Dr. Watson’s scholarship focuses on realizing a personalized paradigm of education that meets all learners’ needs. This includes new paradigm instruction like game-based learning and attitudinal learning; technology for managing personalized learning; and applying critical systems thinking to design personalized educational systems. He collaborated on the design of Purdue’s digital badges platform, Passport, which has was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New York Times, Campus… Show more Dr. Watson’s scholarship focuses on realizing a personalized paradigm of education that meets all learners’ needs. This includes new paradigm instruction like game-based learning and attitudinal learning; technology for managing personalized learning; and applying critical systems thinking to design personalized educational systems. He collaborated on the design of Purdue’s digital badges platform, Passport, which has was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New York Times, Campus Technology, and U.S. News and World Report and in 2019 was awarded the University Professional and Continuing Education (UPCEA) Association's Outstanding Program: Credit Award for integrating competency-based digital badges into Purdue Learning Design and Technology's online Masters program. The founder and director of the Purdue Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments, he was nominated and selected as one of the Center for Digital Education’s Top 30 Technologists, Transformers, and Trailblazers for 2015 and gave a TedXPurdueU talk in 2014 describing the new paradigm. Show less

The Purdue "Serious Games Center" seeks to engage in and support research on the design, development, and implementation of serious games and virtual environments.Center Mission StatementTo provide support for implementing, designing and developing serious games and virtual environments for learning; to encourage collaboration across Purdue and with K-12 schools; and, to establish a foundation for securing funding and conducting research at Purdue on the use of serious… Show more The Purdue "Serious Games Center" seeks to engage in and support research on the design, development, and implementation of serious games and virtual environments.Center Mission StatementTo provide support for implementing, designing and developing serious games and virtual environments for learning; to encourage collaboration across Purdue and with K-12 schools; and, to establish a foundation for securing funding and conducting research at Purdue on the use of serious games and virtual learning environments in education. Show less