Grant recipient: Troy Osborne, History, Conrad Grebel University College
(Project Timeline: May 2015-April 2016)
Project Description
I wanted to integrate several of the history-based roleplaying ‘games’ that the “Reacting to the Past” consortium led by Barnard College developed in order to foster student-centered learning in history courses. During the games, professors assign students the roles of historical characters and a set of victory goals for which they have to advocate with research based in the primary documents.Through competition and “subversive play,” the pedagogy encourages deep learning by developing students’ intrinsic motivation to perform well and ‘win,’ fostering the active learning of the material, and promoting collaboration with other students.
I wished to attend the Annual Faculty Institute, which Barnard College hosted June 11-14, 2015.I was particularly interested in learning some of the “short” games that require only three or four class sessions, instead of the usual 10-14 sessions needed for the “long games.”
Intended Purpose of Teaching Enhancement
I wanted to receive additional training in the “Reacting to the Past” pedagogy at the Reacting to the Past Annual Conference held at Barnard College. The conference is designed to discuss ways to teach using the Reacting games to new faculty and to help experienced faculty hone their courses. I was particularly interested in how to use the scenarios to help students engage more deeply with sixteenth-century texts. My hope that was students would immerse themselves in the early modern world more thoroughly than was possible in traditional intro surveys.
Insights
I used a game entitled “Henry VIII and the Reformation Parliament” in my Early Modern Europe class in Fall 2015. For the most part, students embraced the spirit of the game. Judging by the presence of costumes and number of student-led meetings outside of class, student engagement was significantly higher than in traditional 200-level courses. Students’ responses in the post-course survey seem to reflect my assessment. They appreciated the way that the game encouraged them to engage the writings of Erasmus, More, Luther, and Machiavelli more deeply and to interact with their peers in and out of the classroom.
Using a scenario like this results in more active student engagement, but it means a reduction in the number of different topics of that I might have normally covered with a more traditional delivery method. In the future, I will have to weigh the benefits of more in-depth and engage class with my desire to expose students to a wider range of early modern topics.
Dissemination and Impact
- At the individual level: I have informally discussed the Reacting pedagogy with colleagues at Conrad Grebel and the History Department at the University of Waterloo. The conference’s discussion on best practices has continued following the conference at Barnard thanks to an active online community where instructors and game authors share experiences and advice with each other.
- At the Department/School and/or Faculty/Unit levels: I initially shared my experience at a Conrad Grebel College Council meeting in Fall 2015. The brief introduction used a video to provide a brief overview of the Reacting pedagogy. In May 2016, I led a workshop at Grebel to share my experience with the Reacting Game, and I also led a sample role-playing exercise on the questions of freedom of expression in ancient Athens. We also brainstormed about ways to ‘gamify’ courses without having to invest in the four or five weeks a full Reacting scenario requires.
Impact of the Project
- Teaching: I’d like to continue to use role-playing games in future courses. The advantage of using a Reacting game is that they are well-developed and sophisticated. However, I can use some of the basic principles in my own courses when I want students to engage more deeply with ideas and texts.
- Connections with people from different departments, faculties, and/or disciplines about teaching and learning: I discussed the pedagogy with Grebel faculty who teach Religious Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies courses.
References
Project reference list (PDF)