The Educator Perspective

Abstract

This book has largely focused on a particular application of game-based learning in higher education, concerning the use of commercial video games to develop graduate skills or attributes. However, games are used in numerous ways across higher education. This chapter draws on interviews with educators to provide examples of the novel ways in which games and gamification are being used to teach or otherwise develop university students. Educators’ experiences were almost uniformly positive, although concern was raised about excluding a small proportion of the class, for whom games are unappealing. In most cases, game-based learning activities were tied to subject material, but educators understood that video games may also exercise a range of valuable skills and competencies. Interviewees here referred to ancillary outcomes including the development of their students’ communication and collaboration skills, critical thinking ability, and capacity to empathise and reflect. Of course, the transmission of disciplinary knowledge and understanding is not divorced from the development of such abilities and being able to think critically and reflect upon the learning experience is often crucial to a student’s mastery of their subject. Video games, however, seem particularly well suited to nurturing such skills in our students.