Quick links, including email links, office hours, and lab hours, are all available from the “Instructors” tab above in the course menubar.
What follows is a more detailed introduction to the people delivering this class to you this semester. We are a team, and will be working together to deliver this experience to you.
I am the professor who is now delivering this course. I am also the instructor of record for this course. If you have any significant problems, administrative or technical, you will need to come to me about them.
I am excited to work with you, and guide you through the journey of beginning to code!
Please feel free to leverage my office hours. I would love it if each and everyone of you who are in Missoula could come by sometime in the first few weeks to introduce yourself. For those of you who are distance learners, please consider sending me an email about yourself, along with something to help me get to know you better, like your own website, or links to your creative work. You are also welcome to set up a Zoom meeting with me and we can get to know one another better that way as well.
I would also like to say that I am first and foremost a teacher, so I will work to respond to your questions and problems as quickly as I can. E-mail is the second best way to get a hold of me. I will check my e-mail multiple times a day. My office hours are another way to get help from me. They are posted and updated in the “Instructors” tab of this website.
Bio
Michael Cassens is a teacher, a computer scientist, creative technologist, gamer, game developer and mobile application developer. His current practice and research is based on how to become a better instructor, how to use gaming practices and theories to deliver better course content as well as build better and more interesting games for the market place using different games engines and mobile platforms.
Michael is currently at the University of Montana as an Assistant Professor of Media Arts. Michael teaches courses within the Game Design and Interactive Media concentation in the School of Media Arts’ BFA. These courses focus on preparing students to contribute to an evolving world using code and modern technology as creative extensions for their own artistic voices and ideas. Michael is also the Director of UM ESports where he focuses creating a community of inclusive and diverse students who like to play games with one another in a safe and accepting environment.
Prior to the Media Arts Department, Michael taught in the Computer Science Department for approximately 18 years as an Adjunct and Lecturer. He has taught a number of courses including Introduction to Programming, Fundamentals of Computer Science I and II, Data Structures, Algorithms, Software Science, Database Design, Game and Mobile Application Programming, Advanced Client-Side Web Programming and Advanced Server-Side Web Programming. Michael also started his own consulting company 2002 in which he still operates building software for small to medium sized businesses. Michael has a BA in Biology as well as a M.S. Computer Science. Originally from Boulder, Colorado, St. Louis, MO, then, Victor, MT, Michael loves being outside with his family as well as mountain biking, snowboarding, hiking, photography, and just being in nature.