Come Finals Week, when most engineering students are feverishly writing out formulas or frantically punching out equations on their calculators, students in Professor Brianno Coller’s class will be playing video games.
It’s not as relaxing as it sounds, however. The students designed the auto racing game they will be playing, and how well their programs function helps determine their grades in the class.
“Most mechanical engineering curricula include a numerical methods course that teaches students the basics of how to get computers to perform engineering calculations, and most of those courses are deadly dull,” says Coller, who designed the course to be a more engaging alternative.
While most students agree the course is more interesting than the traditional alternative, few would describe it as easy.
Coller’s research indicates that students in his game-based classes spend about twice as much out-of-class time on the course as their counterparts in traditional classes. The extra investment of time is due in part to the increased difficulty in making complex application of the mathematics, Coller says. However, it is also due to the fact that students tend to get hooked on the class much in the same way as they do playing off-the-shelf video games. They spend hours tweaking their cars and strategies in an effort to leave their classmates in the dust.
The extra effort pays off in more than just bragging rights. Coller’s research indicates that students leave the class with a much better grasp of how the computational concepts depend on, and are related to, each other.
For all of the academic rigor that Coller has used in developing the course, even he sometimes gets caught up in the fun.
“When it all works, it’s a thing of beauty,” he says, “and when it doesn’t quite work, it’s still pretty cool.”
- Joe King, NIU Public Affairs