Constructive Alignment in Simulation Education

Recent and ongoing developments are significantly augmenting both the demand for and the expectations of university simulation education. These developments include increased use of simulation in industry, increased variety of economic segments in which simulation is used, broader variation in demographics of simulation students, and higher expectations of both those students and their eventual employers. To meet the challenges these developments impose, it is vital that simulation educators aggressively and innovatively improve the teaching of simulation. To this end, we explore the application of constructive alignment concepts in simulation education, and compare and contrast its application in the context of two university course offerings. These concepts suggest continuation of some practices and revision of others relative to the learning objectives, learning activities, and assessment tasks in these and other simulation courses

Visual communication in urban planning and urban design

This report documents the current status of visual communication in urban design and planning. Visual communication is examined through discussion of standalone and network media, specifically concentrating on visualisation on the World Wide Web(WWW).Firstly, we examine the use of Solid and Geometric Modelling for visualising urban planning and urban design. This report documents and compares examples of the use of Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) and proprietary WWW based Virtual Reality modelling software. Examples include the modelling of Bath and Glasgow using both VRML 1.0 and 2.0. A review is carried out on the use of Virtual Worldsand their role in visualising urban form within multi-user environments. The use of Virtual Worlds is developed into a case study of the possibilities and limitations of Virtual Internet Design Arenas (ViDAs), an initiative undertaken at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London. The use of Virtual Worlds and their development towards ViDAs is seen as one of the most important developments in visual communication for urban planning and urban design since the development plan.Secondly, photorealistic media in the process of communicating plans is examined.The process of creating photorealistic media is documented, examples of the Virtual Streetscape and Wired Whitehall Virtual Urban Interface System are provided. The conclusion is drawn that although the use of photo-realistic media on the WWW provides a way to visually communicate planning information, its use is limited. The merging of photorealistic media and solid geometric modelling is reviewed in the creation of Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality is seen to provide an important step forward in the ability to quickly and easily visualise urban planning and urban design information.Thirdly, the role of visual communication of planning data through GIS is examined interms of desktop, three dimensional and Internet based GIS systems. The evolution to Internet GIS is seen as a critical component in the development of virtual cities which will allow urban planners and urban designers to visualise and model the complexity of the built environment in networked virtual reality.Finally a viewpoint is put forward of the Virtual City, linking Internet GIS with photorealistic multi-user Virtual Worlds. At present there are constraints on how far virtual cities can be developed, but a view is provided on how these networked virtual worlds are developing to aid visual communication in urban planning and urban design

Aiming High: Undergraduate Research Projects in Computer Graphics and Animation

Among educators, the promotion of undergraduate research is a much debated topic, with issues arising from questions as to how it can be integrated with undergraduate degree programmes and how to structure its delivery. Undergraduate research is also considered important by employers, as can be seen in case of the computer game development and visual effects industries who demand that universities produce graduate software developers with not only vocational but also with rather advanced research skills. In this paper we present a successful undergraduate research course, implemented for one of our undergraduate degree programmes. It includes teaching and learning focussed on the nature of small team research and development as encountered in the creative industries dealing with computer graphics, computer animation and game development. We discuss our curriculum design and issues in conducting undergraduate research that we have identified through several iterations of the course

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: NL

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: N