Course Catalogue

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Students will learn about complex real-life challenges, and how they are represented in games, reflecting on their experiences of the games they play in class, and analysing and interpreting what they have learned about those real-life challenges as a result of their experiences. Along the way, students will learn a range of skills including working with others, how real-life can be represented through complex interactive systems, and how to interpret media (here game) representations of real. life. This is a Curriculum 4 Life (C4L) course.

Week 1 - Room to accommodate 50 students for 2 hours.

Weeks 2-9, 3 hour workshops in rooms that can accommodate around 25 students with tables around which students can gather to play the games.

Week 10 - Room to accommodate 50 students for 2 hours.

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The 2000 word portfolio will contain three elements:

A journal of key decisions in a game of the student's choice (ILO2)

A discussion of how one of the games the student played worked in terms of player interactions around the table, exploring the role the student and others played in the game, and what those choices tell us about the real-world challenges (ILO1)

An interpretation of one of the games the student played, and how well (or not) is helped explain the real-life issue that it explores (ILO2)

The journal and learning journal may be presented in written or an alternative of equivalent length (including podcast or another audio form)

This course is about getting you to engage with a range of real-world challenges by playing, analysing and reflecting on games (mostly modern board games, but we might try some other media as well if possible) which represent them. You will learn how we can explore real-world challenges such as health and wellbeing, climate action and building industry and infrastructure as complex systems, and how games about these areas give interactive experiences which allow you to both explore and analyse them. You'll construct a portfolio which will give you the chance to develop your skills by bringing together your understanding of real-world challenges with your reflections of the games you play in class. At the end of course you'll have a rich source of materials you can show future employers to demonstrate your understanding of real-world challenges, and that you understand how complex systems work. Students from all Colleges in the University are welcome.

The course therefore aims to:

Teach you about real-world problems (especially those in the UN Sustainable Development Goals), and how they can be considered complex systems which can be explored by interacting with them through games.

To give you the opportunity to experience games which explore real-world systems, and to develop your understanding of all these elements as a result.

To get you to reflect on your game experiences and understand what you can learn from them about both the challenges in them.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

Explain how real-world systems function through engagement with interactive games which represent them and comparing the two (ILO1)

Reflect on their experiences of those games, including their strategic processes and their interactions with other players (ILO2)

Interpret the representations of games and communicate how they improve (or not) our understandings of real-world systems (ILO3)