Shared learning objectives in interdisciplinary projects: Game design in a Sino-Scandinavian context

Abstract

The learning goals of project-based courses are typically specific for each involved discipline. Game development is deeply interdisciplinary and some of its core principles are shared across disciplines, from art to programming. This article presents a project-based approach where students majoring in arts and students majoring in technology share learning objectives. The course has been developed in a SinoScandinavian collaboration. Experiences from well-established Scandinavian game development programmes have been transferred to a Chinese university context. This article presents an explorative mixed method evaluation of this course. The research design had two phases with an initial qualitative analysis resulting in a set of observations that were tested in the second, quantitative phase. A total of 34 students from a range of disciplines participated in a two week course. The quantitative analysis shows that art (n=13) and technology (n=14) students' reported very similar experiences and similar insights into core learning objectives. This study shows that deeply interdisciplinary project-based courses, with shared learning objectives can successfully be conducted even in a context with no prior experience of such approaches.

Level Design Processes and Challenges: A Cross Section of Game Development

“…Although this was an isolated account of the potential collaborative aspects of game audio, it indicates that sound design constitutes an important factor in the development process. However, current academic studies on game audio seem to provide somewhat isolated accounts of audio production, thus leaving out collaborative aspects (Engström, 2020).…”

“…The research community has shown an increasing interest in digital games since the turn of the millennium (Martin, 2018). The interest in studying game development in general and “in the wild” (i.e., as it is conducted at the companies), has however been limited (Engström, 2020). Instead, research has primarily focused on isolated parts of the process, such as game design as a solitary task, or on specific technical challenges such as graphic rendering.…”

“…The complex interdisciplinary process in game development, the demand for specialized tools and systems, and the need to maintain creativity show the need for researching game development in the wild (Engström, 2020). The game studies community also shows an increased interest to pursue this line of research (Sotamaa & Svelch, 2021).…”

Fashion and game design as hybrid practices: approaches in education to creating fashion-related experiences in digital worlds

“…The development of digital games requires a diversity of disciplines and professions working together, as shown by Wang and Nordmark (2015), and this is reflected in higher education in game development (Engström, Lyu, Backlund, Toftedahl, & Rosendahl Ehmsen, 2020). Students work on projects and demonstrate their knowledge by solving problems or building artefacts through co-creation within interdisciplinary setups (Ibid.).…”

Aprendizagem Baseada em Projetos no Contexto do Desenvolvimento de Jogos: uma Revisão Sistemática de Literatura

“…A Aprendizagem Baseada em Projetos (ABP) e outras metodologias ativas surgem na primeira metade do século XX, mas passam a ser mais pesquisadas e aplicadas nos últimos 50 anos (Pasqualetto, 2017). Recentemente, também há um maior número de estudos e aplicações dessas metodologias ativas no contexto da computação por meio de ambientes mais interativos e agradáveis na percepção dos estudantes (Garneli et al, 2015;Engström et al, 2020). A ABP é comumente associada à teoria de aprendizagem construtivista pela origem comum, cujo pensamento gira em torno do estudante ser protagonista do próprio aprendizado (Ertmer & Newby, 2013).…”