Facilitating creativity in vocational computer game development courses: the role of technology and pedagogy

The capacity for creative thinking in the computer game development industry is a generic skill that employers value highly in their employees. Although creativity is regarded as an important employability skill, it is a quality in which tertiary graduates are often lacking. Thus, there is a need to promote the development of creative skills in game development courses. The literature suggests that facilitators need to be mindful of allowing students to be creatively inquisitive, encourage group ideation, and provide support for students to assist in the realisation of creative concepts. Technology plays an important role in game development and can be used to foster creativity in many ways. This paper discusses the links between the pedagogical approaches, teaching strategies and technologies that can be employed by game development teachers to encourage creative idea development. It reports on a qualitative study on encouraging creativity in game development students that involved game development teachers from Technical and Further Education (TAFE) colleges in Melbourne, Australia. The paper presents some of the initial findings of the study that describe how various technologies and pedagogical approaches can be used by teachers to encourage creativity in game development courses.