About the Pedagogy
Are you looking for new ways to engage your students in course material? Having issues with student attendance in your class? Consider implementing gaming and/or role-playing in your classroom!
Recognized as one of the twelve types of experiential learning at UT Knoxville, gaming and role-playing aim to imitate a system, entity, phenomenon, or process, and has a wide variety of student learning outcome opportunities. A number of UT colleges have successfully implemented this form of experiential learning into coursework, including the College of Arts & Sciences, Haslam College of Business, Tickle College of Engineering, College of Nursing and the College of Architecture and Design.
Not yet convinced to experiment with this pedagogy? Don’t take our word for it – check out Dr. Ryan Windeknecht’s experiences with game-based learning in a recent issue of our email newsletter.
About the Teaching Certificate
So, you may be wondering, how can I use this pedagogy in my course? We’re here to help you get started with our teaching certificate program! Led by two faculty who have successfully incorporated gaming and role-playing into their coursework, you’ll have the opportunity to attend workshops that help explain the process of gamifying a course and how to best serve the needs of your students through this pedagogy. After attending the workshops, you will receive the teaching certificate in gaming and role-playing. We will be offering two tracks for the certificate program:
- Reacting to the Past (RTTP): Consists of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas (role-playing track led by Dr. Marina Maccari-Clayton)
- Game-based learning (GBL): Relates to the use of games to enhance the learning experience through the promotion of critical thinking and problem-solving skills (gaming track led by Dr. Ryan Windeknecht)
Click the “Certificate Steps” tab above to learn more about each step involved to earn the certificate per track.
Teaching Certificate Steps
Step 1: Regardless of the chosen certificate track, role-playing or gaming, certificate program participants should attend the informational session on February 6, 2019 from 3 – 4:30 p.m. in Hodges Library, 253. If you’re not sure which track is right for you, this session will help lead you in the right direction. You’ll learn more about the gaming and role-playing pedagogies and their benefits, as well as what to expect in upcoming workshops. Learn more and register on our workshop portal.
Step 2: Attend the “Introduction to RTTP” workshop on February 21, 2019 from 3 – 5 p.m. in Hodges Library, 252. Learn more and register on our workshop portal.
Step 3: Attend the “Implementing RTTP in your Course” workshop on March 28, 2019 from 3 – 5 p.m. in Hodges Library, 252. Learn more and register on our workshop portal.
Step 4: Attend our closing ceremony for program participants where we will reflect on what we’ve learned and discuss the best practices for moving forward in role-playing implementation. Certificates will be given during this ceremony on April 29, 2019 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Hodges Library, room 605. Lunch will be provided. Register on our workshop portal.
Step 2: Attend the “Introduction to Game-Based Learning” workshop on March 6, 2019 from 3 – 5 p.m. in Hodges Library, 253. Learn more and register on our workshop portal.
Step 3: Attend the “Game Jam!” day on April 13, 2019 from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. (location TBD). Learn more and register on our workshop portal.
Step 4: Attend our closing ceremony for program participants where we will reflect on what we’ve learned and discuss the best practices for moving forward in gaming implementation. Certificates will be given during this ceremony on April 29, 2019 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Hodges Library, room 605. Lunch will be provided. Register on our workshop portal.