Got Game? Teaching College Skills to First-Year Students  

This guide describes a poster session presented by Margaret Hvatum and Janice Hovis at the AAC&U conference Faculty Roles in High-Impact Practices on March 25, 2010. Use the tabs above (Learning Activities, Course Information, etc.) to find more information.

Check back - we'll add more to the guide in the weeks following the conference!

http://guides.stlcc.edu/gotgame

Aims and Purposes of High-Impact Practices

Got Game? Teaching College Skills to First-Year Students

Few first-year college students would compete for admission into a writing-intensive college skills class. Given this reality, an interdisciplinary teaching team created a first-year course titled "Cornerstone: Computer Games and the Lessons They Teach," which anchors students in their lived experience while requiring the necessary reading, writing, research, and analysis to build needed skills. This poster session will introduce participants in some of the transferrable techniques the teaching team uses, such as guided library database research, writing a National Enquirer article, service learning, and role-playing with heckling. The facilitators will discuss how these creative activities foster intellectual and practical skills including inquiry and analysis, critical thinking, written and oral communication, and quantitative and information literacy. Participants will also have a chance to discuss the broad applicability of these techniques across multiple disciplines and topics.

Margaret Meyer Hvatum, Associate Professor and Information Systems Program Coordinator and

Janice K. Hovis, Associate Professor of Library and Information Studies—both of St Louis Community College at Meramec