Onward: An interview with Ethan Valentine

By Michael Linnell
University Communications Director

MINOT, N.D. - Ethan Valentine serves a dual role on the Minot State campus.

Mild-mannered professor by day; Esports, gamer, guru by night!

Valentine moved around the Midwest a bit while growing up but returned to Iowa to earn three degrees from the University of Iowa, including a Doctor of Philosophy in Psychological and Quantitative Foundations in 2018. That's the professor part, joining the MSU psychology staff after teaching at Kirkwood Community College and his alma mater.

The Esports side of his dual role? He explains that it goes all the way back to his childhood when he played the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Fast forward to his time at MSU, where he has become the advisor to the burgeoning Esports team that moved into a fantastic space in the newly renovated Hartnett Hall.

University Communications met up with Valentine in the Esports Arena to learn a little more about both roles. And Valentine didn't disappoint, as you will need to refresh your cup of coffee before diving into the latest installment of Onward.

You were hired in 2021 and have served as interim chair already, how has your teaching experience been at Minot State?
EV: It's been a great experience! I was fortunate enough to have some teaching experience at Kirkwood Community College and the University of Iowa before coming to Minot State, so I had some idea of what to expect generally. One of the big things that was different for me was coming to an institution like MSU where we have pretty small class sizes and students and faculty are able to get to know each other really well. My graduate program had small classes of course, but as an undergraduate at a school like Iowa, you often are in a lecture hall with hundreds of other students.

Minot State offers a very different experience for both students and faculty, and it's been a wonderful place to teach. I also can't overstate the importance of a very friendly department where we have good conversations about coursework and curriculum, from individual assignments and teaching methods to how we envision our programs preparing students for their futures. I wouldn't be able to teach courses like 'Cognition & Games' or 'Intro to Cyberpsychology' if my department and the university weren't up for new ideas.

What was your experience as a chair having been named to that role very early in your career here?
EV: I was only chair for one summer, so it was a short stint in that role! Our department had a lot of faculty members retire around the same time, so we're a pretty young group of faculty. I firmly believe that any of my colleagues could have stepped up in that moment, but I was lucky enough to have some previous experience as a faculty member at Kirkwood. Thanks to that experience, mentorship from our current chair (Dr. Vicki Michels), and support across the campus, we were able to keep things moving forward during that summer so that we could begin that next academic year in a good spot!

In truth, there's something fun about the learning process of being a chair as well. I've seen it serving on Faculty Senate as well, but positions like those are really helpful in learning how the university works and all of the efforts going on behind the scenes. On that note, a huge shoutout to all of our staff colleagues at MSU - faculty are often the "face" of the University because we have students in class, but the university does not work without an incredible amount of work from our colleagues all across campus.

What were some of the reasons you chose to come to MSU?
EV: There were a number of things that were really intriguing about Minot State. Having attended a really large university like Iowa and having taught at a community college like Kirkwood, I knew I wanted to be at an institution that both heavily valued teaching and invested in research. Minot State shines in both of those areas, and more - we care about our teaching, we have wonderful scholars across a host of disciplines, and we work hard to serve our communities. A big part of that boils down to the value that Minot State places on innovation and community service. Given that a lot of my research is meant to be applied, that was another big draw for me.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the importance of the arts on campus and around Minot as well - from NOTSTOCK and the theatre program to the Minot Symphony Orchestra and the Mouse River Players - the arts are a big deal here and I love that. Coming from an area like Iowa City that also celebrates the arts, that was something that mattered a lot to me!

Do you have an early highlight or two from your time at Minot State or in the Magic City?
EV: It's tough to narrow it down to just one or two! Not to discount my first few months in Minot, but one of the moments that solidified that I was in a really good place was in January 2022. Our interim department chair - Dr. Warren Gamas - invited me to help out with a Lego Robotics tournament that was being held on campus and run by Full STEAM Ahead (shoutout to Alli Auch for all of her hard work on that). I had never been involved with Lego Robotics before; on a cold January morning, there wasn't much better than being in Swain Hall judging robot designs. The excitement and fun from those teams from around our region was palpable and contagious, and I've been fortunate enough to keep helping out the last two years as well. It's a fantastic opportunity for those kids and a great way that Minot State supports learning in our community.

For a second highlight, I've got to go with the first-ever Great Plains Gauntlet Esports tournament that we hosted on campus this past April. Between the MSU Dome and the partially open Hartnett Hall, we were able to create an atmosphere of competition and community that I'm hugely proud of. Despite some early tech difficulties (those happen almost everywhere), we put on an event that I'm very hopeful will continue to bring high school and college students from around North Dakota and our region to the MSU campus, and the aim is for that to be something that the entire MSU community can be proud of as well. Lots of shoutouts in this, but another one here to all of the folks who helped us in making that event a success, from our fantastic student leaders and staff/faculty colleagues to our community partners and sponsors, plus all of our attendees and competitors.

What are some of the reasons you chose to teach in the psychology department?
EV: The short answer would be that my degrees are in psychology! As far as why this group at this university, I've been really fortunate to have a fantastic set of colleagues in both the psych program and the broader department. When I was interviewing and after receiving the offer to join the faculty here, I had the chance to talk with both current and former faculty members, including the retiring faculty member who I was replacing in the department. Getting to know that group of colleagues and predecessors was really valuable to me and helped solidify that this would be a great place to work.

It's a cliché in a way, but it really is the case that interviews go both ways - the prospective employee also needs to know how well they'll fit with their colleagues. My conversation with Dr. Pam Ondracek (now retired) during the interview process is one that I remember well and often reference when I'm interviewing prospective new faculty - she and I talked a lot about museums, the zoo in town, the Magic Discovery Center that was not yet open, and other features of the Minot community. That investment in a new colleague having a vibrant community in addition to a good workplace was very meaningful to me.

You are the Director of Esports at Minot State, what was your initial interest in forming that student club and competitive program?
EV: In some ways, that takes us all the way back to my childhood! I've been playing video games since I was a little kid on platforms like the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). I'm not an especially competitive gamer, but games provided a community for me to be a part of as I got older. Once I started as a faculty member at Kirkwood, a student in one of my classes asked me to be an advisor for their new esports club because I was the "games person" on that campus given my educational and research background. I didn't expect it at the time, but working with those students highlighted the value of that type of gaming-focused community on college campuses. It was something I didn't have as a student but that I could help facilitate for today's students.

When I interviewed at Minot State, one of the first questions I asked the search committee was whether Minot State was investing in esports and what kind of interest there was on campus. After arriving on campus, it was similarly one of the first big projects that I wanted to take on. Most of my own motivation came from a desire to help build a community for students on our campus who enjoyed gaming, whether competitive or not. We know from a lot of research on motivation and educational systems that students who feel like they belong in a space are much more likely to succeed in that space, which means that a healthy, friendly, and accessible community can really pay dividends in terms of academic success. Being a part of a strong community also helps students to develop important skills for their futures - communication, leadership, problem solving, flexible thinking, and so on. The TL;DR version, then, is that I would have loved to have a community like this when I was a student, and my initial interest was really rooted in working to make that possible for our students.

The MSU Esports area has expanded - in membership and scope - and has moved into an impressive new space in Hartnett Hall, tell us about all the changes.
EV: Yes! We're incredibly proud of the progress we've made and grateful for all of the support that has helped us get here. I often like to reference our first Minot State Esports Club meeting in February of 2022 where we had just eight students attend to start what seemed like a niche community. About two and a half years later, we have something like 160 students in our Discord server and frequently have 70-plus students attend our campus-wide events. In the formal Esports program, we went from a single team playing League of Legends in the summer of 2022 to at least seven teams across five different games (League of Legends, Rocket League, Valorant, Overwatch 2, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) competing in Fall 2024, with a possibility for an eighth team in the new Call of Duty game. We primarily compete via the National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC), as well as in regional events like the Northern Rift tournament with our fellow Northern Sun Intercollege Conference (NCA Division II) schools, the University of Jamestown's annual LAN tournament, and our own Great Plains Gauntlet.

As of this year, we're incredibly excited to have our first-ever head coach, Bri Romfo, leading those teams in our beautiful new space in Hartnett Hall. The Esports Arena boasts 16 high-end gaming PCs, a wall of TVs equipped with the newest consoles, a coaching office, and a studio for shoutcasting (broadcasting) our matches. Thanks to all of those new tools, we'll not only have our teams competing together in the arena every week, but also commentators in our shoutcasting studio bringing live play-by-plays and commentary to our Twitch CHANNEL. You can watch those matches from anywhere at any time, so please do tune in!

We're also offering scholarships for players as of the 2024-2025 academic year, which is a big step in supporting our students' academic careers in addition to providing a community and competitive outlets. Students on scholarships are required to not only maintain a high GPA (3.0 or higher), but also dedicate a number of hours every week to both studying and wellness/fitness. We've been very intentional in designing those scholarship requirements to emphasize that all of our competitors are - and need to be - well-rounded and successful students first and foremost. This isn't the stereotype of the gamer sitting alone in a dark room for hours at a time!

What's the future of MSU Esports?
EV: I always like to think about the MSU Esports program as having three main pillars that build on and contribute to each other - academics, community, and competition. Esports programs (and most programs we might want to build) are also defined by what their members put in and what they value. We've worked hard to maintain a focus on those three pillars, with academics and community as the bedrock for developing competitive success. Going forward, my goal is to build on the progress we've made in each of those three areas.

On the academics side, we've already implemented two game studies certificates that undergraduate students can complete, and we're working this year on putting together a collaborative, multidisciplinary bachelor's degree that will help students develop important skills in media production and broadcasting, business, psychology, and health and wellness.

To support community growth and health, we're looking to continue hosting events for the campus and the wider community, including our upcoming movie nights and end-of-the-year celebration in the spring.

You can also find us working with partners in Minot and our region, including with friends like the team behind iMagicon or supporting high school esports programs in the area. We also want to continue to grow our competitive presence. That includes both continued success in the NECC and other competitions and hosting even better iterations of the Great Plains Gauntlet going forward. For our regular season, we're looking to have more teams qualify for the NECC playoffs this year than we've ever had, with a good shot at that given the rosters coach Romfo has gathered for the year. Our moonshot for the next couple of years is to send at least one team to nationals at the end of spring as well, so stay tuned for that!

Closer to home, we're looking to expand the size of the Great Plains Gauntlet, bringing in more competitors and sponsors to support esports communities in our region. We made a pretty big splash in the high school and collegiate scenes with the first Gauntlet this last April, and that made us hungry for more!

Tell us about your academic career; where did you study, what degrees did you earn, and how did those experiences shape you as a professor?
EV: I completed all of my degrees at the University of Iowa, alongside some credits that I took at Minnesota State Community and Technical College during high school. I started at the UI as an undergraduate in 2010, and completed a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2013, a Master of Arts in Educational Psychology in 2015, and a Doctor of Philosophy Psychological & Quantitative Foundations in 2018.

I know it's a cliché, but as a native of southeast Iowa, Iowa City and the University of Iowa campus felt - and feels - like home. As a UNESCO City of Literature and home to the Iowa Writers' Workshop, International Writing Program, and the beautiful Hancher Auditorium (among many other wonderful spaces and programs), Iowa City reinforced the belief - instilled by my family at a young age - that the arts are absolutely crucial in educating the citizens and leaders of tomorrow. Broadly, Iowa's strong emphasis on a liberal arts education alongside nationally and globally focused research helped to develop my own interest in conducting research.

While I certainly had some instructors that I didn't care for (as I'm sure every student has), I was incredibly fortunate to be able to work with and learn from leading-edge scholars and world-class artists. As an undergraduate, experiences like studying French folklore with Dr. Geoffrey Hope fueled my love of history and literature, while courses like Dr. Cathleen Moore's visual perception and cognition reinforced that psychology was where I belonged. As a graduate student, my faculty members and mentors helped shape my approach to teaching and research in meaningful ways. Dr. Kathy Schuh (a native North Dakotan!) is the primary inspiration for how I assess learning in my courses, Dr. Schuh and Dr. Pam Wesely shaped my approach to asking research questions and choosing research methods, and Dr. Mitch Kelly helped show me that it's OK to not always know the answer to a question. A lot of credit also goes to Dr. Ben DeVane, my Ph.D. advisor, who sparked much of my interest in game-based learning and belief in the power of failure as a learning experience.

Were you always interested in psychology, and what are some of the reasons you chose that as your undergrad, master's, and doctorate degrees?
EV: Like I tell my advisees and students, I actually switched majors multiple times! I was really fortunate to come into the University of Iowa with a lot of credits from MState, but in truth I had no idea where I would end up. I was a journalism/mass communications major, a biochemistry major, and a biology major before I eventually landed in the psychology major once the Krebs cycle defeated me! For the first year or so of my time at Iowa, I planned to aim for medical school. Deciding to not pursue that was a tough choice, but I had taken AP psychology in high school and enjoyed it, so I decided to try out Iowa's elementary psychology course and it just clicked for me. Even then, though, I thought I would go into clinical - rather than educational - psychology.

That shift actually came because of my interest in medicine. At the time, I was working at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics as a student research coordinator, and my team ended up being hired to run a study exploring how to best help patients learn about medical procedures. Working on that study was my sort-of lightbulb moment - I could make a career out of studying how people learn and designing tools to help them learn! Talking with the investigators for that study sparked my interest in educational psychology and convinced me to apply to attend my eventual graduate program!

Tell us about the Digital Cognition Lab here at Minot State, what is the research focused on?
EV: We (or at least I) have a lot of fun in the Digital Cognition Lab! The DCL is all about investigating how we think, learn, and interact in digital spaces. That includes a lot of different things - games, simulations, open education, virtual and augmented reality, online communities, digital art, and more!

Some of my previous research includes exploring how learners' decisions can impact their learning experience, especially when using open educational resources. You can actually find the learning tools my team and I developed for that project on the MyCarDoesWhat public information campaign website. Similarly, we explored game-based physics learning as part of the Notion of Motion project with the Iowa Children's Museum in the Iowa City area.

My work here at Minot State includes diving into the design of location-based augmented reality as a tool for accessibility and learning about physical spaces, an international collaboration delving into how gamification of online shopping impacts customer perceptions of brand value, and a new student-led project (shoutout to Alex Engel and Sara Van Wickler!) investigating how virtual reality can be used to teach stress coping techniques to athletes. We also have ongoing and upcoming projects on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in esports, the use of automated mental health supports in gaming communities, and the perceived emotional impact of varied digital art forms.

You earned all three of your degrees from the University of Iowa, what led you to study there and tell us some of the differences and similarities between Iowa and MSU.
EV: Attending the University of Iowa was sort of like going back home for me - I'm from that area originally and Iowa City was a really good place for me to live and learn. I grew up with mostly Iowa State fans in my family, so there's always a little bit of good-hearted smugness on one side or the other when Hawkeye and Cyclone football (this year reminded me of the NDSU game back in 2016!), wrestling, and other teams meet.

Iowa City and Minot share quite a lot, even if they differ at face value. Both communities invest in and care greatly about the arts, which is a fantastic characteristic to share. I also love that both communities lean into informal learning opportunities for children and families in the area. Places like the Iowa Children's Museum, the Stanley Museum of Art, and the Fab Lab in the Iowa City area, plus the Magic City Discovery Center, the Northwest Arts Center, and the Roosevelt Park Zoo here in Minot exemplify that spirit of learning and exploration.

The campuses themselves are pretty different, however. The UI campus is large and very much integrated with Iowa City, which makes for a really unique atmosphere as you glide back and forth between the UI's Pentacrest and Iowa City's downtown Ped Mall, or stop at a restaurant in the shadow of Kinnick Stadium. Minot State's campus is of course an important part of Minot as well, but it feels a little more distinct and set apart. That actually points to something that MSU does better than Iowa, however, which is creating a welcoming and tight-knit community for new students.

Here at MSU we have a small but beautiful campus and a close community that is wonderful for helping students feel like they belong. That's especially true when our students are coming to us from a long way away or leaving home for the first time. I love the University of Iowa and always will, but the size and scope of a campus that large can be a really tough adjustment for students. From a faculty perspective, a campus our size also helps us get to know our students and go on educational journeys with them, rather than just being one cog in a much larger machine.

What do you like to do outside of the classroom: family, hobbies, or other areas of interest?
EV: Not to turn things back to gaming, but games are a big part of how I relax at the end of the day or week. I tend to enjoy a lot of genres, including strategy games (Civilization, Command & Conquer) and platformers (I'm a sucker for classics like Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario Bros. 3). My go-to genre is definitely role-playing games, however. From classics like Castle of the Winds and Morrowind to modern masterpieces like Disco Elysium and Baldur's Gate 3, I love to get lost in virtual worlds that look and feel so different from our own and yet share many of the same difficult conversations and stories.

Just as I emphasize doing things other than playing video games to our esports competitors, though, I also make sure to not get trapped in virtual worlds. I'm an avid reader, with Neil Gaiman as a particular favorite among authors. I'm also a lifelong fan of the Chicago Cubs and love watching international soccer (football?). I always get pulled back into Iowa Hawkeye sports as well, and despite the struggle of watching Hawkeye football (including the Cy-Hawk game this year), it's been a really fun couple of years to be a Hawkeye fan - between Caitlin Clark's play and Lisa Bluder's coaching, women's basketball carried us all through the football pain.

I also love camping, hiking, and stargazing - more great reasons to be in a place like Minot! Most of my family is back in Iowa, with my brother Zack and sister Audrey near Des Moines and my brother Grady in the Washington, D.C. metro. I'm also an uncle to three fantastic young people: Jasper, Theo, and Katie Ann (happy birthday to Theo, who just turned 4 the week I'm writing this!), with a new niece on the way very soon.

I'm also just one in a proud line of public educators - my mother was a faculty member and college administrator before her retirement, one of her sisters worked as an art teacher, and my maternal grandmother was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Iowa.

What else are we missing in telling your story?
EV: I love math! The statistics courses in our undergraduate psych and graduate school psych programs are up there for my favorite classes to teach, in large part because so many students come in afraid of math and feeling like it isn't helpful or doesn't matter.

One of the most rewarding elements of teaching is when students have a lightbulb moment and realize how or why something is useful, and I'm not sure there's any better version of that than in math/statistics courses. I will never not enjoy helping students find that realization that math is a valuable tool in their toolbelts.

Last, a huge shoutout and thank you to our Esports head coach, Bri Romfo, and all of our student leaders this year and in previous years. I know Coach Romfo wants me to take more credit for the program, but what we've built is impossible without our students, so thank you!

Oh, and learning styles are a myth that we should stop teaching!

About Minot State University
Minot State University is a public university dedicated to excellence in education, scholarship, and community engagement achieved through rigorous academic experiences, active learning environments, commitment to public service, and a vibrant campus life.

Published: 09/12/24

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