let's game!
role-playing games as a pedagogical approach
project prompt: analyze one current (emerging) technological innovation with an emphasis on its educational implications.
tools: google suite, canva, zotero, mendeley.
research question: “how might role-playing games be leveraged in higher education settings?”
methods: literature review, game design.
outcome: a paper exploring the use of role-playing games in higher education to illustrate the opportunities it presents for cultivating critical thinking, sustaining learner motivation, and facilitating the knowledge acquisition process.
game-based learning was one of my interests when i started my master's degree in learning, design, and technology. i was particularly curious about the power of role-playing games in facilitating knowledge acquisition. therefore, when we received the project brief for this class, it was a no-brainer for me to explore the world of role-playing games, with an emphasis on how they have been utilized in higher education settings. additionally, i got to engage in light game design by creating an escape room game that my professor had to play to access my paper.
abstract
the benefits of games as a pedagogical tool cannot be overstated (ekin et al., 2023). games in education is a thoroughly researched field, where researchers, teachers, and institution explore diverse applications, such as gamification, game-based learning, and serious games (ekin et al., 2023). the research on games in education typically explores the role of digital games to cultivate learning spaces, are often situated in a k-12 context, and are usually characterized as cognitive or motivational (ebru yılmaz i̇nce, 2018; hammer et al., 2018; herro & clark, 2016; kim et al., 2016; mercer et al., 2017; tomáška, 2022). this analysis will explore the use of analogue role-playing games (rpgs) in higher education, shedding light on the opportunities they offer for cultivating learning outcomes, sustaining learner motivation, and facilitating the learning process. additionally, this exploration will underscore the challenges associated with employing rpgs in the higher education context.