ERIC Number: EJ783433
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Dec-14
Pages: 1
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-5982
EISSN: N/A
Community College Uses a Video-Game Lab to Lure Students to Computer Courses
Young, Jeffrey R.
Chronicle of Higher Education, v54 n16 pA26 Dec 2007
A computer lab has become one of the most popular hangouts at Northern Virginia Community College after officials decided to load its PCs with popular video games, install a PlayStation and an Xbox, and declare it "for gamers only." The goal of this lab is to entice students to take game-design and other IT courses. John Min, dean of business technologies on the college's campus, decided to create the Game Pit, as the lab is called, because he noticed that IT enrollment had been falling since 1999. It is too soon to tell whether the effort will raise enrollment, say professors in the department. At least one student playing here, though, says he plans to take a course next semester that he learned about at the Game Pit. The Game Pit has also helped create a sense of community at the college.
Descriptors: Video Games, Administrators, Computer Science, Community Colleges, Educational Strategies, Design, Course Selection (Students), Information Technology, Enrollment
Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Virginia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A