | Students will be required to have regular access to a networked computer, and will be responsible for providing their own computing equipment and consumables. Broadband is recommended. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2019/20, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
| Course Start Date |
16/09/2019 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Online Activities 24,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
162 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Assessment will be based on three summative elements, with support formative activities:
1. Critical review. Participants will review a digital game and evaluate how it might inform learning in a formal, informal or non-formal educational setting.
This written report will be a maximum of 1000 words. (20%)
2. Position paper. Participants will write a critical reflection on their chosen course theme, relating this to their own education experiences. This written report will be a maximum of 1000 words. (30%)
3. Playful design. Participants will design a game or game-informed playful activity (with or without dependency on digital technologies) directed towards the promotion of some specified learning outcome. The description and evaluation of this design will be a maximum of 2000 words. (50%) |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the features, terminology, history and taxonomy of digital games
- Be able critically to evaluate a range of games and game environments through theoretical perspectives, direct experience and immersion
- Be able to evaluate and critically assess the relation between play, games and learning in formal and informal settings
- Be able to design, describe and evaluate your own original approach to game-informed or playful learning in your own educational context.
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Reading List
| Key reading: Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
The course is delivered flexibly and online. |
| Keywords | digital education,games-based learning |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Hamish MacLeod
Tel: (0131 6)51 6665
Email: |
Course secretary | Ms Shannon Payne
Tel: (0131 6)51 1196
Email: |
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