The academic environment has historically been somewhat slow to implement and adopt new technologies. However, developments in video games have created an opportunity for students to learn new skills and topics through nontraditional mediums of education. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the need for flexible learning opportunities. Joystick Education is our approach to addressing this need. Through online, game-based tutoring and a database of video games with high educational value, Joystick Education creates a learning environment that is effective, fun, and engaging for students. We analyzed popular, mainstream video games for educational content and selected nine games that teach concepts like history, biology, or physics while playing the game. Through promotion on social media, we generated buzz around our website which led to 103 unique visitors over our first month online and two customers requesting to book our tutoring service. We are confident that given more time to grow, Joystick Education can generate profit and become a successful business.

The academic environment has historically been somewhat slow to implement and adopt new technologies. However, developments in video games have created an opportunity for students to learn new skills and topics through nontraditional mediums of education. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the need for flexible learning opportunities. Joystick Education is our approach to addressing this need. Through online, game-based tutoring and a database of video games with high educational value, Joystick Education creates a learning environment that is effective, fun, and engaging for students. We analyzed popular, mainstream video games for educational content and selected nine games that teach concepts like history, biology, or physics while playing the game. Through promotion on social media, we generated buzz around our website which led to 103 unique visitors over our first month online and two customers requesting to book our tutoring service. We are confident that given more time to grow, Joystick Education can generate profit and become a successful business.

Studies have previously found a significant relationship between student writing center usage and demographic factors including gender, GPA, and English-language proficiency (Salem, 2015). Additional research has been conducted on writing center outcomes and student conceptions and misconceptions of writing centers as academic resources. However, previous scholarship has attested to the need for continuous research into writing center usage patterns and the factors that affect them. This will allow centers to make the necessary changes and improvements to become more accessible and inclusive for the benefit of all students. The present research contributes to the ongoing discussion about why students choose to use or not use the writing center and how their identities and pre-existing ideas about the center inform this decision. Further, it addresses research gaps by surveying students in an honors college setting at a large public university and considering new decision-making factors such as race, mental health, and social stigma. By comparing students demographics and impressions of the Barrett Writing Center (BWC) on the ASU campus, the study draws conclusions about the significant gap between positive perception and usage, the influence of social anxiety and stigma amongst honors students, the successes and failures of tutoring for second language English speakers, and the benefit derived by students who attend multiple writing center sessions. Suggestions to improve the BWC and guide future research are offered based on these observations and significant trends in the data.