This class begins with students self-assessing their digital skills in several areas, including design for print and digital documents; web tools; visual tools; and project management tools. Students work with the instructor to create a learning contract with the goal of acquiring tools in a certain number of these areas. In order to acquire knowledge of these tools, students complete online tutorials. Only offered S/N.

Full course description for Digital Tools for Writing and Communication

This introductory course focuses on the aesthetic and practical elements of image making in photography. Basic principles of camera work, framing, light and lenses are covered. This course provides a foundation for further study in photography.

Full course description for Introduction to Photography

This course explores computer based image-making and printing technologies. Through the investigation of various printing materials, students will have the opportunity to produce two and three-dimensional projects using contemporary methods. Students will gain hands-on experience with digital drawing tools, photographic and graphic designs using image based software while learning about the formal elements and principles of design. Art theory and practice will be presented in conversation with lectures and peer review. Professional artists and designers using these processes in their work will be highlighted in the course.

Full course description for Introduction to Digital Arts

Intermediate photographic techniques and approaches to image making using digital cameras, editing, software, printers, and lighting equipment. Class projects and discussions include image manipulation, composition, lighting, and film/analog photography, as well as artist movements of the past and contemporary trends in photography. Students explore photography as a creative form.

Full course description for Intermediate Photography

This course explores audio as a creative spoken word/sound art form and you learn about podcast creation, international radio programs for development and digital storytelling. Students learn the craft of writing for the ear which can be translated to professional work in broadcast media, advertising, speechwriting or work as an independent artist. Through work as writers, directors and voice talent, students produce projects that range from short dialogue pieces and storytelling to news documentaries, podcast and radio plays.

Full course description for Writing and Producing for Radio/Audio

Digital storytelling is a growing area of multimodal communication that is part of a larger movement to empower communities and voices through the use of digital tools and platforms. Digital stories are short videos that combine narration, images (still and moving), sound effects, and music to tell a compelling story. Students will create two digital stories: a personal story and a story that promotes a cause or organization (e.g., a Kickstarter-style video). The process will include multiple rough cuts and a final version of each video, as well as extensive instructor and peer feedback.

Full course description for Digital Storytelling

The process of writing narrative screenplays will be introduced through writing exercises, screenplay readings, film viewings and discussion. Writing exercises will explore creativity, individual voice and practical skills. Writing in screenplay format will also be covered. Students will finish with at least one complete short screenplay ready for production. This course provides a foundation for further study in screenwriting.

Full course description for Beginning Screenwriting

The course introduces the principles and practices of electronic filmmaking as a personal and creative art form. Students will engage in exercises and projects to explore and understand editing, camera work, light, composition, and sound. A variety of cinematic forms will be examined. Student screenplays may be produced. Students will film and edit individual creative projects.

Full course description for Film Production and Editing I

In this course, students will learn how to write narrative, stories, and dialogue for video games. Video game writing is a unique kind of writing in the sense that dialogue and other visual-written feedback changes depending on the input of the player. By learning a writing for games style grounded in character creation, episodic structure, and dialogue, students in this course will learn the skills to become excellent game writers. Careers writing for video games, sometimes called game designers, are gaining in popularity and importance. In this unit, students will gain the background necessary to successfully write for video games and the video game industry. This course is part of the Game Studies Minor core.

Full course description for Writing For Video Games

Through a hands on, learn by doing experience, students will select a project, plan the production, audition actors, work as crew filming on location, and direct a short digital film. Each student will edit their own individual project. This course offers a complete package overview of writing and directing low budget, short narrative digital films. This course may be taken twice for credit.

Full course description for Film Production and Editing II

Social media has changed the ways in which people from around the world interact and relate to one another. This course explores the ways in which social media influence these interactions and change our ideas of what it means to belong to a community. The course also addresses the potential of social media to create opportunities to interact within communities to create social change (revolution) through the use of participatory platforms, such as blogs, wikis, and other open source or low cost online tools. Students will finish the course with an understanding of the ways in which they may use social media to become activists in the glocal environment in which we now find ourselves, and how they influence and are influenced by social media, including tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and technology in general. Students will also begin to explore the theoretical basis for the development of online communities.

Full course description for Introduction to Social Media and Online Community

This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to effectively promote and advocate for events, organizations, or issues using a variety of social media and multi-media. Students will combine online writing (or blogging) with other forms of social networking and media (wikis, YouTube, Facebook, and/or Twitter) to build a comprehensive online initiative promoting a timely and relevant issue or event either of their choosing or provided by the instructor. Students will increase their knowledge of online rhetoric, audience research, planning for media events, script or treatment writing, and evaluation of communication programs.

Full course description for Communicating with New Media

Content strategy encompasses the creation, management, testing, and governance of content, whether that be a website, printed document, social media, or other forms of information. In this class students will gain a comprehensive understanding of content for contemporary information-intensive organizations as well as hands-on skills to create effective, user-friendly, and culturally sensitive content.

Full course description for Content Strategy

In this course, students analyze principles and methods of news gathering and reporting for web, broadcast and print news media. They then prepare a weekly schedule of reporting assignments, similar to those that might be completed by a newsroom intern. Students also complete several major assignments employing various news writing styles for digital, broadcast and print media.

Full course description for Writing the News in a Digital World

Methods and techniques of document and information design, including principles of graphic design, audience analysis, portfolio development, and use of professional software tools.

Full course description for Document and Information Design I

This course introduces students to the principles, processes, and techniques of front-end Web development. Students gain solid knowledge and practical skills in HTML, CSS, website genres, design patterns, Web writing, and usability. Students will analyze and build websites. Students must already possess basic satisfactory digital literacy, such as managing files and folders, and adding and removing programs.

Full course description for Writing and Designing for the Web I

This course is designed to provide information and experience integrating media into training and education with an emphasis on instructional design, online communities, and online collaboration. Students learn concepts and techniques to enable them to analyze various online learners and learning situations and to choose appropriate approaches.

Full course description for Online Education and Training

Students obtain internships in selected areas of study to gain deeper understand of knowledge, skills and the context of a given field. Faculty members serve as evaluators and liaisons between the internship sites and the university, providing information to students and potential supervisors and supervising the learning experience. Internships normally earn between one and four credits, require 40 work hours per credit, and may be served through a standard hours/work schedule or with flexible work hours.

Full course description for Writing Individual Internship

Students obtain internships in selected areas of study to gain deeper understand of knowledge, skills and the context of a given field. Faculty members serve as liaisons and evaluator between the internship sites and the university, providing information to students and potential supervisors and supervising the learning experience. Internships normally earn between one and four credits, required 40 work hours per credit, and may be served through a standard hours/work schedule or with flexible work hours scheduling, depending on the nature of the internship and site preferences.

Full course description for Media Studies Individual Internship