ASU partners with Games for Change to give students credit for video game-based achievements

Arizona State University has partnered with a nonprofit to educate students through video gaming.

Through the partnership with Games for Change, students will earn microcredentials, or digital badges for participating in “hackathons” or picking up skills from playing games.

Mark Ollila is the founding director of ASU’s Endless Games and Learning Lab.

“There’ll be continually excited students that are sharing their micro credentials around what they’ve learned in games based learning. And it’s really having that acknowledgement that there’s a lot of criticism around games, but games are so powerful in terms of the learning that can come from it,” he said.

He cited SimCity as an example of how people can learn about urban planning and resource management.

Ollila says the gaming and learning lab focuses on using games not just as a learning tool but as an economic opportunity.

He says games serve as an important resource.

“So the big emphasis I really want to have is that games are a powerful tool for achieving scale for examining and understanding learning that's been taking place while you're making games and playing games,” he said.