College Using StarCraft to Teach Complex Management Skills

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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College Using StarCraft to Teach Complex Management Skills



The University of Florida has added an honors class to its roster that applies the skills learned in StarCraft to the real world.

Sorry curmudgeonly old professors that think videogames only rot children's brains: You can't keep videogames out of the classroom. They've been invading schools regularly over the past year, with the University of Florida the latest educational institution to implement a class based on a videogame. This time, it's one focused on StarCraft [http://www.amazon.com/Starcraft-II-Wings-Liberty-Pc/dp/B000ZKA0J6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1282936016&sr=8-1].

Whereas Wabash College has students study Portal [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102951-College-Professor-Requires-Students-to-Study-Portal] as an example of an author's literary analysis of a sociological aspect, the University of Florida's StarCraft class, called 21st Century Skills in StarCraft, focuses on the skills learned in the game and what value they present in the real world.

The class's description justifies itself by saying it's "important for professionals to be highly proficient in skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, resource management, and adaptive decision making." 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.

Nate Poling is a Ph.D. candidate at the University and came up with the idea for the course. Poling told Technology Review [http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/25626/]: "My problem-solving skills in StarCraft are the same problem-solving skills learned in school or the real world," and that StarCraft is simply a "tool" in the class's case just like a textbook. "In StarCraft you're managing a lot of different units and groups of different capacities," he continued. "It's not a stretch to think of that in the business world or in the work of a healthcare administrator."

It's all about learning to manage the resources at hand in the workplace, and StarCraft has plenty of resource management and hectic predicaments. While StarCraft isn't going to teach anyone how to manage a hospital, the theory is that it could wire the brain of someone educated as a hospital manager to think about situations and what's at hand more clearly. The train of thought is mirrored by others like Jane McGonigal that believe learning to problem solve in online games can save the world [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99240-ARG-Designer-Believes-Online-Gaming-Can-Save-the-World]. It's certainly an interesting theory.

Source: GamePolitics [http://gamepolitics.com/2010/08/26/university-florida-adds-class-based-starcraft]

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Feb 13, 2008
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"In StarCraft you're managing a lot of different units and groups of different capacities," he continued. "It's not a stretch to think of that in the business world or in the work of a healthcare administrator."
kekekekekekekkekekkekekeke...

Yes, actually that is quite a stretch.


Zerg Rush the market, guys!
 

Kollega

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Jun 5, 2009
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Not big surprise... thanks to it's remarkable balance, the micromanagement and resource management in Starcraft are absolutely brutal. I can play through the campaign, sure - but if i went up against a player who actually uses them, i'd lose in two minutes and thirty seven seconds.
 

ShakerSilver

Professional Procrastinator
Nov 13, 2009
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I like how people are accepting video games as part of life, and even using them to teach people. Take that Roger Ebert!

But StarCraft? What about C&C... (remembers Tiberian Twilight)... actually, forget what I just said.
 

8bitmaster

Devourer of pie
Nov 9, 2009
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I am waiting for the day when video game classes come to my college.



Still waiting.
 

oranger

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May 27, 2008
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In the same a way a comb can be a lethal weapon, anything at all can be used as a teaching tool if utilized properly. Video games just happen to make it fun.
 

Credge

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Apr 12, 2008
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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.
 

Sixties Spidey

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Jan 24, 2008
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God help them if they ever get Zerg Rushed. In all seriousness, this is freaking awesome. Props to them. I wonder if other schools will follow suit and employ different games to teach certain concepts. Using Bioshock to teach philosophy, perhaps?
 

Nouw

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Mar 18, 2009
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Nice choice of game! It really is the best one for managing resources.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Well thats certainly one way to apply games to real life. Not sure if I would choose SC for ir, but, intrestgn still
 

Danpascooch

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Apr 16, 2009
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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 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.
 

Gethsemani_v1legacy

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Oct 1, 2009
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Is it only me who can't see the line of thought in a future hospital adminstrator here:
"We are seeing an increase in heart-patients and most of our nursing staff isn't experienced with heart diseases. So, we imagine that the heart-patients are Mutalisks and the Heart Specialist nurses are Goliaths while normal nurses are Marines, right? So what we need to do is that we need to invest in weapon ugrades for our marines, that is to say we need to give our nurses more education in how to treat heart diseases."

It is an interesting prospect for sure. But just because the two are similar it doesn't necessarily mean you can lift out experience from one and use it in the other. StarCraft, unlike management, also has a lot to do being extremly good at mouse/keyboard-microing and knowing every single design, flaw and quirk of StarCraft.
 

imnot

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Apr 23, 2010
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danpascooch said:
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 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.
Dont say that, they might stop using games in lessons!
 

DanDeFool

Elite Member
Aug 19, 2009
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Why is Judicator Aldaris showing up as the unit pic for a Terran structure?

But other than that, I think there might be something to this. I always used to suck at Starcraft, until I realized (basically) "Oh! I'm supposed to be THINKING when I play this game!".
 

fanklok

Legendary Table User
Jul 17, 2009
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RebellionXXI said:
Why is Judicator Aldaris showing up as the unit pic for a Terran structure?

But other than that, I think there might be something to this. I always used to suck at Starcraft, until I realized (basically) "Oh! I'm supposed to be THINKING when I play this game!".
A terran player clicked on a nexus notice the lack of build options.

Huzzah go embracing this newfangled tech for learning purpose and what not.