Laurie O'Donnell

Laurie O'Donnell

Director of Development (Future Learning) at Abertay. Background in schools as well as local and national government.

Interested in the spaces where learning, teaching, assessment and technologies meet

Location Scotland

Activity

  • Laurie O'Donnell made a comment

    Welcome to our new course. I work at Abertay in the School of Design and Informatics and have an overview of our video games education courses on Futurelearn. I have an interest in the space where learning, technology and professional development come together. I've always played board games and card games so really loved helping to pull this course together...

  • Great that you enjoyed the course Anastasia. All the best with your next steps in learning.

  • Hope the course makes you want to play some of them Susan.

  • @JamesReid Hi James just search 'Abertay Futurelearn' and register from there.

  • @StephenOluwaseun Hi Stephen welcome to Abertay.

  • Welcome back Ian.

  • Hi Stephen, welcome to this Futurelearn course and to Abertay.

  • Hi James, hope sheltering in Moray is going well. look out for our other Futurelearn course on 'Video Games Sound and Music'.

  • Hope the course helps you with this Harrison.

  • Hi Tyler, looking forward to inviting you to Abertay in September.

  • Sorry to hear this Nick. Hope you find this course useful.

  • That right. Paul is introducing the basic concepts, they are implemented differently in different programming languages.

  • Hi Mark, I first programmed in 1978 so your original experience is much more recent :)

  • Hi Debra, I just checked the poll and it worked fine. Not sure what the problem is. Can you try it again? The poll is currently showing 38% have never programmed, 52% have some experience and 9% have extensive experience.

  • Hi Lorne, think you have made a good choice of course here. Paul will introduce to the main concepts behind video game programming.

  • Yo Paolo, hope you enjoy the course and look forward to welcoming you to Dundee in September.

  • Hi Matthew, sorry to hear your plans are on hold. Hope you enjoy this course in the meantime.

  • Hi Dennis, welcome to the course. I'm sure your grandchildren are are impressed but hope this takes you to a new level of adoration!

  • Hi John, think that game was called Pong. We had a comment from a 10 year old so looks like we have all the generations covered. Hope you enjoy the course!

  • Hi Julian, hope you find the course useful in helping you translate your game into a digital format.

  • Hi Alessandro hope you enjoy the course and looking forward to welcoming you onto the MSc in September.

  • Hi Jake, looking forward to welcoming you to Abertay later in the year.

  • Hi Olivia, hope you enjoy the course. Look out for our Futurelearn course on character design for video games as I think you would appreciate this one too.

  • Hi Mark, I hope so too!

  • Hi Duncan looking forward to welcoming you to Abertay later in the year.

  • Hi John, this course should give you an excellent grounding for when the schools reopen.

  • Hello Philip welcome to the course. If you can find a passion in learning you will never again be bored!

  • Hi Valerie. Never too old to update your knowledge and skills. Enjoy the course.

  • That's great news Ilja. Looking forward to welcoming you to Abertay in September. Enjoy the course.

  • Hi Evergreen. Great that you love game development already. Hope you enjoy the course.

  • Hi Jaime. Looking forward to welcoming you to Abertay in September. Great that you are spending some of your free time preparing for the next stage in your life. Hope you find this course useful.

  • Hi Mishaal. The class is online. Just watch Paul's videos and work your way through the activities. The course is designed to introduce you to some of the main concepts behind programming for video games.

  • What a great story Carmela. Welcome to the course.

  • Hi Tanapat, great to have you on the course. We are still planning on our courses running at Abertay in September, most likely with some changes to keep everyone safe. If you have any concerns please don't hesitate to get in touch.

  • Hi Chrissy, you must pop and see us at Abertay when we eventually get out of lockdown. Great to see someone working in Dundee on the course. Just looked at our stats this morning and on day 2 we have people from 123 countries joining you to find out more about programming for games.

  • Thank you for a brilliant course. The content structure and presentation was flawless. I'm going to put as much of what I have learned here into practice with Professor Siedel's blessing to the fore.

  • Thanks Kenneth. I'll pass your feedback on to Paul.

  • High praise indeed Zayan.

  • Thanks Kathleen. I'll speak to Paul and encourage him to get the longer course published.

  • That's great Diego. Best of luck with your future studies.

  • Hi everyone I'm Laurie. I look after the Futurelearn courses at Abertay. In Kenny's absence I'll keep an eye on comments. Enjoy the course!

  • Hi everyone. I 'm Laurie and I work with Robin at Abertay. I'll keep an eye on your comments and any feedback will be most welcome. Hope you enjoy the course.

  • Hi Irina sorry that you not found the course to be worthwhile. I don't understand what you mean by the 'All the final quizzes are for an extra payment'. The quizzes are stand-alone and any payment is around access to course content beyond the usual free period. Anyway thanks for taking the time to respond and all the best for finding a course that suits you...

  • Hi Arogbokun can you give us some examples of IQ games you like?

  • Hi again David. I'll get Paul to respond directly to you but our suggestions make good sense.

  • Thanks Darren I'll pass that feedback on to Paul.

  • Thanks David I will pass this on to Paul. He has been working out of the country but hope he will have a chance to review comments over the next few days.

  • Thanks Charlotte. That's one of the advantages of video you can watch as many times as you like. Paul will be delighted that you have rated his course as brilliant so far.

  • Thanks for this feedback Gareth. I'll pass this on to Paul.

  • Great to see that so many of you are benefiting from this introductory course. I'm hoping that Paul will find time to publish a longer course so that you can apply some of what you have learned.

  • Hi Alejandra you might want to take a look at our next course https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/video-game-character-design Starts on Monday 7 October.

  • Good feedback Susan. I will pass this on to Paul for future runs of the course.

  • Really interesting mix of learners with a 48/44 split between learners completely new to programming and those with some experience. I'm assuming that the 8% of experienced programmers are just interested in how what they already know applies to games.

  • Hi there you might be interested in this course - https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/video-game-music starts on 21 October.

  • Hi Charlotte you might also be interested in this short course starting 7 October https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/video-game-character-design This takes a closer look at the more artistic aspects of game design and development.

  • Hello everyone. I'm Laurie and I lead on FutureLearn courses within the School of Design and Informatics at Abertay. Paul is currently out of town but will drop into the discussions as soon as he gets a chance. We hope you enjoy the course and it gives you a taste of games programming.

  • Hope you are all finding the course to be as useful, interesting and fascinating as you hoped.

  • Thank you. for a very enjoyable and well presented introduction to the law. The academics and experts were great but I particularly liked the wisdom of 'the view from the bench '.

  • Hi I'm Laurie and I work with Kenny at Abertay University in Dundee. This is our first Futurelearn course and I'm really looking forward to getting your feedback on how we have done.

    My early experiences in the late 70s and 80s were with coin-op computer games in the student union, Space Invaders, PacMan etc, and a lunar landing simulator running on a...