Online teaching

When the first pandemic lock-down started I was teaching Games Design Level 2 at Eastleigh College. We switched to using Teams and Google Classroom for meetings, briefs and submissions. While there was some live instruction, some I recorded in advance to be available at whatever time best suited the student, with the advantage the student could rewatch any part that was not immediately clear, or at the point that they most needed the information.

Here is an example of a pre-recorded video, with logos overlaid by me in post-production using Adobe Premiere. The learning objective was for the students to get their project work online so that I could provide feedback and give access to the examination board at UAL:

I 3D-printed the figurine at the start and used the same file (after decimating it to make it small enough for an online game) in the simple Imps! Egypt Unity project that I created for demonstration purposes – use the mouse/trackpad plus the W, A, S and D keys to navigate. Here is an example of a student’s project, successfully uploaded. Note that on a Mac, Safari does not automatically play WegGL sound, so online Unity projects are better viewed in Firefox, Chrome or Edge browsers.

Here is an example of a ‘live’ recording made of a Photoshop class, shortly before lockdown. This was partly as a practice and partly to allow the students repeat access to the information:

Most of my recent material is currently on Google Classroom, elsewhere on this my-animation.co.uk website or on my teaching site at www.jednet.co.uk but I can port it across to your VLE of choice, such as OneNote/Moodle/Blackboard/Google Classroom…

Example of content (about storyboards) on my-animation:

Example of content (about storyboards) on my-animation:

Example of content (about character design) on jednet.co.uk: http://www.jednet.co.uk/2D/characterdesign.html

My ‘other’ job is working part-time for the University of Southampton as an online materials developer, creating engaging learning content for the Centre for Higher Education Practice. Since the pandemic, my department’s primary role is to inform our teaching colleagues about appropriate digital tools and associated pedagogy in the switch to online learning.

Dreamworks pipeline video, explaining some of the many roles involved in creating an animation – games design needs all of these plus coding and the creation of challenges: https://youtu.be/ru0tQRJ4qKs

Create an account at sololearn.com and work through the C# (C ‘Sharp’) module. C# is the programming language for the Unity Game Engine. Some knowledge will help you to have more control over the games you create and having the certificate in your LinkedIn profile will increase your chances to be offered a place on a Level 3 course or to get a job.