The Minecraft project –
Video Games and/as Theory
An implementation/exploration in how to teach an undergraduate English course, entirely within the game of Minecraft.
The project was a collaboration between:
Results and impact
97
students over 3 terms
3
case studies
2
instructors
16+
Researchers including four student co-researchers
Project scope
In the midst of the pandemic-era Zoom fatigue, this project was initiated as an implementation/exploration on how to make use of Minecraft to teach an undergraduate English course, entirely within the game.
The fully flipped classroom made use of a custom-designed game world, a number of game mods as well as readings. The class lectures were done in the form of podcasts.
Project lifecycle
This project was initiated in January 2021 and ran for three terms.
N.B.: While the part of this project that benefitted directly from LITL’s involvement has now concluded, the research is ongoing and the project has since grown and evolved thanks to multi-year federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funding.
Key players and people
Primary researchers
- Darren Wershler
- Bart Simon
- Stuart Thiel
Research team
- Nic Watson (Concordia)
- Jim Slotta (University of Toronto, SALTISE)
- Elizabeth Charles (Dawson College, SALTISE)
- Joel Wiebe (University of Toronto)
- Gina Haraszti (Concordia)
- Remi Arora (LITL – Concordia)
- Rob Cassidy (ex-Concordia)
- Angelica Calcagnile (undergraduate, Concordia)
- Nat Torre (undergraduate, Concordia, graduated Winter 2022)
- Andrew Rochon (undergraduate, Concordia)
- Theodore Fox (undergraduate, Concordia)
- Richy Srirachikorn (graduate student researcher, Concordia)
- Derek Nyborg (graduate student researcher, Concordia)
- Isabella Byrne
Outcomes
- Wershler, Darren, and Bart Simon. “The Allegorical Build: Minecraft and Allegorical Play in Undergraduate Teaching.” Gamevironments 15 (2021): 197-236. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48783/gameviron.v15i15.148
- Calcagnile, Angelica, Theodore Fox, Andrew Rochon, Nat Torre. "Moloch’s Gauntlet: Undergraduate Experiments in Minecraft for Pedagogy." Connected Learning Summit, online, October 26, 2023.
- Wershler, Darren and Bart Simon, "The Fun Palace SMP: Minecraft + Cultural Technique + Allegory." German Studies Association 47th annual conference, Montreal, October 8, 2023.
- Calcagnile, Angelica, Theodore Fox, Andrew Rochon, Nat Torre. "Escaping Moloch’s Gauntlet: Undergraduate Pedagogical Perspectives in Minecraft." Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) Top Papers presentation. Canadian Game Studies Association, online, October 5, 2023.
- Wershler, Darren, with Stuart Thiel and Bart Simon, "Three Semesters in Minecraft: Lessons Learned from a Fully Flipped Online Class." SALTISE 2023, Concordia University, Montreal, June 13, 2023.
- Calcagnile, Angelica, Theodore Fox, Andrew Rochon, Nat Torre. "Escaping Moloch’s Gauntlet: Undergraduate Pedagogical Perspectives in Minecraft." Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) Conference 2023. Canadian Game Studies Association, online, June 9, 2023. Awarded "Most Creative Paper"
- Srirachanikorn, Richy. “The Allegorical Build: Material Allegories and Minecraft.” Social Science Humanities Research Council’s The Storytellers Competition, York University, May 29, 2023.
- Wershler, Darren, and Bart Simon. “Rattletrap Platforms: Modded Minecraft and Digital Pedagogy.” Digital Pedagogy Institute, Ryerson University, August 9, 2022. [notes] [slides]
- Calcagnile, Angelica, Theodore Fox, Andrew Rochon, Nat Torre. “Moloch’s Gauntlet: Escape to Modernity.” In the Middle, A Chimera: The Milieu End-of-Year Exhibition & Symposium. Milieux Institute, Montreal, May 13, 2022. [slides]
- Wershler, Darren, and Bart Simon. “Minecraft as Classroom II: Refamiliarization.” SALTISE. Moving Forward Together: Opportunities and Challenges for Pedagogical Innovation. Virtual conference 2021. Montreal, June 3, 2021. [notes] [slides]
- Education News Canada. “Montreal Student Wins National Competition for Relating Work on Benefits of Using Video Games to Rethink Learning and Digital Classrooms.” Education News Canada, June 2, 2023.
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. “Five Rising Communicators Win 10th Edition of SSHRC Storytellers Challenge.” Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, May 29, 2023.
- Juhl, Hayley. “Teaching Classes in a Minecraft World Could Be a Game-Changer.” Montreal Gazette, March 29, 2022.
- “Patrick Lejtenyi CHECKS IN with Darren Wershler.” 4th Space Concordia. March 21, 2022. [SoundCloud version]
- “Attending Class Through Minecraft.” Let’s Go with Sabrina Marandola. CBC Radio Montreal. Aired March 14, 2022.
- Lejtenyi, Patrick. “A Minecraft Build Can Be Used To Teach Almost Any Subject, According To Concordia Researchers.” Concordia News. February 22, 2022.
Testimonials
The allegorical build” is what we call our pedagogical model. We describe it in detail in our paper of the same name, but briefly, the allegorical build occurs at the moment when students use their relationship to game procedures to think about a range of other things. In the case of our current version of Video Games and/as Theory, those “other things” are a series of core readings concerning the theory and history of modernity, but instructors could, with a little work, use the same approach to create classes on Indigenous futurity, environmentalism and sustainability, archaeology, geology, architecture, engineering, computer programming, medieval culture, or any number of other topics.
Support
This project was made possible thanks to seed funding from the LITL budget and has since been awarded a multi-year SSHRC grant to further the exploration.
