He is the director of the Purdue Center for Serious Games and Learning in Virtual Environments, which conducts research on and provides support for implementing, designing and developing educational video games and virtual environments for learning. Watson earned a Ph.D. in Education and a M.S. in Information Science from Indiana University. His research interest focuses on the critical, systemic change of education to realize a learner-centered paradigm, including the application of technology such as video games, virtual environments, and learning management software in order to create customized and personalized learning environments.