May 29, 2020

Purdue Experts on COVID-19: Education prof provides tips for parents on game-based learning

William Watson, associate professor of learning design and technology and director of the Purdue Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments, offers advice in a video to help parents find educational and entertaining video and board games.

Watson, who studies the leveraging of technology to create more personalized learning in the College of Education, says game-based learning is a valuable resource to help parents support learning, especially during this time when many families are doing their best to stay home. Games are similar to instruction because they present clear objectives and interesting and complex problems. Entertainment, board and online games can be educational and engaging resources, and many are easily accessible. Parents should create a structure to support learning in games by targeting specific learning objectives and helping their children to reflect and verbalize what they learned by playing the game. Further, children can learn by playing games or creating their own.

Watson’s video is part of a collection on a new website, “Purdue experts on COVID-19.” He is one of three dozen Purdue faculty members who are now sharing knowledge pertinent to the pandemic crisis in short videos on the site.

The idea behind this website is for Purdue faculty from a wide variety of disciplines to share their expertise to inform and prepare the public to respond safely and successfully to this pandemic. The videos cover a diverse assortment of subjects. That includes big-picture topics such as the economy, unemployment and the workings of supply chains, as well as those closer to home such as food shopping and produce safety, personal finance tips, and exercising at remote work stations.

Faculty members interested in developing a video to highlight their own work should contact their college communications coordinator for approval and ask the communication coordinator to reach out to Jason Fish at jfish@purdue.edu, for recording instructions.

The videos should:

  • Be authentic and not heavily produced. Visit the "Purdue experts on COVID-19" site for examples of format.
  • Cover two to three major points about the faculty member’s area of expertise as it relates to the COVID-19 crisis.
  • Run between two and four minutes (don't exceed four minutes).
  • Be designed to reach a general audience with knowledge that can inform their understanding of the virus, the pandemic and its effects.

Once the college communicator has approved the video, the communicator should submit the video to Jason Fish at jfish@purdue.edu.

Writers: Madison Sanneman
Amy Patterson Neubert, apatterson@purdue.edu


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