Games Based Learning MOOC

We’ve used World of Warcraft extensively as an example in the MOOC. What would it take to get World of Warcraft setup for your course or at your school?

We are planning to use it in a few fall classes in Business. We had to ask IT support to load it on campus and we found out we could use the same copy on another computer, so most of us loaded it at home too. Purchasing it was easy online with the campus credit card. But, when I went in to purchase 6 months of game time for 5 faculty, I created havoc:) They ok'd the purchase and I sent out everyone's codes to them. Then, I received an email that they had rescinded the purchase. I called the credit card company and they had it flagged because they said the online gaming was fraught with fraud. But, they did approve it. So, then I spent awhile with Blizzard support on the phone and found out that they had rescinded the purchase because they thought it was fraudulent. I assurred them that we were going to do this experiment and they let the purchase go through. They don't get very many purchases that large! The customer service was very supportive and pleasant to work with once they understood what I was trying to accomplish.

Heh, I can see why that might raise some red flags on their end. I'm glad you got it straightened out, though!

We cannot load it on the computers at FRCC (Front Range Community College - BCC) and I know that because I have been whining and crying to IT about it and some other games for a couple of years now. I've been told that we would need at 32GIG flash drives to hold the game. We are short on Bandwidth at the college too, it slows to, in my opinion, where they are down to having gerbils run in wheels to make it work. I also can't guarantee that my students all have gaming computers in their homes.

What kind of computers do you have for the students at your college?

Just came across this article and the use of WoW for education, or other MMORPGs, I found another where psychotherapists were entering the WoW in order to treat patients who have an "addiction" which they defined as playing "over 16 hours a day and neglecting .... [whatever]," so here is the interesting one on education: Use of MMORPG (WoW) in Education.

Hope you are enjoying your break!