Collaborative learning via 3-D game development

ABSTRACT

The tremendous growth of the 3-D, first person video game genre provided a vehicle through which to create a one-year, upper level undergraduate experience in multidisciplinary, highly collaborative software design and implementation. We report on a team-taught course that encompassed concepts from the contributing disciplines of computer science, digital media, film, theater and music. The learning environment balanced individual experiential skills development with reflective analysis of media implementation as our students built a media-rich interactive game. This panel provides four perspectives on the design and execution of the course and resulting game from our contributing areas: computer science (Wolz), digital art (Sanders), music/sound technology (Nakra), and writing (Pearson). As moderator, Ault, whose own work is at the intersection of our fields, provides a unifying perspective.

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Computers in other domains

    • Personal computers and PC applications

      • Computer games

  • Education

    • Collaborative learning

    • Computer-assisted instruction

  • Enterprise computing

• Computing methodologies

  • Computer graphics

• Information systems

  • Information systems applications

    • Multimedia information systems

      • Massively multiplayer online games

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing education

      • Computing education programs

        • Computer science education

• Software and its engineering

  • Software organization and properties

    • Contextual software domains

      • Virtual worlds software

        • Interactive games

• Theory of computation

  • Theory and algorithms for application domains

    • Algorithmic game theory and mechanism design