104321 - PRODUCTION AND PROGRAMMING OF INTERACTIVE APPLICATIONS

Subject type: Mandatory

Coordinator: Rafael Suarez Gómez

Trimester: Second term

Credits: 4

This subject of Production and Programming of Interactive Applications belongs to the area of ​​Multimedia within the degree in Audiovisual Media. The various concepts worked on in the subject are designed to train students in learning and using the basics of programming for the production of small interactive applications that may include various audiovisual media.

This subject has methodological and digital resources to make possible its continuity in non-contact mode in the case of being necessary for reasons related to the Covid-19. In this way, the achievement of the same knowledge and skills that are specified in this teaching plan will be ensured.

In general, this subject contributes to the following learning outcomes specified for the subject to which it belongs (Multimedia and Animation). The student must be able to:

• Create small interactive multimedia applications on the web: games, media players, animations, etc.
• Use strategies and processes to create interactive multimedia products
• Apply the most appropriate features and formats of the different digital media that make up a multimedia production: text, image (still and animated) sound and video 

At a more specific level, at the end of the course the student must be able to:

• RAC1: Use a programming environment for the production and implementation of interactive multimedia audiovisual pieces
• RAC2: Develop interactive productions
• RAC3: Apply the basic concepts and elements of programming
• RAC4: Use some of the libraries included in the programming language

The subject has 2h / week of theory and 2h / week of practice.

All the theoretical concepts of the subject will be exposed in theory classes (large groups). In these classes, and at the discretion of the teachers, computers will be used to solve the exercises and problems of a more practical nature. Likewise, and always at the discretion of the teachers, students may be asked to solve, individually or in groups, short problems and / or exercises. These activities, which due to their optional nature and brevity are not reflected in the list of activities, will serve the student as a tool for self-assessment of their achievement of the contents of the subject and may be used by the teacher. to make decisions about the final grade of the good student and that never to the detriment of the numerical grade calculated according to the indicated grading system.

The more practical concepts and everything that can essentially be considered the practical application of the theoretical concepts will be worked on in small (laboratory) groups. In the sessions scheduled for this purpose, the appropriate tools will be given to solve the scheduled activities well and it is expected that these will be extended from a temporal point of view, beyond the laboratory hours and that, consequently, , students must complete them during the autonomous learning time.

Whenever deemed appropriate, totally optional activities will be made available to students to help them prepare and prepare for the compulsory ones.

This subject has 50% teaching in large groups and another in small groups. Each week students have two hours of theory class in large group and another two in small group in the lab.

This course, due to the situation generated by COVID, some of the large group sessions will be held in hybrid format: face-to-face and online (via streaming). This will allow students to rotate to face-to-face classes, respecting the maximum number of students per classroom imposed by the distance measures. When they are not in contact, they will be able to follow the class online from home.
With regard to internship sessions in smaller spaces (such as laboratories, studios or sets), where appropriate, work will be carried out simultaneously in several spaces in order to ensure that the conditions established by the safety protocols are met.

UNIT 1.- ALGORITHM AND PROGRAMMING. WORKING TOOL: PROCESSING. INTERACTIVITY

This teaching block has a dual purpose, on the one hand the familiarization of the student with the work tool that will be used for the production of interactive applications and on the other the introduction of basic concepts towards algorithms and the programming.

1. Introduction to algorithms and programming.     
2. What is Processing?
3. Work tool. Processing
4. Program structure: setup () and draw ()
5. System variables.
6. Interactivity: mouse and keyboard events

SUBJECT 2.- BASIC PROGRAMMING

This teaching block aims to make a multimedia production with an interactivity achieved using a basic programming.

1. Basic programming concepts: variables, data types, operators and expressions
2. Forms of execution: sequential, conditional / alternative and iterative

SUBJECT 3.- ADVANCED PROGRAMMING

This teaching block aims to make a multimedia production with an interactivity achieved using the most advanced programming structures.

1. Functions and procedures. Parameterization
2. One-dimensional tables     

A series of activities of an eminently practical nature (short exercises, problems ...) are made available to students, which are the basis of the learning activities of the subject. These activities will have to be solved by the students, often in a non-contact way, following the instructions of the teachers and will also be worked in class, either as examples in the theory sessions or in the laboratory sessions. Although these activities will be optional (teachers will not individually verify the performance by students), they will be essential to achieve the theoretical and practical knowledge of the subject.

In order to gather evidence of the achievement of the expected learning outcomes, the following evaluative activities will be carried out. The two written tests are individual. It will be up to the teacher to decide whether the internships are carried out individually or in groups of two students.

Two written tests (using, when appropriate, an IDE tool)

• The first will deal with the first two contents (interactivity and basic programming) and will give evidence of the learning outcomes RC3 and RC4. This test asks students to develop software correctly. This has to do with the following common and specific competences (in brackets the most relevant aspects of each competence to which the subject contributes):
  • E4 (programming interactive multimedia applications)
  • E10 (apply processes, methods and techniques in programming)
• The second test will include all the contents and will give evidence of all the expected learning outcomes. This test asks students for the correct development of software that includes all the contents of the subject. At the level of common and specific competencies, all the above will be relevant for the first test, adding:
  • G5 (develop skills with a high degree of autonomy)

They will be performed five practices using an IDE tool:

PRACTICE 1

In this practice the students have a first contact with the environment of development of programs that will have to use in the rest of practices and activities of the asignatura.

In the first part the teacher is the one who makes the presentation of the environment, showing them those elements that will be most useful to them.

In the second part the student is faced with the resolution of several sentences that will incorporate interactivity, the mouse and keyboard will be used to interact with the user.

This will allow evidence of RAC1 and RAC3 learning outcomes to be collected.

PRACTICE 2

This practice is intended for students to practice coding sequential programs using:

• the library that allows you to control the time and
• those that allow to incorporate in the productions audiovisual media, like the sound and the video.

Due to the nature of the subject, each practice will use all the concepts worked on in the previous ones. 

This will allow evidence of RAC1, RAC3 and RAC4 learning outcomes to be collected.

PRACTICE 3

This practice is intended for students to practice coding programs of a conditional nature that incorporate image work.

This practice will incorporate the work with the concepts of the previous practices.

This will allow evidence of RAC1, RAC3 and RAC4 learning outcomes to be collected.

PRACTICE 4

This practice is intended for students to practice coding programs of an iterative nature. These programs will allow you to create dynamic objects.

This practice will incorporate the work with the concepts of the previous practices.

This will allow evidence of RAC1, RAC3 and RAC4 learning outcomes to be collected.

PRACTICE 5

This practice is intended for students to practice coding programs that using the different forms of execution incorporate the work with tables.

The goal is for students using all the concepts worked on in the subject to implement an interactive game. In the production of this game the student will have to use all the concepts worked along the term and his delivery will be essential to pass the asignatura.

This will allow evidence of RAC1, RAC2, RAC3 and RAC4 learning outcomes to be collected.

At the competence level, the five internships, which will mostly have to be developed in non-contact time, cover all the basic and specific competencies of the subject:

• E4 (design, edit and program interactive multimedia applications)
• E10 (apply processes, methods and techniques to develop creativity and in video game programming)
• G5 (develop learning skills with a high degree of autonomy)

In order to pass (pass) the assessment activities, students must demonstrate:

• That they have acquired the theoretical knowledge related to the contents of the subject and that their understanding allows them to put them into practice [MECES-2 point a, point c]
• That they can develop solutions to problems that, although they are similar to others seen above, present aspects that are new [MECES-2 point f]

Rules for carrying out the activities

For each activity, teachers will be informed of the particular rules and conditions that govern them.

One-on-one activities presuppose the student's commitment to carry them out individually. All activities in which the student does not comply with this commitment will be considered suspended, regardless of their role (sender or receiver).

Likewise, the activities to be carried out in groups presuppose the commitment on the part of the students who make it up to carry them out within the group. All activities in which the group has not respected this commitment regardless of its role (sender or receiver) will be considered suspended.

In group activities, the teacher can, based on the information available, customize the grade for each member of the group.

Any undelivered activity will be considered scored with zero points. No late delivery will be accepted.

The final grade is the weighted sum of the grades for the following activities:

WEIGHT ACTIVITY

WRITTEN TEST I 10%

WRITTEN TEST II 40%

PRACTICE 1 6%

PRACTICE 2 6%

PRACTICE 3 6%

PRACTICE 4 6%

PRACTICE 5 20%

EXERCISES DONE IN PRACTICE CLASS 6%

With the above weights, laboratory (practical) activities have a weight of 50% and theoretical activities also have a weight of 50%. Considerations:

• To pass the course it is essential that the practice part and the theory part are approved (minimum grade of 5 in each part).
• Before the end of each internship session, each student must submit the resolution of an exercise proposed by the teacher, and only if all the deliveries have been made will the weighting previously indicated for the calculation of the final qualification of the part of practices will be applied. Otherwise the practices will be suspended.
• To pass the course it is essential that the student has delivered at least 3 internships.
• To pass the subject it is essential that the student has a minimum grade of 4 in the PRACTICE 5 activity, otherwise the grade of the subject will be that of this activity.
• If the final grade of theory is not higher than 5 the subject is suspended with the grade of the theory part.

The recovery only makes it possible to recover the qualification of the theoretical activities, WRITTEN TEST I and II, and the same rule described above will be applied.

Casey Reas, Ben Fry. A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers. The Mid Press

Rabassa Montse, Juan Lina. PPAI: Class notes. ESUP Tecnocampus

Processing Documentation https://processing.org/reference/