Units

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Sample subject outline - Semester 2 2013

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

The capacity to think creatively about the future whilst grounded in the present is a skill integral to success in many fields of work, from arts and business to law and marketing. It requires a range of knowledge and a multi-scalar understanding of contemporary trends that employers, societies and governments value highly in fast-changing new media contexts.

This unit builds the capacity to innovate through a study of the emerging complexities of the relationships between individuals and communities that are afforded, extended, amplified and intensified as well as attenuated by new media technologies and practices. Using new media as a lens, you will examine and challenge the possibilities, boundaries and tensions that confront a series of contemporary new media worlds such as the limits of embodiment, networks, nation-states and their infrastructures of laws and economics. The knowledge you gain and the processes you will learn in this unit will add to your professional, academic, creative and intellectual development.

Aims

This unit aims to broaden and deepen your understanding of contemporary theories, debates and speculation surrounding new media technologies and practices. It should expand your ability to engage with contemporary trends in new media and project and apply your knowledge into the worlds of commerce, work, politics and play. You will also experience as well as explore how new media are employed to construct, organise, convene and maintain communities for various purposes and build your capacity to analyse the implications of such usages into the future.

Objectives

On completion of this unit you should be able to:
1. Interpret, 'unpack' and apply the more advanced concepts, theories and controversies surrounding new media technologies and practices
2. Critically analyse emerging and current trends in new media
3. Dissect and explain the longer term tensions and implications of new media for communities, societies, nations and individuals
4. Employ suitable approaches in the formal co-creation of online collaborative projects to professional standards.

Content

This unit addresses content such as:

• Histories (temporalities) of new media


• Geographies (spatialities) of new media


• Understandings of new media collectives


• Politics of/in/surrounding new media


• Implications of new media on the intersecting spheres of law, regulation, commerce and politics


• New media beyond the first world.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

The unit is based upon a mixed mode of content delivery and unit assessment. Weekly readings and/or podcasts and seminars deliver core content, and weekly tutorials are scheduled to further explore key concepts. Unit materials such as lecture notes are made available on Blackboard. You are expected to maintain a regular reading program for this unit and develop a current awareness of the broader implications of new media. Part of your assessments will take place in the context of a collaborative online content development environment but you are also expected to be individually competent in the areas of individual research, critical analysis and writing.

Assessment

LATE ASSIGNMENTS
An assignment submitted after the due date without an approved extension will not be marked. If you are unable to complete your assignment on time, you should submit on time whatever work you have done.

Faculty Assessment Information
To access complete Creative Industries Faculty Assessment Information please refer to the Blackboard site for this unit.

Grading Scale - You will be awarded a final grade on a 1 to 7 scaleFORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
You are expected to complete three assessment tasks for this unit, one of which is formative as well as summative whilst the remaining two are summative. All of these are designed to fit into an integrated project that culminates in an individually developed issues study of a current new media issue. As an ongoing assessment, the wiki will also enable us to provide you with timely and constructive feedback on the quality of your work. Overall, the assessments will help us evaluate your ability to work with the material provided in the unit seminars, readings and discussion and crucially, also provide opportunity for you to experience and work formally on online content creation with others in the class. This will allow you to hone your skills in collaboration, interpersonal management and negotiation. Where ethical issues relating to online and offline collaboration arise, you will work to develop appropriate strategies for resolving problems and working in team situations.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
You will receive formative feedback on your progress in this unit during tutorials and discussions throughout the semester.
Weight 0%

Non-discriminatory language and visual representations
You are expected to use non-discriminatory, inclusive language in all assessment work. This is of particular importance in the collaborative work that you will be performing online. You should ensure that written and oral language, as well as visual representations, do not devalue, demean, or exclude individuals or groups on the basis of attributes such as gender, disability, culture, race, religion, sexuality, age, or physical appearance. In order to comply with QUT policy, students are advised to read QUT's policy and guidelines on non-discriminatory presentations and practices available from the QUT Equity Section.

Assessment name: Class Wiki
Description: The class will host its own wiki with the objective to compile a shared repository of information. The overall structure, function and management of the wiki is to be treated as a communal task, wherein individuals will accept responsibility for developing additional information, outside of the unit readings, on specific topics related to their chosen issue study. You are expected to participate in the process of discussion necessary to the professional operation of the wiki and make positive contributions to its overall success as a shared resource.
Relates to objectives: 4
Weight: 30%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Group
Due date: Late Semester

Assessment name: In-Class Project Pitch
Description: You are to prepare and present a brief pitch in class on the selected issue of your study as a precursor to the final piece of assessment for this unit, your issues study paper. Your task will be to convince your audience that the issue your study addresses merits consideration and attention.
Relates to objectives: 1 & 2
Weight: 20%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Mid Semester

Assessment name: Issues Study Paper
Description: You are to select and track a current new media issue developing in any of the worlds of connections, play, commerce and politics, and write a 3,000-word essay on how you understand the issue will develop, using the histories and theories on new media covered in the course of the unit.
Relates to objectives: 2 & 3
Weight: 50%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: End of Semester

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

Required Text(s):
All texts will be available through the unit Blackboard, CMD or WWW.

Recommended References:
Nil.

Risk assessment statement

There are no extraordinary risks associated with this unit.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 28-Mar-2013