My course: "The Art, History, and Culture of Video Games"

[8bit]

Walter wouldn't strike me a Twitter user but apparently I would be wrong about that. That is hilarious!

[dsheinem]

Today is the last lecture/meeting for the class...feeling both sad & happy!

[samsonlonghair]

So how's the final exam?

[dsheinem]

So how's the final exam?

not yet written Exam is next Friday.

[samsonlonghair]

I wonder how many of us could pass your exam.

[dsheinem]

I have a link for the last class video if you want it. They clapped at the end, not sure if it was perhaps b/c I finally shut up

[Ivo]

I have a link for the last class video if you want it. They clapped at the end, not sure if it was perhaps b/c I finally shut up

They probably liked the lecture. As far as history-type things go, I think it is more engaging than old(er) history, and there are the cultural aspects and so on. Particularly with the hands-on stuff you made the effort of providing.

I stopped keeping track of it due to lack of time (meaning I, like pretty much everyone else, don't have enough time to do all the things I would like to do, so I prioritized; in my case I actually *played* some games instead )

[SpoonyBard]

Curious to see the final lecture and the 95-05 video. Finally watched the pre-8bit and 8&16bit videos and beyond anything i'm impressed that you managed to condense so much into a simple, sensible presentation. I know that in that situation I would constantly be on tangents about various small details and "interesting" tidbits. I even learned a few things (especially in the pre-8bit video).

Just out of curiosity, how much did your average student know about the pre-1994 games before they joined your class?

[dsheinem]

Just out of curiosity, how much did your average student know about the pre-1994 games before they joined your class?

Probably not very much, to be honest. Some did, but most didn't.

I'll PM you Parts 3 and 4 of "The History of Video Games" in a moment.

For anyone else, I now have a PM I can send you with links to all eight of the lectures I recorded. At some point I may edit them and post them publicly on YouTube or some such, but for now you can get links to them if you contact me directly via PM.

[dsheinem]

For those curious, out of the class of 16 students...Final Exam Scores:

F - 6
D - 3
C- - 2
C - 0
C+ - 1
B- - 0
B - 1
B+ - 0
A- - 2
A - 1

The exam is only 20% of the course grade, so it will be interesting to see (once all is added up) what the final totals in the class shake out to be. They did better, on the whole, on their term papers. If you want a copy of the exam to try yourself, let me know via PM and, if I know you well enough to trust that it won't ever be reposted elsewhere, I'll send you a copy.

I'll share more "end of class" thoughts later once I am wrapped up everything for the semester, but suffice to say I've probably never put more effort into a class to help students succeed (lots of "helping" mechanisms built into the course like recorded lectures, many extra office hours, a mentor/assistant for them to work with, lots of extra credit, etc.) only to have so few take advantage of these mechanisms. The lack of engagement, interest, and success by the "lower half" of the class is baffling and of a scale I've never seen in any previous courses. I did have a fair number of bright, engaged, and participating students as well in the course and they were a delight to work with - but at the end of a course I always tend to fixate on and mourn those who I was unable to motivate