StudyQA — Master: Serious Games — University of Skovde

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Description Contents Requirements Funding

Computer games are used throughout our society. People play on the bus, at home and at work and we can see how computer games concern a number of areas in the society of today. Furthermore, we see an important industry emerging. The term "serious games" refers to games that engage the user, and contribute to the achievement of a defined purpose other than pure entertainment (whether or not the user is consciously aware of it). The additional purposes can, for example, be education, training, health care or marketing.

What will you study?

The study program is about developing and analyzing serious games. There is a strong practical focus meaning that you will spend much time on developing and evaluating serious games.

Most of the courses are related to our research within serious games. InGaMe Lab is an interdisciplinary research group focusing on research about computer games and other interactable media.

The study programme has a focus on practical applications of serious games. The course content covers all aspects of serious games development, including the identification of application areas, requirements elicitation and analysis and technological aspects. One important goal of the study programme is to provide deeper knowledge of the so called serious aspects of serious games, e.g. what are the challenges in developing relevant content in a game for training and education.

The study programme comprises the following common courses:

Project Serious Games, Advanced level, 15 ECTS
Serious Games Research and Development, Advanced level, 7,5 ECTS
Experimental Game Evaluation, Advanced level, 7,5 ECTS
Master Degree (one year) Project in Informatics with a specialisation in serious games, Advanced level, 15 ECTS

The course Project Serious Games deepens knowledge in game development as it introduces the additional aspect, beyond entertainment, into the game development process. Serious Games Research and Development provides an orientation to the research frontier within serious games.

The course Experimental Game Evaluation aims to teach appropriate methods for evaluation of serious games with respect to their desired effect, e.g. learning.
The course is linked to the project course in that the prototype which has been developed will undergo an evaluation based on a scientific approach.

The Masters Thesis provides opportunity to apply theoretical and practical knowledge from courses taken during previous studies. The student should apply a scientific approach to identify, formulate, argue for and solve/answer a research problem within the subject field.

Course block business development:

(Currently only in Swedish) Entrepreneurship and Development of Business G1N, 7,5 ECTS or
Organization and Management I G1N,7,5 ECTS and Marketing, Basic level, 7,5 ECTS (Currently only in Swedish)

The course Entrepreneurship and Development of Business or Organisation och ledarskap 1 together with the following course Marketing give the students an orientation in how to start their own business and work as an entrepreneur. This is an aspect is introduced as serious games is an emerging industry and entrepreneurial skills are expected to be important. The two courses in business planning and entrepreneurship are linked to the project course so that the students can develop a business idea around their project.

Orientation towards research

This orientation gives the student an opportunity to broaden and deepen the knowledge in adjacent areas of informatics in order to better understand how that area may be applied to serious games development.

One course in informatics, advanced level, 7,5 ECTS
Artificial Intelligence for Industrial Applications A1N, 7,5 ECTS
Scientific Theory in Informatics A1N, 7,5 ECTS
Cloud Computing A1N, 7,5 ECTS
Web Intelligence A1N, 7,5 ECTS
Open Systems A1N, 7,5 ECTS
Organisational Applications of Knowledge- and Datadriven Decision Support Systems A1N), 7,5 ECTS
Decision-making and Decision Support Systems A1N, 7,5 ECTS
Interaction Design and Information Visualization A1N 7,5 ECTS
Academic writing in English, 7,5 ECTS
Research Methodology and Communication in Information Technology A1F, 7,5 ECTS

International orientation

The international orientation is electable for international students, primarily within the Erasmus programme. The fall semester is identical with the orientation towards research.
The spring semester contains 30 ECTS thesis work.
Thesis project in Informatics A1E, 30 ECTS.

Applying students must have at least a 3-year Bachelor's degree (180 ECTS credits) in Computer Science or Computer Game Studies or similar. A further requirement is proof of skills in English equivalent of studies at upper secondary level in Sweden, known as English course 6 / English course B. This is normally demonstrated by means of an internationally recognized test, e g IELTS, TOEFL or the equivalent. English Language Requirements IELTS band: 6.5 TOEFL paper-based test score : 575 TOEFL iBT® test: 90

Scholarships

The University of Skövde offers a small number of scholarships to students who are attending a Master's programme at the University and who are liable for tuition fees. If you are an exchange student, please contact your home university for information about thescholarships they provide.
1. UHR ScholarshipsThe University of Skövde administrates some scholarships funded by the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) to students liable to pay tuition fees attending a master's programme at the University. The scholarships are tuition fee waivers of 31,250 SEK per semester (50% of the tuition fee), and the amount is automatically deducted from the tuition fee when you receive your invoice. The scholarships are granted for one academic semester.
2. HS ScholarshipsThe University of Skövde offers a small number of scholarships to students attending a master's programme at the University who are liable for tuition fees. The scholarships consist of tuition fee waivers of 25,000 SEK per semester, and the amount is automatically deducted from the tuition fee. The scholarships are granted for one academic semester.
Conditions: Both UHR and HS Scholarships can be extended to a subsequent academic semester provided that the students study results are satisfactory. The scholarship granting criterion is academic merit. The scholarships can only be awarded to tuition-paying students. Please note that you have to be able to finance the remainder of the tuition fee yourself, and to cover all the living expenses during your stay in Sweden.How to apply for a scholarship at the University of Skövde

First apply for one of studies at the University via University Admissions. You must apply for one of our masters programmes at the Swedish official online application service University Admissions.
Then apply for a scholarship at the University of Skövde by filling in the online scholarship application form available on this webpage. Please note that you will need to provide us with the application number you received from the University Admissions website.

3. Other types of scholarships for international students