Students will study 21st century business skills in a 26th century war this semester.
“21st Century Skills in StarCraft” is an online course offered by the College of Education beginning this month. The class studies the real-time-strategy skills found in Blizzard Entertainment’s futuristic video game series “StarCraft” and how they can be applied in real-world business environments.
Nathaniel Poling, a third-year Ph.D. student who created the course, said these video games require critical thinking, quick decision-making, resource management, micro-managing and macro-managing.
Poling said that in “StarCraft” and its recently released sequel, “StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty,” players control and develop their base and units with the ultimate goal of overpowering and defeating their opponents.
“You have to gather, analyze and synthesize many orders of data in a constantly changing environment,” he said.
Students will have to study concepts in the context of the video game and use papers, diagrams and graphics to express how those concepts relate to the real world.
There is no textbook for the course. The only requirements are a copy of the first or second video game, familiarity with the series and a computer with an off-campus Internet connection.
Poling said the class is full, and there are no plans yet to offer this course in the future. Right now he is focusing on making sure this semester runs smoothly.
“It’s very work intensive,” Poling said. “It’s more than just gameplay.”
