The integration of the educational community and the entertainment industry often results in the production of software packages that can be designed to entertain or teach or do both at the same time. The focus of this 80 week program is to prepare students to develop an entertaining or educational electronic game deemed marketable in the industry. Students receive basic training in the entrepreneurial nature and unique practices of the software development industry. This program has been designed to produce graduates capable of developing instructional software products that can compete in the international marketplace. Students therefore receive basic training in the entrepreneurial nature and often unique practices of the software development industry.
Considerable emphasis is placed on learning by doing.
An essential element of this approach is a requirement for students to develop a product deemed marketable by industry and the college. This is accomplished in product development teams of students who ideally possess complimentary skills and share a common product interest. Potential products may originate from student proposals, from third party interests seeking product development partnerships or from development of educational products for the college. A staff mentor is assigned to each team whose members are provided and increasing amount of time to work on their product as they progress through their program. A range of elective courses allow students to select courses which meet their personal needs or develop particular expertise in such areas as programming, computer graphics and animation or project management.