Interactive Media
The Interactive Media course is a unique multidisciplinary degree that gives you the knowledge and skills to work across a wide range of media and technical disciplines in the creative media sector, including TV and film production, graphic design, animation, storytelling, digital media content production, web design, interactive documentary, and AR and VR experiences. The course is designed to enable and guide students to discover their own specialism within the creative media sector, while working closely with and understanding the roles of all creative media design and production disciplines.
| Award Name | Degree - Honours Bachelor at UK Level 6 |
|---|---|
| NFQ Classification | |
| Awarding Body | Ulster University |
| NFQ Level |
| Award Name | NFQ Classification | Awarding Body | NFQ Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Degree - Honours Bachelor at UK Level 6 | Ulster University |
Duration
Attendance
A full time 3-year course (4 years with optional work placement or study abroad year), students are expected to be in attendance during the normal working week. In line with the University’s attendance policy, attendance at all taught sessions is compulsory. In addition, students working on projects and in independent work may be required occasionally to attend for group meetings/seminars in the evenings and at weekends.
Entry Requirements
Irish Leaving Certificate
104 UCAS tariff points to include a minimum of five subjects (four of which must be at higher level) to include English at H6 if studied at Higher level or O4 if studied at Ordinary Level.
Careers / Further progression
Graduate employers
Graduates from this course are now working for:
Allstate
BNL Productions
Media Club
Redback Creations
Urban Design & Print
BBC
Sentireal Ltd
Job roles
With this degree you could become:
Media Content Producer
Website Content Developer
Creative Design Manager
Social Media Officer
Videographer
Digital Marketing Officer
Digital Designer
Career options
The Interactive Media degree offers the broad base of skills that the creative industry sector needs.
As a career path you might become a Designer or Developer creating digital media content.
Your interest through the course might be more developed in relation to project management skills, and you embark on a career where you manage a creative design team as a Creative Media Manager.
You might be involved in developing media content for the web as a Web Content Developer, or be involved in creating media content for a social media campaign, as a Social Media Officer.
An interest in video production may take you to a career as a Videographer, creating visual content for television, or even the video games industry.
However is not only the media industries that need these skills. Demand for these unique skills range from broadcasters, photographers, marketing and web-development companies, to the communications departments of private companies, public sector organisations and education.
Further information
Start date: September 2024
Deadlines for on-time applications
2024 entry application deadlines
For courses starting in 2024 (and for deferred applications), your application should be with us at UCAS by one of these dates – depending on what courses you apply for. If your completed application – including all your personal details and your academic reference – is submitted by the deadline, it is guaranteed to be considered.
16 October 2023 for 2024 entry at 18:00 (UK time) – any course at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or for most courses in medicine, veterinary medicine/science, and dentistry. You can add choices with a different deadline later, but don’t forget you can only have five choices in total.
31 January 2024 for 2024 entry at 18:00 (UK time) – for the majority of courses.
Some course providers require additional admissions tests to be taken alongside the UCAS application, and these may have a deadline. Find out more about these tests at https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/admissions-tests
Check course information in the search tool to see which deadline applies to you at the application weblink below.
Apply as soon as possible: Student funding arrangements mean that as offers are made and places fill up, some courses may only have vacancies for students from certain locations. It’s therefore really important that you apply for your chosen courses by the appropriate deadlines mentioned above, as not all courses will have places for all students.
All applications received after 30 June are entered into Clearing - find out more about Clearing at https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/clearing-and-results-day/what-clearing
Overview
Creating immersive media experiences for interactive platforms.
Summary
The Interactive Media course is a unique multidisciplinary degree that gives you the knowledge and skills to work across a wide range of media and technical disciplines in the creative media sector, including TV and film production, graphic design, animation, storytelling, digital media content production, web design, interactive documentary, and AR and VR experiences.
The course is designed to enable and guide students to discover their own specialism within the creative media sector, while working closely with and understanding the roles of all creative media design and production disciplines.
Interactive media can be found in almost all aspects of life. Mobile apps, websites, games, social media and virtual reality have transformed how we work and interact with each other with huge potential for more change. An exciting time to enter the industry, a degree in Interactive Media will open up many options with potential graduate roles in web design, advertising, content development, videography, digital marketing, multimedia planning or film production working as a successful free lancer or in an agency or production company.
Centred on creative approaches and responses to new media technologies with a focus on emerging media forms and creative and artistic media practices you will receive training in the latest industry standard software. Through a mix of theory and practice you will be encouraged to channel your own creativity and style to produce a range of digital media from motion graphics, animation and film to games, websites and interactive user experiences. Practical skills developed will include coding, drone operation, digital-image-making, web authoring, digital video production and project management.
About
This is a ground-breaking course that delivers graduates who have the production, creative and intellectual skills to undertake and develop careers in the creative digital media. The course centres on creative approaches and responses to new media technologies with a focus on emerging media forms and creative media practices and offers training in the latest industry standard software.
The course content is forward thinking ensuring you are taught future-proofed skills relevant for several industry-based roles and providing you with the knowledge and expertise to help drive the industry forward.
Content covered is varied (see modules for more detailed information) and will include contemporary coding platforms for producing interactive experiences, the use of Adobe After Effects to create motion graphics, the fundamentals of digital design using Adobe Photoshop and InDesign to conceptualise, draft and complete digital designs, the role of narrative in new media and how new platforms and technologies have effected video narratives, how audience responses to narratives can be evaluated and analysed and designing with data. You will construct your own interactive website as part of an Interactive Media Portfolio and work on a major project in your final year planning, researching and executing a significant piece of production work. This will develop your understanding of defined job roles and build a range of resources to help you interface with the media industry more professionally.
After successful completion of Year Two you can opt to undertake a placement year or study abroad (see Careers and Opportunities for more information) gaining a Diploma in Professional Practice (DPP) or Diploma in International Academic Studies (DIAS).
Helping to make your teaching as relevant as possible and get you industry ready, creative, live briefs from industry partners are used in modules, giving you a flavour of real-life working scenarios and what it is like to work for a client.
Taught by award winning staff (International MEDEA Award 2018, for excellence in the production and design of media-rich learning resources; Best Use of Educational Technology / ICT Initiative of the Year 2018; Excellence in Employability /Placement Support 2017, at the Ulster University Students Union Teaching Excellence Awards) we aim to give you the best academic and university experience possible.
Throughout the course a series of visiting professionals from industry will run master classes on specific subject knowledge ensuring you are learning from the experts and gaining a real world insight into what it is like to work in industry and how your skills can be applied.
Modules
Here is a guide to the subjects studied on this course.
Courses are continually reviewed to take advantage of new teaching approaches and developments in research, industry and the professions. Please be aware that modules may change for your year of entry. The exact modules available and their order may vary depending on course updates, staff availability, timetabling and student demand. Please contact the course team for the most up to date module list.
Year 1
Media, Culture, Politics
Motion Graphics
Interactive Development Environments
Fundamentals of Digital Design
Cinematic Practices
Visual Cultures
Year 2
Interactive Design Practice
Interactive Documentary Practice
Transmedia Storytelling
Industry Placement
Data and Visual Rhetoric
Innovation and Work Based Learning
Media: Study Internationally (2nd yr) - Optional
Year 3
Industrial Placement: Media - Optional
Media: Study Abroad (DIAS) - Optional
Year 4
Interactive Media Inquiry
Interactivity, Research and Development (Major Project
Project-Social
Creativity, Innovation and Enterprise
Assessment methods vary and are defined explicitly in each module. Assessment can be a combination of examination and coursework but may also be only one of these methods. Assessment is designed to assess your achievement of the module’s stated learning outcomes. You can expect to receive timely feedback on all coursework assessments. This feedback may be issued individually and/or issued to the group and you will be encouraged to act on this feedback for your own development.
Coursework can take many forms, for example: essay, report, seminar paper, test, presentation, dissertation, design, artefacts, portfolio, journal, group work. The precise form and combination of assessment will depend on the course you apply for and the module. Details will be made available in advance through induction, the course handbook, the module specification, the assessment timetable and the assessment brief. The details are subject to change from year to year for quality or enhancement reasons. You will be consulted about any significant changes.
Normally, a module will have 4 learning outcomes, and no more than 2 items of assessment. An item of assessment can comprise more than one task. The notional workload and the equivalence across types of assessment is standardised. The module pass mark for undergraduate courses is 40%. The module pass mark for postgraduate courses is 50%.
Associate awards
Diploma in Professional Practice DPP
Work placement / study abroad
Work Placement:
All students are required to complete no less than two weeks work placement throughout the degree programme. Threre are opportunities for longer placement and full year placements. The year long placment generates the extra award of Diploma in Professional Practice (DPP).
Study Abroad:
StudyUSA, Erasmus scheme, International Student Exchange Programme. Students from the programme can study a year in a number of different countries including China, America and across Europe. It is advised that students undertake this between years 2 and 3 of the programme. Studying abroad for a year generates the extra award of Diploma in International Academic Studies (DIAS).
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