Games as Education in the United Kingdom

Digital game studies and design have rapidly become popular teaching areas in the United Kingdom. They also have a long history as tools for education in a range of disciplines through game-based learning. This project sought to inform teaching and learning within the College of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities, the College of Science and Engineering, and the College of Medicine, Biological Sciences and Psychology through an exploration of the challenges, practices, and feedback of instructors and instructional designers on teaching with, through and on digital games. A workshop was held in the School of Media, Communication, and Sociology in May 2016 to understand emerging challenges and opportunities related to games-based teaching practice, innovations in assessment, available and needed resources for teaching, and game-based curricula. Participants included staff across the University of Leicester using digital games for learning and assessment as well as digital game studies and design instructors across the United Kingdom. Through collaborative discussion and workshopping of best practices related to teaching with games, this workshop generated a sharable portfolio of materials. It also provided insight into several possibilities for integrating this media form into higher education as well as significant challenges to consider moving forward, which are reported on here.