The current corona virus epidemic is currently causing drastic measures worldwide – today it has become known, among other things, that schools and daycare centers are now closed in an increasing number of German federal states.
The Game Center, a subdivision of the University of New York, where various gaming courses can be taken, is currently suspending classes.
A student of university professor Robert Yang then encouraged him to conduct his lessons from home using a Twitch stream. Although Yang knew that this might not be a good idea, he nevertheless accepted the idea.
Classroom meets Twitch chat
Yang, who regularly streams on his own Twitch channel and is very familiar with the platform, expected friction between his students and the Twitch chat. And he was right.
Over the course of the session, the number of simultaneous viewers rose to over 90. Although not a large number for Twitch conditions, it was significantly more than the 18 aspiring game designers who otherwise sit in his classroom.
While his students wanted to focus on class and ask productive questions, the Twitch chat fired his typical fireworks of emotes and memes.
Yang noticed that his students weren't as committed to class as usual, and the randomly added Twitch users dominated the chat.
»No more lessons on Twitch!«
Typically, the NYU Game Center uses special software called Zoom to broadcast classroom events live. Yang, however, got involved in the experiment because the lecture was even about Twitch: the basis for the lessons was the book Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming by MIT professor T.L. Taylor
In an interview with The Verge, Yang said:
"As an educator, it was kind of terrible and showed that Twitch is such a bad platform for such things. I had problems performing basic class management tasks like timing and facilitating student discussion. I was never sure who was watching or when I should go on. "
For Yang, Twitch is a good option for lectures that do not require the interaction of lecturers and students – for everyone else, however, it is a total mess: the chat is clogged with chatter and students don't dare to properly take part in classes if they don't know who else watches everything.
While the transmission of the lesson was much more popular than its regular Twitch streams, the lecturer is certain that he never wants to repeat the whole thing.
