Inicio Para jugadores Player Profiles Profile: West Nottinghamshire College

Profile: West Nottinghamshire College

Profile by Jay Watamaniuk

Crushing your foes and driving them before you amongst the lamentations of their women (and men...this is an equal opportunity lamentation) is how Neverwinter Nights is generally expected to be used. Some enterprising staff at West Nottinghamshire College are changing that expectation though, and they're building excitement in their students at the same time. A team of staff and students have taken Neverwinter Nights and turned it into a learning tool to capture student interest in a wide variety of areas.

Is there a website for your school?

http://www.westnotts.ac.uk

Could you introduce yourself and explain what you do?

My name is Nigel Oldham and I am CTL (Curriculum Team Leader) in the Computer Science department at West Nottinghamshire College in England. The college has around 20,000 full time and part time learners on the books. My role is to guide and direct staff and course development and content. My manager is Gavin Peake, and Piers Ching is the other CTL in the area.

How does Neverwinter Nights fit into your role at the College?

We have written scenarios in Neverwinter Nights to capture the imagination of the learners. Within the scenarios, all the educational outcomes for their qualification can be met ('qualification' is like being given a diploma or certificate: it proves you completed the tasks or prerequisites to graduate/complete your program). The desire to complete the scenario drives the learners to learn how to solve the puzzles in the game. These scenarios can be created about anything from learning punctuation to programming in C++.

In addition, we have written programs that capture the student's actions within the game and generate evidence for the awarding bodies. Hence, the learners gain a qualification in this modified Neverwinter Nights environment they enjoy. Neverwinter Nights is used to encourage students to learn how to complete these outcomes and record when they have attained them. With imagination, it can be used for any qualification.

This fits in with the college philosophy that learning should be fun.

Can you explain how Neverwinter Nights has been used at your school?

We believe that learning should be fun and have used it to ease learners back into education through a medium they are familiar with or to spice up a subject viewed as uninteresting.

I understand that you have had a great deal of interest in your work. Would you care to elaborate?

Many other colleges have shown an interest in what we are doing and we plan to role out the development UK-wide. Schools have also shown interest and the Basic Skills Agency (a nationally funded body) has offered some development funding to explore the educational uses of Neverwinter Nights.

What are you presently working on that relates to this project?

At present, we have had many of the units (scenarios) written passed by the EV (External Verifier) for the awarding body and several hundred learners have already achieved qualifications. We have nearly 200 copies of the game and plan to put about 500 learners through various qualifications this year. This will be a pilot, and in future years we expect many more learners to achieve this way.

Do you have any plans for the future with regards to using Neverwinter Nights?

Many. On-site, we plan to enlarge the portfolio of scenarios we have and target more subjects that are viewed as uninteresting by the learners. For the wider picture, we have had considerable interest in Neverwinter Nights from other colleges.

You program has been short-listed for the prestigious Beacon Award. Can you explain what this is?

I guess I could best describe it as the Oscars of the Further Education world! All the principals from Further Education colleges in the UK gather on one night (no red carpet). There are approximately 550 of them. The award we are short listed for is the The Becta Award for the effective use of ILT to enhance teaching and support learning. No one knows who has won until the announcement is made on stage and the award is awarded, so to speak. You can visit the Beacon Awards site for more information.

Want to comment on this article or read what others have to say about it? Join the official discussion!