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Monday 6 June 2011

Students Turn the Tables by Developing Curriculum

A group of ‘switched on’ Forth Valley College students have stunned staff by developing software knowledge into a workshop to train lecturers across Scotland.

The eight students in the HND Computing: Software Development class were originally split into two project groups at the start of their course back in September. Both embarked upon similar challenging projects and chose software applications which few teaching staff had expertise in.

The enterprising gaming enthusiasts quickly realised that merging their research on Unity (a 3D Game Engine) and Blender (a 3D Modelling Package) would enhance their project and lead to the basis of a new computer “shoot ‘em up” game called Murder Mile.

Ironically they have become so expert in this new software that a presentation of their research and development has been turned into a Scotland’s Colleges endorsed online workshop resource which has been rolled out to computing lecturers across the country.

Vivien Gallacher Curriculum Quality Leader (CQL) for Computing, said: “This group of students have really impressed myself and their lecturer Fiona Jackson with their enthusiasm and dedication on their projects. Due to their thorough research they have very quickly become very knowledgeable and have been able to pass this on to staff who did not know much about this software at all.

“Through our contacts at Scotland’s Colleges they were asked to deliver sessions face to face and online so staff at other colleges across Scotland could tap into their area of expertise and learn from them.

“To my knowledge this situation- where students are providing curriculum material for lecturing staff - has never happened before and Scotland’s Colleges have been very impressed by their efforts.

“You could say the tables have turned a wee bit, but it just shows what talented students can do with a freer reign in their projects. They all certainly have a lot of potential, have worked very well as a team and we are all very proud of them.”

Kevin McPake (29) from Grangemouth (Head of Concept Art), said: “It has been really exciting using our combined skills and efforts to try to make this happen and everyone has had a role to play in getting this far.

“We all had different job titles and we also collaborated with other departments in the college such as the Creative Industries Sound Production student who helped us with music for the game.

“Seeing it all come together from the initial ideas and researching these relatively unknown software applications has been very rewarding. As well as that, to impress our lecturers and Scotland’s Colleges to the extent that we are teaching them what we have learned, is a great achievement for us all.

“As well as creating a teaching resource that will help lecturers and students all across the country we have created our own 3D computer game – what a real buzz that is.”

Colin Buchannan from Scotland’s Colleges, said: “Forth Valley College is to be congratulated on this unique initiative. Clearly students required high level computing  skills to deliver the sessions, and of equal importance, the confidence necessary to communicate to a challenging and knowledgeable audience.  The fact that feedback from students and staff was extremely positive demonstrates that a precedent has been set that should be repeated and perhaps even become standard in the future.  Scotland's Colleges is happy to continue to support such innovation.”

PIC: The innovative class involved are pictured back row from left to right: Modelling and Graphics supremo Graeme McAllister (18) from Camelon, Simon Forrest (20) from Bonnybridge (Sound Design), Kevin McPake (29) from Grangemouth (Concept Art), David Sellick (25) from Stirling (Head of Unity), Project leader Kevin Kalapurakal (20) from near Linlithgow. Front from left to right: George Alexander (19) from Bonnybridge (Head of Scripting) and Euan Cameron (25) from Linlithgow (Head of Level Design). Missing from the picture is Allan Connelly (19) from Falkirk (head of Blender and 3D modelling).

Tags: Applied science and computing, Current students

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