Center for Educational Gaming in the Humanities

Educational Gaming is a learning methodology based on the premise that today's learners have changed in fundamental ways from learners in the past. Students today demand engagement and expect to learn through discovery and inquiry. They do not want to be "told" but instead, they want to construct their own knowledge directly by "doing."

Well designed educational games create environments where primary learning takes place. Most games used in schools in the past have been utilized for review or what teachers and trainers alike have dubbed "drill and kill." Looking to games as content reinforcement limits the potential for this type of interactivity to transform today's classrooms-both face to face and online, in small classes and in the large lecture format.

As educators, we have the opportunity to radically transform K-16 learning environments by combining the disparate pedagogical techniques-such as problems-based, case-based, and collaborative learning-that many instructors are already using into one methodology. Educational gaming allows us to combine serious learning with interactive environments to create effective and efficient learning for our students.

Educational games can be intrinsically motivating. Well designed games are engaging, innovative, relevant, and exciting, and match the ways in which today's students think, learn, and view the world. The Center for Educational Gaming in the Humanities (CEGH) exists to offer guidance to instructors about when and how it is appropriate to integrate games into the learning process.