Introduction
Educate students to become 'IAM professionals'
Today's job market has opportunities for a new type of professional, one who can work within various disciplines on assignments and projects involving interactive and digital media. The Interactive Media (IAM) degree programme produces graduates to meet this market need. We call our graduates 'IAM professionals'. They are multidisciplinarians with knowledge and skills in five areas: marketing, communication, management (and project management), technology and interactive media design.
Our students are not generalists, but are specialised in one of the three specialist courses we offer in combination with the multidisciplinary basic knowledge of our core programme. IAM students can devise, design, develop and manage effective solutions for interactive media assignments. They can also advise commissioners about the marketing, communication, technology, design and cultural aspects of interactive media.
Three major courses
Each IAM student becomes competent in the fields of interactive media marketing, communication, management, technology and design. They also chose one of three courses in the second year of study:
- Business and Organisation (BO)
- Content and Communication (CC)
- Technology, Design and Interaction (TDI)
Business and Organisation (BO)
The BO graduation specialisation educates students to be professionals who develop into articulate specialists in the field of the new media. The emphasis is on 'new', because BO specialists are particularly interested in finding new ways to reach target groups using interactive, mobile and analogue new media, separately or in combination. This course focuses on business, organisational and management skills. BO specialists are often interactive media pioneers with a keen commercial sense and evident hands-on mentality. In short, BO students are IAM's managers and marketeers.
Content and Communication (CC)
The CC graduation specialisation focuses on the conceptual and communicative aspects of interactive media in various communication processes. When formulating marketing and communication strategies, students learn how to develop appropriate interactive concepts that effectively integrate text, visuals and audio. They also learn to design and develop content, in particular copy, visuals and video. CC students are the conceptual and interactive communication specialists of IAM.
Technology, Design and Interaction (TDI)
The TDI graduation specialisation concentrates on the design and creation of innovative and interactive media solutions that are clearly user focussed. TDI specialists are experienced in working in multidisciplinary teams and know how to evaluate and apply the latest developments. TDI specialists' meta-tags are innovation, creation, technique, design, interaction and thinking and doing. They are flexible problem solvers. They design and develop interactive solutions and can deliver complete products for a rapidly changing world. TDI specialists are visual, interaction and technological designers.
The professional knowledge and skills of the IAM student
University of professional education students are practical people who are deeply motivated by working for 'real' clients. That is why the basis of the Interactive Media programme is 'productive learning': right from the start of their studies, students work for external commissioners.
Familiar with professional products
Our students of course study intensively and benefit greatly from opportunities to develop their skills in projects and work placements offered by in particular by external commissioners. This means that, even in the second year, they can make a wide variety of professional products such as:
communication briefings, project plans, marketing plans, interactive concepts, visual, functional and interactive designs, project budgets, copy concepts, media plans, house-style guides, user surveys, wireframes, user scenarios, usability tests, etc, etc.
Proficient with tools
In order to be productive in the world of interactive media, students also need to be able to work with the relevant IT and media tools. Every IAM student can work with:
- MS Office programmes: Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint etc.
- Photoshop / Illustrator
- Web-editors such as Dreamweaver (TDI specialists)
- Flash/Action scripting (TDI specialists)
- HTML-PhP-MySQL (TDI specialists)
Professional competencies
The IAM programme is practice-based and this is expressed in the form of competencies: the integrated knowledge, skills and behaviour that make IAM students competent in a wide range of professional settings. IAM students acquire six competencies:
- Creative and interactive ability
- Communicative ability
- Orientation to the social and professional environment
- Production and control skills
- Multidisciplinary cooperative and management skills
- Methodical and reflective thought and action
Graduate profile
The newly graduated IAM professional is able, in the wider professional interactive media setting, to devise, design, develop and manage effective solutions and can advise commissioners about the business, communication, technological, design and cultural aspects of interactive media.