The intersection between eSports and education in an e-learning system
Hi! I am Eduard Modreanu, and I am the Education&Research Manager of ETT. I am a 3rd-year student at the Business and IT programme of the University of Twente, and I am finally working on my Research Project. In this blog post, I want to share the exciting and surprising facts that I found.
The paper’s title is “The intersection between eSports and education in an e-learning system”, and dr Guido Bruinsma supervises it. I think that the title sums up the purpose pretty well, but let’s look at the system’s value proposition.
The public opinion is that video gaming is harmful to the player and a waste of time. Contrary to general belief, the academic literature shows the contrary. With video gaming, the player can see positive outcomes in areas such as cognitive, educational, motivational, emotional, and social spheres. More specifically, studies identified improved visual attention and attentional abilities, developed problem-solving skills, increased positive emotion, decreased anxiety levels, increased positive attitude towards failure that predicted better academic performance, and acquired prosocial skills that reward effective cooperation.
Furthermore, the player gets the opportunity to master knowledge that connects to high-paying sector jobs such as data science, software and web development, social media marketing, and event organizing. Moreover, the industry creates more and more opportunities to be an e-athlete such that these days we can find full eSports scholarships. Nicolas Besombes created a fascinating overview of the possible opportunities within the eSports industry (see below).
Some attitudes can become toxic without the proper framework. The literature finds a correlation between a high engagement of eSports and an unhealthy lifestyle. Moreover, researchers also study the impact and the prevalence of cyberbullying and sexism in eSports. It is a very heated and debated subject, and I will not address it here.
In order to combine all the benefits of eSports and video gaming and try to prevent and change toxic attitudes and lifestyles, I am proposing an educational e-learning platform. More specifically, it will be a system where children and parents can log in, study, practice, receive and give feedback. The purpose is to offer a learning experience no matter the interests. If somebody wants to learn about coaching, become an e-athlete, or only wish to improve cognition, they will find the correct information. The way of learning will be created using the Four-Component Instructional Design Model (4C\ID). Every component will be made using empirically proven learning frameworks and will also combine state of art machine learning systems. The system will include a gamified experience created with the Octalysis Framework.
I am excited to finish writing up and start prototyping. If you want to help test the prototype and give feedback, it would be beneficial :). Thanks!