ABSTRACT
This chapter recounts the experience of incorporating two online games to explore the topic of poverty and development in an undergraduate course in Global political economy. The chapter focuses on both the implementation strategy of the activity and the students´ perspectives, through a recount of their personal reflections. The results are highly positive. Including first-person games turned out to be an effective way to motivate deeper thinking and to approximate experiential learning for a topic where students from the developed world may have limited exposure through their lives. The reflections of the students suggest that some students experienced a mindset shift, mostly having to do with a change in how they perceive poverty and a realization of its complexity. Individual feedback also indicates the students were more motivated and engaged, and that the games have facilitated a first-person thought process about poverty that would otherwise be difficult to incorporate in more traditional teaching styles.
