From:                                                      Kelvin Sung

Sent:                                                        Friday, March 23, 2007 1:30 PM

To:                                                            Kelvin Sung; 'John Nordlinger'

Cc:                                                            'Ivan Lumala'

Subject:                                                  Award Number: 15871  - March 2007 Progress Report (XNA Based Games-Themed Programming Assignments)

 

Re:       Award Number: 15871: March 2007 Progress Report

(XNA Based Games-Themed Programming Assignments)

 

In March 2007, we accomplished the followings:

 

  1. For each assignment, we will include an “assignment package” which would include:
    1. Assignment Specification: included in this specification will be

                                               i.     Key concepts practiced

                                              ii.     Pre-requisite knowledge

                                             iii.     Suggested number of lecture-hours before using this assignment

    1. Grading Rubric
    2. Pre/Post Tests
    3. FAQ for faculty/students: this would include frequently asked questions and frequent mistakes
    4. XNA and regular C# implementations
    5. Step-by-step guide for faculty and student on the XNA implementation
    6. Assessment form for external faculty evaluator

 

  1. We have identified two assignments and began developing the materials required for the “assignment package”. At this point we have:
    1. First drafts of assignment specifications and grading rubrics
    2. A first draft of XNA graphics library that is targeted for non-graphics, non-games faculty.
    3. XNA implementation of one of the assignments

 

  1. We hope to complete the first draft of assignment package by the end of April, refine the package in May, and send the assignment package to external faculty for first round of evaluation.

 

  1. The strategy is to iron out the “assignment package” template before June such that we can spend the summer concentrating on developing the actual materials for the assignments.

 

  1. Dissemination:
    1. At SIGCSE 2007: I presented a paper on combining gaming with computer graphics and was invited to participate in the NSF CCLI showcase on the exhibition floor. In both cases, I was able to relate my on-going CCLI project to this Microsoft funded gaming project. Many faculty members were intrigued by our work and are keenly interested in our results.

 

    1. We have proposed two workshops at the CCSC-NW 2007 conference: one on developing GUI applications and one on developing XBOX 360 applications with XNA. We will know the status of these proposals.