Exploring Serious Play in the Engineering Classroom to Support the "Joyification" of Education and Learning

Serious play has the potential to enable creative and advanced learning experiences while incorporating enjoyable/fun learning activities. This can be highly relevant in engineering education, where the gravity and responsibility associated with the profession can be daunting for both students and educators. This study explores the integration of serious play in the software engineering classroom. The exploration aimed to transform classroom dynamics and find more effective ways to connect students with the gravity of the engineering discipline while enhancing student satisfaction and understanding during the learning process and adding fun elements. Two distinct serious play activities were designed and evaluated. The first was inspired by Stanford's D.School's Gift Giving Project and the Lego Serious Play activity, while the second drew inspiration from popular board games like Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. Both serious play activities were evaluated in early-year undergraduate and graduate software engineering classrooms, where qualitative feedback was gathered to measure student perception toward the joyification of their education and learning. This paper describes the designed serious play activities, discusses student evaluation results, and discusses opportunities for continual improvement.