Esports: Building the Future Workforce

Who plays esports?

ADULTS TEENS

Source: PEW 2011, 2015 © Samueli Foundation / North America Scholastic Esports Federation True Stat: More people watched the Intel Extreme Masters esports competition than the World Series in 2017. Source: thegamer.com, July 31, 2018

True Stat: Amazon bought Twitch.TV in 2014 for $970 million. Source: Business Insider, August 25, 2014

Community Board © Samueli Foundation / North America Scholastic Esports Federation Image Placeholder

PHASE 1: START A LEAGUE

PHASE 2: BUILD A CURRICULUM

PHASE 3: EVALUATE & ASSESS

PHASE 4: CLUBS & LEARNING

Image Placeholder

Ecosystem of Esports © Samueli Foundation / North America Scholastic Esports Federation UCI ESPORTS: Mark Deppe

© Samueli Foundation / North America Scholastic Esports Federation Competition ● Scholarships for League of Legends and Overwatch ● Players as role models ● Coaching and support staff ● Support for competitive club teams

Highlights ● Champions of 2018 College League of Legends ● Second place for 2018 Tespa Overwatch Collegiate Championship

© Samueli Foundation / North America Scholastic Esports Federation Academics & Research ● Support for undergraduate research ● Collaboration with games and research labs on campus ● UCI’s Computer Game Science major ● Helped build curriculum for high schools

Highlights ● UCI Esports Conference 2018 ● Stark Lab Minecraft study ● UCI Esports Research studies

© Samueli Foundation / North America Scholastic Esports Federation Community ● Significant student gaming population ● Partnership with NASEF ● Esports summer camps ○ Elite bootcamps ○ Girls in Gaming ○ Esports Access ● Club support ● New Player Nights

Highlights ● 77% of UCI students play video games ● UCI Esports Inclusivity Plan ● First Girls in Gaming camp in 2017 ● At least four top 4 club teams in the nation

© Samueli Foundation / North America Scholastic Esports Federation Entertainment ● State-of-the-art UCI Esports Arena ● Shoutcasting station ● Streaming program ● Content team ● Events (tournaments, viewing parties)

Highlights ● Official English broadcast for the League of Legends International College Cup 2018 ● Streaming class in Winter 2018 ● LA Gladiators x LA Rams fan event

© Samueli Foundation / North America Scholastic Esports Federation Careers ● Create student jobs through Esports program ● Professional development ● Connect students to job opportunities ● Industry panels, networking events

Highlights ● Hired over 40 student staff in 2018 ● At least six alumni with jobs in esports ● Networking Night 2018 with speakers from Blizzard Entertainment, Twitch, Intel, Immortals/LA Valiant

Improve visual acuity & attention Increase problem solving skills (Green & Bevelier). (Adachi & Willoughby).

Foster scientific reasoning (Clark; Associated with higher math Steinkuehler & Duncan; NRC). achievement (Bowers & Berland).

Accelerate language learning Strongly associated with technology (Young et. al.). fluency (Hayes).

Improve digital and print literacy (Gee; Leander; Steinkuehler).

Associated with higher GPA for HS students (Fox et. al.).

Fosters personal growth (Richard & Ares).

Increases satisfaction with school (Astin).

Associated with higher degree completion (Ryan).

Cultivates persistence - specifically, gains in “internal locus of attribution” (Pascarella et. al.).

● Formative, Qualitative Evaluation Research Question: What are potential alignments between NASEF & learning? ● Data Collection: ○ Field observations at participating League school sites (20 hrs) ○ Focus groups with student & club members (n=39) ○ Focus groups with GMs (n=10) & coaches (n=5) ○ In-person interviews with parents at Championship (n=10)

• Strong evidence of STEM Problem-Solving, Argument, Synthesizing Information (CANGSS Standards) • “Comparatively to like other games that I’ve played, I’ve never really analyzed a game more closely than I have with League. Mostly because of my coach.”(League Student, School 2) • Organic, unprompted creation of STEM subject area learning activities • At School 6,GM tasked students to produce their own website for the team. • At School 1, students made mini movies for their school’s TV station. • At School 4, the GM and coach gave homework assignments on learning various champions’ strengths and weaknesses and reporting back, such as screencapping the game load screen and analyzing the pros and cons of team composition. C Ⓒ 2018 Samueli Foundation 32 Year One Research Findings: SEL

• Strong evidence for self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, & responsible decision-making (CASEL)

• “I feel like me personally, like I’ve become a lot more calm as a person. I’ve learned to like, not get angry when you’re doing something or you or your team messes up.”(League Student, School 3)

• “I think [our coach] helped us to like, be more like introspective to like look at ourselves and try to see what we were doing incorrectly. He also like, helped us kind of control our own toxicity.”(League Student, School 4)

C Ⓒ 2018 Samueli Foundation 33 Year Two Research ● Matched comparisons w/in school Within School ● Retrospective post tests only Gender GPA ● Non-randomized groups ● 2 Instruments ○ PEAR assessment ○ Self-report survey ● Club health score

● Research Question: What are the impacts of the NASEF league on ...

○ STEM-related attitudes? ○ GPA & subject grades ○ 21st century skills ○ School attendance ○ SEL skills ○ School affiliation ○ Relationships with adults? ○ Collaboration, Communication, ○ Relationships with peers? Emotional Self-Regulation (self report)

● Data Collection ○ 8 participating schools, n=300 students RECRUITING ○ $25 gift card incentives NOW!

Dr. Constance Steinkuehler, UCI Mark Deppe, UCI + NASEF Ben Tecker, High School Senior - Esperanza High School Tom Turner, Orange County Department of Education