Are you ready for the Fall term?

Neither are we, but we’re gearing up for an exciting start!

The Professors at Play headquarters might be a quirky space filled with ducks, stickers, and an assortment of other fun items, but it’s also where we’re gathering supplies and preparing to play with you.

That’s right. We want to work with your faculty, your staff and even your administrators to help your school or college or department or campus unlock the power of play. We want to share the value, science and purpose of play. Whether it’s a conversation or a keynote, a collaboration or a workshop, we want to extend the invitation to invite us to share the Professors at Play love in your educational environment. To date, we have provided keynotes and interactive talks, full-on workshops and event planning, consulting and collegial support. We can work with skeptical faculty who need a little convincing to bring play into their classrooms and we love to get engaged with teachers already inventing, creating and playing and want someone to collaborate with. We bring expertise and an open-minded curiosity. We’ve worked online and in person. We mostly love working on play and want to bring that joy and energy to your campus.

That’s right—we want to collaborate with your faculty, staff, and administrators to enhance your school, college, department, or campus. Whether it’s a conversation, keynote, collaboration, or workshop, we invite you to bring Professors at Play into your educational environment. We’ve delivered keynotes, interactive talks, full workshops, and event planning. We’re here to engage with skeptical faculty who need a little encouragement to incorporate play into their classrooms, as well as to collaborate with teachers who are already innovating and looking for a creative partner. We bring expertise and a curious, open-minded approach, whether online or in person. Our passion for play is infectious, and we’re eager to share that joy and energy with your campus.

And yes, if you invite us, we’ll definitely bring the ducks and stickers!

— David and Lisa

by Peggy Holzweiss, PhD

I have a confession to make.

I love teaching fully asynchronous, online courses.

You may wonder how anyone could love teaching online courses. After all, it can be difficult to engage students through a computer screen. Learning alone. Staring at a plain pixeled display for hours. Performing the same assignments in every course (Discussion, paper, test. Rinse. Repeat.). Students frequently choose online learning for its convenience, not because they think it will be fun. Unfortunately, they are often right.

Now I will share a secret.

Online learning can be fun and engaging because play works in the virtual space. And online students appreciate ANY attempt to liven up a digital classroom. Their engagement increases when play is introduced, just like in-person students.

There are a variety of ways to be playful in an online course – and they often don’t require a lot of time or effort.

Consider these Eight Strategies for Online Play:

1. Be Visual
Add color, images, and fun fonts to course documents. If you are short on time or creativity, use templates provided by Microsoft Word or Canva. You can even use new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like Canva’s Magic Studio to create unique images for the documents. Just describe the image you want and let AI design some options. If you don’t like any of them, update your prompt and try again.

2. Try a Theme

Choose a course theme and align visuals, assignment names, slide decks, and other course materials. As an example, I chose a “Willy Wonka” theme for one course. Candy images appeared in the syllabus and all assignment instructions. Assignments received candy-related names, and lecture videos used free slide decks found on sites like SlidesMania and Slides Carnival.

3. Insert Your Bitmoji

Increase instructor presence by inserting a cartoon image of yourself (Bitmoji) throughout the course (i.e., course materials, modules, announcements, etc.). It is a playful way of reminding students you are always around. If you don’t have a bitmoji, create one through the free Bitmoji website. Simply establish your account and follow instructions. Once it is created, you will see a variety of “stickers” using your bitmoji likeness in different settings and poses. Find the ones you like, download them, and use them like any other image.

4. Inject Humor

Invite regular smiles by posting a “funny of the week.” The internet is filled with puns, jokes, images, and videos about the course topic or course theme. You can even let AI (i.e., ChatGPT, Bard) do some of the work by asking it to generate jokes on a desired topic. You can also share “class breaks” by posting something random like one of my favorite videos.

5. Offer Choices

Consider offering different options for course activities and let students choose which one(s) to perform. For instance, if you teach an intro chemistry course, assignment choices could include taking pictures of chemistry in action in daily life (plus narratives about the pictures), interviewing someone who works in a medical lab, sharing a biography of a specific chemist using an infographic format, or creating an instructional video about how chemistry is used in the fashion industry. Make it more impactful with a follow-up assignment where students review or reflect on each other’s projects.

6. Incentivize Play

Busy, online students will choose to play if tasks are short, easy to perform, and have some benefit such as extra credit or useful prizes (free quiz question, one-day assignment extension, etc.). You could use one-time tasks at different points in the course or offer an ongoing opportunity that invites students to play throughout the course. For example, I created a weekly virtual escape room (learn how to create your own on Google Slides) containing a link to a useful course resource, a funny image, and an image with a number. Students used the numbers to answer an extra credit math question at the end of the course. Any student who participated received at least a small amount of extra credit. Students with correct responses received more extra credit.

7. Play Hide and Seek

Hide things for students to find such as funny memes or videos, prizes such as a free quiz question or one-day assignment extension, or icebreaker questions students can answer about themselves. For one course, I hid the same theme-based image every week. It appeared in readings, assignment instructions, submission areas, and even popped up randomly in modules for a few days in the middle of a week. The first student to report the image location each week accumulated points towards extra credit at the end of the course. Students mentioned this little game as one of their favorite parts of the course.

8.Build Community

Build the course community by being intentional about how students interact. One of my favorite online tools is Padlet, a collaborative board where everyone can share images, websites, videos, etc. I use a Padlet board as a community space for students to introduce themselves, share where they found hidden items, answer extra credit questions, and so on. The board mimics what students do on social media and come with embed codes so they can be placed within an online course.

Check out an interactive poster with examples from my own courses then choose a strategy to implement in your online course!

___

Peggy Holzweiss, PhD
Associate Professor Department of Educational Leadership
Sam Houston State University
pholzweiss@shsu.edu

 A  Big ideas don’t always need a fancy package.

While higher education loves to present complex concepts in equally complex and detailed packages, sometimes getting the point across requires a bit of simplification to get to the heart of the matter.  

Think about Green Eggs and Ham, Star-Bellied Sneetches and The Lorax. Dr. Suess never compromised on wonder and whimsy when delivering important messages about expanding your horizons, racism and environmentalism.

That’s the approach Lisa has taken with her new children’s book Only Kids and Play Can Save the World. This fun and charming tale finds twins TJ and Maddie realizing something is wrong with their parents. The glazed eyes, the dull routines. Mom and dad’s spark is missing. It doesn’t take them long to diagnose the issue and the solution. Grown-ups need more play!

With colorful images by Sarah Iverson and Lisa’s bouncing prose, this book works as well as a joyful read for kids as it does as a parable for stressed out, glazed-eye grownups.  The story drives to its point as the twin, not content to let evil powers control the world, mastermind a way to win the world back over to play and light the way for the rest of us. A fable and a blueprint.

How do you get people to play more and honor the benefits of play? Let’s add a pointed kids’ book to the list of tools we have to embrace and share the power of play.

by Peggy Holzweiss, PhD

My journey into whole course play began when I heard Roberto Corrada discuss his Jurassic Park simulation during the 2021 Playposium. I loved the idea of students joining a fictitious world, tapping into their creativity, and learning real-world content simultaneously. Inspired, I experimented with a spring 2022 course to see if I could create a fully playful course.

For context, I teach in a fully asynchronous masters program for higher education administration. The students are older and mostly employed full-time on college campuses. The course in question is focused on higher education finance. Students are often fearful of taking the course, so I created a lengthy course project to ease them into budgeting. The project involves small teams creating a college office (i.e., mission, goals, purpose, activities), developing a budget for the office, and adjusting the budget in different ways. Because the project has been perfected for more than a decade and students enjoy it, the focus became designing a story “shell” around the project then incorporating other class activities into the story.

Like Corrada, I turned to popular culture for inspiration. The wizarding world seemed like a good fit since the Harry Potter setting is a wizard school. Yet, I could not invite my older, already employed students to go back to high school. I needed a college setting to replicate their professional experiences. With no wizard college mentioned in the Harry Potter franchise, I decided to create my own college and invite my students to become “staff.” This approach allowed me to borrow from the well-established wizarding world while still introducing new stories that fit course goals.

I started with a name (“Picquery College”), which was inspired by a minor character in the first Fantastic Beasts film. I also created a brief history for the college and an overview of the current campus demographics and academic majors. To better connect with my students’ real-world experiences, the story shell focused on the college’s ongoing struggles with enrollment and retention. The course project became the avenue through which they would address these challenges.

I created a variety of course activities to achieve an immersive learning environment. For example, on the first day of class, students received a digital parchment letter like the one sent to new students in Harry Potter. The letter welcomed students to college, explained why they had been “hired,” and how they would help the college meet its new goals through the “Engaging Picquery” initiative (i.e., the course project). The letter then directed students to a “staff orientation” activity which shared more details about the course. The orientation concluded with a digital escape room prompting students to look for a code which unlocked the first course module. When they successfully unlocked the module, they earned a “Magic Code” prize allowing them extra points or a one-day extension on any assignment.

A “sorting ceremony,” featuring a free online spinning wheel and recorded via screencast, randomly placed students into college “houses” (teams). Each house had a mythical beast mascot (i.e., House of Sphinx, House of Hydra) and a crest depicting the beast. The crests were shared with each team for their use throughout the course.

An optional House Cup competition provided opportunities for extra credit and building team camaraderie. Students could complete short weekly tasks for House points including finding a hidden character in the course materials (“Pickett Pursuit”), answering Harry Potter trivia questions, inserting a designated magical word into a discussion board comment, and brainstorming ideas for a magical college community such as what fast food restaurants the wizard students would visit, what snacks they would eat, etc. The project included additional point opportunities and a weekly leaderboard kept track of team standings.

Other course activities contributed to the playful environment. For instance, a header image in the learning management system and renamed navigation folders (i.e., “email” became “owl post”) reflected the magical theme. A weekly newsletter template shared course reminders as well as an inspirational quote, a funny cartoon about magic, and opportunities to earn House Cup points that week. An embedded Padlet board served as the “common room” where students could share ideas, ask questions, and complete some House Cup activities. Finally, video lectures used slide decks with magical imagery. For students unfamiliar with the wizarding world, a separate resource folder offered term definitions, links to the movie preview videos, and links to fandom websites.

In a final reflection activity for the course, many students used the word “fun” or other similar phrases to describe their learning experience. The comments also reflected strong peer engagement and appreciation for the creative and/or competitive opportunities:

• I was most excited about scoring House of Ent points because I could be creative, competitive and earn extra credit.
• The fun aspects and hands-on approach of the Engaging Picquery project definitely made this class one of, if not, my favorite courses I’ve taken throughout the program.
• Being able to create a new office, team, and budget was truly exciting and interesting to do.
• Pickett Pursuit!! This activity made me excited to open up Blackboard every Monday. Although it was not directly related to the course content, it was a good way for me to get a glance at what to expect from the week in this class, while also having a bit of fun in the process!
• I enjoyed the creativity we got to express this semester. Being able to develop your own office for Piquery College and learning what goes into the operations of such an office was really fun and engaging.
• I absolutely loved working with my group and made the overall class experience more enjoyable.

The team competition offered a quantitative opportunity to assess student engagement. Most activities offered a low number of team points (3 to 10) while the embedded project activities awarded more (up to 50 points). A total of 703 points were possible during the 14-week competition. Teams earning at least 30 points were eligible for extra credit, with the top 3 teams receiving additional credit. All teams reached the 30-point minimum in the 3rd week, with final team standings ranging from 214 to 512 points. Individual engagement varied, with some students performing many activities while others participated as they had time or felt comfortable. Individual point totals ranged from 2 to 233, with an average of 110 – indicating sustained engagement for most of the students.

The experiment was so successful that I have since adapted all my online courses to the whole course play approach. While none meet the same ambition of the original course, they all incorporate a playful course theme and an invitation to engage in different ways throughout the term. These busy, adult students express appreciation for the approach and regularly demonstrate that they are willing and ready to play when given the opportunity.

Peggy Holzweiss, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Educational Leadership
Sam Houston State University
pholzweiss@shsu.edu

I’m sure like many people my first introduction to card games was playing Snap as a child (or if you
were posher Happy Families) and progressing from their into more sophisticated games such
Cribbage or (Gin) Rummy. Finally, I found myself learning the rules of Bridge, though I didn’t have
three friends, so opportunities to play were somewhat limited. However, once I had children of my
own I discovered the delights of other card games such as Uno and then deck building games, like
Pokemon. As an adult who still enjoys all manner of games, I was also introduced to Hero Realms
and Gloom. I recognise that card games can involve a degree of skill, they’re very engaging, they
provide a high degree of flexibility and in fact cards can be used in a variety of different way.

I once attended a session that started with an ice breaker that involved a table filled with postcards.
We were asked to select a card that had some meaning for us and then talk to the rest of the group
about the card. People are often happier about talking about themselves indirectly in this way and it
can feel less scary. So now I use cards from a game called Dixit for exactly the same activity. Single
cards like this can also be sued for flash activities, for example helping students to recognise various
parts of the body.

Single idea cards can also be put together to create new ideas. For example, an activity I have
participated in asked people to select a card from one of three piles, each pile related to a different
idea: character, location and object. From these we were then asked to create a story, which is a
creative exercise I use with final year advertising students. You can also have single idea cards that
can be used together, for example asking students to match slogans with logos or perhaps
symptoms with a medical condition.

Cards can have related ideas that can be grouped, for example I have a set of cards to help illustrate
a PEST analysis (political, economic, social and technological). Students work in groups to decide
which category to put each card in and then debate with other groups where there is disagreement.
Once grouped they could then be ranked or ordered. For instance, the elements of Bloom’s
taxonomy or Maslow’s hierarchy of needs could be on individual cards and students asked to put
them in the recognised levels. Or, you might have the characteristics of a good manager (or any
other position/title) and then be asked to decide which is the most to least important.

You can also ask students to generate their own ideas, since you can buy blank cards that can be
written on with non-permanent markers. For example, getting them to identify the steps in putting a
dissertation together and then putting these in order, perhaps with links and actions, like in a flow
chart. I’ve been involved in doing this myself when designing a lean system for the student journey
using continuous improvement cards. It can be used to describe other patterns as well, just as in the
game dominoes or Carcassonne (though these might be traditionally thought of as tile games).

Then there is collecting cards, which is closer to the idea of a traditional card game. In the summer of
2022 I created a board game where students had to collect the relevant cards from the marketing
mix (price, product, place and promotion) in order to be able to create a business. Much like the
game Settlers of Catan that requires players to collect resources in order to build settlements or
cities. This year I created a deck building game, where players collect businesses and use actions
based on a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) to affect share prices and
ultimately win the game.

In each of these cases the objective is to help students learn, but in a way that is fun, interesting,
engaging and memorable.

Roger Saunders (he/him) BA (Hons) MLing DipM PGCert SFHEA CMBE
University Teacher Fellow
Associate Professor (Teaching, Learning & Scholarship)
Module Leader in Marketing & Advertising
Leicester Castle Business School, De Montfort University
Reviewer: International Journal of Management Education
https://lisforlecturer.wixsite.com/website
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/landtchatshow

@RogerLecturer

We’ve been busy finalizing the Professors at Play Playbook. But we did take a moment to put some of our playful techniques to use in presentation for the E learning Costorium of Colorado’s annual conference: That Was Fun! Online Edition.

Watch a recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8MRP5yL7gY