Additional Resources (Undergraduate Programs)

a) Faculty

Provide evidence of and planning for adequate numbers and quality of faculty and staff to achieve the goals of the program or the commitment to provide the necessary resources in step with the

implementation of the program. Provide evidence of the quality of the faculty with reference to academic qualifications, research, innovation and scholarly record, as well as the appropriateness of collective faculty expertise to contribute substantively to the proposed program.

28 The curriculum in Digital Culture and Gaming requires several non-technology based courses that can be launched in the first year of admission without new faculty expertise on campus. Specifically the

Brantford Foundations and Journalism courses come from existing programs and initiatives in Brantford.

In order to launch the DG curriculum, however, the program will require a new faculty hire in the second year (at the latest) and another new faculty hire in the third year in order to keep up with student numbers and the roll-out of the curriculum.

In order for the program to have visionary leadership as it grows and evolves, we envision the first new hire to be an experienced associate-level professor, with an established research portfolio and ability to garner external funding for Digital Culture and Gaming projects. The second hire could be at the

assistant level and potentially a Professional Teaching Position; someone whose work emphasizes the applied elements of the DG curriculum. The consultations that have informed the development of this curriculum have turned up two potential applicants for future open positions.

Current Laurier faculty who will teach required courses in the program are Dr. Kenneth Werbin in Digital Media and Journalism, who teaches Media Studies courses and Dr. Lamine Diallo in the Leadership program, who teaches project management courses for DG students.

b) The Role of Adjunct and Part-Time Faculty

Even with two full-time professors in the Digital Culture and Gaming program, it will have to rely on external expertise to teach some courses. We anticipate building partnerships between the academic program and interested professionals and practitioners in the area who can not only teach necessary skills, but also provide professional models and mentors for doing the work of game design and programming.

c) Anticipated Class Sizes

Conestoga has indicated that the enrollment in their courses should be at least 18 students, in order for it to be financially viable for them. Given the size constraints of computer labs and the pedagogical restraints of training students to engage in hands-on problem solving and learning, many of the DG courses, as well should be no larger than 30-35 students.

Not all courses in the curriculum are small, however. Many of the required courses in the curriculum, such as the Journalism, Leadership, and Brantford Foundations courses, fall under regular time and space constraints and can be much larger in size than the laboratory courses in DG.

Two early courses in the DG curriculum, DG 100 Analog Gaming and Interactivity and DG 101 Game Design Foundations, have no prerequisites and would be open to students from all programs on the Brantford campus. As these courses do not require the use of computer labs, they could be larger (>75 students) and serve as outreach to other programs and advertise for the Digital Gaming program.

29 d) Experiential Learning Opportunities

Provision for supervision of experiential learning opportunities (if applicable).

Each level of the Digital Culture and Gaming program provides students with the opportunity to create a deliverable product or project, either working alone or in a group. The iterative process of trying, failing productively, and trying again—referred to as “agile engineering”—will be central to the curriculum and foster a “maker” culture within the program.

In the DG 411 Capstone Project in Digital Entrepreneurship the professor and Laurier Brantford’s CSL coordinator will work together to create and manage professional relationships between WLU students and their community partners.

WLU and the city of Brantford are also interested in developing an entrepreneurial incubator, or Technology Launch Pad, which would provide students with opportunities to work in the community and gain practical experience during their studies.

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APPENDICES

Program Curriculum

All students in the Honours BFAA program in Digital Culture and Gaming will take the four-course Brantford Foundations cycle during their first (and second) year. Two of these courses introduce the major trends in social and political thought shaping the notions of the West and the Other, beginning with the Enlightenment, as well as critiques of those ideologies. The other two courses introduce students to participation in academic discourse including reading, writing, scholarly communication and discussion. Thus, the required courses in the DG program address issues and questions in visual culture and the media environment with students who are aware of and sensitive to the established ways of talking about the individual and society and who are prepared to conduct critically engaged academic work and research.

The required courses in Digital Culture and Gaming (DG) introduce students to a broad variety of critical and applied concepts in both gaming studies and game design. The required courses offered by

Conestoga College are listed here in order to give a sense of the complete, integrated curriculum. Since the program assumes no previous programming or design experience on the part of students, the curriculum introduces concepts of games and game design through a project-based course in which first-year students develop an analog board game. The WLU-based curriculum then introduces students to key concepts, ideas, and tools in media history, theory, design, and interaction. The Conestoga-based curriculum introduces key skills required for game development in hands-on computer lab classrooms.

The interaction of theory and practice culminates in two capstone projects that showcase the students’

ability to create games from concept to product and to work in collaboration with an external organization to solve or address a problem with gamified strategies.

In a 20.0 credit hour undergraduate degree program, the BFAA breaks down as follows:

Brantford Foundations 2.0 credits (1.0 senior credit) Required WLU courses 7.5 credits (5.0 senior credits) Required Conestoga courses 3.0 credits (1.0 senior credits) Required electives 1.0 credits (1.0 senior credit)

Total required courses 13.5 credits, of which 8.0 are senior level Required Courses—WLU: 7.5 credits

DG 100 Analog Gaming and Interactivity (0.5) This course studies theory and skills relating to the conception, development and documentation of an analog (board) game. Students will initiate an analog game design project and bring it to completion by way of introduction to the history and theory

31 of games, concept development, project management, branding and design. In the process of learning about game design, they will also be introduced to the basic principles of interactivity.

DG 101 Game Design Foundations (0.5) Designers are responsible for Game Design Documents, which define the vision and specifications of a game from its technical components to an understanding of interaction and entertainment. This course is a study of a broad selection of theory and skills relating to the conception, development and documentation of a game, including the history of games,

development of game mechanics, procedural thinking, incorporation of artistic elements, and level and scenario design.

JN 101 Reporting and Writing I (0.5) Students learn and practice the reporting, writing and interviewing techniques involved in news reporting while reflecting upon the fundamental values and principles of journalism. (Needed as a pre-req for media studies courses in year 2) I think we should explain this course because it sticks out like a sore thumb in their first year.

JN/MX 211 Introduction to Media Studies (0.5) This course introduces students to the history of media forms and key theories in media studies.

JN252 Designing Digital and Social Media (0.5) The theory and practice of information and interactive design for digital and social media, including designing for the web, wireless devices, and or tablets.

Students will learn how to analyze project needs, strategize, and develop information and interactive designs and content.

DG 220 Introduction to Interactivity (0.5) An introduction to the history, theory and practice of interactive art and communication. Emphasis throughout the class is paces on creative practice in multimedia: project planning/storyboarding, idea generation, prototyping, testing and completion of interactive works. The class will also incorporate hands-on tutorials, demonstrations, lectures, discussions, and critiques.

KS 205 Cartoons and Comics (0.5) An exploration of cartoons and comics from the 18th century to the present, addressing such issues as the history of the genre, and its various roles from the political to the popular.

CS251 Introduction to Visual Culture (0.5) An introduction to the analysis and understanding of visual culture. The course will draw on numerous historical and contemporary examples from art and architecture, film, television, new media and other forms of visual communication and culture. The course addresses both the formal analysis of images and a range of conceptual and theoretical issues associated with visual culture.

CS 323 Media and Communication Ethics (0.5) An examination of the main ethical issues in mass communications media (television, newspapers, the Internet, etc.), including such topics as objectivity, freedom of expression, representations of sex, violence and other human behavior, privacy,

confidentiality and obligations to the public.

OL 224/CT 224/MB 224 Organizational Leadership (0.5) Organizations come in all shapes and sizes. This interdisciplinary introduction to the study of organizations and their behaviour and looks at both the internal workings of organizations and their role within broader society. Students will discuss major

32 theoretical approaches and debates in the interdisciplinary field of organizational theory, as well as the issues raised by the role organizations play in contemporary society. {CU} (Cross-listed as CT224 and MB224.)

OL 481 Project Management I (0.5) This course will focus on developing an understanding of the management and organizational factors involved in project development, co-ordination and delivery.

The course will include case studies, project-based exercises, and project management software.

DG 410 Capstone Project in Gaming (1.0) Students will situate a newly-developed game within a cultural, sociological, historical, or aesthetic context and present their reflections and research to their classmates, students in the program, and the university community at large. The capstone project is designed to provide students with the opportunity to reflect academically on the non-technical components of the game and demonstrate the successful integration of theoretical knowledge and practical application. Presentation of their reflection and research in a public forum will prepare students for the job search process.

DG 411 Capstone Project in Digital Entrepreneurship (1.0) Working within Brantford`s Launch Pad, students will create and use serious games to solve problems in collaboration with local commercial, industrial, academic, cultural or social organizations.

Elective Courses—WLU: (1.0 credit)

Students must take at least two courses from the following, some of which are only available once the student has achieved senior status:

EN119 (Reading Fiction) FS102 (Film and the Image) EN201 (Children’s Literature)

EN210 (Literature and Social Change) HR/HS 219 (Critical Disabilities Studies) EN281 (Cyborg Fictions)

CON 2D and 3D Design 2D visuals are a vital aspect to virtually every game, so this course explores concept art, 2D art and animation, model textures and menu and interface elements. Projects will explore terminology commonly used in two-dimensional and three-dimensional art. Conceptual ideas of form will be developed through a series of lectures, slides, written and studio projects. Exercises will explore and utilize a variety of tools, materials (wire, paper, clay) and techniques.

33 CON Game Development Students learn how to develop and manipulate game mechanics and

environments through visual and traditional scripting tools. This class supports skills needed for level editing and design, prototyping, and working in game engines. In a case of learning by doing, by the end of this course, students should be able to compare and contrast digital genres with each other and with related analog genres; apply narratological and ludological concepts in the analysis of digital works and describe digital artifacts such as computer programs and texts.

CON Sound Design for Games This course will offer an introduction to issues in post production.

Students will learn about basic editing techniques, including digital audio formatting, mixing, editing, and working with scratch studio, as well as game specific concepts such as multitrack music, and looping and branching audio.

CON 3D Animations In this course students will enhance their personal toolkit of emerging technologies and software, refining and integrating 3D elements into game development applications. They will work on a variety of 3D assignments and projects that will contribute to their personal portfolio which

demonstrates their skills and knowledge in the creation, manipulating and texturing of 3D objects.

CON Games and Usability Good game design requires more than a theoretical model of a game;

designers also need to understand how their players will interact with their product so that they can optimize the experience. Students will explore interface devices and how they can influence a game experience, storytelling and narrative techniques unique to games, more advanced documentation techniques, and more abstract game theory. (counts as 0.5 senior WLU credits)

CON Game Programming Games set up a complex simulation and allow players to play around with that simulation. Programming is the engine that runs those simulations, and is a core component of all interactive media. Game Designers need to understand programming opportunities and limitations, as well as being able to communicate effectively with programmers. In this class, students will be

introduced to programming techniques, concepts and terminology, and they will explore methods commonly used in video game development, producing 2D game content. (counts as 0.5 senior WLU credits)

Notes for future curriculum development: As this program requires two new faculty members in the first three years to teach courses and give the program necessary direction and leadership, the proposal leaves several gaps in the upper years of the DG curriculum for interesting project- or problem-based electives. Below is a list of ideas for upper-level courses gleaned from external consultations:

DG4XX: Special Topics in Digital Culture: (An example here might include critical case studies of games that recreate/ explore geopolitical tensions such as Food Force (a UN developed game that examines issues in global hunger) or games produced by the Syrian studio Afkar Games, a specialist in political gaming. There are many, many examples of how this course could be developed.)

DG4XX: Gaming in Science and Technology: This course examines the use of serious games in

environmental science, data visualization, crowdsourcing, medical and scientific technology, imaging or research.

34 DG4XX; Vernacular Media: This course examines amateur content creation from commonplace books and mixtapes to Snapchats, Pinterest, YouTube, etc.

DG4XX: Location and Media: This course critically examines the proliferation of mobile media, site-specific art and media, multimedia installations, etc.

DG4XX: Games in Literature and/or Film

DG4XX: Special Topics in Live Gaming (Alternate Reality Games, pervasive gaming, sport, parkour, etc)

35 Appendix A: Curriculum Map

Note: Units are encouraged to work with Teaching Support Services on the completion of the curriculum map.

Legend:

I = Introduce R = Reinforce M = Master Program Learning Outcomes

Required Courses [Enter

Course Code or Component]

[Enter Program Learning Outcome]

[I, R, M or ]

36 Appendix B: New Program Budget

Note: To complete the New Program Budget template, please contact Christine Dale, Manager:

Integrated Planning and Academic Resources at [email protected] or ext. 3727, who will work with the Faculty Financial Analyst (all programs) and the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (graduate programs) in developing the program budget.

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