[game_edu] Ad Hoc committee

[Kim Blake]

I second Sarah, both on the lack of time to contribute and what she says about Skillset!
 
Our company is involved with the Skillset Computer Games Skills Forum which helped to establish the accreditation system. I'm one of the people who attends their meetings, although I wasn't directly involved with the accreditation as Sarah was.
 
Certainly as far as programming (C++!) and game art (good drawing and other traditional art skills!) are concerned, it's relatively easy to come up with some really core stuff that must be taught if students are going to have any hope of getting a job, and if we're going to get useful graduates. Getting industry input is so useful for this, although yes, it's hard to get input from us developers when we are pressed for time and have commercial projects that must be completed to deadline...
 
I just read Tom's email which I also thoroughly agree with - it makes me very angry when young people spend 3 or 4 years of their lives, and accrue a ton of debt, and end up with a degree - even a first - that is useless. They need some pointers so that they can put their time and money to good use and we get good candidates.
 
We particularly need to be getting the specialisation message across - not courses that teach a bit of animation and a bit of design and a bit of programming, but ones which turn out either excellent programmers or excellent animators or whatever. 
 
Design is a whole other issue :) I don't think we ever finally came up with a design scheme for accreditation did we, Sarah? I do know that no game design course in the UK has been accredited...
 
Sorry, turned into a bit of a rant... ;)
 
Kim

________________________________

From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Sarah_Lemarie at scee.net
Sent: 28 February 2008 17:49
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: Re: [game_edu] Ad Hoc committee



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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