Heidelberg’s GEM (Gaming, eSports, Media) Center offers students the opportunity to develop skills in graphic design, audio and video editing, broadcasting, podcasting, and producing. All students are welcome to use the equipment in the GEM, regardless of major. So consider creating a literary-themed podcast for your creative writing class, a kinesiology video for your exercise science class, or a digital comic book for your art class.
Media coursework taught in the GEM is also open to all students. For example, students can create a documentary in Film Studies, create a pitch deck for a new series in Television Studies, and design a logo or magazine cover in Graphic Design.
The GEM’s 30-seat computer classroom features Adobe Creative Cloud software at each station. In addition, 17 of the computers are high-powered PCs to use for gaming; the classroom also features gaming chairs.
Across the hall from the classroom is our TV video production studio, complete with green screen and connected control room. And, around the corner from our TV studio, we have two podcasting labs.
After renovations to the GEM Center in late 2019 into 2020, the center was reopened in February 2020, only to shut down the following month due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since that time, our television studio has been offline (as has our former radio station, which has been replaced by the podcasting labs. However, we are in the process of ordering new equipment and look forward to opening up all of the GEM Center’s lab spaces soon.