Games Technology BSc Multimedia Computing BSc Creative Computing BSc

The Problem Engagement and retention issues caused by... Poor transition from school ICT to Computer Science in HE Particularly pronounced in ‘Creative Computing’ subjects – where applicants have specific expectations about the ‘content creation’ elements which they perceive as central to the subject

“Although I did enjoy the majority of my modules the maths and programming were much harder than I had imagined. I had no real problems with the course other than I was really caught off guard by how hard it turned out to be. I probably wouldn’t change anything with the course I just feel it wasn’t right for me” exit interview with a withdrawing 1 st year student

Activity-led learning Faculty driven initiative – generalised adaption of problem based learning: “Learning by doing” First year students start their course with a 6 or 7 week practical activity – all ‘traditional’ delivery is suspended for this duration – courses ‘Start with a bang!’

Creative Six Week Challenge 2009 … Program, build, test and market a working media player

Creative Six Week Challenge 2010 … 3D Etch-a-Sketch “Working in a group of six people, for a period of six weeks, you are to produce a working digital device – a 3D ‘etch-a-sketch’ - that you have collectively programmed, built the hardware for, user tested and marketed on the Internet (having produced a viral video and conducted Google analytic visitor tracking). For good measure, you will present a short academic paper detailing your activities over the six weeks at a specially organised symposium at the end of the challenge”.

Our aims... By introducing students to the range of elements that make up the course, we hope that they are better able to assess quickly what the coming three years will involve. By working in small groups alongside and supported by the teaching team, students are rapidly introduced to our academic community - developing first-name relationships is a central part of our engagement strategy. By focussing on the production of artefacts students are introduced to the practical nature of their subject and, hopefully, realise that their learning is expected to be active and productive. There are clear teaching and learning benefits to engaging in integrated activities over individual module delivery.

Monday + Tuesday guided discovery Wednesday Group Self- managed activities Thursday Group Self- managed activities Friday Delivery / presentation Monday Challenge briefing Ad hoc support The week cycle

Student teams deliver a brief presentation to the whole group at the end of each week. After six weeks of regular presentations and product demonstrations students have developed a great deal of confidence.

The presentations become an arena where the groups compete in terms of the features and capabilities of their product. Indeed, this competitive atmosphere drives student effort and engagement, allowing us to forego assessment as a means of motivation.

Outcomes The introduction of the Six Week Challenge has coincided with a significant improvement in first year student retention on our courses. In the current academic year we have suffered no early withdrawals and expect our year one retention figure to be over 90%. After the activity students appear amenable to more rapid delivery of content and more challenging tasks. Asked if they would recommend this type of learning to other students 98% of the 2009 group agreed that they would

Discussion points The activity involved 6 academics and 2 teaching assistants working intensively with a cohort of 60 students. It is unclear how well this activity would scale up for larger groups. Student expectations are significantly higher at the end of the six week activity, in terms of pace and direction of their course. Management of these expectations can be problematic as the students return to more traditional classroom formats. There is significant up-front preparation time implied by pursuing a student-centred and activity-led approach. This is unavoidable. Given a challenging and interesting task, assessment is not necessary to force engagement. Without assessment, students are much less concerned with getting the right answer and instead focus on finding the best one. Implementing assessments may alter the dynamic of the activity.