Let's Play with Academia: Parasocial-Interaction-Informed Pedagogy for the Zoom Classroom

Gabriel Elvery

Abstract

This paper proposes pedagogy for deploying the Let's Play format as part of online seminars in higher education. The technique is intended to enable practitioners to reap the benefits of using video games paired with the "think aloud" method to promote student engagement in Zoom classrooms and teach transferable critical analysis skills. Using a Let's Play format is designed to facilitate a gameplay viewing experience that guides oscillation between affective engagement and the process of critical analysis. The intended outcome of the research is to provide resources detailing a method for including video games in the online classroom in a way that will allow practitioners to do so without the support of an institutional infrastructure, and to explore how using parasocial interaction techniques utilised by Let's Play performers can create a more welcoming online teaching environment that encourages reciprocity between students and educators.

view extended abstract