COM550 Producing Interactive Media
Syllabus
Fall 2016
Instructor Information
William J. Moner, PhD
Assistant Professor of Communications
Elon University
Office: Powell 203
Office Hours:
- M 10:30 - 11:30
- W 10:00 - 11:30 & 12:30 - 2:30
- F 10:30 - 11:30
- Available by appointment or when my door is open
Phone: 336-278-5716
Email: [email protected]
Important Dates
September 29, 2016: Fall Convocation with Bob Woodward (course schedule/time adjustment)
October 17 - 18, 2016: Fall Break
November 19 - 27, 2016: Thanksgiving Break
Course Description
Covers the fundamental practices associated with interactive media production, including interface design, applied multimedia and usability refinement. In the effort to provide users with optimized opportunities for choice and control, students will apply design guidelines and production design trends emerging in various industries. Students will author interactive experiences and explore historical origins as well as today’s best practices.
Course Goal
Understand fundamental interactive media development concepts using common industry development tools in order to reinforce techniques that may be applied beyond the scope of this course. Emerge with enhance technical skills and theoretically-informed insights into interactivity and its increasingly significant role in a variety of communications contexts.
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- explain the history and roles of media in society as related to interactive media production and web development
- employ the tools of technology (hardware and software) necessary for producing interactive media messages
- use theory in producing media content and demonstrate fundamental skills in design for interactive media
- apply numerical concepts in the application of programming principles and data manipulation for interactive interfaces
- produce interactive content for web and other interface consumption
Course Activities
Javascript: several small, functional projects will be completed with a focus on introducing Javascript libraries for various purposes. These include jQuery, Google Maps API & D3.js.
Interactive Media: Game Player Control + HTML5 Canvas Game + Web Audio Project + Eko Video Project
Final Project: A fully-functional game or interactive media project fulfilling a specific objective, using a Javascript framework such as jQuery, D3.js, or HTML5 game frameworks
Wordpress: your course portfolio and process documentation will be stored here, under your complete control using specific themes, child themes, and plugins (ongoing)
Journal: part of your Wordpress requirements, journal entries are for reflection and growth. You will use the “posts” functionality of your Wordpress in a category called “Journal” to log your thoughts and reflections on the work you’re doing in the course.
Quizzes: quantitative measurement of course progress. Quizzes are as much for me as they are for you. Quizzes are points-based and will be scored individually, and the final score for the quizzes will be aggregated cumulatively at the end of the semester, when the score will be tallied and curved.
Future Tech Panels (presentation): exploring new dimensions of interactive media (after fall break)
Course Readings
Manovich, L. (2001). Language of New Media. pp. 45 - 74. (In Course Dropbox unless otherwise specified.)
Murray, J. (2011). Inventing the Medium. Introduction, pp. 1 - 21 & Chapter 2, Affordances of the Digital Medium, pp. 51 - 85.
Additional Readings TBD
Course Supplemental Resources
- Codecademy
- Free Code Camp
- Lynda
- Others TBA
Grading
iMedia: H, H-, P, P-, L, F
Quizzes: 15%
Assignments: 30% (~ 3% per assignment)
Final Project: 20%
Journals: 15%
Wordpress: 10%
Presentation: 10%
Course Schedule
Week 1: Interactive Media Theory; Twitter; Github Introduction; Flowcharting
Readings from Manovich and Murray
Setup of course technologies
Week 2: Wordpress Setup and Configuration; Client/Server and Peer-to-peer networking; Computer Fundamentals; Javascript, Browser/DOM and web console
Computer theory
Week 3: Javascript Programming Fundamentals
Environment, variables, data types, operators
Week 4: Writing Javascript Programs
Conditionals, Control Structures, one-dimensional arrays
Week 5: Data Structures (Arrays & Objects)
Complex arrays, the object data type, JSON
Week 6: SQL (SELECT, FROM, WHERE, %, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE)
Working with SQL in a RDBMS environment
Week 7: CRUD Interfaces & Template Systems
Building interface templates using a simple framework
Week 8: JSON & Web APIs (Google Maps)
Building a Google Maps interface
Week 9: HTML5 Canvas
Working with interactive programming
Week 10: Sprite Sheets and Scripted Animation
Controlling motion and collisions
Week 11: Interactive Audio
Working with audio channels
Week 12: Interactive Video
Working with Eko and branching video
Weeks 13 - 15: Production
Final project sprint and build
FutureTech Mini-Conferences
(3 panelists per conference)
- Virtual Reality interfaces (history, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive)
- Augmented Reality interfaces (Pokemon Go/Ingress, games for learning, Google Now & Siri)
- Home Automation (climate and security, Amazon Echo/voice interfaces)
- Health and Wellness (therapeutic technologies, fitness trackers, mental health)
- Connected Entertainment (smart TVs, the social layer, video game consoles and communications)
- Cultural Studies (feminism, post-colonialism, alternative/resistance media)
- Sociotechnical Considerations (privacy & surveillance, hacking, sous-veillance)
- “Gonzo” panel (the outer limits of technology and the arts)
Potential questions/prompts:
- Who are the major and minor competitors in the marketplace?
- What technological affordances does the topic area utilize?
- What are the human interface considerations for this technology or set of technologies?
- What open source code is available — in which languages and through what SDKs — to code for the environment you’re exploring.