On April 26^th, Mike and Kelvin met in Kelvin’s office at about 2pm. The following are records from our discussion.

 

1. We have finalized the content of an “assignment-template”. This will be our “first-pass” content, subject to the feedback from our external faculty reviewer, we will update/refine this “assignment-template”  :
   1. The Assignment Specification: this will include

                                                    i.     Key topics: topic area students will practice

                                                   ii.     Required topics: pre-requisite knowledge before the assignment

                                                  iii.     Summary: an overview of what students will do

                                                  iv.     Student Description: programming assignment description given to students

                                                   v.     ACM Classifications: relate the knowledge/topic areas to the ACM curriculum 2001.

2. Pre/Post Tests: These should be short 20 minute quiz.
3. Assessment Forms: for external faculty and external games expert.
4. FAQ: a list of common mistakes and frequently asked questions. This list will be organized such that related questions will be grouped together.
5. Step-by-step Guide: for the XNA assignment (instruction manual for faculty and for student to follow)

 

2. XNA Library for the assignments: XNA Library: we have a draft XNA-library configured for both PC and XBOX. Characteristics of this library includes:
   1. Device independent: users can specific any coordinate to work in
   2. Graphics independent: users can draw circles, rectangles at will and need not be aware of the underlying graphics requirements.
   3. Viewport and status: users can printout status messages.
   4. Dynamic Linking: the library is compiled as a DLL library. This means users do not need to work with the source code of the library.

 

3. Current status: we are preparing two separate assignments based on the above template:
   1. Burst-A-Bubble and Monte-Carlo integration.
   2. In both cases, the assignment specifications (1a above) are more or less done. The implementations of the assignments in XNA are also in the final stage.
   3. We are working with a draft assessment form for our external faculty reviewer.

 

4. To dos:
   1. Mike and Kelvin:

                                                    i.     Critical evaluation of 1a format (format for the assignment specification): we will evaluate the format of the assignment specification, remembering that this spec. is used by other faculty to determine if an assignment should be adapted. This specification must be simple, and yet present all the necessary information.

                                                   ii.     Pre/Post test: Mike and Kelvin will each set two questions one for each of the assignments.

 

2. Mike:

                                                    i.     FAQ organization

                                                   ii.     Re-organize/re-word 1a based on our evaluation.

 

3. Kelvin:

                                                    i.     XNA Library clean up

                                                   ii.     Step-by-step guide in using the library and developing assignments with the library

                                                  iii.     Assessment forms review/update

 

5. Next Meeting: May 22^nd (Tuesday) at 2 pm.
   1. We will dedicate this meeting evaluating each assignment template.
   2. We will send the assignment template for review in early June.