[game_edu] Ad Hoc committee

[Sarah_Lemarie at scee.net]

Hi folks,

I always feel woefully short of time to contribute something as well 
structured as I would like, but I can see a great debate forming here, and 
I wanted to quickly share some insight from what I've seen in the UK.

Those of you UK-based may already know of Skillset; 
(www.skillset.org/games). Briefly, as the skills council for UK audio 
visual industries, they outlined an accreditation scheme for game 
programming, art and design courses which piloted almost 2 years ago.

I had the privilege of working on the evaluation rounds and was very 
encouraged by what I saw. As much as I appreciate the points Robin is 
making about the dangers of approving dross, there is a flipside; if you 
do nothing, it's even harder for students and industry to figure out where 
to focus their attention when they want to work with talent, and the 
number of courses touting a 'games' element is booming.

The advantage of Skillset leading the process here was that it was hard 
for academia to influence the process too strongly themselves for their 
own interests, although they were involved, as it was mainly driven by a 
panel from industry, who were quite frank and open about the skills they'd 
find helpful in new graduates that they take onboard. The design stream 
was tough and I think has yet to mature to a point where accreditation is 
easier to manage; they decided to revisit their guidelines in light of the 
experience. Chris' response regarding design (on this list) touches on 
that problem too.

Further, the accreditation was not simply about rubber stamping courses; 
it was about facilitating contact with industry, which is often so hard to 
establish. Those who are accredited receive a benefits package arranged by 
Skillset of master classes and other events where academia and industry 
come together to talk, and help keep these courses current. I think that's 
quite an important factor and maybe something to consider here too.

While it does take effort and time for universities to put together their 
applications, I would hope that they would find the process insightful and 
at least manage to obtain some contact with industry through it - the 
feedback and opportunity to perhaps even use the results to leverage more 
resources out of their university.


>From what I saw, the pilot process was very positive. Skillset set the bar 

pretty high and accredited very few courses, but for those who went 
through the process, I would hope they found it beneficial and would 
intend to continue participating in the future. 

I agree that it's perhaps not ideal for academia to directly establish 
accreditation standards, but certainly as a way to get courses and 
industry in contact, and both committing to improving industry support and 
course content, I think it can make a difference.

It certainly had everyone around the panel in Skillset asking us to get 
more devkits into universities - and now that's what we're doing. No 
coincedence!

I perceive that the membership of this list quite strongly consists of 
academic staff - but perhaps with enough feelers out to the industry 
members too, a good balance of panel members would help ensure an unbiased 
and valuable contribution. 

Sarah.
---
Sarah Lemarié
Infrastructure Manager & Academic Liaison
Technology Group, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
t: +44 (0)20 7911 7743 e: sarah_lemarie at scee.net
w: www.technology.scee.net
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