FEATURE STORY: Fall 2006

At the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) Division of Continual Learning, science fiction partnered with economics to produce an online course delivered in video game format, a concept beginning to gain attention nationwide.

In a 2003 study, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 70 percent of U.S college students reported playing video, computer or online games at least once in a while. Robert Brown, Ph.D., dean of the Division of Continual Learning at UNCG, sees gaming as “intrinsically motivating. The enormous popularity of video games attests to their ability to engage players and keep them engaged.”

UNCG’s course, Econ 201, appeals to such engagement. In the game scenario, an alien spacecraft crash-lands on a futuristic, post-apocalyptic Earth. Crash survivors learn economic principles of scarcity, savings and investments, trade, and sustainable growth. In order to be successful, the students must anticipate consequences and make decisions based on logical economic analysis.

Jeff Sarbaum, Ph.D., UNCG professor of economics and one of the course’s creators, said he believes that this course covers more content than traditional introductory economics courses because Econ 201 integrates a variety of interdisciplinary subjects, such as ethics and history. “In one scenario, students face a disease outbreak and must decide who to save,” he said. “As part of the game play, they are introduced to historical examples of how the earth faced similar problems in the past.”

Brown cited problem-solving, decisionmaking, application of abstract knowledge to authentic situations and assessing learning understanding as the effective pedagogy that is one of the best features of the game. “A game is basically an interactive learning environment in which the player/learner must acquire new knowledge in order to advance in the game, must apply that knowledge by making decisions within the game world, and then must respond to the consequences of those decisions,” Brown said. “This is far superior to the typical classroom experience in which the professor lectures and the student listens. In a game, students don’t simply memorize principles; they apply them, which leads to better understanding of the principles and better retention of them.”

Another adaptation of video gaming as a learning tool was created at Carnegie Mellon. A team of students in the Master of Entertainment Technology program developed a game format to encourage players to create peace. In PeaceMaker, players assume the role of either the Palestinian president or the Israeli prime minister, and they must respond to diplomatic negotiations, suicide bombings and military actions, while interacting with other political leaders and social groups to resolve conflict before the player’s term of office ends.

Robert J. Dougherty, information technology director for the College of Liberal Studies at the University of Oklahoma, sees video game technology in academics as something that will achieve mainstream status in the future. As this type of delivery format continues to develop, Dougherty said he believes faculty will start developing their own versions since they have the necessary educational background to incorporate the academic principles into video games. “I think once [faculty members] see a few early innovators get into it and go to conferences and see examples of what other people are doing, I think this is going to catch on quickly,” he said.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project also found that most college student gamers seem to associate positive feelings with gaming, such as “pleasant,” “exciting” and “challenging.” For students in today’s culture, this emerging delivery format may very well be what UNCG calls its economics course—“a college student’s dream come true.”

“This is really just an addition to what is out there,” Dougherty said. “The main campus class is never going to go away. One of the drawbacks to [video game learning] is that we’re losing something when we don’t do any reading. However, I think [video games as delivery methods] are really good teaching and learning tools, if they’re done right.”

– Lauren Park

Note: All information regarding the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and its Econ 201 course was provided by the university’s Internet site: www.icampus.uncg.edu.