MSc Multimedia

This course has been designed to produce ‘hands on’ professionals with a broad range of career possibilities in the multimedia industry, either working as multimedia designers/producers, or as part of a development team. This sector is expanding rapidly in all areas, and a report by Forrester Research in 2008 predicted that the Web 2.0 Social Media market will be generating revenues of $4.4 billion by 2013. Other reports estimate that companies will spend $120 billion in 2010 on online and digital strategies (search engines to videos) in the USA alone.

The course has been designed to address the needs of these emerging areas, and ensure graduates can adapt to the changing needs of the sector. Many companies also visit the University during the year to give presentations, including Apple and Adobe, and in some cases businesses look to recruit students directly from the MSc course.

The course emphasises the key multimedia principles, theories and concepts, as well as exposing you to the industry standard languages and tools including Flash, HTML, AJAX, After Effects and Xcode. You will examine a number of areas, including human computer interaction and the user experience, project management, web development, scripting for interactivity, and analytics. The course will enable you to develop the knowledge and skills required in a number of careers as well as preparation to continue to a PhD.

Core modules

Multimedia Management • Multimedia Scripting for Interactivity • Project • Research Methods and Professional Practice • User-Centred Interface Design

Option Modules

3D Animation • 3D Graphics • Digital Editing and Motion Graphics • Iphone Application Development • Pervasive Computing and Interactive Platforms • Web Development • Web Marketing and Analytics

Length of course

One-year, full-time or two to three years, part-time, block mode

Location

Central London (Cavendish)

Fee band

Fee band 1, see fees spreadsheet

Associated careers

Graduates may find employment in multimedia production houses,corporate environments (marketing, communications, IT and training), educational institutions, the media and film industry, and in entertainment. Possible roles include multimedia authoring specialist, project/production manager, website developer, and usability designer. We have excellent links with the multimedia industry (particularly in education), and previous graduates have been employed by companies such as 2Simple, 20:20 Media, Broad Works, Moving Picture Company, Oxford University Press, and Tiscali. Successful graduates may also apply for a research degree in a relative area.

Entry requirements

The course is open to computer literate graduates with a good first degree (minimum Second Class Honours) or equivalent in a related discipline such as graphic design, computer science, digital imaging or journalism. Alternatively you may have in-depth work experience in a related field or already be employed in the sector and are undertaking the program to further enhance your career plans. The relevance of the applicant’s first degree or industrial experience and suitability for the course will be usually determined by interview and, where relevant, portfolio.

International applicants will be required to meet the standard University of Westminster’s postgraduate entry requirements for English of IELTS 6.5 or equivalent.

The MSc Mulimedia course is one of the longest-running interactive multimedia courses in the UK. Part of the Media Skillset Academy, it has excellent contacts with industry especially in education and music. Some of the modules are actually delivered in collaboration with companies in the industry, giving the course a real world feel. These close ties with industry also means the course has a very high success rate in helping students find jobs and placements.

The course was recently awarded a prize for its course content of free training videos in Flash, HTML, Director, PhotoShop and more. It was awar5ded a total of £40,000. The site has had great success and has become one of the most popular on-line training sites on the internet and supports the MSc in Multimedia course.

Our award winning website
http://www.multimediatrainingvideos.com/

You can also follow the word of the multimedia tea at the following places:


On Twitter	On Facebook	On youTube	On Vimeo

The course has an excellent reputation for developing innovative uses of multimedia in the actual teaching of its courses and this has led to many national press articles and even TV coverage in France.

Feedback methods covered in French TV

The Guardian writes about training videos

Course Leader, Russell Stannard writes about the use of Twitter and Social Media in promoting multimedia content in the Times Higher.

Russell writes about Twitter and Multimedia

Russell writes about Social Networking and Multimedia

Links with industry

1-Modules connected to real companies

The MSc in Multimedia has very strong links with industry. This is largely due to the role of course leader Russell Stannard www.russellstannard.com who works in the multimedia educational industry and has worked on products with Pearson Education, Macmillan, BBC and Oxford University Press. Other members of staff also have very strong links in the creative industries.

Some of the modules are actually done in collaboration with real companies, so students are actually making a prototype or product for a real company rather than doing something out of context. Previous companies include

CLIC language school in Spain

OUP Publishing Company

Balberry Publishers

We are currently working in direct collaboration with 2Simple www.2simple.com who produce software for the educational market.

2-Presentations

During a year about 5 or 6 companies normally come down to present in the multimedia department. Typical talks include:

Adobe-Came down and presented work on Flash and Flex

Sauce UK-Presented their use of Morae for testing. Explained the process in testing software and ways that the information is used.

Tiscali-Talked about the role of interactive TV and its future

David Calvo- Search Engine expert who talked about the link between good accessible sites and sites that have high search engine rankings.

Apple-Came down and talked about Final Cut Pro

Getting Jobs: What students do after the course

Many of our students work as developers or project managers in the multimedia fields once they have finished the course. In recent years more and more students are moving into the multimedia and education section or working freelance. You can read about some of the students and the jobs they have got here.

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/jobs/index.htm

Course Leader

Russell Stannard

www.russellstannard.com
Email: stannar@westminster.ac.uk

Russell Stannard won the "Outstanding Initiative in ICT" from the Times Higher in 2008 for his website www.teachertrainingvideos.com. The website has also been shortlisted for the British Council ELTons awards and has become one of the biggest multimedia training sites for teachers on the internet. He has an international reputation with very strong contacts in China and Egypt. He produces multimedia content for many language learning products and has worked with Pearson, Macmillan, the BBC and Oxford University Press. He brings many of his contacts into the courses.