LARPing and Learning: Achieving Educational Objectives at CNN Academy

The CNN Academy news-gathering simulation offers an intensive and immersive week-long learning experience for journalism students from around the world. Each year, over one hundred participants take part in press conferences, conduct interviews, develop and verify sources, undertake field reporting, and interact with social media while reporting on a fictional news story, such as mass casualties from hazardous waste exposure (2022, 2024), climate change storytelling (2023), AI, cyber and disinformation (2024), or public health (forthcoming 2025).This webinar will focus on the integration of learning objectives into the simulation, and how student learning is monitored and supported. Challenges include widely different student backgrounds (participants come from up to 30 different countries), team learning, simulation complexity, maintaining educational flow state, and key lessons learned.

For more on the CNN Academy experience, watch the “feeling the Heat” video at https://academy.cnn.com.

Rex Brynen is professor of political science at McGill University, where he specializes in Middle East politics, complex peace and humanitarian operations, and conflict simulation. He is also senior editor of PAXsims.

Host or Publisher Georgetown University Wargaming Society