On Aug. 1 the School of Communications welcomed 40 students to the master’s program in Interactive Media. The enrolling students compose the largest class in the program’s three-year history.
The class of 2012 will devote the next 10 months to planning and creating interactive media content consisting of text, images, sounds, video and graphics; and to managing information for interactive news, entertainment and persuasive communications.
Students began a three-week Digital Media Workshop today, and begin their regular fall semester classes on Aug. 30. Interactive Writing and Design, Producing Interactive Media, Interactive Media Strategies and Visual Aesthetics are a few classes slated for the fall semester.
Program Director David Copeland told the students, “The next 10 months will be an experience. It’s going to be a ride. You will come to know the people here better than you think.”
Meeting new classmates and collaborating with them is one thing Allen Spears looks forward to most. “I think I’ll learn as much from everyone in the program as I will from my classes,” said Allen, who graduated in May from the University of North Carolina – Wilmington with a degree in professional writing. “Working with this talented group is going to be special.”
John West, a photojournalism major from Point Park University in Pittsburgh with 17 years of photography experience, echoed Allen’s thoughts. “With the various backgrounds that everyone comes from, learning from people who were in academia, I’ll be learning something new from them all.”
Students will spend a majority of their time on the second floor of Powell Building with access to fully equipped edit suites, computer labs, top of the line video equipment, and all the software needed to research, plan and develop their multimedia projects. The program also includes a domestic or international fly-in to collect content for a Winter Term team project to serve the public good.
Copeland told students the professors would be focusing on theory and foundational skills in the fall semester, but the spring will be a time for students to showcase their talents. “Think about it like a letter ‘T’,” Copeland said. “Fall is the long top line where you get a wide range of knowledge, and spring is the bottom of the ‘T’ where you go deeper into what you want to do with your knowledge.”
With 40 students enrolled in the program, students have an opportunity to get to know and work in conjunction with professors. “”Elon feels personal,” said Joshua Jenkins, a 2010 University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill graduate with a degree in communications studies. “I just went up and talked to the professors today and they knew who I was right away.”
“The idea is that there is a learning curve and you are all on it,” Copeland told the students. “Ask us lots of questions. We’re all here to help.”
Written by: Brian Meyer, interactive media developer