D I G I TA L M E D I A P R O G R A M
Course Syllabus — subject to change with notice
DIGM 4378: Senior Project
Spring 2013
Professor:
Lab Instructor:
Lab Instructor:
Professor’s Office:
Professor’s Telephone:
Professor’s E-mail:
Program Web Site:
Course Location:
Course Day/Time:
Dr. Jerry Waite
Mr. Harold Halliday (hhallida@central.uh.edu)
Mr. Can Le (chle2@uh.edu)
Room 342 T-2 (Main Campus); George 217 (Sugar Land)
713-743-4089; 832-656-3089 (cell—use your judgement)
jwaite@uh.edu
http://www.digitalmedia.tech.uh.edu
386-T2 (Main Campus)
Wed 1:00–2:30 PM (Main Campus—section 18669)
Office Hours: (Main Campus) M 8:00–12:00 Noon; W 8:00–8:30 AM
or by appointment.
Open Lab: See separate handout available from Can Le.
Course Description:
Prerequisite:
Credit:
Course Goals:
Directed research project.
DIGM 2351, 3374, 3252, and 4373.
3 semester hours
This course is the culmination of the Digital Media major’s
research project begun and continued in previous courses.
Students completing the course will describe, demonstrate, compare, analyze, integrate, and critique Digital Media concepts
related to:
1.
carrying out the method portion of a digital media-related
research project;
2.
analyzing the results of a digital media-related research
project;
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3.
documenting research utilizing APA style while adhering to the publication requirements of the Visual
Communications Journal (VCJ);
4.
presenting research findings through websites, oral presentations, and posters; and
5.
presenting and explaining technological processes
through participation in the annual Senior Show.
Required textbooks:
American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of
the American Psychological Association 6th Edition. ISBN:
9781433805615.
Lester, J. Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide (14th
Edition). ISBN 978-0205059331
Important Information:
As a student of the University of Houston, information available
at http://www.uh.edu/provost/stu/stu_syllabsuppl/index.php
will be critical to you in insuring that your academic pursuits
meet with success and that you encounter the fewest financial
and academic difficulties possible. Please take a few moments to
review each of the areas, and become familiar with the resources detailed on the website with regard to: The UH Academic
Honesty Policy: the UH Academic Calendar; Students with
Disabilities; Religious Holy Day FAQs; and Other Information.
Overall course extra credit may be earned through participation in the University of Houston chapter of the International
Graphic Arts Education Association (IGAEAUH). Students who
join IGAEAUH and attend a minimum of three association meetings will earn three points extra credit on their final grades.
IGAEAUH officers will receive five points of extra credit on their
final grades.
Extra credit:
Should IGAEAUH not meet during the semester, Dr. Waite will
assign alternative course extra credit assignments.
Full-group attendance:
Attendance at all full-group class sessions is expected. You
may not miss any of these class sessions.
Full-group class sessions will be held:
• January 13 (Main Campus) (Overview)
• April 10 (1/2 student presentations...bonus for early presentation)
• April 17 (Graphic Excellence Awards Banquet—6:00 PM)
• April 24 (1/2 student presentations)
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Meeting attendance:
Assignments:
Each student must schedule at least three one-on-one meetings
with Dr. Waite. One should be during the first or second week of
the semester; the second should be the week prior to Spring Break,
and the third should be at least one week prior to the student’s
presentation. All three of these meetings are required.
Final Research Paper
During DIGM 4378, you are to conduct the research plan you
devised in previous classes and then write a paper that meets
APA style requirements as well as the publication guidelines of the
Visual Communications Journal (see the last few pages of any
recent VCJ available on igaea.org).
Finished papers must be of submission quality and must be
submitted to the Journal’s editor by the last day of the semester
(commencement day).
Papers must contain the following sections:
Abstract
Introduction
Brief Literature Review
Method
Results
Conclusions and recommendations
References
Website
Prepare an attractive web site to disseminate your study. Web
sites should thoroughly explain your study and its results to a nontechnologically-oriented person such as a graphic designer, media
buyer, media salesperson, student, or customer.
Completed web sites must be suitable for publication on the
College of Technology’s Digital Media Web site. The completed
projects may become part of the digitalmedia.tech.uh.edu web
site and will be useful to alumni of the DIGM program as they
attempt to explain concepts to others. In addition, the projects will
be available to the vast internet audience and, as such, will help
explain digital media concepts to all visitors.
Oral Presentation
Students are required to give an oral presentation, supported by a
PowerPoint or Keynote slideshow, which must cover:
• a one-minute “elevator speech” that quickly describes your
project and findings to a casual acquaintance;
• the problem;
• highlights from the literature review;
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• methodology; and
• results.
Presentations will be of 15 minutes duration with approximately 5
minutes for questions.
Orals will be attended by students enrolled in the class, invited
faculty, and guests. It is your responsibility to invite an appropriate
guest and have that person approved by Dr. Waite prior to your
presentation. Suitable guests would be persons who work within
the digital media industry in any capacity or non-DIGM faculty
members. Friends, other DIGM faculty members, spouses, significant others, and family members are inappropriate guests.
Projects will be presented at Main Campus on either April 10
(1:00 pm) or April 24 (1:00 PM). The evaluation committee (Dr.
Waite, an additional faculty member, and an approved guest) will
grade the oral presentations. Each evaluator will submit an evaluation and the three scores will be averaged. Those who present on
April 10 will receive early-bird grade consideration.
When evaluating student presentations, the evaluators will be
given the following instruction: “C is a presentation that gets the
point across accurately. A B presentation not only gets the idea
across, but also is attractive. An A presentation gets the point
across attractively and also makes good use of presentation techniques. A presentation receiving a grade of D or lower fails to
communicate the idea effectively or contains fatal errors.”
Poster
Each student is to create, print, and mount a standard poster (see
examples in the lab hallway) that illustrates the research problem,
method, and results in an attractive and graphically-pleasing way.
Your poster is to be displayed during your oral presentation. You
may refer to it. Your poster should be describable by your elevator
speech.
Senior Show
As a part of the overall assessment of the Digital Media program,
all students in the DIGM 4378 course are required to display their
portfolios of work from all Digital Media courses.
The senior show will be part of the 2013 Printing Industries of the
Gulf Coast Graph Excellence Awards (GAE) Gala. The GEA Gala
will be Wednesday, April 17th. The Gala will start at 6:00 PM.
You will need to be there before 5:45 PM so you can set up before
guests start arriving.
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Attendees will rate your portfolio. The average of the evaluations
you receive will count as 15% of your Senior Project course grade.
Grading:
Item Percent of grade
Attendance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%
Final paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25%
Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20%
Oral presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20%
Poster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%
Senior Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
Percent/letter grades:
A. . . . . . 94-100
B. . . . . . . 84-86
C. . . . . . . 74-76
D. . . . . . . 64-66
B+. . . . . . 87-89
C+. . . . . . 77-79
D+. . . . . . 67-69
A- . . . . . 90-93
B- . . . . . . 80-83
C- . . . . . 70-73
D- . . . . . 60-63
Grade expectations:
Due date policy:
Adds/drops:
Please refer to the University’s Undergraduate Catalog and the
Schedule of Classes for the appropriate add/drop dates and procedures. Those procedures must be followed to the letter.
Incompletes:
An “incomplete” grade will only be issued if the student is maintaining an acceptable level of achievement and cannot, due to
some factor beyond the control of the student, complete
one or more major assignment. If a student wishes an “incomplete” grade, s/he must explain the situation to Dr. Waite in
advance and make specific arrangements to make up missing
work no later than one year after the “incomplete” is issued.
Classroom cleanliness:
Janitorial services are rarely provided in rooms 102A-T, 102B-T
and 102F-T. For this reason, and to keep the equipment clean,
no food or drink is allowed in the room for any reason at any time. Please clean up after yourself!
Any student who may be in need of additional help under the
ADA guidelines should contact Dr. Waite ASAP.
Americans
with Disabilities Act:
Dr. Waite expects students in the course to be capable and motivated professionals. No such student should be content with a
grade less than “B.” Please provide the attention, motivation and
effort necessary to reach this grade expectation.
Late work is “yesterday’s news.” In keeping with this idea,
assignments must be turned in as scheduled.
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