The Vision of Game-based University

I have a vision. The vision indicates that in 17 years from now, the nature and characteristics of universities would evolve to become game-based learning entities. There would be a need to redefine the concept of “university”, in order to reflect its roles and responsibilities to human society.

In 2050, university would become a place to learn universal knowledge and skills in any subject matters. Its backbone has been set up—the Internet. The issue with the status quo of Internet now is that there is an absence of content evaluation, at least to most of the contents posted online. Self-regulation is not sufficient because those who practice it might not have the authority and / or capability in determining the level of reliability or trustworthiness of the contents.  To establish such capability would take time, effort and financial resources, but I believe this is achievable in 17 years. Once this is done, the issue would become a non-issue. I began 

University should be a place of learning for everybody, or in extreme scenario, for certain animals. My mother has never studied in school in her life, but she is an intelligent woman who knows a lot about Malaysian Chinese children’s learning—better than me who has a PhD in education; and she is very skillful in handling household matters—better than my wife who is a medical doctor. To me, she deserves at least a diploma in household management, but there is no way the current formal educational system in Malaysia could accept her for an academic course or programme. However, with the advancement of Web 2.0 technology and game-based learning technology, my mother could learn a lot through internet and games. Talking about games, I still remember that when my sister and I bought our first game console using our angpow in 1990, the Famicom, my mother played along with us and always beat us in certain games like Tetris, Snooker etc. Today, after my sister bought her a Samsung Galaxy Tablet, she continues to beat me in mobile games like Candy Crush Saga. Indeed, I am proud of her in-game achievement. In the case of animals, I have been viewing YouTube videos featuring how animals "play" games on iPhone, iPad, etc.

YouTube video: Reptile Playing Ant Crusher

YouTube video: Cat's painting on iPad

I remember reading a science fiction, titled Ready Player One by Ernest Cline last year when I stayed in San Francisco. The fictional world depicted in the book highlights that the Internet and gaming culture have evolved into a creation known as OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation), a massively multiplayer online simulation game. Whoever has access to the OASIS can receive free education, discarding the barriers of social and economical background.

To preview how a primitive version of OASIS as of now, I am taking courses offered by Open Learning. The first course that I take is Gamification, conducted by Dr. Tom Benjamin from University of NSW. Why not you all have a try yourself too?