Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Consent requires that you submit in advance a brief description of yourself, your work, and what you expect to gain from the class.

Requirements:

1. Attendance at all classes and active participation in discussion.

2. Knowledge of the MacIntosh, PC, and Unix operating environments is helpful at the outset and required by the end of the course.

3. Active use of the ACTLab Internet node.

All class notices and many of the readings are available only through the ACTLab Internet node (actlab.us). A short tutorial on logging in is available.

4. Successful completion of a semester project.

This is a production-oriented course. You will spend the first two weeks acquiring basic authoring and technical skills to enable you to proceed with project production. During the third week you will divide up into three teams, based upon your choice of the projects offered and our estimates of which project would be best suited to your skills as so far demonstrated. Within each team, individuals will concentrate on one or more interactive skills - story, graphics, music, sound effects, movie capture, and assembly. You will spend the remainder of the semester creating the projects.

From time to time you will discuss your project's progress with the class. We will be reviewing your own progress over the course of the semester by observing your skills and creative choices as you work. At the end of the semester you will demonstrate the completed project. You will also turn in the script or storyboard (if appropriate) and your notes on the project, describing the idea, your artistic, theoretical, and practical considerations, and how thingschanged along the way.

If a written report is required, it should address the following topics:
What you intended to do;
What the project would be like if completed and released commercially;
Who is your target audience;
What you expect the audience to get out of the project;
The problems and successes you experienced along the way.

At our option we may accept a very few independent projects. Independent projects must have prior approval from the instructor or TA.

Required texts:

A reader will be available during the third week of class at Longhorn Copy, just across Guadalupe from CMA. Other readings will be distributed periodically throughout the semester. These are usually placed in the literature bin just inside the ACTLab door. Some readings will be available only through the ACTLab gopher or through Forum. Readings distributed as xeroxes or posted to the ACTLab node as official class readings are required reading, and you are responsible for them. I grade your understanding of the readings (and the issues thus raised) during class discussion, so it is to your advantage to participate.

Optional (but highly recommended):

One of the books on the Internet, such as The Whole Internet or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet, Peachpit Press's Driector QuickStart, and Computers As Theatre.

Grading:

Grading is based on class participation and the final project or demo which becomes the interactive equivalent of a production student's demo reel. The ACTLab shares the philosophy of the MIT Media Lab: Demo or Die.

Class attendance and active participation: 35% of final grade
Final project: 65% of final grade, broken down as follows:

Midterm review 30%
Final demo 35%

Total 100%

Classes: are usually practical labs, during which you will have the opportunity to ask questions and to acquire hands-on skills with interactive multimedia equipment. Some class sessions will consist of discussions of the readings. Some of what we call readings are interactive CD-ROM adventures (e.g., Myst) which you will be required to play, understand, and discuss. Unfortunately the field changes so quickly that we cannot list the readings ahead of time.

Guests will present their work occasionally. In the past, such cutting-edge researchers as Brenda Laurel and Michael Naimark have given guest lectures.

ACTLab Fellows -- researchers elsewhere in geographical terms but present in the ACTLab virtual community -- may present their current work (online) and offer advice and assistance with student projects where appropriate.

The ACTLab

Equipment in the ACTLab is available for your use 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the semester. There will usually be volunteers nearby to help you with problems. The Lab door has a lockbox which contains the door key and key to the file cabinet containing the flopticals and CD-ROMs. The combination to the lockbox is available via the "actlab-combo" node in actlab's WWW version of Forum (see below), which is readable only by registered students and persons with special permission. The combination is changed weekly. Do not give out the combination to anyone. Never leave the door open when you leave, even if you are only going to the bathroom.

ACTLab resources are limited at this time. Schedule sheets for the busiest machines will be posted on the ACTLab door beginning with the third week of class. These permit you to sign up for specific times on the equipment. If you cannot make your assigned time, please be sure to remove your name so someone else can use that time slot. We are also experimenting with online scheduling so that you can check availability and reserve your time via the Net. We are improving our resources continually. Dig we must, for a growing Infobahn.

The ACTLab Internet nodes ( [actlab, donna, ok, sheena, monstro]. utexas.edu) and the ACTLab Forum

You will be issued an account on actlab.us. Log on at least once a day to check for class news, messages, etc. It isn't necessary to come to the lab to log on; you can do it from any UT terminal or from home with a modem. You are responsible for all information posted to Forum by ACTLab wizards Sandy, Aviva, Smack, Tamara, Vernon, or Designated Subwizards. "I didn't read that" is not an acceptable excuse.

To reach everybody on the node, including instructors and staff, post your message to Forum. Do NOT mail to everyone on the class list. If your message is unusually important, mail smack, sandy or captain and we will add a notice to MOTD.

As you might have heard, in the online world the corollary discussions generated by class activities are occasionally lively, contentious, and pyrotechnic. There will be a Forum discussion node this semester as well, the name of which will be announced.

General guidelines and Fair Warning (the Fine Print)

Making an interactive product requires time in the lab outside of class time... frequently a lot of it. You should expect to spend at least ten hours of lab time each week working with computers. ACTLab facilities are limited, necessitating cooperative scheduling and making use of resources elsewhere. This may require considerable initiative on your part.

Note that as in any creative class, grading criteria are necessarily subjective. You may not agree with the instructor's evaluation, but decisions are final and no post-grading negotiation will be permitted.

In addition, please note the following warnings. Do not take this course if you are not prepared to spend most of your waking time finishing your project, if you are not willing to collaborate with others, or if you simply need three units to graduate. You are likely to fail.