About Andrew Carlson, Ph.D.

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Professor, Dad, Gamer, C4D Expert, Nerd

My current appointment is as an Associate Professor in the School of Communication, writing and the Arts at Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I teach courses in new media, communication, and designing online education.

I'm the father of two really fun kids.

I am a gamer at heart - I've been playing games since I was young. My first role playing game was Dungeons and Dragons, which I played with the best dungeonmaster in Minnesota. Not to date myself, but that may have been before mobile phones and microwaves.

I've played nearly every type of game there is - board to video. I am now the co-director of Metropolitan State University's Center for Game Design and New Media Studies. We have a Game Studies Minor (a link to our Minors is here) and we are in the process of building a Game Studies Major program, with Metro's Department of Information and Computer Science.

There is plenty of evidence demonstrating the benefits of gaming on human cognition and problem solving skills. The below is just one example.

 

 

 

My main game right now (Spring 2018) is Destiny 2. If you're interested in playing together, head over to the contact page and send me a message. I'm mostly on XBox, but could roll on PS4 too. I've added a few of my favorite Destiny highlights to a clip page, here.

Finally, and on a serious note, I'm an experienced C4D/SBCC consultant. I have been working on international development issues since 1992, when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania. I completed a Master's degree in International Development at Ohio University, and went on to finish a Ph.D., also at Ohio, in Mass Communication in 2010. I was the project manager for the rollout of a hybrid online course in C4D for UNICEF in 2010, and took part in managing and facilitating the course throughout its six-year life. You can access the course modules here (you'll need to register before you can access all the materials).

There's more information on my work on SBCC and C4D projects here.