Building Community through Esports In today’s musing, I want to share what I have been learning about E-sports! Since the year 2000, E-sports has become a very popular form of entertainment. Not only do people train and compete in online competitions, many others have jumped in as fans. In fact, the most recent competitions for the Overwatch, Call of Duty, and League of Legends had viewership rivalling major sporting events like the Superbowl or the Stanley Cup Finals. The winners often take home multi-million dollar purses and superstar” gamers can pad their earnings by posting clips of their games on YouTube channels for their legions of followers. Still, it is something quite foreign to me. I grew up with community league sports and playing hockey in the alleyways, using garbage cans as goal posts, and reliving Bobby Orr’s spectacular game winning goal in the 1970 playoffs. The closest that I have come to Esports is when I have to tell my son to take the volume down a notch or two when he plays Call of Duty online with his friends and I can hear him warning the others about hidden threats. I think the neighbors also hear him telling others to “get down and fall back!” I’ve seen my neighbor suddenly dart behind a hedge at the force of his commands! Here at NorQuest College, Phil Switzer and Andrew Keenan (and others!) have been working to build a bit of an e-sports community. They see it as one way to engage our students, staff and faculty in friendly competition. Phil and Andrew started this endeavor before the onset of Covid and, as of late, they have invested a lot of time into making a go of it. It makes sense. In a time when a pandemic has forced many of us (faculty and students) to eschew physical community and take up our task online, we need to find new ways to have fun and build community. What Phil and Andrew are offering has the potential to do all of that. So, in an effort to find out more about the NorQuest E-sports initiative, I sat down (via Teams!) with Phil and Andrew and asked them a few questions:
What is Esports? Well, according to Phil, “Esports is happening when people play or watch electronic games with other people; Esports is the social side of gaming. Esports is about community, belonging, fun, challenge, and for some competition – for many it is just about having fun with people by playing a game.” This cleared up a misconception for me. I thought that Esports was all about disappearing into your bedroom to shout at your computer. It seemed kinda anti-social to me. I have so much to learn! Phil continued: “For NorQuest College we have Community Games Nights every week open to anyone. Soon we will also add Competitive Gaming for those who want challenges. We play games on our phones, computer, console, and we even watch some of our community members as they compete against each other. We have done everything from League of Legends, Pictionary, trivia games, and very soon, we will be doing NHL 20 here on campus November 20 for an Online Road Hockey Tournament. This will be a great way for many of our students to learn about Canada, hockey and technology.” Phil stressed that Esports is most definitely not anti-social! He stressed that Esports is all about community and belonging. Students and NorQuest employees get together to play, watch, and chat, in an atmosphere that is not loaded down with assignments and power imbalances. It is about NorQuesters getting together to have fun, meet friends, and learn new skills. Why are you excited about Esports for NorQuest? When I asked about the educational value of Esports, Andy said; “Esports provides opportunities for our students to lead. As we move towards micro credentials and recognizing student expertise, Esports gives learners opportunities to lead and to mentor their peers. At times, these students also mentor our NorQuest faculty! In fact, NorQuest Esports has already “flipped” the classroom dynamic in our student club; our student members share their best practices for community building – and faculty need to learn from the students!” I thought this was an interesting point and could see the potential for community and confidence building. Andy continued: “At first glance, Esports seems to be about video games, but really, it is about the cultures and practices that surround digital natives. These cultures and practices include new forms of communication, new online platforms, new types of community, and a primary emphasis on inclusion and diversity.” Phil echoed what Andrew had shared: “Games are core to learning digital skills. For faculty, gaming provides a way to meet our College Wide Learning Outcomes – developing teamwork, communication, problem solving, and analytical thought.” Phil encouraged the faculty to re-examine our course outlines to think of ways that we might incorporate games that will meet our course learning outcomes – games that speak to the outcomes but also help to build a positive learning community.” He continued, “In some of my courses we are playing games and have been since March. These games are fun, free, and take as little as 10 minutes to play with up to 50 people at once in a safe online space.” Andy continued, “Esports is about empowerment. We want our students to gain the digital literacy and competencies to be successful as future leaders. Esports provides a pathway to skill building and becoming comfortable in an ever-changing digital landscape. We also want to celebrate the knowledge and expertise of the students in our community who have valuable insights to share with us as an institution.” “Like Andy says, this is about real Career Skills and real careers,” said Phil. “Mount Royal University now has an Esports program, NAIT has added courses specific to Esports, and Durham College - whom we’ve been working with – now has a post-degree program in Esports. Soon more Colleges and Universities will be adding courses and entire programs in Esports Management; Esports Marketing, and more. Playing games to learn, have fun, and be challenged is only part of the story here; Esports is huge right now and projected to grow exponentially for the next few years!” What are your next steps?
It was a lot to absorb! Phil and Andrew were passionate about the initiative and eager for others to experience it in a way that they and many others had. When I asked about the next steps for this group, Andy and Phil explained that they just wanted to keep building momentum. At present, there is a solid cohort of regulars, which includes students, staff and faculty. They also have some gaming mentors from beyond NorQuest College; former professional players who would like to help build our program. Phil and Andy shared an ambitious plan that includes having NorQuest serve as a bit of a community hub and leader within the Alberta college community. However, at this point, they were careful to focus on immediate steps and the exciting opportunity presented by the NorQuest College Road Hockey event (which will be online). Keep your radar up for that one, as it promises to be quite the event! As well, Andy explained that, in the coming months “We also plan to create ways for instructors to easily incorporate games into their classroom, especially for faculty members who may not be interested in games initially. In fact, I’ve got a game I use with students to learn about how to ask probing questions and collect data. It is free and runs on a browser, called GeoGuessr. GeoGuessr uses Google maps and puts players in a random location in the world. Your job is to guess where you are. The game is both competitive and cooperative because you can have students work together to gather evidence and do research.” In the end, Phil explained, the next steps for Esports at Norquest were really up to me; it was about my next steps! Phil and Andy encouraged me (and you!) to join them on one of their Esports nights. As Phil shared: “We are open to everyone and anyone. Just email [email protected]. We already have over 20 NorQuesters (faculty, staff and students) who regularly come out to build community and connection.” At the conclusion of our little chat, I thanked Phil and Andy for their insights. I really appreciated what they had shared. It addressed one of the lingering concerns I have about our college. Since we have such diverse, practical and often short-term programming, it can be hard to build community and allegiance. Events like Inclusion Fusion help and so do faculty-student connections like the RBC mentors program, the Student’s Council, the Lighthouse, and the Indigenous Centre, but we do not have the sports teams, arts communities (and performances) or clubs that many other colleges have. Now, in the face of the disruption and disconnectedness brought on by the Covid pandemic, it is nice to hear of another way to foster community and connection. Besides, it sounds like fun! This week, the Esports group will meet on two nights, Tuesday @ 8pm and Wednesday @ 8pm. I plan to attend at least one of those nights. Will you be joining me? Will you invite your students?
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AuthorJeff Kuntz Ph.D. ImagesExcept where indicated, images used in the blog posts are personal photos, images from NorQuest College or images from Pixabay. Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images, videos and music. https://pixabay.com/ Archives
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