The Playful University Club

Learning is created and nurtured through joy, engagement and play

CLUB MEETINGS GAME NIGHTS GAMES LIBRARY FAQ GAME DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS PLAYFUL ACTIVITIES TOOL KIT FIELDTRIPS FESTIVAL

Welcome

Welcome to our Playful University Club! We aim to CO-CREATE and promote a culture that can foster PLAY. This website is to share and develop playful academic practice.

Ultimately, we aim to make the University a place where learning is created and nurtured through joy, engagement and play, where learning to solve problems and overcome obstacles is a reward in its own right.

The Playful University Club will support students and colleagues to integrate play and playfulness within their daily lives and through their teaching, facilitating playful learning as part of a Compassionate University Community. In practice, this will occur through the co-creation and promotion of a culture that can foster play.

Girl jumping

Club meetings

Next Monthly Meeting – 24th February, 7:00pm. We are delighted to announce Shanissa Meah and Tom Nancarrow as this month’s speakers! Their session is titled 'A reflective evaluation and student experience of playful learning in higher education'.

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Game Nights

Come spend some time playing games with us during our Playful University Game Night on Zoom! We host a fun and relaxed evening session, perfect to unwind after a day of work. We play games such as ‘Just One’, ‘Bring Your Own Book’ and the recently enjoyed 'Codewords'.

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Games Library

Browse through the online Games Library to find games available to borrow. You can use them in your teaching sessions!

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Blogs

We would like to share with you our values, ideas and stories through writing blogs about journeys as playful academics and our experiences within and outside the playful University Club. Enjoy reading en let us know your stories on playfulness!

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Creative Fellow

Andy Field has received an Arts and Culture Creative Fellowship and will be working with The Playful University Club.

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FAQ

For Frequently Asked Questions

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What people say...

Thanks again, Maarten, for hosting a great Playful University online session with Alke Groppel-Wegener. I really enjoyed the exercises she introduced and her teaching/making approach to learning is fresh and inspired! How fortunate her students are to have such an unconventional tutor.

Annie Murdock (CircleTales®, The Adventure Storytelling Game, www.circletales.com)

The Playful University
2021-02-09T18:33:30+00:00

Annie Murdock (CircleTales®, The Adventure Storytelling Game, www.circletales.com)

Thanks again, Maarten, for hosting a great Playful University online session with Alke Groppel-Wegener. I really enjoyed the exercises she introduced and her teaching/making approach to learning is fresh and inspired! How fortunate her students are to have such an unconventional tutor.
WOW. I am so impressed that you managed to make us all so engaged on zoom yesterday! And to keep us after 5pm!

Dr Aurora Murphy (Lecturer, Academic Language and Learning Group, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)

The Playful University
2020-12-12T13:28:08+00:00

Dr Aurora Murphy (Lecturer, Academic Language and Learning Group, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)

WOW. I am so impressed that you managed to make us all so engaged on zoom yesterday! And to keep us after 5pm!
Attending regular games nights and games mornings has been a great way of de-stressing, connecting with colleagues from across the uni, and learning about fun new activities that I can use to jazz up my teaching.

Dr Caitlin Kight (Senior Academic Developer, SFHEA, PCAP, University of Exeter)

The Playful University
2020-12-12T13:27:50+00:00

Dr Caitlin Kight (Senior Academic Developer, SFHEA, PCAP, University of Exeter)

Attending regular games nights and games mornings has been a great way of de-stressing, connecting with colleagues from across the uni, and learning about fun new activities that I can use to jazz up my teaching.
The Playful University Club is a joyous find in my sometimes dry desert of EAP.  I came across the Monthly Meeting through Alke Gröppel Wegener, a pioneer in creativity in HE.  Since then, sessions from Nelressa Faye, Ian Turner and Pete King have all served as a reminder of why I came into teaching, how much I miss these creative approaches that I started out with and, more importantly, how I can integrate the ideas into my own teaching sessions.  Best of all, The Playful University Club is open to all and welcomes guests to the monthly meetings.  Thank you everyone at University of Exeter University!

Christine Lee (EAP Tutor, Centre for Academic Language and Development, university of Bristol)

The Playful University
2021-02-09T18:33:59+00:00

Christine Lee (EAP Tutor, Centre for Academic Language and Development, university of Bristol)

The Playful University Club is a joyous find in my sometimes dry desert of EAP.  I came across the Monthly Meeting through Alke Gröppel Wegener, a pioneer in creativity in HE.  Since then, sessions from Nelressa Faye, Ian Turner and Pete King have all served as a reminder of why I came into teaching, how much I miss these creative approaches that I started out with and, more importantly, how I can integrate the ideas into my own teaching sessions.  Best of all, The Playful University Club is open to all and welcomes guests to the monthly meetings.  Thank you everyone at University of Exeter University!
Thanks so much for letting me join you all last night add the Game Night. I learned a lot! Particularly like that book game.

Prof Alison James (PhD, Professor Emerita, University of Winchester, UK)

The Playful University
2021-02-09T18:33:15+00:00

Prof Alison James (PhD, Professor Emerita, University of Winchester, UK)

Thanks so much for letting me join you all last night add the Game Night. I learned a lot! Particularly like that book game.
I love your approach - I have been to a few workshops on play, and surprisingly, they were not very playful. But yours was. I love your short 'touch your toes' kind of activities. I love that you engaged us all in playing to learn. I love your three ideas about play: 1) it encourages risk; 2) it is not goal oriented, 3) it supports us to embrace failure. Basically, I loved it all.

Dr Aurora Murphy (Lecturer, Academic Language and Learning Group, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)

The Playful University
2021-02-09T18:33:43+00:00

Dr Aurora Murphy (Lecturer, Academic Language and Learning Group, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)

I love your approach - I have been to a few workshops on play, and surprisingly, they were not very playful. But yours was. I love your short 'touch your toes' kind of activities. I love that you engaged us all in playing to learn. I love your three ideas about play: 1) it encourages risk; 2) it is not goal oriented, 3) it supports us to embrace failure. Basically, I loved it all.
Through the Playful University Club, I had an opportunity to take a short course on turning my research into a game. It was a unique and compelling process that got me thinking not only about my research topic, but also about the learning process more generally, and how we could use games as a mechanism for facilitating deep, but also joyful, education for our students.

Dr Caitlin Kight (Senior Academic Developer, SFHEA, PCAP, University of Exeter)

The Playful University
2021-02-10T18:04:14+00:00

Dr Caitlin Kight (Senior Academic Developer, SFHEA, PCAP, University of Exeter)

Through the Playful University Club, I had an opportunity to take a short course on turning my research into a game. It was a unique and compelling process that got me thinking not only about my research topic, but also about the learning process more generally, and how we could use games as a mechanism for facilitating deep, but also joyful, education for our students.
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Latest news/blog posts

Play Champions programme: Playful Field Trip

 26 June 2021
The Playful Champions were very lucky to be able to take part in a remote field trip, hosted by Jana Wendler (https://www.playfuel.co.uk/) and Amy Strike (https://amystrike.com/). They organised...
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