A bit of my academic position before retirement was invested in an Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) graduate program. Most of the students we enrolled were interested in designing instruction for learners outside of K12, but my interest and the course I taught repeatedly were focused on the use of technology in K12. Ours is a small program and always has been. There are two dedicated full-time positions and then a few folks like me who were housed in other departments (I was in Psychology), but taught a course in the program and courses required by the program (educational psychology).
UND (University of North Dakota) has been under budgetary pressure for several years now due to a decline in support from the state and one of the two IDT positions has either been unfilled or filled with a non-tenure track hire. This did mean that I in retirement had more opportunities to teach. However, this is not the best situation for attracting students and can lead programs into a death spiral of lower enrollment and the resultant commitment of fewer resources. However, the situation in North Dakota has improved some and the program has been given the commitment to hire again for a tenure track position.
The recruitment issue is what focus this position should have to make the most productive contribution to the program and the rest of the university. The decision makers have decided to advertise for someone with a speciality in eSports. I am and the present chair of this program are a bit perplexed by this decision. I do understand what eSports is and even without being interested in gaming myself I know eSports is currently quite popular. I understand that schools and colleges are fielding eSports teams. Cindy and I are on a community advisory board working with the IT people in our new community and it was recently announced that the school was going to “field” an esports team. So, there is clearly interest in eSports.
It is the academic angle on eSports I am trying to identify and if I can get my head around what this emphasis or emphases might be trying to decide whether this would be a wise focus for one of two positions in a department. I understand that unique specializations can be highly productive even in smaller institutions. UND has an aviation program that is among the best and probably the best in some regards of academic aviation programs in the country. I would likely not have bet on this being a big deal had I been placing bets when the program was initiated. I have no decision making role at the university anymore, but I have been trying to explore just to understand if academic programs focused on eSports exist and what exactly it is that they emphasize.
eSports is a business so I was able to identify a program or two focused on on management, etc. within a business college (e.g., New Haven). Multiple institutions have undergraduate majors, minors, or areas of emphasis. I am a bit stumped when it comes to an EdTech emphasis on eSports say in comparison to someone who focused on the learning applications of gaming. If I had to venture a guess on the role played by eSports in education, I would probably try to compare it to the arguments and research questions associated with other extracurricular activities – team work, self-confidence, belonging, commitment, etc. These are the arguments made for “physical sports”, chorus, band, debate, fishing, and such school-sponsored activities. I wonder if biology programs anywhere have an emphasis on competitive fishing?
BTW – if there are eSports associated graduate majors, minors, etc., I would welcome a link to something I could review.
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