Using Project-Based Learning to Teach Learning Game Design: The Example of LIFE Project

Making a digital game requires a sustained, coordinated effort of a team comprising many roles and a diverse range of skills: developers, artists, designers, producers, etc. This means that interpersonal skills such as communication, management, and leadership are also crucial. But can these skills be taught at the university? While traditional subject-based education can be effective at teaching technical skills such as programming and art creation, this paradigm "provides little opportunity for students to acquire skills for <...> cooperative learning and problem solving" (Mandl et al. 1996: 396). One way of addressing this challenge is through project-based learning (PBL), an approach to education that emphasizes student engagement, collaboration and hands-on learning through engagement with complex tasks based on real-life applications (Krajcik & Blumenfeld 2006). This paper introduces an application of PBL to learning game design in the framework of LIFE (Learning in an Interdisciplinary Focused Environment), an initiative at Tallinn University which provides an alternative to subject-based education by inviting students to collaborate on interdisciplinary projects. Using self-reflection and semi-structured interviews, we surveyed LIFE participants whose projects focused on educational games in order to identify what competencies they believed the project helped them develop and what skills were still underdeveloped. While LIFE proved effective at producing a tangible outcome (i.e. a game) and facilitating participants' technical skills, the evidence of improvement in interpersonal skills is not as clear: some students reported significant improvement, while others were less enthusiastic. LIFE seemed to have little impact on management skills, as participants with previous project work experience were satisfied with their performance and growth, whereas those without it felt less motivated to manage projects again. The results may be indicative of the organizational aspects of LIFE project itself, whose self-organising nature can lead to a mismatch in existing technical and interpersonal competencies, as well as levels of motivation in the teams. These factors need to be taken into consideration for a successful application of project-based learning to educational game design.