"Good Morning. You All Have an F." - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 9

worlds, and alternate reality games. But what I came to call the multiplayer
classroom took on a life of its own, overshadowing Practical Game Design.

I remember when I first proposed the idea of designing classes as games to my
colleagues in the Department of Telecommunications in May of 2009. Professor
Edward Castronova, an innovative teacher and economist who focuses on
massively multiplayer games, had been experimenting with bringing elements
of games into the classroom. He was immediately taken with the idea. But others
were skeptical that such an approach might not work outside of the area of video
games. Yet, as we shall see, designing classes as games has produced some very
interesting results in classrooms ranging from middle school through university-
level courses in a variety of disciplines. We have yet to discover a class that
cannot be taught in this way. Maybe we never will.

When the interest surrounding the multiplayer classroom first appeared, I
contemplated adding a chapter to Practical Game Design. But as the interest
continued to grow, and when the second class designed as a game began to
reveal a number of reasons why the approach might have merit beyond teaching
video game design, I approached Cengage with the idea of writing a separate
book the one you now hold in your hands. Practical Game Design will have to

wait for another day.

—

Endgame: The Topic
Here you will find instruction on how to design classes as games on any subject
to reach the students of today through the same methods that inspire their
interest in many types of games from AAA video games to casual games on
Facebook and the iPhone to alternate reality games played in real-time in the
real world.
There will be specific blueprints on how to construct a multiplayer classroom.
We

ll explore how to approach grading as attrition, rather than focusing on
letter grades, and how to tap into the social networking memes and tools already
used by students. We will examine that which is unique to a particular subject or
teacher, and what can be universally applied to a vast range of topics by anyone.

'

Case studies of both my own classes and those now being designed by other
educators who are embracing the idea will provide in-depth looks at game
design elements that worked and some that didn ' t — failures, as well as successes.