By Rebecca V. Frazee and Lisa Stephens of FLEXspace.org, with several guest contributors (noted below).

To browse details, images, floor plans and more from spaces featured in this column, plus hundreds more, login to FLEXspace.org and visit the Gallery “FEATURED IN HIGHER ED AV MAGAZINE.”

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A great perk of writing a monthly column is absorbing details about tech evolution in real time! Just six months ago we included UCI’s eSports Arena with a focus on emerging technologies, and it seems interest in eSports has exploded!  Our normal, friendly “calls to contribute” was met with a huge response!  No surprise that eSports arenas and related spaces are gaining in popularity and are directly connected to student life and research initiatives.  Part of the “college experience” is learning, growing and engaging in extracurricular activities on campus, with eSports leveling a new field of competition, community, and collaboration across all ages and places. 

As a reminder, we want to emphasize that the “X” in FLEXspace stands for “eXchange.” FLEXspace.org brings together people interested in Pedagogy + Space + Technology, including teachers, faculty, space and facilities planners, A/V systems integration, instructional designers, architects and designers, researchers and decision makers in higher education, K-12, libraries, and museums. Likewise, we found that eSports shares a similar esprit de corps, bringing together and energizing those involved in campus leadership, student life, IT, edtech, athletics, residence halls, student affairs, academic partners, students, and more. 

When you look at the contributions of learning space examples in FLEXspace, the AV-IT community in particular has shown leadership in uploading spaces to benefit colleagues, understanding that “in order to receive, one must give.”  eSports seems to garner extra passion, where everyone we interviewed indicated plans to upload details of their spaces in FLEXspace, which will be curated into a gallery. Today, you can find rich detailed descriptions and stories behind the LMU Gaming Center, the eSports Arena at UC Irvine, the Spectrum eSports Arena at St. Mary’s, with more eSports examples coming soon, by logging into FLEXspace.org. 

Gracious contributors 

In this article we share highlights and stories from the campuses who contributed to the article, and included in the ‘eSports Sampler’ in FLEXspace:

• Bethany Lutheran College (BLC). Lucas Fricke, Assistant Professor, Spanish and Director of eSports. They have a varsity eSports team, a 30PC facility and a state-of-the-art broadcasting room.
• Grand Valley State University (GVSU). Eric Kunnen, Senior Director, IT Innovation and Research, Information Technology. GVSU is currently building out the University’s first eSports venue, with a planned grand opening in November, 2021. 
• Loyola Marymount University (LMU). Sarah Dickson, Technology Support Specialist , Information Technology Services, and Andrew Black, the Director of Campus Recreation and Student Facilities, shared the LMU Gaming Center in FLEXspace.
• St. Mary’s University. Jeff Schomburg, Executive Director of Academic Technology Services, launched their esport arena room right before the pandemic. 
• Old Dominion University (ODU). Grant Deppen, Assistant Director of Intramural Sports and eSports, Recreation and Wellness at Old Dominion University. They just finished The Monarch eSports Arena (MEA) is a 2,400+ sq. ft. of gaming space multi-purpose facility that is the home to ODU’s Varsity eSports teams and much more. 
• Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). Pinckney Benedict, Professor, Department of English/Creative Writing (Fiction), Director, Digital Humanities Lab.  They have a relatively new eSports facility.
• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Matthew Belskie, MSIS, Liaison to the Center for Faculty Excellence and Educational Technology Coordinator, Office of Arts & Sciences Information Services, PhD Student, School of Information and Library Science. UNC has a gaming arena, and a completely separate classroom space dedicated to game narrative and game-based pedagogy.
• Wayne State University (WSU). Damecia Donahue is a Librarian who focuses on exploring new modes of service related to innovation, technology, creativity, individuality, and teaching and learning through the Tech Bunker, an interdisciplinary lab developed in 2018 that functions as a hub for “technology reference.” 
• Yavapai Community College District (YC). Tom Aldridge, CTS, Assistant Director, Information Technology and Technology Support Services at Yavapai Community College District. YC has built an eSports space and are currently working to get the program off the ground.

First, let’s talk about the physical spaces themselves

The technology scope is impressive, as is comfort,convenience, and ‘familiarity’ for the participants.  Gaming chairs are at a premium, along with top level sound systems and all imaginable styles of caffeinated drinks. Various table heights and configurations. Eric Kunnen at GVSU said they had benefited by collaborating and partnering with Herman Miller, capitalizing on high-quality, state-of-the-art height adjustable desks and intentionally designed gaming chairs. 

Here are some design considerations we heard from various campuses:

• Both consoles and PCs, reminiscent of how many classrooms have both Mac and PC to make sure users have access to their ‘native/home’ operating environment as much as possible. 
• Acoustics. You must “account for noise so people can play in peace.”
• Aesthetics, while mainly visual versus functional, provides the proper atmosphere while creating an inviting, engaging, and exciting space. 
• Adjacency is a helpful consideration when selecting a space. That is, thinking about what is located nearby the Esports space, or what building the space is located. Locations such as student unions, close proximity to food service, and nearby technical support is helpful.
• Power, PCs, and Bandwidth.  Power usage ranks up there, and making sure all the electrical work and wiring was safe. High-performance gaming computers, high-speed network connections, routers, and infrastructure will ensure game play is efficient and effective.
• Ergonomics was referenced as an important consideration due to the length of time spent in the space, therefore, effective desks, chairs, and overall intentional design is key.
• Gender neutral restroom in the space.
• Wheelchair accessible stations
• Lockers away from all, no backpacks, no drinks or food
• Air quality

Matthew Belskie shared, “Long before COVID, hygiene was a concern – air handling is a critical need to prevent communicating flu or other illnesses.”  eSports for most (non-league) participants is recreational, so it’s a challenge to limit food and drink in sensitive electronic areas.  Staffing with TA’s is a common practice – to both provide oversight and technical assistance. It also helps to have unisex restrooms connected to the gaming facility which saves participant’s time while competing. 

Lucas Fricke at At BLU said, “We are blessed with a very modern building that filters the air every 10-15 minutes. The room is sanitized frequently and there are clorox towels and hand sanitizer always available. We also assign seats so students can know who sat where and contact trace when necessary.” 

Tom Aldridge at Yavapai said they were able to take advantage of the existing main computer lab/computer commons building, “so the room was already designed with accessible and available power, data, and additional cooling capacity. The Facilities Management team here at YC partnered with ITS and TSS to make the space professional, while being economical at the same time. The desks were reallocated from storage and painted black, the acoustical ceiling tiles were painted black and new carpet was installed. In total the space contains 27 computer systems, two banks of 12 for competition, two single coaches stations, and an online/hot spare system if needed. 13 of the systems were reallocated from an older project and updated, so only 14 new systems plus monitors were purchased. The room is built on a raised floor with a power and data bus available under the floor panels. This was advantageous, but did require careful planning to reorient for e-Sports.”

Other basic design features are lockers or bins for storage of backpacks, books, etc.  Several folks shared horror stories of an unintentional backpack swing taking out a tower or monitor.   When planning space it helps to be intentional about the “front porch” settings, lighting and proximity to refreshments that encourage consumption near, but not necessarily at a gaming station – think mall food court with juice bars and Starbucks or similar.  Glass walls enable viewers to enjoy competitive displays while reminding gamers that their enthusiasm or disappointment is very public. Some campuses are using their  facilities for securing sponsor support through ‘naming’ rights, for example, a Mountain Dew branded refrigerator at Yavapai.

Healthy networks make all the difference

Throughput is everything – dedicated networks for eSports can make the difference between successful adoption, or students rejecting an institutional goal of facility excellence.  Lessons learned from academic pursuit of supercomputing is well adapted to eSports efforts.  Latency caused by firewall management issues is forgivable in most academic applications, but when it comes to video and eSports – networks and additional ports may need to be placed outside of the usual firewall configurations.

Sarah Dickson from LMU shared some of their challenges. “From a computer management standpoint, one challenge we faced is how much manual work needs to go into setting the computers up and keeping them updated. Most games do not allow for silent installation for deployment and creating a thick image is not necessarily feasible when you have multiple games that are 40-50GB in size. So we manually installed the games on each computer, and we also manually update them periodically. Fortunately, we have not found too much of an issue with just letting the games update when they are launched.

This also introduces another challenge of maintaining a consistent experience and preventing students from downloading or installing additional software or games. Most of our labs use DeepFreeze, but if we keep the computers frozen the games would need to update on every launch. To combat this, we use ggLeap to lock down the computer UI so that students can only play specific games or launch specific apps and do not have access to browsers or device settings.”

UCI’s OIT found that experimentation over time identified specific connections for whitelisting.  Some games and game launchers required administrative privileges, which typically are not available on public computers for security reasons. OIT was able to test and verify that the GUI replacement and time/application management software used in the arena employed many additional safety precautions to prevent unwanted access to system files and the eSports network.

Maintaining arena machines is challenging because games are often patched weekly to fix urgent problems. Extremely fast drives and large amounts of storage are required for game performance. UCI approved a new diskless boot system and installed two servers in the arena to store the master image which mitigated security concerns by wiping and re-imaging public PC’s on shutdowns/reboots. 

Pedagogy in eSports spaces – “I can’t imagine going back to a conventional classroom.” 

In addition to an eSports arena, UNC has a completely separate classroom space dedicated to game narrative and game-based pedagogy, Greenlaw Gameroom | DLC (unc.edu). And Pinckney Benedict at SIUC is happy to draw attention to the “good uses to which eSports arenas—often maligned or overlooked—can be put.” Pinckey shared, “Here at SIUC, I’m using our relatively new eSports facility as a classroom for my two undergrad fiction classes and for an Honors class called Born Digital: Publishing in the 21st Century. We’re playing narrative games of various sorts, gathering in MMOs (Fallout 76, for instance) to have group adventures, spending time in simulators and virtual reality, and just generally investigating what the future of fiction looks like, from the writer’s perspective. The arena gives us access to a dozen beefy networked PCs, all of them PCVR capable, and an adjoining space for mobile VR (we utilize Quest 2 hardware), plus the necessary robust bandwidth that we need.  It’s a unique instance on our campus of collaboration between Student Life and academics. To be honest, I can’t imagine going back to a conventional classroom after this experience.”

Lucas at BLC said that the eSports centers provide a “great academic boost in a pinch” when students joined their hyflex/virtual classes via Zoom from the eSports facility. “It was easier for them to join the class from the eSports room than get all the way back to their dorm room in time for class.” 

Breaking down silos with top-down, bottom-up, and cross-functional interest 

Our conversations began with a tough opener… are these spaces “nice to have” or “need to have” as part of a college experience? How did campus leadership come to support (or question) these investments? A surprising number of spaces were developed “top down” with leadership seeking signature spaces. “Our president has engaged the campus community through acceleration teams, huddles, and put forth a variety of initiatives to carry us forward with a bold new strategy, and Esports is a key area of innovation as we look into the future,” said Eric Kunnen from Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in Michigan. According to Lucas Fricke at Bethany Lutheran College (BLC), ”Bethany invested into eSports primarily because we have a very successful alum in the eSports world. Erik “Doa” Lonnquist is the “Al Michaels” of eSports broadcasting.” 

Tom at Yavapai said the support of leadership made the program a reality, though their efforts were first met with some resistance. “Sacrificing a learning space for athletics, albeit eSports, was met with some reticence over any real resistance… people just really didn’t know what it was. Once the space was complete and the visible “wow-factor” kicked in, it’s now a bit of a showpiece people want to see. The space kind of sells itself once people are able to visit in person.”

Many folks indicated that gaming was a natural outgrowth of residential network (RES-NET) demand, with IT budgets upticking to meet bandwidth demands.  Additional evidence could be tracked through growth in help tickets and web analytics highlighting FAQ hits – for example, “How do I connect my gaming device?”  

Grant Deppen from ODU, agreed that there were a number of factors driving eSports facilities at ODU. “Most importantly, we had direct support from multiple institutional VP’s so financial and philosophical barriers were much less of a concern than someone that has a bottom-up approach. We looked at it initially as an engagement option for formal teams, student clubs, and drop-in gamers. In essence, we were legitimizing the informal gaming that was already occurring. We also saw the connectivity between gaming and STEM fields, which are an institutional focus. We had data on the number of gamers involved formally on campus as well as game console registrations through our IT Dept from Residence Halls and website hits on our servers to game-based websites. 

We also recognized the opportunity to connect teams/players to tech firms and alumni. The reality is, to accomplish the goals that a robust program can achieve, there has to be a dedicated space for it. Shared space use can be logistically difficult so we made sure it was in a location that had hours to meet drop-in use but also evenings. Using a residence hall created access control issues, so we went with our student center. Ultimately, we decided that creating a space meets the needs of the incoming generation of students and their passions.”

Which leads to the issue of faculty and administrative championing. UCI cast an early mold that reached beyond entertainment by including neurobiology research, and perhaps more importantly realized early-adopter benefits of space that enticed students to remain on-campus rather than migrating to locations that are potentially disruptive and outside of campus jurisdiction. Eric agreed, at GVSU sometimes initiatives are top down, however, some come about through a ground swell of interested and passionate students, staff, or faculty. 

Research interest is growing

Some researchers are exploring gaming-related questions, such as how does gaming impact kinesiology and brain development? Is there an increase of repetitive strain injury as the result of time spent in gaming posture? What about issues of gaming toxicity and bullying behavior and the impact on justice and equity in social gaming environments? How might we measure these? Will AV teams be called upon for installation of new types of human surveillance and sensing devices? These and many other issues surfaced during our peer conversations. For example, at Old Dominion, they’re starting to look into physiology and psychological aspects related to first-person shooter games.

Can “E” sports be Everything, for Everyone?

Perhaps the most interesting elements of our conversation revolved around the tremendous positive impact that eSports spaces are making on campus culture. All the campuses we talked to emphasized that these eSports spaces serve as a hub for socialization, recreation, community, and academics, bringing together different campus departments, and students from various majors. Students from different majors “get out of the dorms and into a ‘supervised’ areas” where they can connect and form friendships and interdisciplinary bonds. Grant Deppen at Old Dominion said that these spaces provide “a communal space that puts gamers together in-person, for the very first time. This is something that has been missing from gaming in many respects. It provides the same sense of community that traditional sports or other student organizations do to a group that was previously isolated.” 

Damecia Donahue said students come together in the eSports space at Wayne State from med school, engineering, broadcasting/journalism and collaborate across areas of study. “As part of the eSports club, two students from journalism and computer science decided to collaborate on a joint senior capstone project.” 

Eric Kunnen concurred. ““Providing a space where all students can access top-notch gaming computers “levels the playing field” and removes financial and technological barriers. It is apparent that dedicated eSports spaces provide many socialization benefits such as allowing students to gather with diverse others who share a common interest. GVSU’s eSports venue will encourage students to come together in new ways outside of class and beyond the dorms, contributing to their sense of community and belonging. On the academic side, GVSU is actively working to wrap around curriculum in unique ways that intersect the eSports industry. We anticipate many positive benefits that the new dedicated space will bring- a place to apply what students learn in their coursework as well as a location for league play, camps, special events, etc.  Our view is that this Esports space will be a catalyst that will provide more opportunities for  existing student clubs and organizations, while enabling the university to meet the needs of students across the eSports continuum, from recreational gaming to high-level competition.”

eSports spaces provide new enrollment pathways for STEM and other fields

According to Eric Kunnen, “GVSU has an actively engaged club and student organization around Esports, and administratively it was clear that it was time to more intentionally invest in Esports to expand the reach of the university, to diversify and create additional enrollment pathways, and to capitalize on the opportunities that intersect with the curriculum, allowing the university to offer a distinctive approach that folds into a growing community conversation. Furthermore, the collegiate eSports scene is growing rapidly and it was time for GVSU to “level-up” to provide GVSU students with the basic equipment (gaming computers, connectivity, and furniture) that will allow our students to compete with peers across other institutions.”  Grant Deppen at Old Dominion agreed it’s a great recruitment avenue, especially for attracting out of state students. Sense of Community/Belonging: A communal space puts gamers together in-person, for the very first time. This is something that has been missing from gaming in many respects. It provides the same sense of community that traditional sports or other student organizations do to a group that was previously isolated.

Tom Aldridge at YC said eSports is of interest to regional economic development for the county. “There is a huge huge demand for IT professionals and not enough to fill those positions. Gaming is a gateway into IT and other areas. There are great opportunities for apprenticeships and internships related to the ‘tech’ set up aspect of gaming, like computer tech, cyber security, programming, or to learn the business side of it, similar to what you see with other collegiate sports and athletes. They come for the eSports, and they get involved in other related aspects. There are many career possibilities — not just in being a competitive gamer, but in understanding the technology and ecosystems around the gaming culture.” Lucas Fricke at BLC agreed that eSports boosts enrollment, attracting students they wouldn’t normally see from more liberal arts students to now more computer science. At BLC, they recruit at high schools, virtual camps, and run iti like a varsity sport. “It’s competitive, intense.”

Lucas Fricke agreed about how gaming seeps into many aspects of campus life at BLC. “We are a nationally ranked program. Our League of Legends team finished 3rd in the national collegiate tournament last spring. The attention has been very positive. We house nearly 50 students, from a variety of majors, and this feeds our STEM programs, they’re seeing how they can connect eSports to their own majors. For example, students are composing music for games, the drum line is now playing songs from computer games, paintings around campus are of digital images from games.”  

eSports give students a voice 

It’s a short hop to begin ratcheting up awareness of social justice issues, fostering more open dialogue and encouraging students to serve as role models in their online spaces.  UNC’s Matthew Belskie reminded us that, “Gaming anonymity unfortunately invites toxicity in the form of antisocial behavior; frequently targeting LGBTQ+, women, BIPOC (black, Indigenous and people of color). It can be bullying, physical threats, language, dirty stuff. A lot of eSports grew out of the wild west, and so it’s pretty entrenched.” These elements can be well-described when uploading the “case story” along with the physical attributes of eSports facilities, including some VERY artful space rehab stories. However, Damecia D from Wayne State wanted to make sure that the ‘non-gaming’ community doesn’t get a false negative impression. “Our students are taking the lead on this. The eSports gaming club and the anime club joined forces to host workshops on toxicity to shed light on this issue, and make it known that they’re against it, it’s not tolerated, and focus on the positive aspects. They’ve been very vocal about this, and it’s another example of students coming together. They’re doing this on their own.” Lucas agreed, ‘It’s local, organic, non-discriminatory.’ 

So many different spaces, yet many similar benefits

In summary, there are many academic and non-academic benefits that campuses may realize with eSports programs and facilities. Andrew Black of LMU summed up the benefits nicely below.

• Improved student engagement and retention.
• Increase interest in attending our school.
• Building a sense of community.
• Opportunity for more students to represent our school on a national level.
• Collaboration opportunities between academic partners and student affairs.
• Building a national brand. Many collegiate eSports competitions have more than 10,000 online spectators.
• Revenue generation.  In the past year both the Big Ten and Big East have added eSports to its conference and TV networks.
• Debunking the stigma associated with gaming. 

You can find a rich detailed description and story behind the LMU Gaming Center as well as other eSports examples, by logging into FLEXspace.org. And remember to share your campus eSports spaces in FLEXspace as well!

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Want to contribute to the FLEXspace Community?

The growing FLEXspace community is always looking for the latest examples of innovative and effective learning spaces. Please share your campus spaces by logging into FLEXspace.org, and contact Rebecca or Lisa if you would like to be featured in an upcoming issue of Higher Ed AV magazine.

BIOS

The FLEXspace Team

LISA STEPHENS, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean, Digital & Online Education
School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, The University at Buffalo
Project Director, FLEXspace.org 

Lisa serves as Assistant Dean at the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences leading the Office of Digital & Online Education, and also serves as Senior Strategist for Academic Innovation in the Office of the SUNY Provost.  She enjoys an appointment in the UB Department of Communication as an Adjunct Associate Professor. Her SUNY portfolio includes leadership of FLEXspace.org™ and serves as the SUNY Partner Manager for Coursera.

REBECCA V. FRAZEE, EdD
Faculty, Learning Design & Technology Program
San Diego State University
Associate Director, FLEXspace.org 

Rebecca teaches in the Learning Design and Technology program at San Diego State University and is the FLEXspace.org Manager. She enjoys experimenting with new technology tools and techniques to support active learning and team collaboration in higher ed and the workplace. Rebecca is a singer and songwriter and has been having fun with asynchronous ‘socially distanced’ recording projects this year. Contact Rebecca at rfrazee@sdsu.edu, and Twitter at @rebeccafrazee.

The Flexible Learning Environments eXchange (FLEXspace.org) is an award winning community and open digital repository for higher ed that houses a growing collection of user-contributed content “by campuses for campuses,” with detailed examples of formal and informal learning spaces ranging from multimedia studios, makerspaces, computer labs, hybrid/flexible classrooms, and huddle spaces to large exhibit spaces, simulation labs and renovated lecture halls. FLEXspace was launched in 2012 as a collaboration between SUNY, the CSU Cal State University system, and Foothill-DeAnza Community College District and has since grown to include over 5000 members from 1400 campuses around the world, with PennState joining the partnership in 2019. FLEXspace won the Campus Technology Innovators Award in 2016, and the California Higher Education (CHEC) Collaborative Conference Focus on Efficiency Award in 2018.

FLEXspace users include practitioners, experts and decision makers in higher education, K-12, libraries, and museums who are focused on campus planning and facilities, learning technology, A/V systems integration, instructional design, teaching, and research. The FLEXspace portal provides a sophisticated suite of features that enables users to document and showcase their own campus learning spaces, share research, best practices and tools for planning.