Ideas for Using the “Routledge Handbook of Esports” in Your Academic Program or Course: Perspectives from Three Universities

by
Chase Neukam, Shenandoah University
Seth E. Jenny, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
Ryan Thompson, Michigan State University

My name is Chase Neukam and I am a Lecturer for the School of Business at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, USA, with a core focus on the Esports Management Bachelor’s Degree program. My pedagogical rhetoric focuses on pairing experiential learning projects with post-engagement socratic-method dialogue in the classroom. In essence, my students study in the classroom, apply in the field, and then conduct open-review with peers.

Routledge Handbook of Esports

The book’s description notes: “The Routledge Handbook of Esports offers the first fully comprehensive, interdisciplinary study of esports, one of the fastest growing sectors of the contemporary sports and entertainment industries. Global in coverage, the book emphasizes the multifaceted nature of esports and explores the most pressing issues defining the competitive video gaming landscape today. Featuring the work of 93 leading esports academics and industry specialists from around the world, and rigorously peer-reviewed, the book is structured around ten key themes: 1) Introduction to Esports, 2) Esports Research, 3) Esports Players, 4) Esports Business and Management, 5) Esports Media and Communication, 6) Esports Education, 7) Critical Concerns in Esports, 8) Global Esports Cultures, 9) Esports Future Directions, and 10) Key Terms Definitions.” Each chapter abstract can be read here.

Our program perceives the 62-chapter Routledge Handbook of Esports as an all-encompassing resource for esports from a global perspective, which aligns closely with the strategic values in the School of Business. If you’re unsure of how to include the Routledge Handbook of Esports into your curriculum, I hope our plans provide you with a potential blueprint. The purpose of this article is to offer varying perspectives and ideas on how instructors might utilize the Routledge Handbook of Esports in their academic programs.

Shenandoah University’s Academic Esports Program

For context purposes, Shenandoah University’s academic esports program strives to develop students into successful esports professionals. As the first multi-track and longest-standing esports bachelor’s degree program in the United States, we aim to prepare our students for success post-graduation. Our program offers a variety of esports majors, minors, certificates, and other learning opportunities through intentional partnerships for undergraduate and graduate students alike. In addition to our academic rigor we facilitate competitive teams, provide broadcast experiences, host workshops with working professionals, and plan study-abroad esports programs.

Entire Academic Program Use of the Routledge Handbook of Esports

In June 2025, my fellow lecturer, Zander Merle-Smith, arranged a meeting with myself and our esports director, Alyssa Duran, to discuss how we might incorporate the Routledge Handbook of Esports into our academic curriculum. We desired to incorporate the handbook as a single-source reference and cornerstone of our curriculum for students to utilize throughout their academic journey at Shenandoah. Our group brainstormed by associating applicable chapters with the learning objectives and overarching themes of the courses (i.e., modules) we provide in our curriculum. Once we developed a plan, Zander and I split off to individually incorporate these chapter content themes into our courses.

In this first round of implementation during this Fall 2025 term, we plan to replicate a similar approach across most of the curriculum we have targeted. In my courses I have primarily utilized the handbook for key definitions, providing a global view through chapter materials, referenced figures for visual aids, and modified the handbook provided discussion questions at the end of each chapter for class dialogue at the end of each unit. The integration of the handbook for each course varies depending on the content matter and time allocation.

While each section of the handbook incorporates from one to ten chapters each (visit here to read each chapter’s abstract), I am incorporating the handbook in my following courses for Fall 2025:

FYS (First Year Seminar): Gaming Global (3 Credits)

Course Unit 1: Esports and Unit 3: Mixed Reality

- Section 1: Introduction to Esports
- Section 7: Critical Concerns in Esports
- Section 8: Global Esports Cultures
- Section 10: Key Terms and Definitions

ESPT-101: Introduction to Esports (3 Credits)

- Section 1: Introduction to Esports
- Section 4: Esports Business and Management
- Section 5: Esports Media and Communications
- Section 8: Global Esports Cultures
- Section 10: Key Terms and Definitions

ESPT-110: Introduction to Esports Coaching (3 Credits)

- Section 3: Esports Players
- Section 4: Esports Business and Management
- Section 6: Esports Education

ESPT-360: Esports Event Management (3 Credits)

- Section 4: Esports Business and Management
- Section 5: Esports Media and Communications
- Section 7: Critical Concerns in Esports

Additionally, Zander Merle-Smith is incorporating the handbook in the following courses for Fall 2025:

ESPT-201: Contemporary Issues in Esports (3 Credits)

- Section 3: Esports Players
- Section 7: Critical Concerns in Esports

ESPT-230: Introduction to Broadcast (3 Credits)

- Section 5: Esports Media and Communications

ESPT 430: Advanced Broadcast (3 Credits)

- Section 4: Esports Business and Management

ESPT-590: Esports Digital Media Management (3 Credits)

- Section 4: Esports Business and Management
- Section 5: Esports Media and Communications

Beyond using the handbook across an entire curriculum, the next section discusses how the entire Routledge Handbook of Esports may be used in a single course (i.e., module), as noted by Seth E. Jenny of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.

Single Course Use of Entire Routledge Handbook of Esports

In addition, the Senior Editor of the Routledge Handbook of Esports, Dr. Seth E. Jenny, is using the text across a single course titled “Current Issues in Esports Health and Society” (EXER 304). The course is a 16-week course, with each learning module lasting one week. This course is a liberal studies course, so students of diverse majors take it, along with those minoring in esports at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. Choice is given to students, within choice ranges, regarding chapters they can read and be quizzed on. Several other assignments (discussions, attending an esports event, videos/presentations, etc.) in the course focus more directly on current issues in esports. With this structure, students are afforded flexibility and autonomy, permitting them to focus on areas of the handbook that are most interesting to them or pertain most to their field of study (i.e., major). Of note, the course requires certain chapters due to an emphasis on “health” and “society”, as well as being a “diversity, equity, and inclusion” designated course. Here is the outline, along with the rough results of which chapters students chose during the Spring 2025 semester in the course, which many may find interesting:

Introduction to Esports (Section 1)
Module 1 – Defining and Spelling Esports (Chapter 1.2) – required
Module 2 – Choose 1:

1.3 Global History of Esports (37%; n = 26)
1.4 Esports Ecosystems & Stakeholders (4%; n = 3)
1.5 Esports Genres & Games (45%; n = 32)
1.6 Esports Developers, Publishers, & Game Design Considerations (4%; n = 3)
1.7 Esports Equipment & Infrastructure (10%; n = 7)

Esports Players (Section 3)
Module 3 – Choose 1:

3.7 Esports Player Health & Wellness
3.8 Esports Ergonomics & Injuries

Module 4 – Choose 1:

3.7 Esports Player Health & Wellness (if didn’t choose in module 3) (79%; n = 62)
3.8 Esports Ergonomics & Injuries (if didn’t choose in module 3) (21%; n = 16)
3.2 Esports Players (37%; n = 26)
3.3 Esports Performance Skills (9%; n = 6)
3.4 Esports Player Analytics (17%; n = 12)
3.5 Esports Coaching (14%; n = 10)
3.6 Applied Sport Psychology in Esports (6%; n = 4)
3.9 Esports Player Parental & Family Support (4%; n = 3)
3.10 Esports Professional Player Career Process (10%; n = 7)

Esports Business & Management (Section 4)
Module 5 – 1^st Choice of:

4.2 Esports Business & Finance (21%; n = 30)
4.3 Esports Management (15%; n = 21)
4.4 Organizing Esports Events (16%; n = 23)
4.5 Esports Venue Design & Management (8%; n = 12)
4.6 Esports Hospitality & Tourism (11%; n = 15)
4.7 Esports Branding & Marketing (11%; n = 16)
4.8 Sponsorship in Esports (9%; n = 13)
4.9 Esports Public Relations (4%; n = 6)
4.10 Human Resource Management in Esports (4%; n = 6)

Module 6 – 2^nd Choice of Above (4.2 to 4.10)

Esports Media & Communication (Section 5)
Module 7 – Choose 1:

5.2 Esports Journalism (33%; n = 21)
5.3 Esports Production (3%; n = 2)
5.4 Streaming Esports (48%; n = 31)
5.5 Esports Spectatorship (5%; n = 3)
5.6 Esports Fandom (11%; n = 7)

Esports Education (Section 6)
Module 8 – Choose 1:

6.2 Esports Education (59%; n = 41)
6.3 Competitive Collegiate Esports Programs (33%; n = 23)
6.4 Competitive Primary & Secondary School Esports Programs (7%; n = 5)

Critical Concerns in Esports (Section 7)
Module 9 – Toxicity in Esports (Chapter 7.6) – required
Module 10 – Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in Esports (Chapter 7.7) – required
Module 11 – 1^st Choice of:

7.2 Esports Governance & Esports Law (21%; n = 29)
7.3 Esports in the Olympics (27%; n = 38)
7.4 Esports Gambling (24%; n = 33)
7.5 Ethics & Cheating in Esports (15%; n = 21)
7.8 Esports for People with Disabilities (11%; n = 15)
7.9 Esports Environmental Sustainability (3%; n = 4)

Module 12 – 2^nd Choice of Above (7.2 to 7.9)

Global Esports Cultures (Section 8)
Module 13 – Choose 1:

8.2 Esports Culture in the Middle East & Africa (30%; n = 22)
8.3 Esports Culture in Asia (14%; n = 10)
8.4 Esports Culture in Europe (18%; n = 13)
8.5 Esports Culture in Oceania (8%; n = 6)
8.6 Esports Culture in North America (28%; n = 21)
8.7 Esports Culture in South America (3%; n = 2)

Esports Future Directions (Section 9)
Module 14 – The Future of Esports (Chapter 9.1) – required

Eight-Week Summer-Winter Course Format

Below is also how the course was structured across an eight-week summer/winter course with eight one-week learning modules:

Introduction to Esports (Section 1)
Module 1 Reading #1 – Required: Defining and Spelling Esports (Chapter 1.2)
Module 1 Reading #2 – Choose 1:

1.3 Global History of Esports
1.4 Esports Ecosystems & Stakeholders
1.5 Esports Genres & Games
1.6 Esports Developers, Publishers, & Game Design Considerations
1.7 Esports Equipment & Infrastructure

Esports Players (Section 3)
Module 2 Reading #1 – Choose 1:

3.7 Esports Player Health & Wellness
3.8 Esports Ergonomics & Injuries

Module 2 Reading #2 – Choose 1:

3.2 Esports Players
3.3 Esports Performance Skills
3.4 Esports Player Analytics
3.5 Esports Coaching
3.6 Applied Sport Psychology in Esports
3.7 Esports Player Health & Wellness (if didn’t already choose)
3.8 Esports Ergonomics & Injuries (if didn’t already choose)
3.9 Esports Player Parental & Family Support
3.10 Esports Professional Player Career Process

Esports Business & Management (Section 4)
Module 3 Reading – Choose 1:

4.2 Esports Business & Finance
4.3 Esports Management
4.4 Organizing Esports Events
4.5 Esports Venue Design & Management
4.6 Esports Hospitality & Tourism
4.7 Esports Branding & Marketing
4.8 Sponsorship in Esports
4.9 Esports Public Relations
4.10 Human Resource Management in Esports

Esports Media & Communication (Section 5)
Module 4 Reading – Choose 1:

5.2 Esports Journalism
5.3 Esports Production
5.4 Streaming Esports
5.5 Esports Spectatorship
5.6 Esports Fandom

Esports Education (Section 6)
Module 5 Reading – Choose 1:

6.2 Esports Education
6.3 Competitive Collegiate Esports Programs
6.4 Competitive Primary & Secondary School Esports Programs

Critical Concerns in Esports (Section 7)
Module 6 Reading #1 – Required: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in Esports (Chapter 7.7)
Module 6 Reading #2 – Choose 1:

7.2 Esports Governance & Esports Law
7.3 Esports in the Olympics
7.4 Esports Gambling
7.5 Ethics & Cheating in Esports
7.6 Toxicity in Esports
7.8 Esports for People with Disabilities
7.9 Esports Environmental Sustainability

Global Esports Cultures (Section 8)
Module 7 Reading – Choose 1:

8.2 Esports Culture in the Middle East & Africa
8.3 Esports Culture in Asia
8.4 Esports Culture in Europe
8.5 Esports Culture in Oceania
8.6 Esports Culture in North America
8.7 Esports Culture in South America

Esports Future Directions (Section 9)
Module 8 Reading – Required: The Future of Esports (Chapter 9.1)

Next, a discussion surrounding how certain chapters of the handbook are being used within single courses (i.e., modules) at Michigan State University by Ryan Thompson and at Shenandoah University by Chase Neukam.

Single Course Use of Portions of the Routledge Handbook of Esports

Ryan Thompson of Michigan State University

Michigan State University (MSU) has offered courses in game development for twenty-five years (since Fall of 2000). Today, the MSU’s Games and Interactive Media degree program is one of the nation’s highest ranked programs for game development at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, covering nearly every aspect of modern game development. Dr. Ryan Thompson, the program’s musicologist and game historian, teaches the course MI 334, “Esports and Online Broadcasting.”

The course is taught as a hybrid lecture discussion and lab course that meets once weekly. For the first half of each week’s session, the class discusses various facets of online broadcasting (with an emphasis on games), and the second half of each course meeting centers around learning how to create and curate an online broadcast using XSplit Broadcaster in a classroom lab setting. Course discussions are focused on T.L. Taylor’s foundational examination in Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming of what happens as society continues to “transform private play into public entertainment.”

Taylor’s book contains one chapter dedicated to esports, but as MSU emerges as a leader in the collegiate esports space, Dr. Thompson has found that one person’s well-researched thoughts on an increasingly important topic are insufficient for the needs of the MI 334 course, and he turns to the Routledge Handbook of Esports in order to help better answer student concerns about esports, and to drive a higher-level discussion among his students with a relatively strong foundation in games from the perspective of bourgeoning developers and critics.

Currently, for the three-week module (of fifteen weeks total) dedicated exclusively to esports, Dr. Thompson assigns students to read the following chapters from the Routledge Handbook of Esports:

Section 1: Introduction to Esports

- Chapter 1.2 Defining and Spelling Esports
- Chapter 1.6 Esports Developers, Publishers, and Game Design Considerations

Section 5: Esports Media and Communication

- Chapter 5.1 Introduction to Esports Media and Communication
- Chapter 5.2 Esports Journalism
- Chapter 5.3 Esports Production
- Chapter 5.4 Streaming Esports
- Chapter 5.5 Esports Spectatorship

Chase Neukam of Shenandoah University

This is how I am utilizing portions of the handbook in a general studies first-year seminar (FYS) course for Fall 2025. This course-type is required for all first-year students to scale a subject matter from a local to global perspective. The subject matter of the course is left to the discretion of the lecturer; I have structured the materials to introduce students to gaming as a means to build community and provide a sense of social-belonging. The course is structured in four units, four weeks per unit: esports, card games, mixed reality games, and tabletop role playing games (TTRPG). The flow of each unit follows as such:

In FYS Gaming Global, I integrated the Routledge Handbook of Esports primarily for the esports and mixed reality units. The chapters referenced include:

As mentioned prior, the handbook was referenced for key definitions, providing a global view through chapter materials, referenced figures for visual aids, and modification of the provided discussion questions for class dialogue. FYS nets a diversity of students as a required course, so I intend to implement the Routledge Handbook of Esports the most in this course to acquire feedback from a larger sample size of endemic and non-endemic folks; 36 enrolled students in total.

Attaining the Book through Inclusive Access

Instructors can consider requiring the text with “inclusive access”, which is digital access to the electronic version of the book (i.e., eBook). At Slippery Rock University, with inclusive access, students are charged a significantly reduced price of the book directly to their tuition and can “opt out” within the first week of class if they do not want to purchase it through inclusive access. Students receive an email from the bookstore on how to access the eBook and Dr. Jenny also sets up a link for it in the learning management system (LMS), D2L in his case.

In Spring of 2025, inclusive access eBook price was only $31.24 USD for the Routledge Handbook of Esports, when the book publisher’s price was about $50 USD for the eBook and over $200 USD for the print version. Instructors can speak to their institution’s book store or librarian about inclusive access. Beyond the benefit of the students getting the book for the lowest price possible, a benefit for instructors is that students have access to the book from the first day of class, so students cannot complain about not being able to do the first assignment or reading because they do not have the book yet. Click here to more about inclusive access.

Attaining the Book via Institutional Library

Anyone can also ask their local or institutional library to acquire the handbook. The Alson H. Smith, Jr. Library on Shenandoah University’s campus has partnered with our esports program to offer the Routledge Handbook of Esports to students as both a physical work and an online resource on their website. Once on the landing page, students search ‘Routledge Handbook of Esports’, choose the appropriate option, and logs into their Shenandoah student account to access.

Conclusion

At Shenandoah University, we are using the Routledge Handbook of Esports for the very purpose it was published: as a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of esports. We believe our students will find our incorporation of the handbook as a valuable resource to scale from their first semester as an undergraduate to their final semester as a graduate student. However, as shown, the handbook can also be utilized across a single course through offering students choice and autonomy for liberal studies courses that incorporate more global learning objectives with students of varying majors. Additionally, we hope other programs find our perspective helpful when embracing the Routledge Handbook of Esports in their curriculum.

About the Authors

Chase Neukam is a full-time faculty member teaching esports and business courses within the School of Business at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia. He additionally works freelance opportunities in commentary, stage management, event operations, and photography. Formerly an esports director, he now serves on the Advisory Board of the Collegiate Fighting Games Conference (CFGC), the Advisory Board of the National Association of Esports Coaches and Directors (NAECAD), and the Directors Council of Voice of Intercollegiate Esports (VOICE).

Seth E. Jenny, Ph.D., teaches esports courses within the Department of Exercise Science at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. He is the Senior Editor of the Routledge Handbook of Esports, Co-editor of Esports Business Management (2nd edition), Associate Editor of the Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports, Series Editor of the Routledge Research Series in Esports and Video Gaming, and Board Member of the Esports Research Network.

Ryan Thompson, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University, where he serves as the resident musicologist for the game development program, teaching and researching about a variety of issues related to sonic activity in video games.