A portal to student learning: what instruction librarians can learn from video game design

Purpose - The paper aims to present a methodology for analyzing the pedagogical content of video games and to present the findings of one such analysis. Design/methodology/approach - The pedagogical analysis presented here consists of three parts -an introduction to the new media of video games, a method for analyzing video games, and lastly, the results of analyzing the pedagogical content of the video game Portal. Findings - The analysis uncovered significant pedagogical content and useful methodologies used in the design of the video game Portal. Practical implications - The pedagogies and design methods used in the game Portal can help librarians engage and educate students of the gaming generation in information literacy tasks. Originality/value - This paper provides a model for pedagogical analysis of the video game medium and practical techniques taken from an excellent representative of that medium.