Course Title: Advanced Multimedia Authoring

Part A: Course Overview

Course ID: 001866

Course Title: Advanced Multimedia Authoring

Credit Points: 6


Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

COSC1019

City Campus

Undergraduate

345H Creative Media

Face-to-Face

 Sem 2 2006

Course Coordinator: David McDowell

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 99259837

Course Coordinator Email: david.mcdowell@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 9.4.19


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

Successful completion of Advanced Diploma of Multimedia


Course Description

This course will build on skills and knowledge students have gained in Interactive Media 1 and Interactive Media 2 as well as other courses student have or are studying as part of this program. It will enable students to further investigate the creative possibilities that authoring of and content production for interactive media projects offer, and provide an experimental environment in which students can explore the creative use of digital technologies and media.

Students will develop an understanding of the creative possibilities of advanced multimedia programming techniques as applied to innovative and engaging presentation of interactive content. Key forms of interactive media project delivery dealt with in the course will be online delivery and one or more modes of disk-based delivery.

After necessary instruction students engage with the key modes of project delivery dealt with in the course by undertaking creative projects set as assignments.


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

On completion of this course students will have developed and/or further developed their capacity to:

  • Create and deliver rich interactive projects online and on disk;
  • Document the development of the projects they undertake;
  • Understand which media best suits which mode of interactive project delivery;
  • Recognise and creatively exploit advantages offered by particular modes of delivery in devising and realising projects;
  • Think creatively to solve programming issues associated with interactive design and developement;
  • Create projects that are clear, elegant, robust and general;
  • Produce prototypes, elicit feedback, and modify designs;
  • Apply beta testing and evaluation methods;
  • Manage resources and data for large scale projects;
  • Identify and adapt to new industry trends.

Develop and design visual systems, navigation, structures and devices for communication outcomes
  • Create complex visual interfaces and navigational structures
  • Use programming techniques to co-ordinate visual systems and devices

Apply authoring systems for effective multimedia outcomes
  • Optimise interactive projects

Production, organisational, time and information management skills
  • Meet deadlines
  • Achieve successful project outcomes
  • Organise programs and projects to facilitate modification
  • Manage resources and data for large projects

Apply, manipulate and combine media
  • Prepare visual, audio & text based material
  • Collect, create, evaluate & edit content
  • Combine a variety of dynamic elements (animation, sound, image, text or video) in an interactive project

Investigative problem identification and innovative creative solutions   
  • Respond creatively to project guidelines
  • Identify and evaluate a range of solutions
  • Apply evaluation methods
  • Design information for a network

Ongoing analysis, development and application of conceptual processes   
  • Develop creative conceptual responses to a brief
  • Analyse concepts and possible design solutions
  • Use pre-production aids and schematics
  • Design projects around user needs
  • Effective use of on-line project journal

Develop skills of self-motivated learning and critical appraisal   
  • Complete projects assigned out of class time
  • Involvement in peer & individual based critique
  • Appreciation and articulation of constructive criticism
  • Practice independent research into technical issues
  • Develop a language for critiquing interactive works

Initiate, identify, define, evaluate & apply research methodologies   
  • Actively identify, record & incorporate visual and conceptual influences


This course will be taught in weekly three-hour sessions. These sessions will include, variously, lectures, demonstrations, workshops and group discussions. The make-up of each session may vary but most will include a lecture presentation.

Lectures will consider aspects of major interactive project development, authoring and delivery including:

  • theoretical consideration of content within and modalities fo experience engendered by digital and interactive media
  • practical aspects of delivering rich interactive media project;
  • authoring strategies relating to playback optimisation;
  • aesthetic aspects of interactive media projects and their content
  • interface and information design


Overview of Learning Activities

This course will be taught in weekly three-hour sessions. These sessions will include, variously, lectures, demonstrations, workshops and group discussions. The make-up of each session may vary but most will include a lecture presentation.

Lectures will consider aspects of major interactive project development, authoring and delivery including:

  • theoretical consideration of content within and modalities fo experience engendered by digital and interactive media
  • practical aspects of delivering rich interactive media project;
  • authoring strategies relating to playback optimisation;
  • aesthetic aspects of interactive media projects and their content
  • interface and information design


The teaching approach in this course will be student-centred and project-based. Students will learn to think creatively, analytically and critically, through individual and group critiques, reviews and discussions. The examination of examples of interactive media work and the exploration of theories and new developments relating to interactive media will enable students to develop their knowledge of creative and practical possibilities.

Practical projects, set as assignments, will engage students in:

  • enhancing their conceptual and creative capabilities;
  • developing relevant production skills;
  • developing professional practice capabilities such as working to time constraints;
  • producing high quality work.

All sessions will include a supervised workshop in a computer laboratory. During the workshop students will be able to experiment with and apply techniques presented in lectures and will have the opportunity to seek assistance from their lecturer in applying these techniques if needed. There will also be consultation between students and their lecturer individually and in groups regarding conceptual and creative aims students adopt in working on assignment projects. Students will occasionally be required to present their assignments or work-in-progress for peer review and sessions will regularly include group discussions in which both student and professional work will be analysed and critiqued.


Overview of Learning Resources

Many of the resources students will be expected to use are computer-based or computer peripherals and these resources will be provided in the school’s computer laboratories.

Students may need to use digital content acquisition tools such as cameras and sound recording equipment: these will be available for student-loan; students will organise the loan of such equipment themselves from the school’s equipment store.

Students should make uses of wider university resources such as its libraries, their print and audio-visual collections and, if appropriate, the University’s Learning Skills Unit.

Some course components may be presented in lecture theatres. Students will be advised of the time and lecture theatre location of such presentations.
 

Students will be also expected to use their own creative and conceptual skills to:

  • Research various techniques used to develop creative solutions;
  • Experiment, explore and play;
  • Draw, sketch, brainstorm, conceptualise and discuss;
  • Analyse and solve practical problems;
  • Be aware of cultural, ethical and professional issues relating to work they undertake;
  • Have effective competence with digital content creation software;
  • Create photographic, illustration, video, and graphic content;
  • Take account of time and resource constraints in the completion of production;
  • Apply their graphic design and illustrative skills;
  • Implement of screen layout principles;
  • Produce three-dimensional representations;
  • Apply their understanding of colour theory;
  • Create and source audio files;
  • Create and tell stories;
  • Originate new concepts and ideas;
  • Write material and to analyse, organise and edit written material;
  • Apply their understanding of cinematic language and basic editing principles;
  • Create animations and demonstrate an understanding of timing and movement;
  • Demonstrate a basic knowledge of the design and art traditions of their own culture;
  • Apply refined observational, logical and reflective skills.


Overview of Assessment

Because it is the nature of interactive media projects to include various forms of digital media, produced by various means, assignment projects will engage skills students are developing in the other courses they study this semester as well as skills developed in their first year of study, specifically their graphic, animation, video and sound content creation skills.


Assessment will be based on a series of assignments and on students’ active participation in the course.