Goals

Students in this course will learn a broad range of digital media skills, concepts, terminologies, formats, trends, and infrastructure requirements.  Through extensive hands-on tutorials and five media-specific projects, students will learn techniques for producing and distributing digital images, audio, video, presentations and web sites. Students will leave this class with a website portfolio that showcases their digital media skills and projects.

Methods & Objectives

Via instructor-led tutorials and media-intensive projects, students will learn hands-on techniques for producing self-running presentations, multimedia web sites, digital images, and streaming audio and video. 

For example:

• Digital Imaging (using Adobe Photoshop Elements)  
  • Image acquisition via scanners, digital cameras, stock libraries and the Internet
  • Color depth, resolution, dimensions and size
  • Layers and layer options
  • Bitmap vs. vector images 
  • Cropping, colorizing and applying effects
  • Dithering, interlacing and transparency
  • Using text and anti-aliasing 
  • Image formats for printing versus screen display

• Digital Audio (using Sony Sound Forge)
  • Sound card configuration
  • Audio recording, sample rates and bit-depth
  • Audio editing, dubbing and mixing
  • Audio file formats, codecs and compression options
  • Cross-platform compatibility
  • Distribution options: Internet vs. CD/DVD/SCD

• Digital Video (using Windows MovieMaker)
  • Digitizing analog footage via capture cards
  • Transferring digital footage via FireWire
  • Editing, mixing, scrubbing, and applying transitions and effects
  • Titles and overlays
  • Adding narration and soundtracks
  • Frame rates, resolution, image size and color depth
  • Video file formats, codecs and compression options
  • Distribution options: Internet vs. CD/DVD vs. Videotape

• Digital Media and the Web (using Microsoft FrontPage)
  • Usability, Accessibility and Section 508 Compliance
  • Speed vs. Aesthetics
  • Cross-platform fonts
  • Web-compatible file formats
  • Navigation via Text, images and image maps
  • Image compression and optimization
  • Dithering, interlacing and transparency
  • Color Depth and using Web-Safe colors 
  • Hexadecimal and RGB color values
  • Incorporating animation, and when not to use it
  • Video and the Web 
  • Audio and the Web 
  • Browser compatibility and plug-ins
  • Designing for varying display resolutions 
  • Using CSS vs. designing with tables
  • Keywords and search engine optimization
  • Current trends in web-based digital media
  • What's on the horizon

• Multimedia Presentations & Interactive Kiosks (using Microsoft PowerPoint)
  • Using colors, fonts and images
  • Designing with cross-platform fonts
  • Making sure you are using compatible file formats
  • Using digital audio, video and images
  • Adding motion and animation
  • Embedding versus linking
  • Representing information visually via graphs and charts
  • Designing for varying display resolutions
  • Incorporating interactivity & hyperlinks
  • Adding narration and soundtracks
  • Designing for kiosks
  • Distribution options: Live vs. Internet vs. CD/DVD vs. Videotape

Student Comments