Esports reaches out to Edmond high school students

In association with the GEAR UP grant program, esports professor Matt Knutson, along with coaches Ben Staudt and Ty Wallace, have opened the doors to the UCO Esports Gaming Arena to Edmond high schoolers in hopes of teaching them how they can use an esports media minor.

“The minor is positioned as something that pairs well with other focuses within communication, including strategic communications,” Knutson said. “And in personal communications, if you wanted to do PR for example, increasing your credibility.”

The esports media minor is not just about playing video games. The classes also include the ongoing history, the surrounding social and ethical issues, and media production within the esports industry.

“In the Esports Media class, you get experience with esports journalism, as well as streaming media production,” Knutson said. “An assignment that I’ve also had in this class are media kits that include documents such as press releases that require students to synthesize skills in the creation of these media kits, such as graphic design.”

The first GEAR UP esports recruitment event got the students oriented to the co-op and gave them some free play time, but next week’s event will give the students some hands-on education of new media production.

“The plan is more pedagogical, in which students get some streaming basics and some initial instruction about how to stream using the Stream Labs platform that’s installed on all those Co-op computers,” Knutson said.
GEAR UP, an acronym for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, is a federally funded grant program, created to increase the number of students who are prepared to enter university level education.