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