Educational Gaming Commons - Press Start

Description of the Project

Educational Games, or gaming for learning purposes, have become a very hot topic in higher education in recent years.  Gaming in general is one of the most universally participated in activities on college campuses.  Thus, it is important to create an environment that fosters a community of users around the investigation and utilization of games within the learning environment.  To this end, ETS created a Educational Gaming Commons that strives to provide a community and infrastructure for growing the wide adoption and use of games to support teaching, learning, and research.

The Educational Gaming Commons initiative is a blend of an online Community Hub and an Educational Gaming Commons Lab that will be designed to foster active collaboration within the PSU Educational Gaming Community.  Within this environment, we are connecting faculty and students to projects that will investigate and demonstrate the educational potentials of games.  By tapping into the intense interest in gaming by our student population we strive to initiate new game development activities that can support teaching, learning, and research.  Using an Affiliate Program we work to connect these students with new projects initiated by faculty research and teaching interests.

We believe that by creating an overall infrastructure and a community of practice we can impact many more members of the Penn State Community. The community of practice, once established, can thrive and evolve. At University Park we will create an Educational Gaming Commons Lab that will serve as the center of the Commonwealth-wide support effort. Leveraging the Digital Commons spaces at campuses, we can offer an environment that truly integrates our resources and creates increased impact at all locations of the University.

Vision Statement

The PSU Educational Gaming Commons will create a community of users who will support both the physical and organizational infrastructure to promote the broad impact of gaming within the teaching, learning, and research environment.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to stimulate research, application and education in educational games, including the use of virtual environments and simulations for serious gaming.

EGC Goals

• To stimulate research, application and education utilizing games, including the use of virtual environments, simulations and commercial of-the-shelf (COTS) games for educational gaming within the Penn State community.
• To develop educational games that can be utilized in Penn State educational settings.
• To create an Affiliate program that will bring together the various pockets of faculty, staff, and students currently engaged in gaming or educational gaming projects at Penn State, providing a place to share resources, information, and ideas.
  
• To physically implement the Educational Gaming Commons Lab. This physical space will house a variety of hardware and software, to be used for research, new game development projects, coordinating interdisciplinary research efforts, and informing public conversations about the broader and sometimes unexpected uses of this emerging art form in education.