USU: “Esports are gaining popularity as a spectator sport, and college sports programs are taking notice. Utah State University is taking this opportunity to combine esports and academics through an expanding undergraduate curriculum and growing competitive esports club.”

“We have two classes in esports. The first one is casual esports, where students can come and play games, but they study how they feel inside the game … and also we teach another esports class called developmental esports, where we try to develop students’ skills in certain types of games,” said Ramy Shabaan, an assistant professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at USU.

“Andrew Walker, the department head of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at USU, said esports has put the university in a unique position to blur the lines between recreation and academics.”

“Esports is certainly a growing space, especially in academia, where we’re still trying to work through what this looks like,” Walker said. “I really love our structure here at Utah State University; it’s a collaborative venture between campus recreation as a club sport, and also with our academic unit. And we both have interesting roles to play.”