What if we told you that you can earn college credit just by playing "Pokémon GO?" Well, this can be a reality If you study at Fresno City College.
The Fresno Bee reported that Fresno City College announced last week that a new physical education class is now available for registration. Interestingly, the class will use "Pokémon GO."
A spokesperson for the college, Cris Monahan Bremer, confirmed that the class is legit. It is listed as a physical education course, PE-6 #25718 Walking. It has one unit of transferable credit. The school took to Facebook to make the announcement. A photo of the class details was posted on Fresno City College's official Facebook page.
"This class will use the "Pokémon GO!" App to promote fitness through walking and finding Pokémon's on the FCC campus [sic]," the post read. "This course requires students to provide their own mobile device with data (Internet) access. Students are responsible for all data-use changes incurred on their mobile device."
The "Pokémon GO" class will start in the second half of the fall semester from Oct. 17 to Dec. 8. It will run from 9:00 a.m. - 10:25 a.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The college's women's soccer coach, Oliver Germond, will be teaching the course.
"My dean approached me about it, and at first, I thought she was joking," Germond said. "She explained it to me, and I agreed to teach it. It's a fun way of making a fitness class work and attracting more students to physical fitness."
Germond is currently creating the curriculum for the course. He revealed that he wants to incorporate elements of the augmented-reality game into a fitness course that focuses on walking, running as well as other basic cardiovascular workouts.
According to USA Today, Fresno City College's campus has a lot of "Pokémon GO" gyms and Pokéstops. A graphic designer for the school will reportedly add the locations of these game features to the campus maps that all students receive at the beginning of each semester. The "Pokémon GO" class is expected to have 26 students.
