Santa Monica College is no stranger to innovation, with its latest "first" taking advantage of a booming market in the sports industry.
For the fall semester, SMC has become the first community college in California to offer an Associate in Arts Degree and Certificate of Achievement in the world of esports. Titled "Esports Management, Production and Performance," the pathway teaches students "theories and critical models" of the gaming and media industries, as well as the principles of esports announcing, production and performance.
SMC staff began having conversations about esports, competitive video gaming, in 2015, with Department Chair of Communication and Media Studies Redelia Shaw stating nothing moved forward at the time because "a lot of people didn’t even know what that was." Once popularity of the genre exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shaw and a small team put together what a pathway could look like through a litany of conversations with industry experts.
Eventually approved by the Los Angeles Regional Consortium, the early phase of the curriculum was noted as "cross-disciplinary," with classes in sportscasting, television production and sports management "contextualized" within the esports realm.
"From all of our conversations with the industry, [we learned] that people didn’t need to necessarily have a degree in esports, per se, because a lot of the skills are transferable," Shaw said. "So if you’re a good communications person, if you are able to communicate orally and written, you’re going to know and understand the games."
One communications class that will dive into esports coverage is Media 46, a television production course specializing in multi-camera shoots. Students will be able to shoot esports tournaments as projects, such as the exploits of the SMC Esports Club, and will have to factor in video gameplay as "another camera angle" in addition to traditional sports camera usage. Shaw added that although esports is a new endeavor for many, the production techniques remain similar to other shoots.
In addition to media production and sportscasting, the realms of sports management and kinesiology will also be represented in an esports context. The management course, taught by SMC Head Football Coach Kelly Ledwith, will incorporate esports in its classes, while kinesiology students will learn the physical habits of esports professionals.
"Some people don’t have the understanding that students who play esports games have to be conditioned as well, they have to work out, they have to eat well, it’s part of the dynamic of playing a sport," Shaw said. "They have to have practice time, they have to have strategy sessions. So [it’s similar] to a football or baseball or volleyball team, just maybe the conditioning is a little bit different because they are seated mostly, [so] hand-eye coordination, there might be [more] activities around those things."
Shaw gave credit to the SMC Esports Club for "moving and shaking" within the rising sport, gathering to play games like Valorant [created by Santa Monica-based Riot Games] and League of Legends. The esports crew comes from a wide range of disciplines, with half noted to be STEM majors playing on the side as "a way to relieve stress."
The potential of the industry has caught the eye of educators throughout the area, as the Samohi Esports team also returns this fall after a successful 2023-24 campaign. In addition, Shaw stated that Los Angeles Community College is potentially building an esports arena so that all local community colleges can play under one roof.
Now with a pathway in tow, Shaw hopes that esports classes can be a generator of excitement and increased enrollment.
"Before the pandemic in the cafeteria at [SMC], the first six rows [would] be filled with students," Shaw said. "They would bring their game, their game controllers, they bring their TV sets, and they’d be playing. They’d set up their own esports tournaments right there in our cafeteria. And so that also informed our thinking, too, that … we want to try and bring that energy back again."
To learn more about the SMC esports pathway, visit the site here.
thomas@smdp.com
