Lewis E. Pulsipher, Ph.D.

2441 Ramey Drive

Linden, NC 28356

(910) 488-7277

Career summary: I have an unusual combination of very extensive teaching experience on the one hand, and computer industry and game design experience on the other. I have taught more than 17,000 classroom hours, from Continuing Ed through two- and four-year college to over 2,000 classroom hours of graduate school. I devised/designed the entire computer curriculum for several years for FTCC Ft Bragg, and currently design my graduate courses at Webster University and undergraduate courses at Fayetteville Technical Community College. I teach as an expert practitioner, but am able to teach according to needs and objectives appropriate to the students’ level.

Education:

Ph.D. 1981 Duke University, Durham, NC. Subject areas: military and diplomatic history; political science.

M.A. 1976 Duke University, James B. Duke Fellow.

A.B. 1973, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Albion College, Albion, Michigan.

I believe I have the equivalent, by virtue of teaching in the curriculum for 19+ years, of more than 18 graduate hours in Computer and Information Resources Management (the name changes over the years), Webster University, Pope AFB, NC campus.

ITEC 693, “Information Assurance”, graduate class at Radford U., May 2005, 2 credit hours.

Teaching Experience:

Simulation and Game Development Instructor, Fayetteville Technical Community College (Fayetteville NC), August 2008-present

I presently teach SGD (Simulation and Game Development) 111 (Intro) and SGD 112 (Game Design I). One section of each class is high school students only, the others, college. I designed the courses and create the assignments and tests, which are used taught by another instructor for his sections of the same courses. As an expert practitioner of game design I suggest changes for the curriculum as a whole. SGD 111 includes extensive use of Gamemaker and brief use of Photoshop, 3ds Max, ZBrush, Sketchup.

Simulation and Game Development Instructor, Wake Technical Community College (Raleigh NC), August 2007-December 2007 (temporary contract)

I taught one “lecture”/writing section (48 students) of SGD 111, and four sections (ca. 90 students) of SGD112. I founded a game club and promoted interaction amongst students. As an expert practitioner of game design I added to the standard syllabi for the classes I taught and suggested changes for the curriculum as a whole.

Networking, Web Development, Game Design Instructor, Central Carolina Community College (Sanford NC), January 2000-June 2007

As a full-time (10 month contract) instructor I taught a variety of network and Web-related classes for those pursuing a two-year degree in CIT (Computer Information Technology). We offered non-proprietary classes plus many classes in Windows, Cisco routing, and Linux/UNIX. I taught 17 different courses in the course of two years owing to my broad background. I organized and provisioned the department computer lab (separate from the school’s network) on main campus. I also installed/maintained/repaired the Oracle server and (two) Web servers for the department, distributed MSDN software, planned and ran the all-student meeting at the beginning of each year, maintained and posted to the department listserv, created podcasts for the department, etc. I received the highest evaluation in the department from my supervisors.

We were the first community college in the state to offer game classes (Fall, ‘04). I taught the game design course. When we consolidated the department we dropped the game certificate because, it appeared, students were much more interested in a full two-year degree, which we could not support.

Adjunct Faculty, Webster University Graduate School (Pope AFB), March 1988-present

I teach a variety of evening graduate courses, mostly for the Computers and Information Resource Management masters degree, most recently teaching "Telecommunications and Networking", “Systems Analysis”, and “Project Management”. I have taught 6 or 7 (depends on how you count them) different courses, about 65 sessions altogether.

Based on a one paragraph course description set by the university, I devise the entire course and select the textbook(s).

Full-time instructor, Fayetteville Technical Institute/Community College Ft Bragg, November 1985-August 1990

I taught eight hours of Continuing Ed classes each weekday, plus some evenings. The civil service, military, and military dependent population provided most of the students, sometimes via contract.

I transformed a small, backward (Apple II oriented) computer education program into a large forward-looking enterprise of several full-time instructors and assistants at any one time. I established the curriculum, selected the software to be taught, designed the classes/syllabus, and wrote printed material (students cannot be required to purchase books) and special computer programs for the entire IBM-oriented curriculum at FTCC Ft. Bragg including more than a dozen courses. I recruited and trained all other assistants and instructors.

I established evening classes oriented toward practical program development (primarily dBase and advanced DOS batch files, also Pascal).

Other Experience:

Computer Programmer/Analyst/Specialist, Information Management Division (IMD), Womack Army Medical Center (WAMC), Ft Bragg, NC August 1990-January 2000

Womack is the largest army hospital, in terms of patients served each year, and had over 2.500 employees when I left. Over the years I worked as a database programmer/analyst, later as project manager and supervisor of the PC & Networking Support Branch, and later as Webmaster, systems analyst, and Y2K project manager. Among many other duties, I set up and taught half of the classes for Medical Center employees when we moved from DOS to MS Windows.

Professional Awards:

Teacher of the Year, Fayetteville Tech Ft Bragg, 1985.

$1,000 cash award, Womack Army Medical Center, 1993.

Credited professional peer reviewer for the following college textbooks published by McGraw-Hill:

Recent Presentations:

· “Getting Started in the Game Industry", Origins ‘08 (Columbus Ohio) June 28, 08

· "How to: the Process of Designing a Game", Origins ‘08 (Columbus Ohio), June 28, 08

· “The Iterative and Incremental Nature of Game Design”, NCCIA Conference (Stanly Community College), 21 Feb 08

· “Getting Started in Game Design" twice at Origins (Columbus Ohio) early July '07

· "The Process of Designing a Game" Origins ‘07 (Columbus Ohio) early July '07

· “Student Retention”, NCCIA Conference ‘07, Carteret Community College

· "How to Design Games", 32nd annual Origins Convention, July ‘06

· “How to Design Games”, NCCIA (North Carolina Computer Instructors’ Association), March ‘06

· “We Collectively 'Design' an Educational Game” NCCIA Conference, March '06

· “Game Design and CCCC Game Certificate, Our Experience Thus Far” NCCIA March ‘05

· "Teaching Game Design in Community Colleges," Digital Game Expo (Raleigh NC), Summer ‘05

· “CCCC Game Certificate, Our Experience Thus Far”, NCCIA Conference, March ‘05

· “Turning One Computer into Many”, NCCIA Conference, March ‘04

Slides available at http://www.pulsipher.net/teaching1.htm.

Publications:

Six adult strategic board games (most well-known is Britannia, published on two continents in five languages) and one rules booklet.
Approximately 150 articles about gaming in a variety of professional magazines in United States and Britain.
Three articles about computing (and several about other subjects), Fayetteville Observer-Times newspaper.
About a dozen articles about computing for Ft Bragg Paraglide newspaper.

I am presently writing a book tentatively titled "How to Design Games". This is a very practical book, emphasizing use of non-electronic games for teaching beginners how to design games. When electronic games are used to teach beginners, game design classes tend to become game production rather than game design, as I discuss in http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/602/pulling_the_plug_in_defense_of_.php. Some excerpts from the book have been published on GameCareerGuide, links available (including unpublished introduction) at http://pulsipher.net/book/.

Recently Published Magazine/Journal Articles:

· “Characteristics of Successful Game Designers” GameCareerGuide, 23 December 2008

· “Opinion: Why Immersion Shouldn't Be The 'Holy Grail'” Gamasutra, 19 December 2008

· “Idea Origins” GameCareerGuide, 9 December 2008

· “Why We Play” GameCareerGuide, 14 October 2008

· "The Idea is not the Game" GameCareerGuide, 23 September 2008

· "Pulling the Plug: In Defense of Non-Digital Teaching and Learning" GameCareerGuide, 2 September 08

· “Fog of War in Game Design” Against the Odds #18, late 2006

· “The Essence of Euro-style Games”. The Games Journal, February 2006

· “Classical and Romantic Playing Styles”. The Games Journal, February 2005

· Many on Internet forums such as Boardgamegeek, Boardgamedesignersforum, pulsiphergames.com

Blogs

Pulsipher game design: http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/

Teaching game design: http://teachgamedesign.blogspot.com

Graduate classes I have taught:

(CH=Credit Hour, number in parentheses is number of times taught)

· (3CH) COMP 5000 Computer Resources and Information Management (5)

· (1CH) COMP 5500 Professional Seminar: Finding Information Using the Internet (1)

· (3CH) COMP 5930 Application Development Tools for Managers(1)

· (3CH) COMP 5950 Contemporary Developments (1)

· (3CH) COMP 5940 Project Management of Information Systems (10)

· (3CH) COMP 5960 Systems Analysis, Design and Implementation (4)

· (3CH) COMP 5980 Networking and Telecommunications Management(35)[sic]

· (3CH) ITM 5100 (Information Technology Management) Information and Communications Systems and Networks (4)

List of additional computer-related training, certifications, and undergraduate computer classes taught (networking, Web, operating systems, etc.), available on request.

US Citizen, good health. Hobbies computers, team sports, history, games.