Josh Olsen

Faculty of Information Technology

Helping students build games, overcome fears and thrive

Josh bridges classroom and games industry insights - building confidence, creativity and real world skills.

What are you doing differently in your field that you believe is driving real change?

The games industry is constantly evolving and the technology improves almost day-to-day. In my units, we constantly engage with industry and ensure we teach best practice,  as well as tools used in the field. Students are actively encouraged to engage in this process and contribute to what they want to see within the unit material.

How do you help students build confidence, not just knowledge?

One of the biggest fears I find students have is a fear of failure. To get around this and build up student's confidence, I provide a lot of weekly formative feedback in classes and encourage students to take risks. There is no concept of right or wrong answers in these classes.  Students not understanding things correctly is treated as a learning experience rather than being dismissed or failed.

This helps ease the fear of failing and means that even where there are summative assessments, the students are more willing to take on board feedback to improve in future assessments.

University is the best place for exploring ideas, learning from mistakes and getting support to improve. There is just as much, if not more value in having access to the environment, than the end result. ”

Is there a student moment you’ll never forget, and why?

A student moment I will never forget is watching a student who was extremely anxious and unable to speak to people in their first semester, grow into a confident and proud student by the end of their final semester. The privilege of watching them grow and helping them build up their confidence across their entire degree is something that I will never forget.

What’s the biggest myth about university education you wish more people would rethink?

The piece of paper you get in the end is important for sure, but the focus shouldn't be on grades or just doing the minimum to get there. University is the best place for exploring ideas, learning from mistakes and getting support to improve. There is just as much, if not more value in having access to the environment, than the end result.

What does being a 'Changemaker’ mean to you personally?

Someone who does their best to support students' education, growing with the times and constantly encouraging students to their best

How do you tailor your teaching approach to engage and inspire today's students?

I am constantly updating material within my units, based on the latest industry knowledge and trying out new methods of teaching, where improvements can be made.

I also ensure case studies, examples and material reference content that is relevant to the students of today. As I teach games, this quite often means using the new popular games students are familiar with to connect the theory with practice.