Computer Games

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday April 17, 2008

Yvette Nielsen.

Postgraduate courses are keeping pace with IT industries, writes Yvette Nielsen.

Digital media has opened the communication floodgates to anyone with a mobile phone, iPod, broadband connection, games console, digital TV or other new technology tool.

Universities have rallied to the global call for knowledge and hands-on skills in a rapidly changing new media landscape.

The University of Western Sydney is offering the master of convergent media at its Penrith campus for media, communication or business professionals.

Rachel Bentley, head of the program at UWS, says the degree guides students through the production stages of developing content while exploring new technologies' social and cultural impacts.

"The course encourages students to refresh and renew their skills in production, animation, scriptwriting, media and audience, advertising and professional communication," Bentley says.

Students develop a cross-media product in their chosen format - television, web, pod/vod cast and mobile TV - and receive critical feedback from industry professionals. They can also choose to trial a project through an internship placement at Television Sydney or another media or marketing organisation.

"It's all about convergence because our traditional silos of traditional disciplines are moving across each other all the time," Bentley says.

The one-year full-time program (two years part-time) includes a series of seminars by industry professionals and academic staff.

The UWS school of communication arts recently completed a $2 million upgrade with a new digital television studio, outside broadcast vans, high-definition 16:9 cameras, streaming server, screening room and Final Cut Pro edit suites.

The University of Newcastle's GradSchool.com is also rolling out a new degree this year. The master of digital media will be delivered via online and campus mode simultaneously. It is designed for students with a degree in any field who want to understand the production and distribution of digital media content via different platforms. The program spans careers in web and interactive media development, digital media industries, computer games and CGI effects, consultancy and education.

Course co-ordinator Roger Quinn says the new program in the faculty of science and information technology replaces the master of multimedia which had been offered only online.

"The online mode of study still seems to be the preferred method for that level of postgrad coursework - people like the flexibility," Quinn says.

The program can be completed over three trimesters of full-time study or equivalent part-time.

The online mode uses the Blackboard web interface with email, discussion boards and electronic material.

To allow for international time zones, students do not have set times to log in for lectures or tutorials. Instead, tasks and schedules are set from week to week and students can opt in to a weekly real-time online chat to gain a sense of studying as a group.

The university also uses the Second Life virtual world and is in the process of buying a virtual island for student interaction.

Campus students can use a new building completed last year featuring a full TV studio, radio station, computer labs, rendering farms, audio studio and state-of-the-art software. Online students will have access to the same high-end software.

"Something we're really trying to focus on is that ability to analyse what they're doing and why they're doing it, you know, 'does the world really need another animated gif?' " Quinn says.

The University of Sydney's master of interactive and digital media provides students with the artistic, conceptual and technical skills to design, develop and implement interactive-based websites and applications.

The degree, which replaced the master of multimedia design, is offered through the Sydney College of the Arts, the university's visual arts faculty at Rozelle.

Ryszard Dabek, the course co-ordinator, says the focus is on the creative exploration of digital media through video, sound, animation and interactivity.

"As an art school degree, it works off the art school tradition in terms of the way we approach production and critique work and so on ... it's geared toward creative endeavour," Dabek says.

Each semester, every student develops a

self-directed individual project - including pitch and documentation - along with core subjects

and electives.

Apart from theory and history of new media, workshops provide instruction in tools such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Actionscript and Javascript.

The university's facilities include a blue-screen studio, sound-production studios, film and digital video-editing studios, an interactive digital-media studio and a computer-access studio.

Students can choose an elective - from animation to experimental video - each semester to specialise. Information technology electives are offered through the university's IT department.

Some students follow on with a degree in IT

or enrol in the sister degree, the master of film

and digital image, which shares similar structures and electives to the master of interactive and

digital media.

Students' backgrounds range from graphic design and visual arts to film, television and literature.

"People come in from a whole range of backgrounds and hopefully the course is flexible enough to allow them to approach digital and interactive media in a way that suits their particular interests," Dabek says.

The degree is one year full-time or may be undertaken part-time. Applicants need an undergraduate degree in a related field - or equivalent professional skills and experience

- and a portfolio.

MAXIMUM IMPACT

John Cookson convergent media, UWS

Curiosity led John Cookson to the University of Western Sydney's new master of convergent media.

Cookson and his business partner divide their time between running a consulting business, Marketing Metrics, and a fine-clocks service, Timepieces Australia, which they set up four years ago.

He has also worked in entertainment and media companies including AOL, Disney and Greater Union.

"From a marketer's point of view, convergence is a discussion you have to have and be across and its impact on simply being able to talk to your customers," Cookson says.

"So it's from a business point of view but also a personal curiosity of where is it going and what form of entertainment should we be producing.

"The old days of typically releasing a film as a theatrical release, then having a rental video then a sell-through and then to pay TV and broadcast TV ... that's all closing up and evolving in order to access people on the platform that they're comfortable with."

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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