Best History Class: Teacher wows her students by integrating Assassin’s Creed into her program

Teacher Judi Brison from Quebec says her students’ grades improved with this project.

Far from the negative connotation that video games may have among some sectors of society, this medium is not only a fantastic way to entertainment, but also a powerful education tool. With this conviction, Ubisoft held this week the third edition of its event Keys to Learn, in which experts in education and video games participated to talk about the role they have in complementing the knowledge acquired in the classroom, especially in times as difficult as the pandemic we are experiencing.

A methodology was developed that combined interaction with the game and a mission booklet.Among the talks at the event, the case statement What did the teacher present? Judi Brison of the Collège Jean de la Mennais High School of Quebec, who integrated Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey to a program of history classes for students between 13 and 14 years. Basically, what the teacher did was analyze the content of the game’s Discovery Tour to develop activities that will help fulfill learning of the program established by the Canadian Ministry of Education, which involved the development of a methodology that would integrate the interaction with the video game and active participation of students when answering a quest booklet.

Brison recounted that he developed 12 missions in the booklet, each focused on a specific topic in Ancient Greek history. As for her, as for many of the students it was the first time they interacted with a video game, she also created a guide to explain everything from the controls to what they could do if they were lost. “It was a lot of fun watching my students play and raise their hands just to show me that they had already figured out how to jump over a fence or climb a wall,” he said.

The teacher also explained that she formed her group into pairs so that, while one student was playing, the other was answering the mission booklet. While her students enjoyed the game, she approached all the teams to answer questions and offer more information about each of the lessons. He also commented that he introduced some special challenges how to find some interactive archaeological artifacts to learn more about them and a privilege system in which if the couple finished all missions on time, they had half a class to play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey just for fun. It was important to rectify that the learnings had been completed, so there were surveys and an exam at the end of each mission to confirm what you have learned.

Professor Judi Brison from Quebec presenting her case at Keys to Learn 2021

As expected, the implementation of this type of classes also had limits, especially those related to technical elements. Judi Brison commented that as soon as the pandemic started and the students went home, the program had to be followed even if some of them did not have the game. For them recorded a gameplay that they could see in Google Classroom in order to continue answering his mission booklets, despite the humorous criticism for his way of playing. Similarly, in classrooms, not all students’ laptops had the power to run the game, in those cases the school equipped the classroom with a computer to support the game and organized rounds in which one student would play in front, while the rest answered their booklets.

The use of video games in history classes is an entertaining and challenging way for students to learn.Judi Brison, teacher at the Collège Jean de la Mennais High School“Using video games in history classes is an entertaining and challenging way for students to learn,” said the teacher. “At the end of this course I noticed that my students’ grades were better than those of previous years and, above all, they were very happy to come to class,” he concluded, adding that the disposition to learn of the students was very positive and it really made an impact on them. Judi Brison commented that after the project she received emails from other teachers and parents who applauded the initiative and that students from last year continue to look back on the class with great enthusiasm.

We remind you that Discovery Tour is an educational feature that was available in both Assassin’s Creed: Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and will also be integrated into Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. In fact, this mode is also sold separately for those who are interested in discovering the historical maps of the games, solely for educational purposes.

More about: Assassin’s Creed.