WEBVTT

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RICHARD EBERHARDT:
One really great thing

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that we're finding
this year is we've

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got a large number of women
who are taking the course.

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We really try to
focus on getting

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a good balance of diversity
of voices in the course.

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Of, I think, 65, we're going
to have 25 women first day.

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And we're doing
basically this first day

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is to see what we can
do to keep them engaged

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and keep them as
part of the course.

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SARA VERRILI: We have had,
in the last couple of years,

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we've had almost twice as many
or three times as many women

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on our first day.

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And by our second
week, we will be

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down to only four or
five women in the class

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out of 30 odd people.

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So we're really hoping
we can do a better

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job at keeping them this year.

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PHILIP TAN: And
we're trying a couple

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of new techniques this year.

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We put a harassment
policy into our syllubus--

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as well as an initial
email that went out

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to all of the students--
just making it clear

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that no, it's not OK to harass
or to make your classmates

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feeling uncomfortable.

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And if you are in a position
where you feel uncomfortable,

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you can always speak
to the instructors.

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A lot of this is just
standard MIT policy,

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but it's not normal
practice for classes

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to actually state it upfront.

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Still, we want the
students to understand

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that they have these options.

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What we also try
to do is make sure

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that we have a lot of women
speaking in our classes,

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so lecturers, for
instance, or guests.

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We try to make sure
that it's very easy

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to be able to see yourself
as a professional because all

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of our speakers work in games
in some manner or other.

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SARA VERRILI: I mean,
we're not entirely sure

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why we're losing so many women.

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Because it's all
in the beginning.

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It's not that we
lose them later on.

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The women who go
through our class,

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we get a very high percentage
of them coming back

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for 617, The Advanced
Game Studio Course.

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Once we've got
them in the class,

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once they decide it's going
to be an interesting class

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to take, we seem to keep them.

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The question is how can we
keep from scattering them off

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in that first week?

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Which is when MIT students
can say, oh, you know what?

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This class looks like, I think
I'll go take some other class.

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So I think we've
put more of our work

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into focusing our upfront making
it clear what the course is

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about and trying to make sure
that we are, in fact, being

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welcoming.

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RICHARD EBERHARDT:
A lot of it has

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to do with being welcoming
but also providing challenges

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that more people might
be interested in.

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So in this case, it's not
necessarily targeting women,

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but really just
targeting a diverse group

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of voices in the class.

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So for this semester,
the design challenge,

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we're really focusing on
what the design challenge is

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in the class from day one.

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Where, in previous semesters,
we talked about a little bit

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in the first couple
weeks, and then

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we didn't get into it
deeper until midway through.

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So in this case,
this semester it's

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about decision-making in games.

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We're talking about
the types of games

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many different kinds
of students would

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want to play and have played.

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So it's not just that you're
coming to a game course

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because you play all sorts of
games, and then you find out,

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well this one's just going
to be about war games.

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So talking about narrative,
talking about fiction,

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also talking about strategy,
talking about chance,

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and talking about all of
the different elements

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they're going to explore the
next semester in the beginning,

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hopefully, we'll
keep them interested.

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And then also having a client
in the class where they're

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actually making a game
where it's going to do

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some good to somebody else.

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They're not just making
a game to make a game.

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In this case, the
games they're making

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are going to be used by the
Red Cross Red Crescent Climate

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Centre, particularly to
help policymakers to better

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understand the need to devote
resources, time, and money

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to disaster preparedness.

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So it's a big topic.

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It's a timely topic.

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Climate change is being
talked about a lot right now.

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MIT students like those kinds
of MIT-styled engineering

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problems.

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So hopefully that also
keeps a good number

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of the students keeping in the
course after the first week.

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We never have a problem
keeping our number high.

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Our numbers are always high.

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It's keeping the diverse number
of voices high from the get-go.