IGM Announces Second Phase of Just Press Play, Partnership with MSR

Last year, the School of Interactive Games & Media at the Rochester Institute of Technology began a pilot project aimed at increasing student engagement and exploration of the collegiate experience through a game designed specifically for the student body. This project, Just Press Play, was a profound first effort in the core research of games and media and their use as tools of motivation and reflection in higher education. The initial project was made possible through the generous support and partnership of Microsoft Research Connections. Findings from that first year have been published around the world by the project team.

Today we are announcing a continuation of that project, with additional support from Microsoft in the form of both an additional gift to RIT, as well as internal support from their product divisions. This additional support will allow us to move the technology and services we've developed in support of the game to the cloud, and to develop interconnections with the Mozilla Open Badges Initiative, which in turn will enable other institutions and organizations to begin experimenting with our designs and to apply them to their own local environments. Just Press Play has captured the attention and interest of colleagues and policy makers throughout the academy, and we are excited that this additional support will enable the team to continue this important work.