WoW Composition Class

Time: Entire Course Learning Principles: Co-design, Customize, Well-ordered Problem, Sandbox, System Thinking, Meaning as Action Image

Levels of Integration: Critical Game Studies, Gaming Discourse

In their article, “A Pedagogy of Play: Integrating Computer Games into the Writing Classroom,” Rebekah Shultz Colby and Richard Colby describe a composition class built around playing and writing about World of Warcraft. Their conceptualization of the class is built on something they call "emergent pedagogy," in which:

"teachers introduce writing principles and strategies in order to open up a studio-like space for students to work through those strategies on their own. When gameplay such as WoW is added to an emergent pedagogy, students discover exigencies within the gamespace that need to be addressed through playing the game. ... Thus, this pedagogy creates a playful space that allows students to pursue their own discovery process and create their own challenging assignments. ...For instance, as a result of playing WoW, students could design forums, blogs, websites, and various gamespace guides."

This concept of an emergent pedagogy clearly syncs well with many of Gee's principles including the ideas of a co-authored and customizable form of education. With that being said, there would need to be a certain amount of preparation of the assignment options so that students did not simply flock to the easiest one (but, of course, this is a problem in all cases). Also, I have to admit, on first reading this idea, I thought that it sounded great, but that it also pushed more responsibility on students than the average freshman is willing to accept.

Outline of Class

Fortunately, Shultz Colby and Colby also provide a clear layout of the progression of their course throughout the semester. Their first step in the process is clearly labeling the class as an experimental WoW themed class and surveying registered students about their computer expertise (Shultz Colby 307). This strikes me as an excellent idea, whenever possible, for all composition classes that rely heavily on videogames. It is not meant to restrict students from joining the class, but rather to ensure that those who do are not caught unaware. The authors suggest initial assignments to include some research into system requirements for the game as well as instructions on how to change display settings to make the game run more smoothly (Shultz Colby 307).

From there, the authors turn to giving students a firm grounding in rhetorical tradition and research methods: "For instance, on web posts posts appearing on the Blizzard/WoW forums, students can analyze how the community constructs ethos through listing accomplishments, pathos in how they refer to other players, and logos through using game statistics" (Shultz Colby 308). This part of the class reflects some methods discussed earlier about having students write about the discourse community functioning around a game. It adds one additional element not mentioned before, namely that these students haven't yet played the game they are studying, so that the analysis of the discourse is also functioning as a sort way to develop a greater familiarity with the game. Attached to this section of the class, Shultz Colby and Colby suggest that students be taught traditional textual research, but that they "also be introduced to the textual evidence within the publications, forums, wikis, and logs of the game community" (308).

It is only after this initial set-up and introduction to writing formats and rhetorical movements that Shultz Colby and Colby suggest moving to the emergent phase of the class. In this phase, "students will begin playing WoW, looking for rhetorical exigencies that create opportunities for emergent learning" (309). The authors provide a few examples of their meaning, including an economics major who wrote a strategy guide for a jewel-crafting profession in the game (which included research into the relative costs of making and sale values of the jewels), and two girls who wrote a proposal to Blizzard to make a change to a chat feature in the game (Shultz Colby 309). Together, these examples demonstrated how the students chose a wide range of academically appropriate and deep writing tasks. It seems that the close and extended engagement with a particular object of study might help students to create their own assignments in this way.

The final section of the class is devoted to the evaluation of the projects. Shultz Colby and Colby suggest that students either write and revise project plans to describe their projects or, after completing their projects, compose reflective essays about how the work fulfilled course objectives. In this way, students would be encouraged to seek academically rigorous work while also developing meta-cognition about how assignments are created within the context of a curriculum.

Evaluation

It is probably apparent by now that I strongly approve of this classroom design. It encourages playfulness, experimentation, and customization in a way that none of the other lessons have achieved. As a semester-long process, this also incorporates gaming on a deeper level than the other lesson plans.

Small changes might be made to make this more approachable, but they might not be necessary. One potential pitfall is that this class, due to the game choice, will appeal more to male gamers than female. This might be counteracted by offering a range of possible games each with robust player communities surrounding them (possibilities could include The Sims, Animal Crossing, League of Legends, etc.). Of course, this would require a wider teacher expertise and possible difficulties with game platforms and system requirements. An added benefit from the range of choice would be a possible reduction of cost, though WoW is being sold at reduced prices to attract new players.

Another difficulty would arise if a student was not becoming engaged with the course content and was not discovering anything to write about. Obviously, this also occurs in other classes (I've had to work with students through ideas for proposal essays more times than I can to count), but when this problem arose, it would likely counteract some of the intent of an emergent pedagogy. The last thing we want to do is to set up some students to fail, so hopefully enough support could be built around the assignment (possibly through examples and conferencing) to make it run smoothly.

Finally, while this course develops a nuanced use of games, it does not yet suggest multimodal approaches to composition. Perhaps a stronger emphasis could be placed on having students create a digital element to their final assignment.