College Using StarCraft to Teach Complex Management Skills

[Bloodstain]

I support Portal being studied as art, but I don't think there is much educational value to Starcraft, Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that game, but I don't think it has real world value.

It's not about the content. You sure don't need to know about Zerglings to be a good manager.
It's about the thinking. Considering multiple ressources and making decisions in a short time.

It's like writing off an air hockey table as a tax deduction because it "helps your hand eye coordination" and you're a surgeon. It's a load of crap.

That actually sounds useful. I mean, you need two things to be a surgeon: The knowledge about the human body and hand-eye coordination. The latter could trained playing air hockey (although there sure are better methods to train it).

 

[antipunt]

lol wait. Is this is the -same exact- institution that's using Portal also?

 

[Heart of Darkness]

What's also neat about this class is that it counts toward your GPA and doesn't have a final exam. However, the only catch--to quote the comments on the site where I originally saw this-- is that you have to attend school in Florida to take this class.

lol wait. Is this is the -same exact- institution that's using Portal also?

It's in the article. Wabash College (in Washington) has a class that incorporates Portal into the curriculum. This class--from the University of Florida--has the class that consists almost entirely of Starcraft. It's not the same institution, seeing as how they're on two separate sides of the country.

 

[Zayren]

Too bad the class was limited to 20. I missed getting into it before I even knew it existed.

 

[Therumancer]

I'm sorry, I can't take this one too seriously.

It reminds me of the old "Magic: The Gathering" ad campaign that used to be run in comic books, showing complete nerds doing things like water skiing from the back of one of those old Russian military subs the were selling off years ago. With the claims that this dude made a fortune due to using skills he learned as one of the first MTG players to conquer whatever industry... followed by a rather funny disclaimer about the truth of the statement.

I'm probably one of the only nerds, nerdy enough to actually remember that.

 

[Lyri]

kekekekekekekkekekkekekeke...

Yes, actually that is quite a stretch.

Zerg Rush the market, guys!

If those were Jovah's Witness', we could all be in grave danger.

 

[snow]

I wish I could show this to my sisters' ex boyfriend who thought games caused brain-rotten zombies with no attention span.

Best part is, he said this after telling me he was a Nascar fan... -,-;

I like this post though, it enforces what I've been saying about video games for YEARS! There are so many things I've taken from video games that has helped me out in life.

From coordinating a group of people, multitasking more tasks at the same time that others would have deemed impossible, problem solving skills, and the general ability to even read peoples actions and predict what they would do next.

 

[Funkiest Monkey]

I understood the Portal one. But Starcraft is ridiculous.

 

[Otaku13]

Funny thing is i actually did something like this for a high school report on resource management. Built a custom map for it and everything. I even got a A on the project. XD

 

[Firetaffer]

I understood the Portal one. But Starcraft is ridiculous.

I understand the Starcraft one, but Portal, now that's just ridiculous.

 

[ENKC]

Funnily enough, I've been managing an H&R Block office this (Australian) tax season and spending my spare time (ie the part of Sunday I'm not sleeping off my six day week) playing, watching, reading and/or otherwise thinking about StarCraft 2.

Many times now it has occurred to me just how pertinent the skills of one are to the other. Obviously doing tax returns requires much more of a human aspect, but the other side of management ultimately boils down to allocation of resources. My life for Auir!

 

[TheDoctor455]

Interesting... but... I can definitely see how that would work...

 

[ProfessorLayton]

I want to go to a class in which you have to play Expert Realism Left 4 Dead 2 with 3 classmates you don't like in order to boost communication skills. I can assure you that you'll be best friends if you get out alive.

 

[Bantis]

Well always nice to see games being used in new and different places. But some of these class things sound like quite a stretch to me. Using StarCraft as a management tool?

"These are skills that every good StarCraft player needs, and that workers in real life management situations need as well. Just like having to manage a counter-measure to a rush of Zerg attacking your base, an employee at a bank might have to quickly manage what's possible and what's not when a crisis arises."

I see what he is saying but I mean seriously... who thinks like that, or more specifically who pulls on their game knowledge for situations like that? Looking at a case study which highlights the implementation of and repercussions of an actual management teams decided course of action in an actual business situation seems a little better avenue to illustrate something like a "bank crisis".

I'm not knocking using games in schools. Pairing games with some types of psychology study/topics seems like an interesting (and in some ways natural) fit. But comparisons between RTS resource strategies and business "crisis" management makes me think this guy is trying to pair his subject with games just cause...

 

[RandyPants]

I dunno if anyone mentioned it, but the United States Air Force used Starcraft I to train new officers in quick thinking and out of the box thinking.

 

[Danpascooch]

I support Portal being studied as art, but I don't think there is much educational value to Starcraft, Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that game, but I don't think it has real world value.

It's not about the content. You sure don't need to know about Zerglings to be a good manager.
It's about the thinking. Considering multiple ressources and making decisions in a short time.

It's like writing off an air hockey table as a tax deduction because it "helps your hand eye coordination" and you're a surgeon. It's a load of crap.

That actually sounds useful. I mean, you need two things to be a surgeon: The knowledge about the human body and hand-eye coordination. The latter could trained playing air hockey (although there sure are better methods to train it).

I know there are parallels between things you do in starcraft and things you do in real life (a really lose flimsy one, I mean "managing many things at once" can you get ANY broader than that!?) but my point is I don't think Starcraft can help TEACH you skills that can be translated into real-life advantages.

 

[Reyalsfeihc]

There's nothing really managed in SC :|.

You spam harvesters until your mineral field is saturated (typically 3 harvesters per node) and you put 3 harvesters per gas geyser.

So...?

It's one thing to pick the right unit to counter what the enemy has. In the real world, it's not as simple as building infestors to counter MMM.

I'm pretty sure if you looked at the picture you'd see that they're using the ORIGINAL Starcraft to teach micro management, which is a lot harder since you're using 1998 scripting.