A Year in the Life of Teaching Esports BTEC: Uncharted Territory
This is the third in a series of blog posts by lecturer, consultant, and teacher of esports, Nik Turner.
With induction and diagnostic completeit’s time start some ‘proper’ teaching.. or at least that’s what I originally thought — but my plans were about to change!
Having looked at the work that had been produced by the groups,along with the sorts of discussions we were having in class, something obvious hit me— and hit me hard — I had no benchmark to work with in terms of prior learning, or established knowledge, asschool leaversdon’tdo esports at school! None of them can wave a GCSE certificate showing that they’ve achieved agrade9 in esports, in fact there is literally nothing they can give me, there is no baseline!
But that’s not just the students... With the brand new BTEC, as educators we’re in a very similar boat in that we haven’t delivered it before, so where on earth should we start? In my years of experience in education I’ve found there’s usually two sorts of teachers when it comes to delivering completely newcourses and curriculum.
Firstly,you have those with a‘I don’t want to do it’attitude– thiscan bea dangerous tactic when considering your career in teaching, everyone likes familiarity and even better if that familiarity brings with it the option of using previously prepared resources.However, it’s also important that any resources that are being re-used are updated.Far too often I see teachers delivering material that hasn’t been refreshed in years, case studies are being used that are out of date and at times no longer even relevant!
Then, you have the‘let me at it’attitude which usually (not always) results in a far better learning experience for the student.When delivering the BTEC in esports you only have one option and it’s this one!You will struggle to find pre-existing resources; you almost definitely won’t be able to ask a colleague for what they used last year so youhave tostart from fresh.To me,and many others,this isn’tseen asa problem butmore ofan opportunity – an opportunity to shape the way you teach and the content and strategy you use.Over time you will of course be able to re-use resources which is why it’s so important to do it right from the start!
"To me,and many others,this isn’tseen asa problem butmore ofan opportunity – an opportunity to shape the way you teach and the content and strategy you use."
So, going back to my opening paragraph,what had I missed when I had prepared for teaching the BTEC? Why did I choose to change my strategy so early on?Quite simply, the lack of a baseline of student knowledge and a very clear indication from initial work produced and group discussions that the focus, the topic at the front ofstudents' minds, wasn’tesports but was clearly gaming!I needed to re-shift their thinking which is where the ‘welcome to esports’ sessions were born.
So,time to bring it back to reality: “How many of those games are esports?”
The looks on faces changed from‘look at me and how many games I know’to‘hhmmm..is that anesport?What about that one?ArrrggghhhhI’m not sure!’At last!For the first time you could see the studentsreally starting to think and beginning to deconstruct their perceived concept of gaming and esports in a bid to separate the two.What followed were some fantastic discussions on games and esports and theobviousrelationship betweenthem along with clear differences.Many were surprised with the outcomes but either way the cognitive wheels were most definitely in motion.
After discussing a few specificgames,I was delighted when the studentsidentifiedthequestion,I was waiting to show them on the next slide; “what makes a game anesport”.The foundations for the answer to this question had already been facilitated for this discussion, and in the space of an hour there was a clear shift in thinking to understand the differences between ‘games and gaming’ and ‘esports’.Student motivation at this point was visibly high so time to throw inthe ‘Name that Game’ quiz!Very straight forward – Icuttogether 26 short clips of video gamesandthe task was to name as many as they could– how may can you name?
None of my students got all 26!This isessentiallyabit offun,but it also acts as another clear indicator of thegroup'sgames / esports knowledge.
Having now drawn a clear line in the sand between gaming and esports it was time to reinforce this concept througha range of research tasks.Over the following two weeks students were asked to produce work and present it beautifully around subjects like genres of games and the most common genres in esports, research a range of esports events,competitionsand tournaments both in theUKand globally,identifya range of top esports players and create player profiles and finally to pick a few teams from the UK and globally and produce a case study on each.What the studentsdidn’tknow is thatthey’realready undertaking research into some of the key topic areas of Unit 1 which should serve them well when it comes to their assignment.
In undertakingthisprocess,itremindedmeofwhen I started university all those years agoandalsomore recently,delivering lectures tostudentsin their first year ofuniversity.In more ‘traditional’ subjects there is adistinctbenchmark of achievement that can be considered, the esports BTECdoesn’tequate to this.When undergraduates arrive atuniversity,theygenerally havean acquired level of subject knowledge but the curriculum they have studied will vary from college to college, therefore at Level 4 it is often about ensuring that all studentsare brought up to the same level andhave an equal footing ahead ofprogression toLevel 5.On a significantly smaller scale the ‘welcome to esports’ section of delivery of the BTEC achieves a similar goal.But this goal is an important one as it is quite possible to disadvantage learners or to leave learners behind at the start of the course which is so critical for retention and achievement.
Oh, and as another bonus, the walls in my classroom werebareat the start of the new course, I now have some lovely student work to display!
Next up – time to launch the BTEC in its fullest form!
Nik Turner is a lecturer and consultant in esports and media with a particular passion for innovative practice. With extensive experience in education he has been a part of the esports scene for over five years and spent the last two years working in the industry.
Nik has now returned to his other passion - teaching - as one of the esport lecturers at Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke.