Unique Clarkson Course Has Students Learning Through Gameplay
If you were to peek into the classroom of Clarkson History Professor Alastair Kocho-Williams’ Wargaming Class this semester, you may have been confused by what you were seeing: students were immersed in tabletop wargames but at the same time were learning about historical events like the Berlin Airlift, Nuclear Rivalry in the Cold War, US electoral politics in 2000 and on, the Space Race in the 1950s and 1960s and more.
How was this possible?
Thanks to winning the President’s Challenge for Faculty in 2020, Professor Kocho-Williams was able to design this course and build the game library that supports it, by combining his passion for history with his love for tabletop games.
“Students played a lot of games, and reflected on them and how they offered a means of representing and interpreting historical events, at the same time as they were supported to create their own games,” Kocho-Williams said. “Students were tasked to create a functioning prototype of a tabletop wargame and to present it via means of a play-through demonstration in the final weeks of the semester. This is a sizeable ask, but they all rose to the task and the results are impressive,” he said.
“Student teams produced nine functional student-designed game prototypes, and several commercial game publishers are already expressing interest in some of the games, and one industry leader and publisher has offered to help any of the student groups develop their game to the point of publication,” Kocho-Williams said.
Kocho-Williams was also able to bring in some guest speakers, all of whom are major names in the wargaming world. One even designed Wargames for the CIA and another designs games for the Department of Defense! They spoke about design and the industry. This then led to a podcast being launched from the course, called “Playing with the Past” which is available here - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/playing-with-the-past/id1711636000 or here https://anchor.fm/alypv1).
“Students tell me this is one of the most enjoyable courses they have taken in all of their time at university, and some of them say that they have worked harder on their game design project than they have in their Engineering capstone course!” Kocho-Williams said.
Kocho-Williams was even featured on a podcast about his use of wargames in classes. You can listen to that here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mentioned-in-dispatches-with-the-armchair-dragoons/id1486408833?i=1000631216325.
