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    Tackling Diverse Student Backgrounds and Goals while Teaching an Introductory Visual Computing Course at M.Sc. Level
    (The Eurographics Association, 2024) Silva, Samuel; Sousa Santos, Beatriz; Anderson, Eike
    Visual Computing entails a set of competences that are core for those pursuing Digital Game Development and has become a much sought competence for professionals in a wide variety of fields. In the particular case presented here, the course serves a diverse audience from Multimedia and Design students without previous knowledge in the field and low programming competences, to students that have a previous BS.c in Game Development and have already covered the basic concepts in a previous course. Additionally, the course is also offered as an elective for Computer Science M.Sc. students. This diverse set of background competences and goals motivated designing an approach to the course where each student can build on previous knowledge and have a say on its personal learning path. This article shares the overall approach, presents and discusses the outcomes, and reflects on future evolutions.
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    Teaching Game Programming in an Upper-level Computing Course Through the Development of a C++ Framework and Middleware
    (The Eurographics Association, 2024) Hooper, Steffan; Wünsche, Burkhard C.; Denny, Paul; Luxton-Reilly, Andrew; Sousa Santos, Beatriz; Anderson, Eike
    The game development industry has a programming skills shortage, with industry surveys often ranking game programming as the top skill-in-demand across small, mid-sized, and large triple-A (AAA) game studios. C++ programming skills are desired, however, educators can perceive C++ as too difficult to teach due to its size and complexity. We address the challenges of teaching C++ in an upper-level Game Programming course and demonstrate how learners are up-skilled in C++ game programming, providing insights and reflections on the course. We show how through careful educational-design choices, combined with scaffolding a C++ framework and contemporary middleware, it is possible to transition learners to C++ for game programming.