Makerspace: Escape Rooms, INFO 490 was just added by Informatics as a 2nd 8 week course this fall semester. This course will explore the intersection of storytelling, interaction design and user experience through a focus on fabrication and computational thinking concepts relevant to the design of escaperooms. The combination of teamwork, immersive narratives, and engaging puzzles provides a friendly yet complex platform for students to learn about applied computing related to information studies. Over the course of 8 weeks, they will first rapidly design the narrative, script, props and setting and then move to focus substantially on puzzles and interfaces to be ultimately presented as a portable escape room, which will be exhibited for the public in a high profile venue. As part of the process, they will become familiarized with several manufacturing tools often available in makerspaces, such as laser cutters, 3D printers, graphic drawing tablets, and small board electronics. Much of the class will focus on introducing learners to relevant electronics hardware, code libraries and interface design concepts to create a series of interconnected internet of things devices to control or manipulate puzzles and progress through the room. Data collected from these devices will provide insight into user experience and aid in evaluation and reporting. Since the class is rapidly paced, students will rely on easy-to-deploy platforms like Micro:bits and arduinos so they can call upon existing code libraries and work at a higher level of abstraction. Additionally, this course will emphasize a degree of self-guided learning and time management, as students will leverage online tutorials and information resources to explore and troubleshoot. Class will meet in the CU Community Fab Lab in Art Annex II. Students who have taken a different makerspace class before are encouraged to enroll. Experience coding is not required but strongly recommended.
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