Our February meeting was hosted by our very own Playful University Club interns, Shanissa and Tom! Their session was entitled “A reflective evaluation and student experience of playful learning in higher education”.

Their passion for play and education showed in their presentation, where they discussed how playful learning can be incorporated into Higher Education, as well as everything they’ve learnt at the Playful University Club over the past 3 months.

Tom is a medical student in his intercalation year, who has been concerned about burnout in medical careers. Shanissa is in the second year of her Biology degree, and hopes to do a PhD and become a lecturer. They feel that it’s the responsibility of both educators and students to place the learning experience before exams and degree classifications. This involves incorporating play into the Higher Education experience, through learning for fun, microlearning and icebreakers.

For a quick break, we played a game of “Who wants to be a millionaire?” created by Shanissa, where the audience raced to answer trivia questions correctly (nobody took home the fictional million pounds – our general knowledge wasn’t quite up to scratch!).

Their presentation sparked an eye-opening discussion between lecturers, researchers and students about how the Higher Education experience can be improved. By the end of the session, educators had learnt from students and reading suggestions had been shared – a fun and educational time was had by all!

The Playful University Club aims to promote a culture that can foster play within the University by creating capacity for awareness, uptake, and exposure of play and playful learning. Ultimately, we aim to make the University of Exeter 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 club hosts several activities each month including games nights and guest speakers. It is open to all University staff and Students and is a wonderful opportunity to support a compassionate community using play. If this is a YES for you, please email Maarten Koeners: m.p.koeners@exeter.ac.uk.