Revisiting INCUBATE Presents! 2020: Introducing Role-Playing Games into the Classroom

In February — in the BP times (before pandemic) — we held our second installment of INCUBATE Presents! Each event in this series provides a highly interactive, hands-on workshop introducing innovative teaching strategies for faculty and instructors across disciplines. INCUBATE Presents! 2020…Not Just Fun and Games: Using Role-Play Simulation Games in the Classroom brought together faculty from across the College of Arts and Sciences to experience first-hand the immersive role-playing pedagogy developed by the Reacting to the Past Consortium.

As a continuation of the Reacting to the Past active-learning pedagogy, originally developed in the late 1990s by Dr. Mark Carnes, a professor of history at Barnard College, the Consortium develops and publishes Reacting to the Past (RTTP) role-playing games in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; instructors advise and guide students and grade their oral and written work. It seeks to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills. Games (both published and still in development) cross all disciplines and are available in a range of commitments, from single session micro-games to entire semester curriculums.
With the help of RTTP veterans Jennifer Worth, administrative director for the Reacting Consortium, and Tony Crider, professor of physics at Elon University, as our “gamemasters”, INCUBATE Presents! provided participants with a brief overview of the nuts-and-bolts of this pedagogy before immersing faculty into two different micro-games:

Athens Besieged: Debating Surrender is a micro-game designed for one class period, focusing on a smaller, more discrete historical moment in Athens in 404 BC: You are losing the war against the Spartans. Do you negotiate, surrender your democracy, starve, or attack? Who can you trust?

The Pluto Debate: The International Astronomical Union Defines a Planet has students play one of nine astronomers arguing the definition of a planet at a 1999 debate in New York City and a 2006 meeting of the International Astronomical Union. Students compare the history of Pluto’s discovery to that of the asteroid Ceres; describe the properties of the Kuiper Belt and its members; plot the orbital and physical properties of planets, asteroids, and comets; and debate the necessity and value of scientific classification.`

“Having the chance to play two very different games was fun and very useful,” said one of the participating faculty. “It was helpful to experience the games as a student would. I was surprised that even with an abbreviated version of the game, I retained quite a few specific terms and concepts about the issue–which is exactly what we hope students in an introductory course will do.”

Associate Professor of Classics Hunter Gardner agreed, adding that, “I’d heard about RTTP for some time and was intrigued but never had a clear idea of how the games operated (and was a bit daunted by how much effort it would take to orchestrate one!). The process now seems much more manageable.”

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INCUBATE PRESENTS 2020 was organized by Lana Burgess, clinical professor in the School of Visual Art and Design, director of the Museum Management Program, and faculty curator of the McKissick Museum, as part of her project with the Incubator’s Innovative Teaching Associates program. “RTTP would be great addition at UofSC because its pedagogical goals dovetail nicely with the goals of the College of Arts and Sciences for career readiness,” Lana noted, which include effective communication, critical thinking, analytical reasoning, problem-solving, collaboration, self-motivation, and creativity.

The workshop ultimately included 32 faculty and instructors from more than 20 different departments, programs, and schools across the College of Arts and Sciences. “It was exciting to see a group of outstanding faculty from so many disciplines willing to jump in and experiment with a teaching approach that is so different from the traditional lecture-and-discussion model of most college courses,” said Christy Friend, director of the Incubator. “We’ve been thrilled that a number of the participants have expressed interest in trying one or more of the games in their classrooms. Here at the Incubator, we hope to purchase an institutional membership to the Consortium next year and to host a learning community to support faculty who are interested in teaching these games.”

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This event was presented in collaboration with the McKissick Museum and the Reacting to the Past (RTTP) Consortium. For more background on the origins of Reacting to the Past, check out the reviews and responses by our Graduate Leadership Team, Trenton Agrelius and Kristin Harrell. And stay tuned for a follow-up by Kristin, who was scheduled to begin an 8-week game this semester…the day after Spring Break. She’ll be bringing us a recap of how she pivoted this pedagogy, which was designed specifically for face-to-face instruction, to a remote, virtual environment.