The Microsoft Grant
of $80,000 was augmented by friends of Daniel Webster for a total of
$93,000, which will be used during the current and upcoming academic
years to create lab exercises of game development projects that will
be integrated into the first two computer science courses for freshmen
computer science majors.
This was the third
year that Microsoft has been looking at proposals for renovating
Computer Science with gaming themes and technologies. The first year
yielded 41 proposals; this year there were 71 ambitious and thoughtful
submissions that the company’s review panel evaluated and from which
six were selected.
Goulding’s proposal
asserts that the advent of a more technically rich, experientially
diverse and widely-applicable Gaming, Simulation, and Robotics degree
will be instrumental in reversing the decline in students entering the
computer sciences at the college-level; The laboratory exercises and
course materials to be refined and developed with the grant will
provide successful templates for other educational institutions that
wish to recapture the enthusiasm of young people for the computer
sciences.
Said one DWC
Computer Science graduate who had had the experience of the division’s
utilization of computer games for learning by being a member of a team
tasked with creating complex games, “This was a very daunting task,
since none of us had used the technology required to create such an
application and none of us had worked in a team [environment] on a
technical project … In addition the great learning experience,
completing such an overwhelming task was a very substantial boost to
my self confidence. I took on the attitude that if I can accomplish
such a large goal without prior experience, I could accomplish any
project or learn any skill, given the proper resources.”
Indeed, DWC
instructors have found that programming skill development is
substantially greater in a simulated professional software development
environment where members work within teams to create a complex game
paradigm than what is found in “classical” Computer Science
educational programs. Moving to simulate that professional software
development environment also meant that traditional methods of
assessment, like examinations and papers, were abandoned in favor of
lab assignments, which are arranged in a corporate work breakdown
structure that included continuous performance reviews involving task
assignment sign-offs.
At the conclusion of
each course, DWC instructors surveyed students on their self reliance,
self confidence, work ethic, and team work. The survey was also
utilized to evaluate student learning and student response to the
pressures of the new methodology. The results of this classroom
innovation and non-traditional assessment, according to Goulding, have
far exceeded typical pedagogical expectations.
To augment the GSR
program, DWC has developed relationships with Nashua-based Robotech, a
nationally-recognized robotics educational program that holds a gaming
summer camp at DWC, and HoloDek Gaming, Inc, a Hampton, NH-based
defense contractor and gaming innovator that has opened a HoloDek
gaming facility at the college and sponsors regular gaming tournaments
open to the public. Along with the weekly gaming guild game nights and
weekend open houses, the synergy created with Robotech and HoloDek
have created community excitement and regional and national attention.
Parents have also expressed their enthusiasm, said Goulding, when they
discover that the technology underlying gaming and robotics software
also provides the basis for products and training systems in aviation,
military defense, automobile product design, maritime training,
factory automation and other industries.
Goulding earned his
B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Florida and
Washburn University. His research and produced 16 peer reviewed
conference presentations, journal articles, proceedings, symposium and
faculty recitals. He is a nominee for the 2007 Stanley J. Drazek
Excellence Award and Teaching Recognition Award from the University of
Maryland Graduate School as a nationally-recognized scholar-teacher
introducing innovative classroom programs to prepare the next
generation of scientists and engineers for professional high impact.
Goulding has been with Daniel Webster College since 2000.
(Nashua,
NH) – Daniel Webster College Computer Science, Information Systems,
and Gaming, Simulation, and Robotics (GSR) Chair Dr. Thomas Goulding
was named one of six recipients of a Microsoft-sponsored Computer
Gaming Curriculum grant for his research in developing freshmen
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