Sandra Elsom

This chapter considers the many challenges and choices academics face in neoliberal workplaces. It highlights the authors’ individual and collective experiences as they make decisions that reject the intimidation of the neoliberal university. Embracing Harré et al.’s (2017) conceptualisation of the university as an infinite game, the authors have been repurposing neoliberal obligations and standards using an ethics of care and rest to guide them. Employing collegially supportive collaborative writing processes, the authors are learning how to make intentional choices that do more than tick neoliberal boxes, but which purposefully enrich their lives. In this chapter, readers are invited to join the quest and become ‘game masters’ of their own lives and work. They will negotiate obstacles and overwhelm, recognise and gather the resources that sustain them, and ultimately, face ‘The Boss’.

Game-based learning has been recognised as a strategy to increase students’ engagement in higher education. Alternate reality games (ARG) provide players with the opportunity to apply newly developed knowledge and skills, such as visiting important campus locations and completing relevant activities. The collaborative nature of these games means they have the potential to support socialisation in the new environment. This study used a mixed-methods approach to examine the experience of 13 students who participated in an ARG during orientation week at a regional university in Australia. Data were collected using an online survey implemented at three time points, and from focus groups which took place at the end of the semester. Results of the analysis indicate that participants who played the game, reported a more positive emotional state, greater familiarity with the university campus and engaged in more social interactions than their peers who attended orientation, but did not play. These results suggest that an alternate reality game can engender positive emotions in new enabling program students and help them to create friendships at university. This impacts their sense of connectedness, one of the factors identified as important for success in higher education.

This chapter is written from the perspective of three women who share a past, present and future within and without academia. Brought together through the experiences of motherhood, study, career and mentorship, they are working as early-career academics in the enabling sector of higher education. Their roles demand a high level of emotional labour. Compassion and empathy guide their practice, yet are rarely extended into their self-care. Through a contemplative process, the authors meet the ‘good girl’ they have each embodied and realise her influence on their attitudes and behaviours. Through their collaborative writing, they recontextualise what it means to be ‘good’ and reject the assumption that caring work is feminine. They call for the academy to value a pedagogy of care.

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a challenging and poorly understood condition that can have a considerable negative effect on an individual’s ability to learn, despite there being little to no impact on their intelligence. In this paper, we detail the experiences of 2 higher education staff who supported a student with severe TS to undertake studies in a university bridging program. We make suggestions and recommendations for teachers who have students with TS. Over the course of 5 semesters, the teaching team researched TS in order to understand what the student was facing and adjusted their teaching strategies and the learning environment to overcome the complications that the condition presented. The design of the learning environment and the embedded accessible pedagogy that we found helpful are framed and discussed using the 3 primary principles of universal design for learning: engagement, representation, and action and expression. The authors utilise the minimal model of Rolfe, Freshwater, and Jasper (2001) to reflect upon and share their practice.

The Universal Student (TUS) Alternate Reality Game (ARG) took place on UniSC’s Sunshine Coast campus in semesters 1 and 2 of 2018. The game was an outcome of the Games for Engagement, Learning and Orientation (GELO) Project, which was funded by a UniSC internal grant. The overall project aimed to address the alienation, isolation and confusion experienced by first year students by having them take part in a meaningful and fun activity. The game was designed using transition (Kahu 2013; Nelson, Creagh, Kift & Clark 2010) and motivation theories (Deci and Ryan 2000). It drew on literature from prior ARG projects in higher education (Whitton et al 2014; Piatt 2009) which had demonstrated that ARGs can support student induction, but that student engagement is difficult to maintain. Students who played TUS reported a greater sense of wellbeing and more familiarity with the university campus than students who did not play. Players made social connections that lasted for months or longer. Our research suggested that using ARGs as part of student learning can foster meaningful social connections that benefit students throughout their studies. It indicates that there may be value in developing ARGs to support cognition and behaviour change.