Elon University iMedia Viewbook 2015

ELON UNIVERSITY S C H O O L O F CO M M U N I C AT I O N S

FOCUS ON YOUR FUTURE

M A S T E R

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I N T E R A C T I V E

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elon.edu/imedia

elon.edu/imedia

Whether you want to build on an undergraduate degree, polish your existing skills or remodel your professional expertise,

the Elon Interactive Media program provides the knowledge necessary to excel in a competitive job market.

The program is structured across 10 months.

You’ll be fully immersed in the world of interactive media as you set, work toward and achieve your goals. Enter the workforce invigorated from your studies and with minimal time away from the professional world.

The curriculum begins with a broad sweep of information and then allows you to drill down into a specific area of interest. In lieu of a thesis, you’ll complete a capstone project that will round out an already impressive portfolio and set you up to climb the professional ladder.

You’ll graduate as a savvy multimedia professional nimble enough to anticipate changes ahead of the crowd and lead the way as the industry evolves. Alumni are leaders and innovators in advertising, production, social media, digital strategy and content marketing research.

FOCUS ON:

Y O U R

M A R K E T

V A L U E

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It all starts with a three-week summer Digital Media Workshop where you’ll navigate the latest industry standard software and equipment, and begin to learn skills you’ll use throughout the program.

You’ll get to know your classmates and professors as you work together to acquire the technical know-how you’ll need to thrive.

Fall semester provides a broad knowledge base so you can dig deep into your chosen area of interest in the spring. Your classes will provide a solid foundation of communication theory and strategy.

Study user analysis, interactive writing and design, and how to evaluate usability tests across multiple platforms.

During January Winter Term you’ll take part in the iMedia Fly-in as you travel

to an international location to gather content through interviews, photographs and videos. Fly-in experiences last about a week. Teams return to campus and, on deadline, complete interactive projects for the public good.

It’s spring already? This program moves quickly. In the fall you took a broad look at the industry, in January you put new skills to work, and now it’s your turn to pick and choose the electives you want, and turn your full focus to your capstone project and portfolio.

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P R O G R A M

LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE Students learn essential Web markup languages, familiarizing themselves with the structure and syntax of computer programming before proceeding to more advanced languages like JavaScript and PHP. As the logic of programming is largely universal, students gain the ability to learn additional languages for more advanced projects.

ALL STUDENTS LEARN: HTML • CSS • JavaScript Beyond basic Web design, students harness the power of publicly available APIs to create databasedriven applications and access cameras, gyroscopes and other smartphone features. Responsive design and mobile-first approaches to coding are emphasized to deal with screen size variability.

FOCUS ON:

G LO B A L

P E R S P E C T I V E

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Spend January capturing interviews, photographs and video for a team project to serve the public good.

During Winter Term, students have worked in Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Iceland, Portugal, England and Cuba helping nonprofits build community recognition, increase volunteer efforts and boost fundraising by building content-rich websites that are used by real world clients.

Your Winter Term work will fuse the technical expertise and big picture theories you absorbed in fall semester. You’ll return to Elon with growing confidence in your abilities and energized to finish your studies.

The most recent Interactive Media class deployed teams to Barbados, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and two teams to the Dominican Republic.

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Real World Applications

After a week gathering content, students returned to campus to create websites, blogs, photo and video galleries, social media content and other online marketing tools. The groups significantly enhanced their clients’ presence online and, in some cases, built their presence from scratch.

BARBADOS The Challenor Creative Arts & Training Centre The Centre is one of the only affordable schools for children and young adults with intellectual and physical disabilities in Canefield, St. Thomas, Barbados.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Creaciones Ecológicas La Colonia CRÉELA is a co-op of 25 women who create handbags from recycled plastic shopping bags, which they sell to support their families.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Hogar de Ancianos en Cotui RD This health center and nursing home serves the underprivileged. Profits from the health center are used to maintain the nursing home.

COSTA RICA Molinos Verdes de Moringa and Centro Diba Students worked with two clients, Molinos Verdes de Moringa, a permaculture resource and advocacy group, and Centro Diba, a center for nearly 20 adults with disabilities.

GUATEMALA Rising Minds Rising Minds helps facilitate cultural immersion experiences for travelers and aid to the people of San Juan and other local mountain villages facing hardships.

Start by customizing your elective courses. Multimedia Storytelling,

KACIE LETT ’12

director of new business development at 352 Inc. in Atlanta

“In every interview I had after iMedia, the interviewer was extremely interested in my work abroad. They were interested in my ability to not only lead others and manage client relations, but how I dealt with heightened pressure in global environments.”

FOCUS ON:

A CUS TO M APPR OACH

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Fall semester was all about giving you a broad sweep of knowledge. Winter Term was your chance to put new skills to use. Now, spring semester is all about you — your choices, your interest, your future.

Some students prefer to delve deeper into theory and strategy issues, while others choose to emphasize advanced skills development. No matter your interest, you’ll have access to the latest tech gadgets, including drones, Apple Watches, tablets and Oculus Rift.

Before spring semester starts, you’ll work with your capstone adviser and other faculty members to create a white paper that addresses an issue within the interactive media world that you’d like to tackle. From there, you’ll develop your capstone proposal and put all of your planning and research into action.

Kendal Cinnamon ’15 demonstrates “Art A to Z,” an iPad application for children to learn about art history and art appreciation. The focus of her capstone was to design and develop an easily learned and visually pleasing application to excite her young audience.

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DAVIDSON COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY This redesigned website captures content for a variety of audiences and is organized to include information about both digital and traditional resources.

CAPSTONE PROJECT BY:

Emily Yarborough ’15

ELON.EDU/IMEDIA/SHOWCASE

RALEIGH CITY MAP Aggregate social media conversations about favorite Raleigh venues. This digital map synthesizes Twitter, Facebook and YouTube feeds to capture discussions about local bars, restaurants, museums and galleries.

CAPSTONE PROJECT BY:

Iris Maslow ’13

PRESSING ISSUES FOR PRINT This interactive documentary tells the story of the newspaper industry by focusing on two local publications’ past, present and future.

CAPSTONE PROJECT BY:

Nick Margherita ’15

FOCUS ON:

10 MONTHS, MAJOR CHANGE

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Get ready for 10 intense and inspiring months. The Interactive Media program is carefully designed to prepare you for professional leadership and success in the job market.

Academic experiences build upon one another as you work toward your degree. The full-time program offers classes Monday through Friday during the day. Production classes have no more than 20 students. The program requires 11 courses (37 semester hours).

You’ll work closely with a career counselor to discuss professional goals.

Students are regularly invited to local networking events and workshops such as hack nights in Greensboro and Tech Jobs Under the Big Top in Durham.

You’ll engage directly with industry professionals, participate in mock interviews with recruiters and in the spring, the program hosts an iMedia Meet-Up. This annual event brings alumni back to campus to expand your network and prepare you for graduation. Consider this the kick-off to the next phase in your career.

CAIT VLASTAKIS SMITH ’11 executive strategy director at Centerline Digital in Raleigh, N.C.

“My greatest challenge has always been balancing my interests: writing, design and business strategy. What I found here was a cross-disciplinary approach that married storytelling with technology and journalism. I was able to make the program what I wanted (and needed) and then pivot my career appropriately.”

elon.edu/imedia

Think this program is just for communications majors? Or people who want to work in the communications field? Think again.

Clear, concise communicators are valued across the professional spectrum.

Your Interactive Media degree opens the door to employment in any number of careers.

Alumni are living out their career goals and working for companies including:

92

%

of recent graduates were employed within four months of graduation.

ESPN Tiffany & Co. The Baltimore Sun SocialFlow Wake Forest University Katalyst Films Adept Marketing Carolina Biological Duke University South Carolina Aquarium NASCAR Live Nation Entertainment Johns Hopkins University

PACE Red Ventures Centerline StarCityGames VINDICO SportsMEDIA Technology Newseum Dribbble Naxos Records Razorfish Mars, Inc. Smithsonian Institution North Carolina Museum of Art

FOCUS ON:

P R O F E S S I O N A L

S U CC E S S

MEET MATT ’10 Undergrad Major: History Program Goals: I knew I wanted to be in a creative field, but I didn’t know if I wanted to pursue graphic design, web development, video animation or some other skill in interactive media.

Fly-in: We went to Costa Rica to work with Earth University, a school that focuses on agricultural sciences and sustainable development. My primary roles were videography and editing.

I also assisted in graphic design and production management.

Capstone: I created a marketing campaign for Elon’s Spanish immersion center. I built design elements, promotional videos and a rebranded website where visitors learn about the program.

And Now… I am the digital marketing producer for MLB.com Digital Academy, an online educational resource for youth baseball players, coaches and parents. I design, create and manage all marketing assets to be distributed through our traditional and non-traditional channels.

elon.edu/imedia

Undergrad Major: Biology Program Goals: I wanted to use interactive media to create science-based content for educational, marketing or entertainment purposes.

MEET ASHLEY ’13

Fly-in: We worked with an indigenous community in the Costa Rican rainforest. I was in charge of the interactive components of our website and content structure.

Undergrad Major: Visual Media Design Program Goals: My background is in design, but I wanted to understand more about marketing, strategy and project management.

MEET MATTHEW ’12

Fly-in: We went to Iceland and worked with a nonprofit focused on democratic participation. I served as the creative director and oversaw logo and brand creation, website UX/UI and marketing slogans.

Capstone: I created an interactive science video that allowed viewers to dig deeper into the content that most interested them.

And Now… I’m an interactive media producer with the Smithsonian Institution. I produce digital products such as videos, apps, games, e-Books, as well as manage social media and the web for the Smithsonian Science Education Center.

Capstone: I worked with the Elon University Office of Athletics to create an informational infographic. The purpose was to promote the department’s growth and encourage more alumni involvement.

And Now… I’m a product manager for web and native products at ESPN. I come up with feature ideas that improve the usability and functionality of our products, and spend a fair amount of time working with the design and technology teams.

elon.edu/imedia

When you graduate, you’ll join a tight-knit network of Interactive Media alumni who work across the country and are ready to help you land that dream job.

Alumni work in New York City, Los Angeles, Austin, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Charleston, Raleigh, Nashville and beyond as web developers, digital strategists, creative designers and more. No matter what your goal might be, it’s likely an alumnus will be eager to help you bring it to fruition.

FOCUS ON:

A POWERFUL ALUMNI NET WORK

“I worked in traditional media for more than a decade but found I was unable to convert those skills to a new media world.

I came to this program to upgrade my skillset, broaden my professional connections, and find management opportunities.

Trust the process. It really does work.” – Mike Sales ’11, director of design at NASCAR

FOCUS ON:

W H AT ’ S

N E X T ?

elon.edu/imedia

That’s an easy one.

The Master of Arts in Interactive Media program enrolls 36 students in late summer. Applications are evaluated on a rolling basis throughout the year. Please submit all required application materials as early as possible prior to enrollment, but no later than May 1.

Scholarships are available for qualified applicants.

For a complete list of admissions requirements and financial information, visit elon.edu/imedia.

ABOUT ELON Elon has built a national reputation as a premier student-centered liberal arts university that values strong relationships between students and their faculty and staff mentors. Elon’s 6,500 students prepare to become the resilient, ambitious and ethical leaders the world needs, putting their knowledge into action on campus, in the community and around the globe. Elon is ranked the nation’s #1 master’s-level university for study abroad and is a top-producer of Fulbright Student Scholars. U.S. News & World Report recognizes Elon more than any other university in the nation for academic programs that “Focus on Student Success.”

The M.A. in Interactive Media program prepares graduates to think strategically across media platforms; plan and create interactive media content consisting of text, images, sounds, video and graphics; and manage information for interactive news, entertainment and persuasive communications.

Elon University Office of Graduate Admissions gradadm@elon.edu elon.edu/imedia

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