Exploring 15th-century Italy as a Florentine nobleman and slaying dragons in the fantasy world of Tamriel will soon be the norm for students at two U.S. colleges, thanks to new courses aimed at teaching core subjects through playing computer games.
Joseph November, a history professor at the University of South Carolina, is developing a history course for Spring 2013 that will give fourth-year students the opportunity to analyze how historical developments are portrayed in popular computer games by playing titles such as Age of Empires, Assassin’s Creed II, and Fallout 3.
“I’ve always enjoyed playing computer games that have been historically-oriented,” November said.
“Many insights that people get through playing games haven’t really been addressed by people in the historical profession. So I’m finally getting the opportunity to treat computer games as serious historical sources.”
The class, titled “Computer Games and History,” focuses on challenging students to see how historical investigation of the past can be improved by pairing the study of computer games with more traditional sources, such as articles and artifacts.
“I’ve noticed for a while now that a lot of students have really great ideas about historical developments because they have been familiarized with them through playing these games,” November said.
Interest in November’s course has expanded beyond his students. Ubisoft Montréal, the creators of the multi-platform Assassin’s Creed series, recently volunteered to send historical material related to their game for students to use after a USC student posted a picture of the course flyer on social news website Reddit, according to November.
The company also agreed to stage a Q&A session with students to discuss the game’s use of historical information.
The use of computer games in lecture halls is not a new phenomenon. In recent years, computer games being used in education has become increasingly popular with school administrators and teachers as they attempt to engage and motivate their students in ways that reading textbooks and scholarly articles can’t.
“I think that’s the direction that a lot of [teachers] are going in now,” November said. “Particularly at this university where it’s not just reading texts and hearing lectures, there’s a lot of use of multimedia. Video games are the new area, where you have an interactive multimedia experience to explore the past.”
Donna Ellard, an English professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas has similarly embraced the idea of using computer games for academic exploration, adding “Scandinavian Fantasy Worlds: Old Norse Sagas and Skyrim” to the course calendar.
In Ellard’s course, students are read selections from old Norse and old Icelandic sagas while they play quests in the popular Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, an open-world role-playing game.
“We’ll consider the political saga of Skyrim, with its emphasis on empire and rebellion, as pursuits made possible by way of Scandinavia in order to think through what Scandinavian fantasy worlds are really about and why they resonate with contemporary Anglo-American culture,” the course description said.
The inclusion of computer games in academic study faces a few challenges however. Among them is changing the perception that courses featuring computer games are a waste of time and money.
“People actually pay to take [Computer Games and History]?” said Dystopiq, a user on the video game website Kotaku. “I don’t see how [November’s] class is going to teach me something I don’t already know.”
Fortunately for November and Ellard, many students are excited about the possibility of taking courses that use their favourite computer games to raise key discussions about specific subjects.
“I had Dr. November for a ‘history of science and technology in the world’ class,” USC student with the username Tha Bawse wrote on Kotaku. “It was awesome and even though my electives are filled, I will be enrolling for this class in the spring.”
“This is a really interesting course. I applaud [Prof. Ellard] for using video games to touch on literature and culture,” added Insane00, another Rice student. “The coolest part is that it shows that games may indeed be making their way into a well respected university’s english department. If I had known about it before now, I may have tried to get a spot in the class.”
