- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Sadaka receives Quality Matters certification for nursing course

John Hill — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 13:40:46 +0000

Heba Sadaka, assistant professor of nursing at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, has achieved the Quality Matters (QM) course certification for Health Assessment I, NURS 3220. This two-credit course is the first of two sequenced courses focusing on client assessment as well as data collection and documentation. Throughout the class, Sadaka teaches the knowledge and skills needed to perform comprehensive health history, physical, and psychosocial assessments through the use of a variety of tools and techniques.�� “Health assessment is the backbone of nursing practice,” Sadaka said. “A good assessment is essential to ensure safety and to plan patient and family needs.”�� This certification indicates a course meets nationally and internationally recognized standards at an 85 percent level, representing a commitment to creating and maintaining quality and excellence. This course has achieved a 100 percent on nationally and internationally recognized standards due to the work of Sadaka and the Scholarly Technology and Resources (STaR) team. It is now listed in the QM of certified courses, receiving a QM seal to display within the course. “After developing the course, the STaR team did an internal course review and made some recommendations,” Sadaka said. “Brad Sims, Sharonda Lipscomb, Merlene Love, and Geoff Nash have all been helpful and willing to go the extra mile to ensure that course met all the QM standards and to benefit our students.” Sadaka began her career by earning a Bachelor of Science in nursing in 1993 from Alexandria University in Egypt before moving to North America. After this move, she completed a master’s degree in nursing education-acute adult-gerontology from the University of Iowa in 2010.�� As a certified nurse educator, Sadaka has been teaching nursing courses for over 15 years. She joined the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock community in 2017 and has taught in a variety of settings including in-person, inter-professional, simulation, clinical, and online courses.�� “My role as a facilitator is to create learning activities that help the learners achieve the course outcomes,” Sadaka said. “The course must be easy to navigate with clear expectations. This is crucial to aid students in achieving their learning goals without having to worry about where to find things within the course. Best practices in online education allow students to be part of the online learning community and feel engaged, helping students succeed and reducing anxiety.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s CRUX Lab hosts Global Game Jam 2020

John Hill — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 14:45:23 +0000

Sixteen local game enthusiasts took part in from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In just 48 hours, they created seven new games for the world to enjoy. “This was our third year hosting the Global Game Jam at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s CRUX Lab, and it was the biggest and best one yet,” said graduate student Olivia Dunlap, a co-founder of Little Rock Game Designers who co-led the event with alumnus and co-founder Robbie Hunt. Global Game Jam is similar to a hackathon but is focused on game development. Over 48,700 people participated in Global Game Jam 2020 from 934 locations spanning 118 countries. Participants were given a “Repair” theme and then had 48 hours to create a game. Dunlap said she especially appreciates how the event not only brings together people of all different backgrounds and skill levels, but also helps to grow the local game development community. “Every year, the whole place is just buzzing with creative energy and lots of fun, smart people helping brainstorm, problem-solve, and playtest each other’s games,” graduate student Loren Snow said. “It’s exhausting, but well worth it to have a functional game to show off at the end. The inspiration stays with me long after the weekend has passed, and I also make a bunch of new friends every year.” Computer science major Kyle Hooks said Global Game Jam is one of his most favorite events of the year. “Getting a chance to work with old friends and new ones on games is good fun and great practice for my programming and design skills,” Hooks said. “The fact that it’s not a competition makes it much more relaxed, too, which I think helps people think outside the box without added pressure.”

Global Game Jam 2020 participants write their skills on a whiteboard to form teams. Pictured left to right are Robbie Hunt, Kyle Hooks, Olivia Dunlap, Dr. Joe Williams, Zach Bolt, Dr. Joyce Carter, and Emily Hillyard.

This year’s participants included ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students Mark Barnes, Zach Bolt, Dunlap, Snow, Venus Mitteer, Bushra Sajid, and Skylar Whitehurst, as well as Travis Bailey, Alex Barton, Sean Beasley, Erik Frederick, Emily Hillyard, Hooks, and Hunt. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock employees joined in on the fun, including Brad Sims, media and online instruction specialist for the College of Education and Health Professions, and Jason Zak, lead artist at the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Emerging Analytics Center. Tanner Marshal, a computer science graduate student, and Dr. Joe Williams, associate professor of rhetoric and writing, helped run the event, and Dr. Joyce Carter, chair of the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, cheered on the teams. “This was my first time participating in Global Game Jam,” said Bushra Sajid, a computer science major. “It was fun working with my team and felt amazing when we turned an idea into reality in just 48 hours. I will definitely participate next year.” Snow said she is primarily an artist, but is learning to program through osmosis. Snow worked on a team to make a game titled “Larry Fixes the World” while simultaneously working on a solo project called “Dr. Smesh’s Nightmare Emporium.” “Our jammers made a total of seven new games, all of which are really creative and did totally different and interesting things with this year’s ‘Repair’ theme,” Dunlap said. The games are available on the . They include: Dr. Smesh’s Nightmare Emporium by Loren Snow – Dr. Smesh helps his patients deal with their nightmares. His methods are questionable. Dream Theory by Robbie Hunt and Alex Barton – Dream Theory is a logic puzzle with a light narrative. What happens in your brain when you have a lot on your mind and you wake up with a new outlook and the perfect solution to your problems? In Need Of Repair by Sean Beasley – Ideally, this physics-based construct could walk smoothly and naturally. In practice, it is a bit wibbly-wobbly. Using left and right arrows, a center motor will drive the locomotion of legs and move the construct.

Kyle Hooks designs his game “Iterate.”

Iterate by Kyle Hooks and Mark Barns – “Give your life to repair the Great Machine.” Iterate is an atmospheric, replayable puzzle game about transcendence, about many parts contributing to the greater whole. Each Iterator you play as, uniquely and randomly generated, lives for only a brief moment in time. However, your combined efforts (be they multiple lives of your own, or others) will ultimately open the gates to become one with the Sparkmother, the Great Machine, that looms over you in the distance. The game is intended to be played in separate, repeated sessions, where progress made in each 20-second cycle is persistent. Larry Fixes the World by Zack Bolt, Travis Bailey, Bushra Sajid, Emily Hillyard, and Loren Snow – You play as the handyman, Larry. The object of the game is to repair the various broken things in your life. Choose your tools wisely. Medic Mech by Skylar Whitehurst, Venus Mitteer, Alex Barton, and Jason Zak – Repair them…it’s all you know. Endlessly you repair others like you, fueling the engine you reside within. Parts must be ordered and quality is key because the engine must continue to run. The sound of explosions rumble through the walls of the factory. You fear not for your safety. You fear for the survival of all you know. The Trash Garden by Olivia Dunlap and Brad Sims – Playing as one of many small creatures in a world of broken things, embark on a quest to make something beautiful from the trash all around you. Interact with other trash denizens to help them grow and to help your garden grow, too. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s event was sponsored by the Department of Rhetoric and Writing and . For more information about other game design events in central Arkansas, email Olivia Dunlap at ocdunlap@gmail.com.

The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock CRUX Lab team created seven new games for the world to enjoy during Global Game Jam 2020.
Pictured in the photo at top are Zach Bolt, Bushra Sajid, Emily Hillyard, Travis Bailey, and Loren Snow.

Blue & You Foundation grants $68k to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to create continuing education program

John Hill — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 14:59:17 +0000

The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas presented the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a $68,357 grant to support continuing education for healthcare professionals.�� The grant will allow ��Vlog��ý Little Rock to launch and maintain a nationally approved continuing education program to provide continuing education opportunities for nursing students, healthcare professionals, and emergency response professionals.�� “The grant will benefit our students, current and future nurses, and other healthcare professionals, such as paramedics, by offering AACN continuing education opportunities right here at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock,” said Dr. Elizabeth Sloan Davidson, chair of the Department of Nursing. The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Department of Nursing will use the funds to receive certification from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) for the continuing education program and to hire a part-time nurse planner to administer and maintain the program.�� “With our state-of-the-art simulation center, made possible in part by earlier funding from the Blue & You Foundation, we are in a prime position to offer unique opportunities for hands-on application of new skills that will then provide a safer and even better quality healthcare experience for Arkansans,” Sloan Davidson said. “Our students can graduate already having skills and credentials that will give them a step-up in job readiness. We are grateful for this opportunity.” Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield established the Blue & You Foundation in 2001. Since then, it has awarded more than $36 million to nonprofits and governmental agencies for 1,922 health-improvement programs in the state. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock was one of 39 initiatives out of more than 260 applications funded through the foundation’s 2020 grant awards. “We had a record-high number of applications this year. The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock application stood out, and that is why it was chosen,” said Patrick O’Sullivan, executive director of the Blue & You Foundation. “We appreciate everything you are doing to help keep Arkansans healthy and to build our medical workforce. We know how very important that is.” This is the sixth grant ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has received from the Blue & You Foundation, totaling more than $375,000. Some of the previous grants have funded nursing equipment that will be used in the continuing education classes, including pediatric simulation models and mannequins that nursing students use to simulate human patients. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock plans to begin offering continuing education classes in July.

Members of the Blue & You Foundation and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock celebrate a grant to build a new continuing education center in the Department of Nursing. Photo by Brad Sims.

Sims pop-up art show to feature Arkansas landscape scenes

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 21:24:57 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock employee will showcase his love of photographing beautiful landscapes from Arkansas during his pop-up art show that begins Nov. 1. Brad Sims, who has worked as the media and online instruction specialist for the College of Education and Health Professions for a decade, is also a landscape photographer specializing in Arkansas scenes. “Most of my photos have been taken in Arkansas, and I am focusing on showing off places in Arkansas that that typically don’t get shown off,” Sims said. “From this show, I want people to see that Arkansas has a great deal of really unique views that don’t get enough attention. Those can be everything from hidden waterfalls in the Ozarks to the way the fog rests on the Arkansas River to really tiny, intimate views of the ground in your backyard.” Pop-up shows, which are often held in smaller, non-traditional spaces, give young and nontraditional artists the opportunity to get more exposure. Sims’ show will debut from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1, at South Main Creative, 1600 Main St., Little Rock. His show contains images of the fog rising over the Arkansas River, cityscapes of Little Rock, and images that he’s dubbed “Tiny Landscapes,” also the name of his show. “I think the idea of people not looking closely at things that pass them by is interesting,” Sims said. “Tiny landscapes occur when I get really close and low to the ground. They are mostly pictures of moss or small rivulets of water. Whenever I take closeup photos, they usually look like larger landscape. I take tiny landscapes whenever I see interesting, weird scenes in nature.”

A tiny landscape image taken by Brad Sims at Petit Jean State Park.

Sims graduated from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts in 2000 and a master’s degree in professional and technical writing in 2013. While he’s always seen himself as a “photo enthusiast,” it’s only been in recent years that Sims has focused on his habit of taking tiny landscaping photos.�� “I’ve gotten really serious about photography in the past three years,” Sims said. “I’ve been making more choices and being more mindful of the pictures I take. In landscape photos, you usually see iconic views of these epic, iconic locations that are well known, but I’ve really gotten into the idea of taking smaller, one-of-a-kind photos that are more intimate spaces taken all around Arkansas.” “Tiny Landscapes” will be open through Nov. 30. South Main Creative is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock game creators raise more than $27K to manufacture game

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 19:38:52 +0000

A group of University of Arkansas at Little Rock employees, students, and alumni who created a space-western storytelling card game – dubbed Galactic Scoundrels – have reached their online fundraising goal to raise enough money to have the game manufactured, breaking their fundraising goal by more than $10,000.�� The creators of Galactic Scoundrels include Joseph Williams, associate professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, Tanner Marshall and Olivia Dunlap, graduate students in the Department of Computer Science; Brad Sims, instructional designer and media specialist for the College of Education and Health Professions; and Robbie Hunt, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock alumnus. Kevin Cates, associate professor of graphic design, joined the team and created all of the art for the game. Williams and crew, who co-founded the Little Rock Game Designers group in 2014 and last year formed a company called Little Rock Games, started a to raise enough money to have the game manufactured. The game creators set a goal of $17,000. By the end of the campaign on July 25, a total of 666 backers donated $27,430 to turn the game into a reality. “The campaign went really well, and we were blown away. In the last 48 hours of the campaign, we raised almost $4,000, and everyone was feeling a lot of joy,” Williams said. “We were so thrilled. At the beginning of the process, I was worried we wouldn’t even get funded. This is the first time any of us have tried anything like this. To have it this successful the first time around is really amazing for all of us.” Galactic Scoundrels is inspired by beloved fictional scoundrels like Han Solo from “Star Wars” and Malcolm Reynolds from “Firefly.” Players gamble and bluff each other to win a job and then tell the shared story of that job by playing cards. Each job is a mini-adventure lasting 15-20 minutes with spaceships, crew, cargo, strange and wonderful characters, and exciting twists. The game has simple rules, which can be learned in about 10 minutes. This allows players to emphasize storytelling, negotiation, and social interaction.

Galactic Scoundrels

Their Kickstarter backers reached two stretch goals – a funding target set by the project creator beyond the original Kickstarter goal – meaning that gamers will receive a thank-you gift from the Galactic Scoundrels creators in the form of 10 additional game cards that will create extra twists and turns in the game. Williams said they are planning an initial run of about 800 games that should be delivered to their Kickstarter backers in January 2019. Meanwhile, the developers are already working on their next game. Dunlap and Marshall came up with the idea for a video game called To The Rescue, where players learn how to run an animal shelter and help real-world shelters by supporting the game. “People can make it a charity experience for themselves,” Williams said. “We believe that games can be more than entertainment, that they can used to do something meaningful in the world. This is a game that definitely fits that category.” In the upper right photo,��the creators of Galactic Scoundrels include: (L to R) Tanner Marshall, Brad Sims, Olivia Dunlap, Joe Williams, and Robbie Hunt. Photo by Ben Krain/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications and Marketing.��

��Vlog��ý Little Rock game designers start Kickstarter campaign to manufacture new space-western game

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 20:37:18 +0000

A group of University of Arkansas at Little Rock employees, students, and alumni have joined forces to create a game to bring out the space scoundrels in all of us.

The space-western storytelling card game – dubbed Galactic Scoundrels – is inspired by beloved fictional scoundrels like Han Solo from “Star Wars” and Malcolm Reynolds from “Firefly.” The game is designed for 3-5 players to play for 90-120 minutes.

“It started out with an idea of telling space scoundrel stories. When I was a kid, I wanted to be Han Solo,” said Joe Williams, associate professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing and lead designer of Galactic Scoundrels.

Williams started designing the game with Tanner Marshall and Olivia Dunlap, graduate students in the Department of Computer Science; Brad Sims, instructional designer and media specialist for the College of Education and Health Professions; and Robbie Hunt, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock alumnus. Kevin Cates, associate professor of graphic design, joined the team and created all of the art for the game.

“I’m older now, but my friends and I still want to tell great stories when we get together for game night, but we don’t have time to generate those stories over weeks, or months, or years. Usually, all we have is an hour or two. It lets us tell the crazy, quirky, sideways tales we love.”

Players gamble and bluff each other to win a job and then tell the shared story of that job by playing cards. Each job is a mini-adventure lasting 15-20 minutes with spaceships, crew, cargo, strange and wonderful characters, and exciting twists.

The game has simple rules, which can be learned in about 10 minutes. This allows players to emphasize storytelling, negotiation, and social interaction. A full game lasts 90 minutes or so, but players often just play as many stories as they feel inspired to tell.

Galactic Scoundrels

Williams and crew, who co-founded the Little Rock Game Designers group in 2014 and last year formed a company called Little Rock Games, have started a to raise money to have the game manufactured. They have already raised nearly $11,500 from 271 backers by June 28, so odds seem favorable that they will reach their $17,000 goal by July 25.

Backers can pledge $5 to get a print and play PDF version of the game, $25 for one copy of Galactic Scoundrels, and $40 for the game plus an expanded universe card pack. Those who pledge $75 or more get the extra honor of designing a card for the expanded universe card pack.

If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, Little Rock Games plans to produce an initial launch of 500 games that they will sell to online and brick and mortar retailers. Williams said two local game stores have already ordered advance copies of the game.

Williams will be interviewed on the radio show “,” which broadcasts on 101.1 FM at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 30. The show will be, and listeners can call in during the show at 501-823-0965 or tweet @ShanePlays.

“I think we are just really excited,” Williams said. “None of this would have been possible without us connecting at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. We love that the university provides a creative place to generate ideas like this and let them grow.”

In the upper right photo, the creators of Galactic Scoundrels (L to R) include Brad Sims, Robbie Hunt, Joe Williams, Tanner Marshall, and Olivia Dunlap.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

Sadaka receives Quality Matters certification for nursing course

����Vlog��ý Little Rock’s CRUX Lab hosts Global Game Jam 2020

Blue & You Foundation grants $68k to ����Vlog��ý Little Rock to create continuing education program