If you’re part of Gen X, chances are you tried to avoid death by dysentery and debated how many bullets to take with you on your Oregon Trail trip, provided courtesy of the still-popular pixelated video game. First released in 1971, the game, which has undergone several adaptations since then, was designed to help teach younger students about 19th century pioneers who journeyed along this historic westward route.

But it’s what the game, particularly its original version, doesn’t teach and show, however, that captured the interest of Ohio Northern University professors Dr. John Estell, professor of computer engineering and computer science, and Dr. Stephany Coffman-Wolph, assistant professor of computer science.

The two turned those game gaps into research and learning opportunities that continue to resonate with and benefit engineering majors. Their success with intersecting the science of digital gaming with fuller and accurate historical knowledge about Oregon Trail realities resulted in a redesigned Programming 2 course that students love, so much so that enrollment in the course doubled. A pedagogical spinoff being introduced in spring 2023 will be an interactive fiction course for both computer science and English students that Estell will be teaching with English professor Dr. Lisa Robeson.

Estell and Coffman-Wolph’s unique teaching twist also has drawn interest from successful engineering alumni who remember playing the game as kids and who therefore understand the cultural and professional significance of how it is now being taught at Ohio Northern.

Facing flawed frontier fables
Oregon Trail lessons at ONU are rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion imperatives and in the College of Engineering’s emphasis on cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset in students. When Estell and Coffman-Wolph began exchanging ideas over lunch one day about how to reimagine Programming 2, the Oregon Trail video game seemed to provide the engaging solutions they were seeking, they say. By assigning students a familiar game to redesign in their own ways, the game’s cultural shortcomings could concurrently be addressed and updated too.

To learn more about how Drs. Estell and Coffman-Wolph have incorporated the Oregon Trail game into their lesson plans, and how students are benefiting, read the full feature HERE, which includes additional photos.