What to Teach about Video Games, and How? An Action-Research Project with Undergraduate University Students

The paper presents and discusses an action-research carried out with a group of undergraduate students at the University of Parma, Italy. In order to study what to teach about video games, how, and what kinds of media competence to develop, a 30-hours long workshop was designed and implemented. In it, students analyzed video games, studied their characteristics, as well as invented, designed, and produced an action game. The results were collected with qualitative methods and are discussed at three levels: 1) the structure of the syllabus, 2) the skills acquired by the students, and 3) the effectiveness of the course in training prospective teachers on the specific methodology of video game education.