This week at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference 2016, Unity was very excited to announce that Unity Certified Developer Courseware, Certification Exams, and education software license bundles are now available for purchase to academic institutions to support their game development programs.

Unity Education bundles were designed to help educators teach key concepts in technical art and coding as well as foundational game production principles with Unity, the industry’s leading tool for the creation of games and interactive experiences. By supporting educators as they seek to teach valuable STEM skills, Unity hopes to help close the loop between education and the game industry employers by ensuring that students are equipped with the relevant, marketable skills that will help them successfully transition into the workforce.

Designed with educators in mind

The Unity Certified Developer Courseware was developed on the foundations of modern educational science, using Bloom’s Taxonomy (R1) to guide the levels of learning and assessment, in order to complement and support the way educators teach. It features 20 video-rich modules that cover key concepts in both coding and game design, with a focus on industry-validated, foundational skills for game development and has been designed to integrate into curricula using Common Core, STEM, 21st Century Skills, and Next-Generation Standards. The Courseware accommodates both linear and nonlinear learning formats, and includes learning outcomes, grading rubrics, and summative assessments for each chapter.

Set your students up for success with Unity Certification

The Courseware also directly maps to preparation for the Unity Certified Developer Exam. Certification provides a measurable end-point for educational programs, as well as a credential which allows students to better communicate their skills to prospective employers and stand out from the competition. In turn, employers are able to hire with a greater degree of confidence knowing that an applicant’s knowledge and skills have been validated against a common benchmark of proficiency for game production with Unity.

Free resources for education

Unity Technologies is dedicated to working with educational institutions worldwide to help foster innovative learning and exploration in variety of areas including game development and interactive experiences and content, including virtual reality. To that end, Unity is proud to provide a variety of free resources in support of educators and academic programs; the Unity Educator Toolkit includes curricular development resources and is available for download at no charge. The Unity License Grant Program provides free educational licenses to primary and secondary schools seeking to develop gaming and interactive programs. Since launch of the program, Unity has issued 64,000 educational license grants worldwide, including to governments in Latin America who are using Unity to teach digital literacy to underserved youth communities.

To download the Unity Educator Toolkit or apply for the Unity License Grant Program, please visit unity3d.com/education.

Coming soon: the Unity Training and Certification Partner Program

Unity will also soon be launching its new Training and Certification Partner Program to help expand the reach of high-quality Unity training courses and certification on a global scale. The Program will give academic institutions, training businesses, and resellers the opportunity to tap into the growing community of Unity developers seeking professional development. Organizations that are interested in becoming Unity Training or Certification Partners may request more information by visiting certification.unity.com.

To learn more about Unity Education and Certification products and programs, stop by and visit us at booth #4208 at ISTE 2016, or visit edu.unity3d.com/iste.