LEADERSHIP
CREATIVITY
PRINT AND PACKAGING
COMPUTER GRAPHICS
WEB DESIGN AND eMEDIA
PHOTOGRAPHY MOTION MEDIA AND ANIMATION
SIMULATION AND GAMING
These are the areas that are explored in Digital Media in the College of Technology at the University of Houston.
Digital Media is the creative convergence of digital arts, science, technology and business for human expression, communication, social interaction and education. The Digital Media program is characterized by a curriculum which stresses the "producer" and "strategist" aspects of digital media and emphasizes the business aspect of field along with its technical and aesthetic aspects. Digital Media, part of the Graphic Communications cluster of industries, is a dynamic and ever-changing field and is ranked among the largest industries in the United States.
By using your leadership and strategic talents, you can create a communications tapestry by weaving together people and the technologies of print, packaging, photography, motion media, social media, game app design, and web design. Effective contemporary visual communication requires a mix of communications technologies; still- and motion media, social media, and websites in addition to printed media.
Digital Media
The University of Houston Digital Media program prepares highly-qualified, sought-after, and technologically-savvy project managers who exceed the visual communication needs of their clients. Students who enroll in this program will gain competencies in various graphic-related technologies that support the digitization of graphic and text content as well as a broad background in leadership and supervision. Much of the curriculum is devoted to the utilization of digital-media-oriented information technology as it impacts the communication workflow. Graduates from this program move into positions of service support in businesses specializing in communication through print, internet, eMedia, social media, gaming, and motion-media technologies. Service support positions that graduates assume are typically part of the larger sales function of digital media firms and include titles such as customer service representative, estimator, planner, supervisor, and scheduler. For graduates to move into salesperson positions, they generally build upon the skills they have mastered in other service-support positions within digital media firms.
Digital Media (DIGM) courses are offered by the Information and Logistics Technology Department in the University of Houston's College of Technology. Classes are offered on the Sugar Land campus. DIGM courses cover bitmapped and vector computer graphics, digital photography, videography, animation, TransMedia Marketing®, visual design concepts, pre-media technologies, print technologies, game and app design, cost estimating, and portfolio development. Courses include theory-rich lectures as well as hands-on and enjoyable activities conducted in our state-of-the-art laboratories on the latest equipment. Each student also completes a senior thesis or project and internships are encouraged. You can learn more about the digital-media-specific classes and assignments by browsing www.digitalmedia.tech.uh.edu.
Program Design
The Digital Media degree is designed to be completed in four years and consists of 120 semester hours of undergraduate credit. The freshman and sophomore years may be completed at our cooperating community college, Wharton County Junior College. The program requires 42 hours of university core courses. In addition to meeting the 42 semester hours of university core curriculum requirements, students must complete major core requirements, an emphasis area, and approved electives.
The Digital Media core covers:
- computer graphics
- user experience (UX) research
- digital photography
- page layout and design
- data mining and analysis
- print production
- videography
- content development and strategy
- cost estimating
- portfolio development
- TransMedia Marketing®
- project integration
The program also provides for fifteen hours of electives that includes courses related to:
- animation
- package design
- gaming app design
- print media
- packaging
- eCommerce
- programming and coding
Students are required to complete one of the following minors:
- Applied Innovation
- Technology Leadership and Innovation Management
Digital Media courses are taught primarily on the main campus' satellite facility in Sugar Land. All the lower-division DIGM courses can be completed at Wharton County Junior College.
Digital-media related courses completed at other community colleges may not be eligible for transfer. If you are a community college student, please refer to http://www.uh.edu/tech/digitalmedia/students/prospective-students/transfer/ before taking any courses you wish to transfer into the Digital Media Program.
Your Future
Through course content, assignments, and critiques, the Digital Media program prepares its students to excel in careers that require tight deadlines, attention to detail, adaptability to changing technology, multi-tasking, and practical research. Students are also prepared to give and receive constructive feedback.
The Digital Media program provides extensive internship opportunities for its students as well as opportunities to network with industry professionals. In particular, the Digital Media program provides its seniors with extensive career development support including DigiFests in both fall and spring semesters. In the fall, the DigiFest allows students to display their hard-copy and electronic portfolios to alumni so that the seniors can practice interviewing, giving their elevator pitches, and showing their work. The Spring DigiFest is a career placement event during which employers meet and interview students.
The Digital Media Program is committed to student success and works with students to graduate in no longer than six years from their initial college enrollment, to get good jobs, and to earn good salaries. In 2018, Digital Media students were most likely undergraduates to be employed on graduation day.
The Digital Media Program offers an annual RedFest, which is the awards gala for its students. Especially talented and industrious students can win trophies, certificates and cash prizes for entries in multiple fields of production from app design through videography.
Beginning in Fall 2021, declared Digital Media students and declared Graphic Communications Technology, Motion Media and Tech Package Design minors will be required to have a suitable laptop which is in good working order with the latest software and antivirus updates for their entire period of undergraduate study.
Notebook computer (PC or Mac) capable of handling the Adobe Creative Cloud-Graphic Design portion. An example of such requirements can be found at https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/system-requirements.html.
DSLR camera capable of still and video capture. Student subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud.
Note that precise specifications, which will be updated as technology changes, will be provided on the program's website at http://www.uh.edu/tech/digitalmedia/students/prospective-students/.
Computer labs will continue to be available for courses that require specialized software and/or hardware: i.e., most junior and senior courses.
All majors and minors in the Department of Information and Logistics Technology must earn a grade of C or better in all major/minor courses. No grade lower than C will be accepted on any courses applicable to the major transferred to the University of Houston.