Students who hate putting their video games down to head to class might find themselves changing their minds as gaming makes its way into the Syracuse University curriculum.

Much of this change is due in part to Scott Nicholson, a professor in the School of Information Studies. After spending last year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on sabbatical, Nicholson was inspired to bring gamification into the SU community.

This year, Nicholson teaches an online class on gamification — the application of game design elements to real-world situations — a concept Nicholson sees many uses for.

The online gamification course is a 400/600-level class with about 20 students enrolled.

“We’re seeing more and more interest in gamification out there as it being something that both companies and nonprofit organizations are using as a way to get people motivated to use (gamification) for marketing and education,” Nicholson said.

He has also integrated the principle of gamification into a class he teaches in the iSchool and created a Game Designers Guild on campus.

The class, IST 444: “Information Reporting and Presentation,” may not directly relate to gamification, but Nicholson said he believes incorporating game principles will present material to students in a new way and keep them engaged in class.

Nicholson has also changed the class’s entire grade system. Rather than starting with 100 percent, students begin the course on level 0. Students earn points, are given optional assignments and can redo certain assignments, just like in a game, Nicholson said.

Similar to a game, students choose their own missions to complete, and if they fail, they can restart the task.

“What I’m hoping to do is freeing them up a little bit from their normal belief of ‘here is how I knock out a class’ to say ‘hey, the rules are different, now you’re going to have to engage with what I’m offering you,’” he said.

Outside of the classroom, Nicholson is very engaged with game design. This year, he started a Game Designer’s Guild that he based off of the one he saw at MIT last year, he said.

Game design relates to everyone, he said, not just technologically skilled people. The guild welcomes all students and does not require any background in programming or media creation. The guild focuses purely on game design and builds game models in tabletop or paper prototypes, Nicholson said.

Christopher Hanson, assistant professor of English, is also involved with the guild. He said he has always been interested in games, but believes they are also important to study.

Last semester, Hanson taught the first class on games in the English department. The class was well beyond capacity, he said.

“As the number of film studies departments has exploded around the country, game studies is following a similar path,” Hanson said. “These are all cultural texts, which carry meaning.”

As an English professor, Hanson’s involvement in the guild supports both his and Nicholson’s belief that game design is an important skill for everyone, not just gamers.

Said Hanson: “When you think about a game, there are artists involved, engineers, software engineers, designers, any number of people are involved in the production of a game, and I am hopeful that game studies at Syracuse will similarly cross disciplines as well.”

Published on September 25, 2012 at 12:25 am

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