How AET Manipulates its Curriculum & Certificates

Many of us strive for exciting lucrative careers in the video game or animation industry. Schools, seeing dollar signs in their eyes, are quick to jump on the bandwagon and parade their programs as the "launchpad" to our inevitable success. One such school is Santa Monica College's Academy of Entertainment and Technology (AET).

In a SMC press release, dated January 31, 2005, AET announced that it was offering a "cluster of new classes in game development and special effects this spring." According to William Lancaster, chair of the design technology department at SMC's Academy, "The game industry is exploding, and we’re jumping on this so that we can get students trained and into exciting careers." Of course the press release refers to the AET program as "widely praised." Praised by whom? The press release does not say.

The new courses will allegedly "lead to three new certificate programs that will officially be launched in fall 2005. The certificate programs are in game development, special effects and post production." As usual, AET couldn't deliver on its promises of new certificates. (See our previous blog article, "AET's Questionable Vocational Career Certificates). According to the SMC Spring 2006 Guide for AET, the Game Development Certificate is "pending approval." This doesn't stop SMC from providing the following statement:

This career certificate is a comprehensive study of the design and implementation of interactive media for the game industry. Areas of study include storytelling, visual design, audio and video production techniques, software authoring, 3D animation, and project management.

It also didn't stop SMC from cutting AET Professor's brand new ET 42 Principles of Game Development course from 3 to 1 units either. Nor did it stop SMC from doing a bit of deceptive advertising online in their Winter 2006 Schedule of Classes. This definitely warrants a nice screenshot:



As usual, I have made a handy chart. You can view our AET Curriculum Chart HERE.

Notice that Santa Monica College is advertising that their Entertainment Technology department "offers career certificates in Animation, Game Development, Post Production, Visual Effects and Web Design." Now, how can AET offer a game development vocational certificate in Winter 2006 when a semester later in Spring 2006, this certificate is still pending approval? Even AET's official website under Career Certificates states that Game Development, Post Production, Visual Effects, and Web Design are all "pending approval."

Well, the schedule of classes is usually what students use when figuring out what courses take. So, this is the perfect place for SMC to forget to omit those two little words "pending approval." The SMC Spring 2006 Schedule of Classes mirrors the Winter 2006 proclamation of a Game Development career certificate. Why is SMC advertising this non-existent certificate and not the Interactive Media certificate that actually does exist? Compare the screenshots of the Entertainment Technology SMC schedule for Fall 2004 with the one for Spring 2006. Notice how SMC is completely abandoning the legitimate certificates with the pending ones. Is SMC planning to jump ship with the program it already has? Is this because this program isn't working and bringing in all those high paying jobs and potential students? Is history yet again repeating itself at AET as it did with the Theme Park and Entertainment Business majors?

Perhaps another SMC AET history lesson is in order. Let's begin by studying the Entertainment Technology Spring 2006 course offering. Notice there's a course called ET 13 Game Authoring I. The course description is as follows:

This computer-based course is focused on the design and implementation of successful prototypes for gaming platforms and the Internet. Students will learn the fundamentals of software authoring for these platforms including interactive story telling, navigation metaphors, technical constraints, gaming basics, and usability. Students will gain experience working with media (text, graphics, animation, video, and audio), using authoring environments, and writing scripts to control interactivity. Students will design and implement game and software titles that can be included in their portfolios.

Sounds really exciting, eh? Oh, this must be one of those "cluster" of new courses offered, right? Wrong. This course is just a repackaging of a course Professor David Javelosa has taught for several years. In Fall 2000, AET called ET 13 "Interactive Design for CD-ROM/DVD/Interactive TV 1." By Fall 2003, ET 13 is again renamed to "Interactive Design for CD-ROM, and Interactive Entertainment I." In Fall 2004, it simply becomes "Design for Interactive Entertainment I." Here's the Fall 2004 ET 13 course description:

This computer-based course is focused on the design and implementation of successful multimedia titles for the CD-ROM, DVD, and interactive television platforms. Students will learn the fundamentals of design for these platforms including interactive story telling, navigation metaphors, technical constraints, gaming basics, and usability. Students will gain experience working with media (text, graphics, animation, video, and audio); using authoring environments; and writing scripts to control interactivity. An emphasis will be placed on incorporating media from the Internet into multimedia titles. Students will design and implement multimedia titles that can be included in their portfolios.

Compare the Fall 2004 ET 13 course description with the one from Spring 2006. Here's a nice screenshot with the two ET 13 courses side-by-side.

The Fall 2000 ET 13 prerequisite was ET 12, "Principles of Interactive Design." Of course ET 12 was also a course Javelosa taught when I took it around Spring 2003. It was the same course as Graphic Design 60. ET 12 has also now been renamed to "Principles of Web Design" in order to place it under that pending certificate in Web Design. But really, hasn't the study of web design always fallen within the category of Interactive Media? When I took ET 12, we made a small web site as one of our required projects. Here's the ET 12 comparison screenshot.

The 2006 ET 13 Game Authoring advisory course is ET 42 Principles of Game Development. The course description for ET 42 is as follows:

This course is an introductory overview of the electronic game development process that underlines the historical context, content creation strategies, and future trends in the industry. The course will also explain how games are produced, tested, and released.

Here's the ET 42 course comparison screenshot. This course has dropped from 3 units to 1 unit, as previously indicated. Even though the course description is identical, AET expects to condense sixteen weeks of valuable information into eight weeks. Neither do the game development students or the course material benefit from this downsizing. Instead, SMC is able to cram in more students per semester.

What is even more disturbing is that Professor Jeannie Novak has been replaced by AET Interactive Media Associate Professor David Javelosa for Spring 2006. ET 42 was Professor Novak's academic brainchild. She herself wrote the textbook, Game Development Essentials, which we used in the course. Now, Javelosa not only has taken control of both ET 13 and ET 42, but he has managed to make the ET 42 course the advisory for the ET 13 course. For more information on the ET 42 course, see our blog article entitled, "ET 42 Game Development."

SMC has also killed Professor Novak's ET 4 Interactive Design for e-Business course as well. This has cut her salary yet again and taken away an extremely valuable course for AET students. Here's the course description from SMC's Fall 2003 Schedule of Classes:

This lecture course covers the design of web sites combining the power of the web with information systems to improve the success of business, non-profit, educational, and government organizations. Students will study the use of private Intranets, shared Extranets, and the public Internet to connect organizations with their customers, vendors, suppliers, and employees. Topics will include electronic commerce, customer service, marketing, human resources, business to business applications, inventory control, and collaborative tools.

If AET is now pushing a web design certificate, wouldn't ET 4 be a course that SMC would fight tooth and claw to retain? When I took this course around Fall 2003, it was packed with energized students. Professor Novak was a powerhouse of information and encouragement. She also had solid experience in e-business with her website Indiespace. In fact, her co-founder and business partner, Peter Markiewicz, was the first full-time webmaster for Santa Monica College. He resigned from SMC around July 15, 2000. Here's the November 12, 1997 SMC Press Release on Markiewicz:

Peter Markiewicz began Nov. 6 and brings several years of web experience to his new position as Webmaster -- the first time the position is full-time at SMC. Before coming to SMC, he worked three years at Kaleidospace in Los Angeles, a promotion company for unsigned musicians artists that uses the web as its primary marketing tool. Prior to that he spent five years as a post doctoral fellow at UCLA, handling computer network management in the biology department. He is the author, with Jeannie Novak, of the book "Creating Internet Entertainment." He received his doctorate in biophysics and theoretical biology from the University of Chicago and a bachelor's in biology from Loyola University in New Orleans.

Jeannie Novak isn't the only AET professor to have her courses cut. Jan Nagel's ET 72 online Career Exploration Course has been slashed from 3 to 2 units. Here's the screenshot I made. Notice how SMC has dropped the part of the course title that reads "Animation and Interactive Media." The course descriptions are strikingly similar, yet AET has pumped it up a notch by adding that the "videogame" and "television" industries as part of the package. SMC is also promising to "assist students in preparing to apply for these positions." What assistance SMC's Distance Education or Academy vocational program will provide is not specified. What does it matter as long as it sounds nice enough to convince these cyber students to part with their cash.

Now Professor Jim Keeshen's ET 61 History of Animation online and ground courses have seen the administrative axe at SMC. Both are no longer being taught effective Spring 2006. Here's another screenshot showing the two courses in Spring 2005 and their absence in Spring 2006. As Keeshen's teaching assistant, I worked hard to get the ET 61 ground course launched. It lasted a mere two semesters. Like Professor Novak's two courses, ET 61 also deserves to remain on AET's curriculum. Keeshen places the blame for ET61's untimely death on AET Dean Katharine Muller.

However, to compensate Professor Keeshen, the ET 2 Storytelling course (in which I also worked as Keeshen's teaching assistant) has been re-written to allegedly integrate "moral issues." Here's the ET 2 screenshot comparison I made. AET has added the sentence: "Guest lectures from the entertainment industry will come to share with the class their ideas on storytelling in modern media." Again, like in ET 72, AET is trying to push its entertainment industry partnership in students' faces. The truth of the matter is that these same guest speakers have always been there through the Mary Pickford Series. For more background information see our blog article, "Mary Pickford Foundation AET Scholarship Endowment." AET also fails to mention that it hasn't been able to recuperate its lost entertainment industry partners. Nor has it been successful in internships or job placements for students.

Since AET can't allegedly maintain its enrollment figures, it needs to create larger enrollment by doubling the course offerings per semester. It is able to achieve this while also paying its part-time instructors less money. This is neither conducive to learning nor is it a successful business model which retains quality part-time faculty, many of whom actually do have connections and jobs in the entertainment industry. By alienating our part-time instructors, we deprive our students of the education they deserve.


From Top, Clockwise: David Javelosa, Bill Lancaster, Jeannie Novak, and Chris Fria.

Additionally, how can AET plug a Game Development certificate when its main course is only 1 unit? Why do other introductory courses such as ET 2 Storytelling warrant 3 units while ET 42 only warrants 1 unit? Why is Jeannie Novak's ET 4 e-Business course cut while Javelosa's ET 12 Principles of Web Design course remains? Is it because full-time AET faculty members such as Chris Fria and David Javelosa sit on the curriculum committee? Is this a bit of job security for Javelosa? Let's look at David Javelosa's SMC profile for Spring 2002. I quote in part:

“‘Multimedia’ is kind of a misnomer,” says David, who actually wrote a successful book on the subject. “It all started out as a convergence between computer and entertainment. But then the game industry came along. And cable TV. And DVD and video games and…. It all just keeps merging and speeding up relentlessly. So it’s been very exciting to be teaching what I’ve learned.” ‘Principles of Interactive Media’ is David’s new ‘game,’ and he reports that his new ‘playing field’ is nearly ideal. “For where we are right now, the Academy is about as state of the art as it gets,” he says. “I’ve got a computer in front of every student and overhead projectors for all I’m teaching. And the staff and support we have are just solid.”

So, with all that state of the art technology, how well did David Javelosa play his "game"? Let's view the stats from the AET playing field:

ET 12 Spring 2002: 5 Sections; (3 of which are taught by Javelosa)
ET 13 Spring 2002: 3 Sections (all taught by Javelosa)

ET 12 Fall 2002: 4 Sections (2 of which are taught by Javelosa)
ET 13 Fall 2002: 3 Sections (all taught by Javelosa)

ET 12 Spring 2003: 3 Sections (1 of which is taught by Javelosa)
ET 13 Spring 2003: 3 Sections (all taught by Javelosa)

ET 12 Fall 2003: 3 Sections (all taught by Javelosa)
ET 13 Fall 2003: 2 Sections (all taught by Javelosa)

ET 12 Spring 2004: 3 Sections (all taught by Javelosa)
ET 13 Spring 2004: 2 Sections (all taught by Javelosa)

ET 12 Fall 2004: 2 Sections (1 of which is taught by Javelosa)
ET 13 Fall 2004: 2 Sections (all taught by Javelosa)

ET 12 Spring 2005: 2 Sections (all taught by Javelosa)
ET 13 Spring 2005: 0 Sections (The course is not offered)

ET 12 Fall 2005: 2 Sections (none of which are taught by Javelosa)
ET 13 Fall 2005: 1 Section (taught by Javelosa)

ET 12 Spring 2006: 2 Sections (none of which are taught by Javelosa)
ET 13 Spring 2006: 1 Section (taught by Javelosa)

In Fall 2005, the name changes take effect with ET 13 resurrected and ET 12 losing two-thirds of its unit credits. What were two interactive media courses under Javelosa's jurisdiction now become subdivided into web design and game authoring. In four years, both courses steadily declined in student enrollment as is evident in the decrease of sections offered.

Where Javelosa taught six courses between ET 12 and ET 13, he now teaches only one. Has this hurt his salary in the number of courses taught by him? Not in the least. In Spring 2002, he taught six courses for 18 units pay. Four years later, in Spring 2006, he teaches six courses for 16 units pay as shown below:

ET 13, GAME AUTHORING I 3 UNITS
ET 39, DIGITAL AUDIO FOR GAMES (3,3) 3 UNITS
ET 40, DIGITAL AUDIO DESIGN 3 UNITS
ET 42, PRINCIPLES OF GAME DEVELOPMENT 1 UNIT
ET 44A, GAME DESIGN/INTERACTIVE PLAY MECHANICS I 3 UNITS
(2 Sections of ET 44A both taught by David Javelosa)

Notice how Javelosa has now expanded his playing field by dividing his course load among more classes. Also, most of these courses somehow relate to study in video game production. The only problem with this scenario is that there is no established Game Development certificate at AET. If Javelosa was unable to succeed in keeping the Interactive Media certificate afloat, how can he succeed in something more complex as Game Development? Same faculty, same courses, same facilities, yet nothing but a new name and his slick marketing slogan: "Ready! Fire! … Aim!"

And if Javelosa is aiming the curriculum gun at us, AET 3D Animation Professor Chris Fria is providing the "ammunition" as he claims in his SMC Spring 2002 Profile. I quote from Fria's profile this relevant statement:

It’s like this little world unto itself where incredible things are happening. It’s a small, fiercely focused program with great potentials. We’re very deliberate in choosing our applicants,” he says. “But you’ll get out of the Academy what you put into it. There’s just a lot of opportunity here for you.”

Fria claims that AET is "very deliberate" in choosing its applicants. Yet, on or about March 2, 2005, in SMC's Curriculum Committee Minutes, it is apparent that Fria is taking the opposite approach and opening up the AET program to anyone who stumbles along. Here's the screenshot I made. Here's the text from Chris Fria's presentation to Jeff Shimizu entitled Entertainment Technology Curriculum Overview:

AET proposes to restructure the ET curriculum into several certificate programs: Animation, Web Design, Game Development, Post Production, and Visual Effects. These certificate programs will be open to all students removing all enrollment restrictions on ET courses except for prerequisite requirements. Spreadsheets were distributed showing the proposed changes. Several new courses (and some revisions of current courses) will be coming forward to the Curriculum Committee.

Bill Lancaster was also present for Fria's proposal, so as Chairman of AET, he very well knew what was going on. He knew that AET wasn't expanding its program, but diminishing it. Where are those "spreadsheets" that were distributed by Fria showing the proposed changes? They haven't been provided to us by SMC under the California Public Records Act? (See our SMC Public Records Request, Set Three, Request No. 7 re: Bill Lancaster).

Well, it appears that AET is not presenting us with anything new with all these pending certificates. Rather, the SMC vocational Titanic is sinking while the faculty re-arranges the deck chairs. It reminds me of Jim Keeshen's poignant quote: "I feel like the baker on the Titanic who got to stand on the last part of the ship before it went under."

And while Javelosa retains his 16 units course load, Keeshen is knocked down to only 4 courses totaling a mere 10 units. And Keeshen's been teaching at SMC far longer than Javelosa. Here's Keeshen's courses for Spring 2006:

ET 2, STORYTELLING 3 UNITS
ET 18, STORYBOARDING 2 UNITS
ET 19A, 2D ANIMATION I 2 UNITS
ET 20, VISUAL DEVELOPMENT 3 UNITS

Professor Novak only has one class left: ET 3 Principles of Project Management. At least for now it is still three units. Fria retains 9 courses for Spring 2006, totaling 25 units as follows:

ET 24, 3-D ANIMATION I 4 UNITS
ET 25, 3-D ANIMATION II: CHARACTER RIGGING 4 UNITS
ET 26, 3D ANIMATION III: RENDERING 4 UNITS
ET 30A, ANIMATION PROJECT I 2 UNITS
ET 30B, ANIMATION PROJECT II (3,3) 3 UNITS
ET 88A, INDEPENDENT STUDIES IN ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY 1 UNIT
ET 90A, INTERNSHIP 1 UNIT
ET 90B, INTERNSHIP 2 UNITS
ET 90C, INTERNSHIP 3 UNITS

Notice that none of Professor Fria's courses are renamed "game animation." Perhaps he doesn't need to bother, as his 3-D animation program appears to be a success with the students. Also, Fria's 3-D animation courses warrant a fat four units while Keeshen's traditional 2-D animation and storyboard courses only receive 2 units. From what I've heard, each is about the same amount of work and the same amount of class time per week. Perhaps Keeshen's courses will be slashed to 1 unit each and renamed "Interactive Storytelling for Video Games" and "Storyboarding for Video Games." Perhaps ET 61 History of Animation will resurrect itself as "History of Video Games." Maybe I shouldn't give Javelosa and Fria any more encouragement.

All that re-packaging of courses still won't help the failing interactive media track or the slowly disintegrating traditional animation track. As we mentioned before, the Chancellor's Office doesn't even have the Game Development Certificate slated for approval any time soon. Only web design may be approved in 2007.

And as our last blog article, "The Harsh Truth About Video Game Industry Careers," revealed, even if a student was to obtain a game design or development degree, job competition is fierce, work is unpredictable, and salaries vary. Additionally, most companies see onsite job training as superior to vocational training. It seems that the best investment an inspiring game developer can make is not in an education, but in a Sony PlayStation, Nintendo, of XBox next generation game console. Game testing is still the best entry-level position.

If you desire the more lucrative salaries, major in computer science at a university or college that offers a four-year degree. DigiPen has Nintendo's funding and proximity and the University of Southern California is supported by game giant Electronic Arts. SMC's Entertainment Academy only has pending certificates, repackaged courses, and semantic trickery. Someone should point this out to Bill Lancaster before he makes any more glowing promises to us.

-- Des Manttari,
Editor-in-Chief,
Phoenix Genesis

(c) 2006: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP

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