Rodger Smith (Quote 1):   This project actually is an experiment.  That's why we call it the Digital Entertainment Option Pilot.  It's not a regular course you study and it's not a program.  So many times that gets misunderstood.  I'd love it if it were; I'm sure the students would too, but it's not a new major.  It's to investigate how we would do immersion and how we would do it within this media environment that we live in at Ball State.

Rodger Smith (Quote 2):  We've partnered with companies down in Indianapolis, Road Pictures is an example.  We have taken companies such as MediaSauce down in Indianapolis, partnered with them to create product.  All of these things revolved around webisodes.  Webisodes is in one case an advertising piece, not that we created advertising material, but that the students created entertaining material that would attract somebody to a website.

Rodger Smith (Quote 3):  I really do believe in immersion experiences, as we've defined them and we've separated them from other experiences.  I also happen to be somebody that believes a class should be an immersion experience.

Rodger Smith (Quote 4):  At first this was all about creating product and individual projects but as the semester has grown and the students have created these independent pieces, we've begun to recognize a little bit about how this industry is moving in this arena and the necessity to create not just one episode but fifty.