Immersive Digital Media - BSc (Hons)

Program Overview

The Immersive Digital Media program at TUS prepares students to create and develop innovative immersive digital content through studio-based project work and industry work placement. Graduates develop skills in 3D modeling, animation, mobile application development, and immersive technologies, leading to careers in industries such as gaming, web design, and virtual/augmented reality.

Program Outline

Immersive Digital Media – BSc (Hons) - TUS

Degree Overview:

This program provides students with the knowledge and practical experience of industry-standard tools and technologies to create innovative immersive digital content and build it into exciting immersive experiences. Students develop these skillsets primarily through studio-based project work and work placement in industry.

Objectives:

Students will learn to:

• Build Apps, Games, Websites, Animations, 3D Models, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality experiences, and many other immersive reality applications.
• Work with various devices such as Oculus Quest VR headsets, DSLR cameras, 360° cameras, tablets, smart phones, wearable technology, games consoles, Arduinos, etc.

Outline:

The program is a four-year, full-time undergraduate degree. It is structured into four academic years, with each year containing a set of modules.

Year 1:

• Computer Mathematics: This module provides students with fundamental mathematical concepts encountered in the study of computing.
• Digital Storytelling: This module allows learners to understand, analyze, and investigate digital storytelling and apply theory and empirical knowledge development with visual media creation.
• Digital Video: This module introduces learners to the necessary creative, research, and technical skills required to originate and develop digital video material (including linear video, interactive video, and immersive 360 video) for multimedia output.
• Interpersonal Skills: This module helps learners communicate proficiently in a professional context.
• Ludology & Gameplay: This module provides learners with a foundation and fundamental knowledge of the primary concepts of ludology and game play.
Learners will understand what defines a “game” and the mechanics and rules behind different types.
• Problem Solving & Programming Fundamentals: This module equips students with the fundamental components and structures of programming and develops student problem-solving skills.
• Programming Fundamentals: This module equips students with the fundamental components and structures of programming.
• User Interface Design Fundamentals: This module provides learners with a foundation and fundamental knowledge of User Interface Design (UI) and User Experience (UX).
• Visual Design Practice: This module provides learners with a foundation and fundamental knowledge of visual design practice.
Emphasis will be placed on visual/graphical creation and design.
• Advanced Object Oriented Programming: Learners will develop applications that use polymorphism, interfaces, and abstract classes.
• Front-End Development: This module covers the development of the front-end of a web application, which is visible to users and takes the form of an interface inviting the user to interact with the application.
• Immersive Technology Foundations: This module gives students the foundation knowledge and skills necessary to design and develop immersive technology experiences using industry-standard software and hardware tools such as Unity3D.
Learners will also develop their programming and problem-solving skills.
• Networking & Cloud Foundations: This module begins with a grounding in basic networking and then provides students with an overall understanding of the public cloud, independent of specific technical roles.
• Professional Branding & Development: This module connects students’ education in the program and their previous experiences to their internship/placement or post-graduation goals.
• Server Side Scripting: This module covers the creation of web applications using a popular server-side scripting language with a framework.
• UI/UX Prototyping: This module explores the User Experience (UX) design paradigm from a broad perspective, emphasizing how user research and prototype assessment can be integrated into different phases of the design process.

Year 3:

• Digital Media Group Project: This module provides the skills necessary to work effectively as a team member on a digital media project.
• Web Application Development: This module provides the knowledge and skills to construct and deploy small-to-medium scale web applications found in intranet and low-volume commercial sites.
• Advanced Mobile Application Development (Elective): Learners will develop the knowledge and skills required to critically evaluate, design, and develop advanced mobile applications.
• Advanced Programming Concepts: This module is intended to expose students to the advanced features of modern programming practice.
• Enterprise Development (Elective): The student will acquire skills to help them to develop and manage an Enterprise/startup (Finance, Marketing, Business Plan).
• Entrepreneurship (Elective): This module analyzes fundamental concepts of entrepreneurship.
The aim is to introduce students to the entrepreneurial process and to equip them with skills to help them become entrepreneurs/intrapreneurs.
• Human Factors for Immersive Technology: This module covers the science concerned with the application of what we know about people, their abilities, characteristics, and limitations to the design of equipment they use, environments in which they function.
• Immersive Programming Techniques: This module provides learners with skills and in-depth knowledge required to build dynamic immersive applications.
• Innovative Technologies & Future Skills (Elective): In this module, students will develop their transversal skills by working collaboratively with other students, teachers, guest lecturers, and other stakeholders to develop innovative technological solutions to solve complex, real-world problems.
• Major Digital Media Project: This project aims to give learners an opportunity to apply the techniques of research, design thinking, interpretation, interaction/immersive design, project management, digital media technology, and programming learned over the duration of the course, and to use their own creativity and skillset in constructing a working digital media application that either informs, educates, persuades, or entertains.
• Secure Public Cloud Services (Elective): Learners will analyze the main principles of cloud computing and how they have been implemented in modern cloud providers such as AWS.
However, it is stated that students develop their skills primarily through studio-based project work and work placement in industry.

Careers:

TUS digital media graduates work for companies such as Jaguar-Landrover, Johnson & Johnson, Icon, Salesforce, and Yahoo. In positions such as:

• Unity Developer
• Web Designer/Developer
• Games Developer
• UI/UX Designer
• Technical 3D Artist
• Media Designer

Other:

• The program offers the opportunity to gain Professional Computing Certification (Adobe, Microsoft, etc.)
as part of the studies.
• Students can complete industry projects and take part in competitions as part of their studies.
• Students undertake a six-month industry work placement in year 3 as part of their studies.
• Students can travel and study in another European country under the Erasmus program.