PlayBook FAQ

Oct 31st 2021

We anticipate a Spring of 2022 publication. The etc Press prides itself on quick review and publication.

While the subject of play and learning is not a new concept, the sudden shift to digital teaching due to COVID-19 seemed to increase faculty’s interest in a playful pedagogy to better engage their students. We founded Professors at Play during the COVID-19 pandemic, assuming only a small community of faculty would find it interesting. But driven online by the pandemic, our ranks grew rapidly as professors were confronted with a new teaching medium and came face-to-face with some of the limitations of traditional teaching. We believe our community grew out of a desire to rediscover engagement.

The PlayBook is well-timed to help carry forward solutions to the questions and barriers to teaching that surfaced during the pandemic. In short, COVID and the move to digital teaching forced most faculty into a new teaching pose. As the stress of the COVID teaching pivot has revealed, many faculty realized a need for new ways to engage their students. Further, playful pedagogy is not just about student engagement and learning, it is also about making teaching more fun and playful for faculty!

etc Press makes electronic copies of its books available on its website for free, under a Creative Commons License. They print hardcover books, on demand, through Lulu.

First and foremost, the Professor at Play PlayBook will immediately appeal to the 700 subscribers of the Professors at Play listserv. But we believe this is only the start. As a collection of techniques, we would expect this book to be a valuable tool for instructional designers, faculty, as well as students learning about pedagogy. More so, if the book reaches the broader audience we anticipate that it will, we expect the community of Professors at Play to grow, and the possibilities of future volumes of the PlayBook to emerge.

As we describe in the call, we are looking for playful techniques you have used in your teaching to improve learning. A technique could be as small as a single intro activity all the way up to a playful design for an entire class. We also intend to include ideas for making professors more playful when they teach.

For a longer descriptions of the types of techniques and their range, see https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/11/play-in-the-time-of-covid-19

We estimate that most techniques will run 500-1500 words in length, including headings from the template. If you expect to run over that, please let us know. We can be flexible!

We have provided this template for all submissions

Yes. However, you need to own the rights to the images that you include. We cannot manage rights clearance on anything that you do not own!

If you have an idea but are not ready to write it up, please submit ideas and interest using this form.

If you are ready to write up your technique, start with the submission template and then email complete techniques to hello@professorsatplay.org

The editors will review all idea and technique submissions as they come in. We intend to accept as many techniques as possible and will communicate in a timely manner with authors around acceptance, typically within the week. Editorial review will occur in late 2021. Authors can will be given a chance to review final galleys before publication, expected in Spring of 2022.

Please contact the editors with concerns. Or, write up your technique as best you can in the template format and submit so we can review. Don’t let the template constraint a good submission!

In general, we want to publish techniques that people have tried and have some sense of their efficacy. However, if you have a good technique with general applicability that you have not tested, please submit for review!

Contact the editors. We are always willing to play with new ideas!

We hope so! But it’s mostly a book of ideas and inspiration for professors who want to play!

Email us at hello@professorsatplay.org, or jump on the listserv and share your thoughts thre! 

Lisa K. Forbes, PhD, is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Counseling Program at the University of Colorado Denver. Lisa is a Licensed Professional Counselor and is training to become a Play Therapist. Lisa’s research centers around intensive mothering practices, gender conformity, and mental health and…you guessed it, play and fun in teaching and learning!

David Thomas Ph.D, is the Executive Director of Online Programs at the University of Denver and Assistant Professor Attendant in the Department of Architecture at the University of Colorado Denver. His research centers around fun, fun objects (like buildings!) and the meaning of play.

Lisa and David founded Professors at Play to build a network of higher education faculty that value the power of play in learning. In fall of 2020, they hosted the first virtual Professors at Play Playposium–where over 250 people from the US and abroad registered. Since then, they have continued to host and participate in playful pedagogy talks and workshops. A record of this work can be found at the professorsatplay.org webpage. Creating the Professors at PlayBook is the next step in highlighting the research, talent, and creativity of the Professors at Play community and an important landmark in documenting the wide range of techniques currently being developed and tested.

The octopus is an intelligent, playful, resourceful and exotic animal. We thought it captured the sprit of the project. Plus, an octopus cover–how cool is that?