XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE I.T. takes a village: gauging student perceptions regarding serious game iteration LR Bunt School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences North-West University Vanderbijlpark, South Africa Lance.Bunt@nwu.ac.za JJ Greeff School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences North-West University Vanderbijlpark, South Africa Japie.Greeff@nwu.ac.za Abstract—One can liken the African proverb "it takes a village to raise a child" to the contemporary tertiary education experience of young adults in South Africa (SA); as it demonstrates the sizeable monetary, human capital, and supplemental support efforts it takes to ensure a student successfully obtains a degree after years of study. Lecturers in the School of Computer Science and Information Systems (CS&IS) at the North-West University (NWU), Vaal campus are employing a practical approach to elevate and underscore student perspectives/approaches on both non-technical and technical subject matter. This is done by giving learners the opportunity to iterate on an existing serious game concept which emphasises pedagogical content knowledge. Sharpened focus on effective communication and non-technical skills of students will allow them to more easily integrate, understand and convey work in a knowledge-worker context. The researchers sought to discover how the students registered for the communication skills module experienced a new approach to CS&IS teaching and learning at NWU, Vaal. Keywords—serious games, assessment, higher education, decolonisation, iteration, soft skills, teaching and learning, user- centered development I. BACKGROUND A communication skills module presented to second years at the North-West University (NWU)—originally a third-year subject—is transitioning to the second academic year to allow Computer Science and Information Systems students the opportunity to develop their non- technical skills earlier in their undergraduate studies. The national dialogue has for the last couple of years been dominated by the dissatisfaction in tertiary education curricula by various #Fallist movements i.e. #FeesMustFall, #RhodesMustFall, #FikaMustFall, etc. As a part of this process, the communication subject has moved in the curriculum to ensure it is firmly in place before students take on their Capstone projects later in their academic career. According to research conducted by Gilliland et al. (2015), E. Taylor (2016), and Venter & Myburgh (2018), Information Technology graduates moving from NWU into the workforce lack both the technical and non-technical expertise to competently and confidently make the transition from student to employee. The approach presented in this paper by lecturers at the School of Computer Science and Information System (SCS&IS) revolves around the idea of taking a serious game and creating an effigy of sorts. The original serious game concept explored in the assessment for communication studies is called Queen & Country (Q&C). This game embodies what the students have been railing against: colonial knowledge systems, substandard governance, and capital structures which negatively affect local communities. Queen and Country was already a fully realised game before the commencement of this stage in the project so that it can be utilised for the purposes outlined in this paper as a platform It was designed to afford learners the opportunity to explore their grievances through a process of transforming the game into something unique (exploring their perspectives). This case of student-managed coursework in a non-technical communication skills module can be regarded as an alternative to design-team serious game development and aims to amplify student voices, foster greater levels of engagement, and ensure an optimal learning experience for a generation with unique educational and pedagogical needs. The game was transformed over the course of three weeks and students were encouraged to reflect on the process and their experiences. Once the assessment process was complete, the students received surveys questioning them on the assessment. This provided the researchers with insights into not only whether the intervention has been positively perceived by the student cohort, but also if the SCS&IS should further develop their