Welcome!

Welcome to Gaming the Classroom!  This blog was created in response to the overwhelming interest in Multiplayer Game Design, a game design course taught by Lee Sheldon at Indiana University that is modeled like an MMO.  Every student has an avatar name, creates group projects in their guilds, and earns XP for their grade.

For more information on the course itself, please see the Syllabus and Notes and Observations pages above.

Lee Sheldon’s game design class was mentioned in the “Design Outside the Box” presentation at DICE 2010 by Jesse Schell, game designer and professor at Carnegie Melon – welcome to everyone who is visiting here because of that talk!

We’ve created a forum to share ideas about the use of games to teach, please contribute your thoughts!

Multiplayer Classroom Facebook Page

The Multiplayer Classroom Facebook page at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Extra-Credits/127295683982334?ref=ts#!/pages/The-Multiplayer-Classroom-Designing-Coursework-as-a-Game/156707907724860

is up. Not a lot of information yet, but I hope to move the content of this blog over there. It’s much easier for me to keep it up to date, something I haven’t been able to do without a graduate student to help me this semester!

Extra Credits Current Episode on Gaming the Classroom

Check it out here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/3167-Gamifying-Education. It’s coverage of the multyiplayer classroom is out of date, focusing only on XP, however there are some great ideas here.

The Multiplayer Classroom Publication Date

The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game will be published on June 14, 2011 by Cengage Learning. It includes in depth looks at four iterations of the muliplayer classroom; case histories from teachers from Louisiana to Hawaii; how-to chapters on designing classes as games, and a lot more. Have a look!

Gaming the Dating Scene

Dating and games can make for strange bedfellows, and I don’t just mean E3 hookups. From Chuck Woolery’s televised dating disasters to the pick-up artist system, the combination seems to bring more tears and jeers than smiles and romance.

No longer!

Moving beyond the blind dates and bar scenes, Melissa Malka has toyed around with Lee Sheldon’s game-based classroom design and cooked up a leveling system for the marriage-minded player.

“You gain XP by defeating stereotypes, completing milestones, and courting.”

As funny as handling a date like a raid and making a boss fight out of asking a father for his daughter’s hand in marriage are, Melissa’s humor touches on the value of adopting a leveling approach to long-term social situations.

It raises the questions: Where in your personal or professional relationships does the level grind feel most severe? What’s your boss fight.

T366 Multiplayer Game Design Post Mortem

The spring semester has come to an end, and the second iteration of Lee Sheldon’s game design class (taught as a game) has concluded.

Curious as to how the semester went?  View the notes from Lee and the students on the post mortem page.

Jesse Schell’s talk added to TED: Best of the Web

Part of Jesse Schell’s DICE talk has been added to the TED website under the “Best of the Web” section, meant to highlight inspiring talks given across the internet!

Check it out here!

Jesse Schell’s DICE talk and blog

Jesse Schell presented an inspirational talk at DICE 2010 titled “Design Outside the Box” (in which he mentions Lee Sheldon’s game design class), be sure to check it out if you haven’t already!

For more thoughts on how advances in technology are incorporating more and more game elements into everyday life visit his blog Gamepocalypse Now.

Mentions of Lee Sheldon’s Game Design Class

We’ve been overwhelmed with websites mentioning Lee’s class so here they all are in one big list:

DICE 2010: “Design Outside the Box”
The video that started all the buzz!

At Indiana U., a Class on Game Design Has Students Playing to Win
The Chronicle of Higher Education

Professor Ditches Grades for XP System
slashdot

College Game Design Classes Graded Like World of Warcraft
Techland

Employers: Look to gaming to motivate staff
itnews

Professor Abandons Grades for Experience Points
the escapist

Prof Subs Grades for Experience Points, Presentations With Quest
Switched

Fighting monsters, taking tests
hastec

Professor Abandons Grades for Experience Points
Technoccult

Build Your Own Sheldon Syllabus
Terra Nova

Game Theory
business bytes genes molecules

The Instance #182 – “It’s Pronounced Throatwobbler Mangrove”
The Instance Podcast

Professor Users RPG-like Exp Rather Than Grades
Tom’s Guide

Replacing school grades with an XP system
The Escapist Blog

Is Game Design The Future of Marketing?
neboblog

XP Replaces Grades in Indiana University Classes
current

University class swaps grades for experience points
Yahoo plugged in

XP Replaces Grades in Indiana University Classes
GamePolitics

Game design professor beta tests a new grading system
GamePro

More Role Playing in the Classroom
Class Notes

Classes in a MMO format
Tree of Life

Can a College Class be a Game?
Of Teeth & Claws

Transformando a sala de aula em videogame
Psicologico

Gaming the Classroom
Spotlight on Media and Learning

Das ganze Leben ist ein Spiel
educational-gaming.de

Jesse Schell: future of games from DICE 2010
WIRED: Beyond the Beyond

Are we missing any?  E-mail us at gamingtheclassrom (at) gmail.com  to let us know!