Exploring Play: The Importance of Play in Everyday Life

I think this course is to be highly commended and recommended to anyone thinking about building a career around play. Its a great cross-sectional taster. The structure of the course is intuitive and easy to follow and the reflections and contribution of personal experience important. There is also a range of methods employed for engaging with the subject matter and suggestions for further reading and research at any stage. Content is clear and mostly concise making review and embedding learning reasonably easy. I had issues with videos buffering constantly, but that may be more my internet set-up than reflective on the course itself.

There were a couple of aspects I didn't like. Firstly that so much of the video content was academics or others talking. Concepts need to be presented, but so much can be learnt from considered observation of 'actual' play. This could have been embedded pretty much throughout. I also think the way virtual play was presented was a little sketchy, it was clear to see and hear how others enjoyed it, but because the observations (even when in Second Life) are second hand (i.e. your observing participants in play that may be present to them, but wasn't to us) it was difficult to be convinced by it. Secondly I think that if you are talking about the environments for play, you should be showing these as well. The skatepark scenes were great, but not being able to observe actual children's play within landscape environments (except for short footage in a school, a forest school and more in the Blooming Autism Allotment) it was difficult to be inspired by an empty playground in the background behind Professor Helen Woolley. I understand that there are probably restrictions around broadcasting children's images, however play and play affordances are best when observed.

All in all I felt that this course did however inform and shift perspectives and get us reflecting on our own understanding (and others) of the material really successfully - so thank you all at the University of Sheffield!

The Exploring Play course has been an eye-opening, thought-provoking and extremely informative course. As a teacher in a primary school but with experience and training in secondary education, I have found this extremely useful for my professional development. It has explored and unpicked what play is and how it applies to the whole of life, not just for children. There are many strategies and concepts that I now wish to apply to my own professional practice. The discussions were well-managed and fostered a sense of community with and interest in sharing their perspectives - no-one was afraid to reply due to negative responses and everyone was respectful.

As a recently diagnosed autistic adult, I was very pleased with how the section on disability and play was navigated very positively and sensitively. It did not seek to minimise the experience of disabled people but rather promote it as an important part of life and the discussion around play. This was one of the best representations of the views or disabled people on any FutureLearn course I have done so far.

I would recommend this course to anyone in the education sector. In fact I would recommend this course to anyone interested in education, children, psychology, learning etc.

Really great course, easy to follow and topics broken down into bite-sized chunks. I have worked for many years in SEN, mostly with children with ASD, and currently in our Early Years provision.
The course has made me re-think how children play and why they play, and how we as adults can facilitate good playful spaces, but shouldn't be leading their play, or expecting them to follow the "normalised" routes of play.
I have also gained a greater understanding and appreciation of digital play, and the virtual world, and realise that we shouldn't fear its influence on our children, but instead embrace it as another form of play which can enhance many "traditional" aspects of play, and offer many of our children who have various impairments another space to play in, which maybe more easily accessible to them.
I will also endeavour to play more in my own life, to encourage my creativity ,and to improve my well being and my interactions with other people, which I often don't find easy.
It has also been great to exercise my brain during this lockdown period, when I am in school less than I would normally be.
Thank you to all the staff at University of Sheffield for putting this course together.

I started on the course, not thinking that there were so many strands to play this course has made me realise that play is everywhere when you use your imagination! It was good to find out about the history of toys and the different material used in different cultures. I realised that there was difference, to when grandparents were children to now in the 21st century. I could reflect on my childhood experiences and realise that I had more opportunities to play outside with no restriction! I now realise that play can be ‘serious play’, such as students learning chemistry through virtual activities. I now know that play can be very adaptable in different activities for children and adults with disabilities. I was Very apprehensive about the ‘Virtual World’ but I now understand that it can help with different skills and wellbeing.

Really great course, easy to follow and topics broken down into bite-sized chunks. I have worked for many years in SEN, mostly with children with ASD, and currently in our Early Years provision.
The course has made me re-think how children play and why they play, and how we as adults can facilitate good playful spaces, but shouldn't be leading their play, or expecting them to follow the "normalised" routes of play.
I have also gained a greater understanding and appreciation of digital play, and the virtual world, and realise that we shouldn't fear its influence on our children, but instead embrace it as another form of play which can enhance many "traditional" aspects of play, and offer many of our children who have various impairments another space to play in, which maybe more easily accessible to them.
I will also endeavour to play more in my own life, to encourage my creativity ,and to improve my well being and my interactions with other people, which I often don't find easy.
It has also been great to exercise my brain during this lockdown period, when I am in school less than I would normally be.
Thank you to all the staff at University of Sheffield for putting this course together.

This course was truly amazing, even as someone with years of experience supporting disabled children and young people in a play setting it really broadened my understanding of play. It helped me to better appreciate how multidisciplinary play is, and how play can be shaped by the play environment etc

I especially enjoyed the content on online play and gaming and disability and play. The latter includes an optional 500-word essay task, which I highly recommend as it was really interesting to reflect on and write. It means that I now have a piece of work which I can use as supporting evidence on a job application, so this course hasn't only been useful to me in an educational enrichment sense, but also hopefully professionally too!

TL;DR: this course is great, 100% recommend

I found this course very interesting and informative. It gives a deeper understanding of value of play in children and young adults life. It give a background about what is play , how it evolved, what are its benefits on the healthy growth of children. How it can help them being a all rounded personality.
It also explains about the social, cultural, economical and political effects on the play in children's lives.
This course covers the impact of play on disability.
What are the issues faced by the people who support or experience impairment in terms of play in their lives.
How the play influences lives of children with disability.
The role of play in digital and virtual world was another brilliant topic covered in this course.
I really benefitted immensely by taking up this course and will be mindful about the role of Play in my supporting and teaching children and young adults equally in mainstream as well as SEN set up.

Thank you.

Kudos to the curriculum designers, instructors, researchers, academicians and volunteers for structuring and offering this comprehensive course on the nuances of 'play' - its origin, theories, forms, types, scope, etc. It broadened my perspective on the evolution of play as a complex, social and contextual activity that caries across cultures and occurs along a continuum. Although play continues throughout our lifespan, it's forms and impact differs for each age group. Moreover, play is not just a fun activity, but an educational one and provides ample opportunities for holistic development of children, teenagers and adults as well as offers fascinating career prospects for lifelong learners. Thoroughly enjoyed the course and learnt more about the nuances of play and its influence on different age and cultural groups as well as its ability to generate the 'highest form of research.' (Einstein, 1962)

Really enjoyed this Play course. It was interesting and I feel I will take alot of new ideas with me. The videos where knowledgeable and the team where a great help. I feel I learned new aspects relating to play and will be putting these new activities into use when returning from lookdown.
It has made me think a lot about different kinds of play both indoors and outdoors. Thank you for all the information provided and links.
It was nice to hear from all the different agencies and groups and the projects they do. As a parent it made me remember and talk about how and what games we played as children, with my own family. I liked the skateboarding information as having a teenager myself it is good to hear of more of the skate parks being made as feel they don't have the same clubs, societies as the younger children. Will be looking into other courses to do now many thanks.

The course was wide ranging in research and very relevant. I particularly enjoyed and learned a great deal from the section on disability and play. The audio/video sections were very well presented and were not overwelming or onourous in length given that they involved watching a person(s) speaking. In fact the structure of the course was well balanced with text, video and discussion. Each week was just long enough, any longer and I would have questioned if I would finish it. The indicators of progress and 'how many steps complete /or left to do in each week was very motivating. The referencing was brilliant and the further reading was very specific and manageable on top of the course time. Well done Sheffield University, a brilliant course.

I recently completed just a one hour training through OU about play and it was desperately dry and hard to get through.

This course is really well put together, with engaging videos, informative articles and helpful discussion. I choose not to pay a subscription so it was completely free, although I don't get a certificate at the end. The course covers a wide variety of themes, so no matter what your discipline, you can learn something. Since it looks at play across the lifespan, some themes may not be directly relevant to work with children, for example, but it is really useful to look at play beyond childhood and the benefits of play and playfulness in adult life and even the world of work. The course includes interviews with different researchers in the area of play, including disciplines such as landscape design, and includes links for extra reading if you want to look into a topic in greater depth.