Institution Submitting Request: Proposed Program Title: Sponsoring School, College, or Division: Sponsoring Academic Department(s) or Unit(s): Classification of Instructional Program Code 1 : Utah System of Higher Education New Academic Program Proposal Cover/Signature Page - Abbreviated Template University of Utah Minor in Games College of Engineering Entertainment Arts and Engineering 11.0899 Min/Max Credit Hours Required of Full Program: 19 / 20 Proposed Beginning Term 2 : Institutional Board of Trustees' Approval Date: Fall 2018 Program Type: Certificate of Proficiency Entry-level CTE CP Certificate of Completion Minor Graduate Certificate K-12 Endorsement Program NEW Emphasis for Regent-Approved Program Credit Hours for NEW Emphasis Only: Min Cr Hr Current Major CIP: 6 - Digit CIP Current Program Title: Current Program BOR Approval Date: Out of Service Area Delivery Program / Max Cr Hr Mid-level CP Chief Academic Officer (or Designee) Signature: I, the Chief Academic Officer or Designee, certify that all required institutional approvals have been obtained prior to submitting this request to the Office of the Commissioner. Please type your first and last name Date: I understand that checking this box constitutes my legal signature. 1 For CIP code classifications, please see http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/default.aspx?y=55. 2 Proposed Beginning Term refers to first term after Regent approval that students may declare this program.
Utah System of Higher Education Program Description - Abbreviated Template Section I: The Request University of Utah requests approval to offer the following Minor: Minor in Games effective Fall 2018. This program was approved by the institional Board of Trustees on. Section II: Program Proposal/Needs Assessment Program Description/Rationale Present a brief program description. Describe the institutional procedures used to arrive at a decision to offer the program. Briefly indicate why such a program should be initiated. State how the institution and the USHE benefit by offering the proposed program. Provide evidence of student interest and demand that supports potential program enrollment. This request is for a new Minor in Games and is intended for undergraduate students who have an interest in understanding the academic field of games. The Minor will help students learn fundamental skills and theories applicable to a wide range of areas which include: the development of entertainment software; games-based learning environments for K-12 students; game studies; professional task-training tools; serious games for health; scientific collaboration; and other contexts addressing compelling societal needs. Entertainment Arts and Engineering (EAE) faculty members initiated the idea for the minor as a companion to the recently approved B.S. in Games degree. The EAE faculty believe that the opportunity to study games within a Minor program of study will appeal to a wide variety of undergraduate students, regardless of principal discipline, and the EAE Curriculum Committee and EAE faculty enthusiastically endorse this proposal. The proposed Minor will require students to take a total of 24 credit hours, with a minimum of 12 upper division hours (Please see the curriculum narrative section for more course details.) EAE faculty have outlined the following learning goals for the proposed Minor in Games: Students will acquire knowledge of games and interactive entertainment through completion of core coursework. -- Assessment of this goal will occur through course evaluations, exit surveys and personal interviews with a small subset of graduating students. Students will possess the ability to combine experience with knowledge to develop or utilize methods to collaboratively create videogames. -- This outcome can be measured through the final project in either the Traditional Game Development course, or the Alternative Game Development course, where students are required to complete a game project. To ensure these outcomes, the Entertainment Arts & Engineering Program faculty will meet at the end of each spring semester to evaluate the minor. Evaluative information will consist of student projects, student exit interview data, and aggregate student feedback from course evaluations. This information will allow assessment opportunities to determine if and how the minor should be improved to better meet student needs. This Minor will also benefit the University of Utah and the USHE by attracting students to an area of study that is important to the roughly 30 billion dollar annual interactive entertainment industry (Entertainment Software Association 2017 Essential Facts), has only recently been represented at the University, and is only tangentially represented in the state.
Labor Market Demand Provide local, state, and/or national labor market data that speak to the need for this program. Occupational demand, wage, and number of annual openings information may be found at sources such as Utah DWS Occupation Information Data Viewer (jobs.utah.gov/jsp/wi/utalmis/gotooccinfo.do) and the Occupation Outlook Handbook (www.bls.gov/oco). The game design and development market is growing fast in the United States, and particularly in Utah, where we have seen a jump in employment and revenue. It is anticipated that students with a solid understanding of games will be sought after not only by game development companies, but also more conventional market sectors such as healthcare, defense, national security and K12 education as they seek to create new ways to teach, learn, research, and implement innovative ideas. A critical component of the EAE program is honing a student s ability to work with people from other disciplines. In support of the Governor s 66% by 2020 initiative, this Minor will create graduates that can enter the workforce with valuable communication skills as well as technical proficiency, and will be ready to function immediately on a team. This idea is supported is by the Bureau of Labor Statistics information in their pamphlets Stem 101: Intro to tomorrow (http://www.bls.gov/ careeroutlook/2014/spring/art01.pdf) and Work for Play: Careers in Videogame Development http://www.bls.gov/ careeroutlook/2011/fall/art01.pdf). Consistency with Institutional Mission/Impact on Other USHE Institutions Explain how the program is consistent with the institution's Regents-approved mission, roles, and goals. Institutional mission and roles may be found at higheredutah.org/policies/policyr312/. Indicate if the program will be delivered outside of designated service area; provide justification. Service areas are defined in higheredutah.org/policies/policyr315/. The proposed Minor in Games directly supports the University of Utah s Institutional Mission by creating, innovating, and sharing knowledge in a new discipline. The Minor is designed to sustain the University s highest standard of professional and scholarly practice while also emphasizing the rigorous multi-disciplinary work that is an integral part of the academic field and industry. This minor is also consistent with the broader mission of the University of Utah and provides opportunities for students to participate in deeply engaged learning opportunities, as well as the commitment to prepare students to be leaders in the field. The proposed minor will be inside the University of Utah s designated service area, and is not anticipated to have any adverse impact on existing programs in the USHE system. The closest program to the Minor in Games within the USHE system is the Minor in Digital Media at UVU, however, it has little overlapping coursework and a different focus. Additionally, we have a collegial relationship between the faculty at the University of Utah and UVU and we will continue to foster this relationship to ensure minimal conflict. Finances What costs or savings are anticipated in implementing the proposed program? If new funds are required, indicate expected sources of funds. Describe any budgetary impact on other programs or units within the institution. No additional funding is needed to implement the proposed minor program.
Section III: Curriculum Program Curriculum List all courses, including new courses, to be offered in the proposed program by prefix, number, title, and credit hours (or credit equivalences). Indicate new courses with an X in the appropriate columns. The total number of credit hours should reflect the number of credits required to receive the award. For NEW Emphases, skip to emphases tables below. For variable credits, please enter the minimum value in the table below for credit hours. To explain variable credit in detail as well as any additional information, use the narrative box below. Course Number NEW Course Course Title General Education Courses (list specific courses if recommended for this program on Degree Map) General Education Credit Hour Sub-Total Required Courses COMP 1010 Programming for All 1: Beginning Programming* 3 EAE 1010 Survey of Games* 3 EAE 1050 Digital Content Creation* 3 EAE 3010 Assets Pipeline* 3 * Prerequisite Courses EAE 3710 Traditional Game Development 3 EAE 3660/3720 Choose: Interactive Machinima or Alternative Game Development 3 Credit Hours Add Another Required Course Required Course Credit Hour Sub-Total 18 Elective Courses 3XXX EAE Elective 3 3XXX EAE Elective 3 Add Another Elective Course Elective Credit Hour Sub-Total 6 Core Curriculum Credit Hour Sub-Total 24 Propose a NEW Emphasis to an existing Regent approved
Program Curriculum Narrative Describe any variable credits. You may also include additional curriculum information, as needed. The proposed Minor will require students to take four prerequisite courses: Survey of Games (EAE 1010), Digital Content Creation (EAE 1050), Assets Pipeline (EAE 3010) and Programming for All 1 (COMP 1010) providing the students with an exposure to games, game arts, game pipeline, and programming. Once completing those classes with a grade of C or better in each, students must take Traditional Game Development (3710), either Alternative Game Development (3720) or Interactive Machinima (3660), and finally two 3000 level electives for a total of 24 credit hours to complete the minor. Note - BS Computer Science students are not permitted to enroll in the Games minor. BS Computer Science students that wish to study games should pursue the EAE emphasis in their degree.
Degree Map Degree maps pertain to undergraduate programs ONLY. Provide a degree map for proposed program. Degree Maps were approved by the State Board of Regents on July 17, 2014 as a degree completion measure. Degree maps or graduation plans are a suggested semester-by-semester class schedule that includes prefix, number, title, and semester hours. For more details see http://higheredutah.org/pdf/agendas/201407/tab%20a%202014-7-18.pdf (Item #3). Please cut-and-paste the degree map or manually enter the degree map in the table below Toggle Cut-and-Paste Toggle Table First Year Fall Semester Spring Semester Second Year Fall Semester Spring Semester Third Year Fall Semester Spring Semester EAE 1010 Survey of Games COMP 1010 Programming for All I EAE 1050 Digital Content Creation EAE 3XXX Elective EAE 3010 Assets Pipeline EAE 3XXX Elective EAE 3710 Traditional Game Development EAE 3720 Alternative Game Development or EAE 3660 Interactive Machinima
THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH Richard B. Brown Dean of Engineering 1692 Warnock Engineering Building 72 S. Central Campus Drive Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 PH: (801) 585-7498 FAX: (801) 581-8692 brown@utah.edu http://www.coe.utah.edu/~brown December 4, 2017 Undergraduate Council University of Utah Re: College of Engineering Support for EAE Minor Dear Undergraduate Council Members: To simplify the organizational structure within the university, the Entertainment Arts and Engineering program at the U was reorganized this last year so that it reports solely to the College of Engineering. Part of the negotiation to make this change involved an agreement that EAE would offer a minor to students in the College of Fine Arts who want to learn the fundamental skills related to the academic field of games. I am writing to give my full support to the proposed minor. There has been considerable discussion about the requirements for this minor among the EAE faculty, as well as from the School of Computing and from me. The College of Engineering Curriculum Committee has evaluated the requirements and approved them. With the changes that were incorporated to satisfy the School of Computing and myself, I am very happy with the proposed 21-hr curriculum for the minor. Many students across the university might be interested in getting this minor; we know that there is considerable interest among students in the Film and Media Arts Department, which was prefiously a formal partner in EAE. The minor will be available to all undergraduate students except those in the School of Computing, who have an EAE emphasis available as part of their CS degree. I encourage the Undergraduate Council to approve this minor quickly, so that the options for students interested in the area of computer games will soon be settled, and there will be fewer of them caught in a transitional situation. Again, I give my full and enthusiastic support to the proposed minor in Games. Sincerely, Richard B. Brown
December 4, 2017 Dear Professor Kessler: I am writing this letter as the Director of the School of Computing to express my support for the proposal of the EAE program to offer an minor in Games. This minor will likely rely on introductory programming classes taught by the School of Computing (currently planned to be COMP1010 and COMP1020). Also, as you and I have agreed, this minor will not be made available to students who are pursuing a BS in Computer Science, who will instead pursue the existing emphasis in EAE. Yours truly, Ross T Whitaker Director, Professor