— Day 1 - Set Up and Overview: Our primary goal for this day is to assist students in setting up Overwatch and to familiarize kids with our camp’s objectives. We start off the camp with an icebreaker to create a comfortable space for kids to get to know each other. In this session, we’ll concentrate on Overwatch’s goals.

— Day 2 - Hero Roles: Students will discover the different roles in the game and what each role does. They will then get to practice in a Custom: Control (King of the Hill) map.

— Day 3 - Team Composition and Synergy: What is a team comp and how do different heroes’ kits synergize? In this class, we’ll explore what makes a good team comp and how students can pick to make their team synergy strong. We will then practice in a Custom: Escort map game.

— Day 4 - Map Types / Map Review: Learn how the map can affect a player’s team’s chance of success and playmaking. Discover what makes each map unique through Custom games and map review.

— Day 5 - Effective Communication and Thinking Dynamically: In this session we will explore ways you can increase your team’s chance of winning by practicing counterplay. We'll also discuss effective communication!

Connected Camps is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2015 with the mission to build a global online community where kids build, code, play, and learn alongside one another. Our programs are designed based on extensive research in the learning sciences. The founders and leaders of Connected Camps, Mimi Ito and Katie Salen, are professors at the University of California, Irvine, who specialize in the design of online learning experiences that are fun, social, and directly tied to academic outcomes. Learn more about the research behind Connected Camps at the Connected Learning Alliance resource site: https://clalliance.org/ 

One thing that makes our programs unique is our near-peer mentorship model. Our programs are led by young adults and college students, often with the help of high school volunteers. We hire counselors and coaches from top universities in computer science, game development, economics, social studies, and the arts, and train them on how to facilitate project-based learning with younger kids. Our young instructors have the same passion for technology, games, and digital making as our learners, and take on the role of instructors, as well as fellow enthusiasts and relatable role models.

The curriculum for this program was designed by a team of counselors pursuing degrees relevant to the material at hand. The learning experiences in this class are driven by these counselors’ academic expertise in the field, along with their desire to share their passion for the subject with a group of excited learners. All of Connected Camps’ curricula are vetted by the organization’s Product Manager, Matthew, who possesses a Masters in Secondary Education and a deep belief in the power of collaborative virtual learning.