Summary
In this College 2 Career Forum, students participate in a session about careers related to Esports and gaming.
Essential Questions
What career opportunities related to Esports and gaming are available?
Learning Goals
Identify professions related to Esports and gaming.
Make connections between career-specific academic requirements, qualifications, and skills.
Materials List
Career Exploration Slides (attached)
Careers in Esports Job Postings handout (attached)
Engage
5 Minute(s)
Use the attached Career Exploration Slides to guide the session. Display slide 3 and introduce the essential question:
What career opportunities related to Esports and gaming are available?
Move to slide 4 and introduce students to the Collective Brain Dump strategy. Tell students to think about the question, "What do you love about Esports and gaming?". Have students share their responses and as they share, write down responses on poster board or Google Doc. Next, have students think about the question, "What kinds of skills are related to what you enjoy about Esports and gaming?" and have students share their thoughts while writing down responses on poster board or Google Doc. Tell students to keep the skills they have shared in mind as they move through the activity.
Explore
8 Minute(s)
Pass out one job posting from the attached Careers in Esports Job Postings handout to students. Move to slide 5 and provide time for students to look at the sample job postings that are related to Esports. Encourage students to work in pairs to highlight or underline:
Academic qualifications
Specific experience required
Strengths or qualities that stand out
Remind students to look for the skills they have already identified as they review the job postings. Ask for volunteers to share the needed skills and experience that they notice. Have students talk to a partner about the questions they have after reviewing the job postings and ask for students to share those questions. Have a discussion about how skills the students are practicing by playing Esports transfer to careers.
Explain
5 Minute(s)
Move to slide 6 and introduce students to the Esports Careers Poster. Draw attention to the overarching career clusters on the poster and the specific careers that fall into each career cluster. Provide a couple of minutes for students to examine the poster. Students will be asked to share connections they are finding from their job posting exploration, skills brainstorming, and any questions they have related to the information on the poster.
Extend
8 Minute(s)
Tell students to move around the room and chart where job skills fall within the career clusters that have been discussed. Have students talk to an elbow partner about what jobs they find most interesting and what skills are needed for those jobs. Ask for volunteers to share their thoughts.
Evaluate
5 Minute(s)
Provide each student with two sticky notes. Move to slide 8 and introduce students to the I Used to Think, But Now I Know strategy. On the first sticky note, have students write "I Used to Think" followed by one sentence they knew about Esports related careers prior to attending the session. On the second sticky note, have students write "But Now I Know" followed by something they have learned during the session. Tell students to place their sticky notes on large poster paper as they leave the session.
Follow-Up Activities
For other sessions related to Esports consider the Esports Casting and Esports Careers resources. (Link other resources)
Research Rationale
The virtual environment in which esports take place is highly task-oriented and competitive, e-athletes must be ready to provide fast responses and efficient decision making (Tang, 2018). Esports offers a fun, interactive environment for students to learn soft skills such as teamwork and communication, and that's one reason it is being implemented in STEM education (Rothwell & Shaffer, 2019). The requirement for high-pressure problem-solving and quick strategic planning are skills that students can build when taking part in esports. Where traditional team sports, such as basketball and football, require physical skills, esports require more technical skills and mental preparedness. In a study of an educational esports league, authors discuss the learning opportunities provided during play, as well as discussion of the process of starting and maintaining a league, and recommendations for building a league (Cho, Tsaasan, & Steinkuehler, 2019).
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Collective Brain Dump. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/111
K20 Center. (n.d.). I Used to Think, but Now I Know. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/137