CSCI 379: Elementary Virtual Worlds Syllabus

Instructor and meeting times

The instructor for CSCI 379 is Dean Brock. Class meetings will be 11:00 PM to 12:10 PM in Robinson 217.

Requirements satisfied

This course is an UNCA Liberal Studies Introductory Colloquium and, as such, satisfies one-half of the graduation requirement of two 3-hour liberal studies colloquia.

As an LSIC 379 course, it also serves as a Writing Intensive and Information Literacy Intensive for graduation requirements. As a Writing Intensive, this course must require at least fifteen pages of writing in three separate writing assignments. Also a "substantial portion of the course grade must come from writing assignments". As a Information Literacy Intensive, the course should fulfill the Information Literacy Competencies for UNCA Students.

Requirements unsatisfied

This course cannot be used to satisfy any major requirement!

Course Description

Recently developed software packages allow the development of elementary virtual worlds. In this course, we will compare a few programs, such as Alice, StetchUp, and Blender, for developing elementary virtual worlds and we will try to interface these worlds with networked programs such as Google Earth.

Grading components

Final 16
Essays 13
Projects and homework 12

Scale

Score ≥ 97A
Score ≥ 90 & Score < 93A-
Score ≥ 87 & Score < 90B+
Score ≥ 83 & Score < 87B
Score ≥ 80 & Score < 83B-
Score ≥ 77 & Score < 80C+
Score ≥ 73 & Score < 77C
Score ≥ 70 & Score < 73C-
Score ≥ 67 & Score < 70D+
Score ≥ 63 & Score < 67D
Score ≥ 60 & Score < 63D-
Score < 60F

Email Communication

Academic administrators at UNCA have told instructors that information protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act should only be sent to official university email addresses. Information related to recorded grades is clearly protected, as is any discussion that would allow a reader to draw conclusions about your performance or attendance in class.

For more information

The best way to get in touch with me is to send email to brock@cs.unca.edu. If you need to see me, send me email to arrange an appointment.