Ac 2011-545: Experiences of Teaching Computer Game and Multimedia Sequence Courses in the Electrical and Com- Puter Engineering Technology Program

In this paper, we present our experiences for developing and teaching computer game and multimedia sequence courses in our electrical and computer engineering technology (ECET) program. The first course in the sequence is an introduction to computer games, where a software platform, Alice, is adopted to develop programming concepts and working knowledge of multimedia applications using audio, image, animation, and video data. The second course requires students perform multimedia programming using the well-known software, DirectX with a Microsoft Visual C++ platform. Students learn how to integrate graphics, animation and sound assets into interactive environments. We find that the sequence courses stimulate students to achieve their learning objectives in the ECET curriculum via developing their computer game assignments and projects as a vehicle. Furthermore, the student retention is greatly improved. In fact, the sequence essentially establishes a bridge between computer game courses and a traditional digital signal processing (DSP) course offered in our ECET program. In this paper, we first outline the course content and present our pedagogy for teaching the sequence courses. Then, we examine course assessment and analyze outcomes of student learning effects in their upper level course study. The performance comparisons between the students who have completed the game and multimedia sequence courses and the traditional students who are used to do paper exercises and textbook reading, are addressed. Finally, an improvement of the sequence content is proposed.