The iMedia class of 2013 recently hosted its fourth annual, Day of Professional Development, Digital Identities here at Elon University.  Professionals from Capstrat, Response Mine Interactive, Tanger Outlets, and McKinney spent the day with our students advising, networking, discussing job opportunities, and the future of careers in a digital world.  The day began with a panel discussion, followed by a networking lunch.  For the first time, we took advantage of the newly renovated Student Professional Development Center and we hosted a lovely lunch outside on the piazza.  After lunch, students met individually with the professional of their choice to either participate in a mock interview or receive feedback on portfolios and résumés.

It was a great day of energy, ideas, friendship, good food, and looking ahead to the bright future all our, soon to graduate, iMedia students have ahead of them.

The takeaway from this event was some good advice.

Don’t over promise and under deliver -  relax -  make each interview count -  be prepared -  and ask good questions.   The takeaway here was intangible, unpredictable, and at the same time full of potential in a field that is growing and continuing to hire Elon iMedia graduates.

Converge!

Converge was so much fun!

I, along with eight other students — Dioni Wise, Audra Macri, Will Neff, Cory Watson, Marshall Beringer, Rachel Brent, Benjamin Robinson and Katie Nolan — were selected by our professors in the fall to attend ConvergeSE, a web development conference in Columbia, SC, this past weekend.

Along with Brad Berkner, we mingled with designers, front-end developers and coders. Unlike most other conferences, the speakers here generally gave an overview of their career and their work. But it didn’t seem completely self-serving — the vibe was more inspirational, pushing us to learn and take chances.

Some of us iMedia folks, including alums and faculty.

Converge SE had panels on development, design, front end, mobile and business, and we all scattered among those. One drawback was that neither the brochure nor the website had descriptions for any of the panels, so everything was a crapshoot. I lucked out on a “TBD” design talk by Mig Reyes, a designer at 37Signals who reiterated that design was a process and that we shouldn’t be afraid of the ugly — ugly is what gets us to the good stuff — but some of us ended up stuck in panels that weren’t as riveting, reiterating old concepts or just plain not being useful.

But in the end that didn’t matter. Most of us agreed that even if we didn’t learn a lot, we certainly had fun. The highlight was definitely “Tall Tales From a Large Man,” a traveling talk by Aaron Draplin, who’s done design work for the Obama administration and for Field Notes, among many others. His story illustrated exactly what hard work and luck and risk take you — around the country, doing great, interesting, fulfilling work and doing it your way.

There was another Obama employee — Josh Higgins, who was the reelection campaign’s design director. He underscored a lot of the principles we learned in iMedia — not just usability and design, but research, understanding your publics, and test test test. There’s a reason why Obama’s campaign was seen as the cutting edge: it used data to inform every decision, and everything was tested. Even just kerning the letters in the “Forward” logo took two days to do.

Both Higgins and Draplin were big names with an impressive body of work, but none of us knew that until they spoke. Just seeing their work and hearing their experience was something in itself — an opportunity, exposure to something we didn’t realize was out there. This reinforces another strength of the iMedia program, the opportunities we get to mingle with others across all different facets of interactive media and learn about things we never would have encountered on our own.

The conference was so much fun that I began to think about attending next year, even hitting up other conferences — an idea shared by some of my fellow iMedia attendees. This is the first year that iMedia students attended, and it’s definitely something that future students, if they get the opportunity, should do.

Last month I attended a conference in NYC to promote our iMedia program and, while in the city, I met with Ashley Dischinger, a 2011 graduate who now calls Manhattan home. We talked about so many wonderful things  – the city, her apartment, the neighborhoods she has discovered, and then the all important reason she went to NY to begin with – her new career.  Ashley answered my questions and then some….

“I work for VINDICO, an online video advertising-serving platform. Our company serves, tracks, and measures online video ad activity for many prominent campaigns, as well as provides in-depth reporting and analytics to our clients. My role as Graphic Designer allows me to work closely with agencies to repurpose campaigns into an interactive format. (Some examples) I design a lot of the formats from scratch, using mostly Photoshop and Illustrator.
Because I prep the static designs for our developers to build, I also have to envision how the user will ultimately be able to interact with the ad and then design based around that criteria.“

Ashley gives the interactive media program credit for helping her launch her career.

“I absolutely know that my graduate degree was the main reason that I’ve ended up in this position. Had I not had relatively strong training in Photoshop and design skills, as well as an overall understanding of how users interact with digital media, I wouldn’t last more than a minute in this position… or even, this industry! iMedia was a wonderful stepping stone to prepare me for a career in the digital creative world.

“I received my undergraduate degree in Journalism, with a minor in International Studies, at Elon. As an undergrad, I had been on track toward a career as a reporter in online journalism. I even interned at CBS Radio and spent my last year at Elon dreaming of becoming a Web Producer at the station after graduation. Still, something was pulling me towards iMedia. Of course as an undergrad in the School of Comm, I had heard plenty of good things about the program, and my curiosity got the best of me (and good thing it did!) I had always felt a passion for my undergrad classes that involved design and introduced me to the basics of Flash and the rest of the Adobe programs. I can’t explain it, but I just had a feeling that iMedia was the right choice because it could be my way to delve more into the digital media that fascinated me so much.

“In retrospect, I have a deep appreciation for the way the program was designed to balance production and theory classes. Obviously, a thorough knowledge of how to produce media in any of these programs is a crucial part of my day-to-day. However, the understanding of how users consume and interact with media is invaluable.  I apply that understanding to every format I am designing. What will users what to click on? How can I include the product information in a way that won’t overwhelm the user? What kind of animation can I apply without having the format turn “too busy?” These are all questions I can typically answer, based on the general theories we discussed in the program. Sure, I hated all the readings for theory classes at the time… but now I’m aware of how they apply in the reality of the industry!

And to those considering an iMedia degree?

“I have a lot of people approach me about potentially applying for iMedia, and they always ask me if I think it’s worth it. My answer every time is ABSOLUTELY. Don’t think of iMedia as strictly  a communications’ degree. The great thing about the program is, it allows you to take whatever your passions are, and mold the program to fit your needs. If you want to be a reporter, as I did, the program can guide you in the direction of interactive storytelling, for instance. The other great aspect of iMedia is you really never know where you might end up! If you keep an open mind during the first semester, your strengths and weaknesses will become clear to you… more importantly, what you are the most passionate about will shine through (sometimes without even realizing it!) I never in a million years thought I would end up as a graphic designer, but it became crystal clear after being on the design team for our winter term class that designing layouts in Photoshop is what makes me happiest. I guess what I’m getting at is that iMedia will expose you to a wide range of skill sets and knowledge, and it allows you to nail down what you love to do and run with it.”

THE IMEDIA FACULTY HOLD THE HIGHEST DEGREES IN THEIR FIELDS AND HAVE REVELANT REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE. BEING A GRADUATE OF THE PROGRAM, I WANTED TO PROFILE THE WONDERFUL FACULTY MEMBERS WHO HELP TO MAKE THE IMEDIA PROGRAM SO SUCCESSFUL.

Professor Phillip Motley has been with the iMedia program since it began in 2009. He completed his undergraduate degree at Davidson College and received his Master of Industrial Design at North Carolina State University. Professor Motley has industry experience as a multimedia designer, animator and art director. Before returning home to North Carolina, he taught design at University of Wisconsin-Stout.

All students take Professor Motley’s Visual Aesthetics class in the fall semester of the program. He will stretch your creative side and teach you that good design is about problem solving.

Professor Phillip Motley and his fly-in group in Costa Rica

How has your background influenced what you teach in the interactive media program?
My background is in art and design informs much of what I do in the iMedia program. Though I’m not trained in communications and mass media, the skills and experience that I have as a visual designer are useful to iMedia students who want to work in some way with interactive media, which is inherently visual in so many ways. In the iMedia program, I mostly teach visual aesthetics and design related topics so that type of background comes into play all the time.

Is there a college class or experience that has most influenced your teaching philosophy?
I think the most important influence on my teaching has been the varied nature of teaching experiences that I’ve had. I taught a little bit during graduate school; taught for four years in an Art & Design program to BFA students; and now teaching in a Communications program. I think that the chance to teach so many different types of students has helped me out with my teaching style and with my comfort in front of the class. My graduate school experience (the College of Design at North Carolina State University) really hammered home the idea of process which I’m big on trying to instill in my students.

What is your favorite thing about teaching iMedia students?
 My favorite thing about iMedia students is their willingness to jump right in on Day 1 and never look back. They are generally unafraid to express their views and opinions which is a nice contrast to many undergraduate students. I also really like the breadth of undergraduate degrees that they bring with them to the program. It’s refreshing to teach students who know a lot about so many things.

What is your favorite topic to teach iMedia students?
I enjoy teaching iMedia students about typography and about motion design. I really enjoy talking to them about narrative construction and storytelling. That’s an exciting area for communications students to focus on and is one that I believe will always be valuable. I’m always conflicted about wanting more time to dig into the technology aspect of much of what I teach. The fast-paced nature of the program and the course that I teach them in the fall (Visual Aesthetics) doesn’t allow for too much in-class time dealing with that aspect—and thus puts the onus on the students to figure out a lot of the inner workings of the software tools that they use. This works—and in the long run probably makes the students stronger at problem solving and being self-sufficient—but I do enjoy showing students how things work. Even though the summer course they take in August, Digital Media Workshop, is fast-paced and very much about tools, I enjoy it because it satisfies that side of my teaching interests.

How will the skills you are teaching translate to the future?
I think that most of the visual stuff we talk about in my classes are universal themes that are usable in a wide range of activities and occupations. Good design is good design regardless of where and how it is employed. The same is true of storytelling. We all love a good story and, for many of us, it’s the mechanism that we learn best from.

What would your students be surprised to learn about you?
That my daughter’s (Mackie) middle name is Nicole for the ridiculous reason of wanting her initials to be “MNM”

What is your favorite thing about living in North Carolina?
My favorite thing about being in the piedmont region of NC is how close we are to both the mountains and the beach. I know everyone says this, but it’s true. I grew up in the eastern part of the state (New Bern) so the coast is a special place for me. At the same time, I love the outdoors and grew up camping, backpacking and white water canoeing with my family so the mountains are also a big draw for me. Being relatively close to both is really nice.

Thanks for sharing a little bit about yourself, Professor Motley!

Sometimes it seems that capstone gets all the love.

Well, not quite. It certainly seems to get the most press when it comes to talking about the program. But the dirty little secret of second semester is that we have other classes, and they take up a lot of our time.

Only two students among our group of 26 are taking an internship this semester, but even they take two classes outside of capstone. While our fall semester was regimented, our spring semester is made up of options. Essentially, every class outside of our capstone is an elective.

This year, we had five choices: Application Development, Media Management and Economics, Intellectual Property Law, Public Opinion in New Media,  Multimedia Storytelling, and the Converge Practicum, which was admission-only. The nine students who secured a spot will be heading to the Converge Southeast Conference in a month.

Under the direction of Brad Berkner, the Converge students have been working on a campaign to raise awareness of the iMedia graduate program to Elon undergraduates. We surveyed undergrads to see how they found out about events on campus, what technologies they used and what they knew of the iMedia program if they had heard about it, as well as interview alums to see what their thoughts were. We took this information and began to brainstorm some ideas that would describe iMedia in an accurate yet compelling way, designing logos and shooting footage for a 30-second clip that will be featured on a one-page website later this semester. We have started presenting workshops to undergrads on topics like basic web design and search engine optimization.

Harlen Makemson’s Multimedia Storytelling class is largely a workshop, where students work on a different open-source tool every few weeks to create short stories. A part of the class is to identify and share other tools, resources, and examples of digital storytelling. There is so much great stuff out there – highlights have included the wedding site of Jessica Hische  and Russ Maschmeyer, Coal: A Love Story, Interactive Narratives, and the UNC Digital Story Lab.

We have discovered that there are so many different ways to tell compelling stories, and that each tool has its strengths and weaknesses. Most of the new tools tried in class so far – Zeega, Meograph and Mozilla’s Popcorn Maker – are only a few months old, and are still very buggy, much to our consternation.

Public Opinion in New Media might be a theory class, but Professor Kenn Gaither is all about application. Despite freaking everyone out by having a midterm and a final (!), he tests us on concepts and challenges us to put them into practice. To illustrate social proof, groups of students slowly had to go outside and stare at the flagpole, while others recorded actions of passersby – to see how others would react. He also gave everyone 45 minutes to come up with a strategic campaign for the National Sleep Foundation, and we had an enjoyable discussion on the PBS Frontline special The Persuaders, all about the advertising industry. Within a week of viewing the film, Slate published an article discrediting one of the featured leaders, French marketing executive Clotaire Rapaille. How’s that for relevant? We’ve also had passionate discussions and analysis around coverage of issues in the Middle East and in India. Considering we all barely passed his first-day quiz of basic international issues, we’re all glad to be exposed to such interesting and topical content, making our class that much better.

Intellectual Property Law was an intense half-semester course, where students were given a survey of communications law — copyright, trademark, patent, privacy, fair use and internet piracy. This class was anything but boring — we got to make our own syllabus, and every class offered a different shape configuration of seats. Like Professor Gaither, Brooke Barnett made sure that we could apply our understanding of the laws and apply and interpret them. We had to think about where we stood on issues, and some of us were surprisingly conservative or liberal in how we applied them. Like Public Opinion, this class was discussion-based, but the cases were very interesting and the goal was for students to feel comfortable in understanding how to use content.

Media Management and Economics is co-taught by Connie Book and Jack Stanley, a 45-year executive at Time Warner Cable, now retired. Each session, he goes over current events of the past few days, as we discuss shifting television patterns and greater reliance on mobiles and tablets. The bottom line for us, whether we will be content creators or managers (or both), is that everything comes down to money. That might be obvious, but for many communications majors, it’s worth repeating.

For a good portion of the semester, we will be focusing on one case study: the Google Fiber broadband push in Kansas City.  Being iMedia students, we are often so surrounded by technology and live this life so fully that it’s hard for us to sometimes understand that there are people out there who have no interest and see no use for something we consider so necessary: the Internet. Google plans to expand broadband – high speed access – to areas that do not have it, for an affordable price. The company picked Kansas City (both the Missouri and Kansas locations) because they felt it was a real growth opportunity.

And last but not least, students got Google Analytics certified. We are all very excited to put this on our resume, as we know how important metrics are to understanding the role of content and audience to a message, thanks to our professors!

With all the talk of mobile, iMedia would be remiss if it didn’t offer a class on application development. Taught by Brian Walsh, our HMTL and CSS instructor, his Application Development class first made web-based applications — essentially websites designed for mobile phones — and then geolocation apps, where they were able to detect a user’s location, add custom points, and populate the map with nearby businesses and landmarks. We will now be accessing APIs, which means our applications can power the camera on the phone, and have begun working on final project ideas, where everyone will make a very simple app showcasing some aspect of basic data, like pictures and descriptions.

Last week, three accomplished representatives from the Greensboro branch of Pace Communications, including iMedia alumna Bettina Johnson, enlightened us about content marketing for the Thursday Afternoon Special.

President Craig Waller digs iMedia students, and I know some of us fell in love with Pace’s work and mission on Thursday.

Waller said, “You come much more accomplished and you’ve got a much broader skill set, obviously.”

Thanks, sir. And why didn’t I intern with you this semester?

Waller said the increasing importance of content creation for brands has been great for Pace. Pace is in the eye of the hurricane, he said.

“The digital world started transforming our business because not only was it an easy and cheap way of reaching customers, but it is also an easy way to measure,” he said.

Brands as media owners isn’t going away, Waller said,  using Coca Cola as an example. Jobs at brands exist for iMedia students that didn’t five years ago, he said.

Bettina said her experience working at Pace is similar to the iMedia experience because she has to work with so many people with different skill sets.

“You kind of have to know how to talk the right language to get these projects done,” she said.

Kevin Briody, vice president of digital strategy, taught us about Pace’s integrated approach to creating and publishing content for clients, such as Verizon Wireless and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and how they measure their campaigns with analytics. Then Bettina gave us a quick run-through of how she uses Sysomos to conduct real-time social media monitoring and analytics.

Content marketers must know what content to push and when, Briody said.

“You can churn and burn a ton of content, but it is marrying the art and the experience.” – Kevin Briody 

DIONI L. WISE IS A FORMER NEWSPAPER REPORTER WHO WANTS TO ENHANCE HER SKILLS IN MULTIMEDIA STORYTELLING AND DIGITAL MEDIA STRATEGY. SHE HAS A KNACK FOR DOING CARTWHEELS AND TURNING MUNDANE PHRASES INTO SONGS.

“’I know you. You’re in my search results’,” he recalled the man saying.

Mark Traphagen discusses Google Authorship at the SEO Roadshow hosted by the iMedia program on March 1. (Photo by Iris Maslow, iMedia ’13)

“It was my first moment of being Internet famous,” Traphagen said.

Traphagen, director of digital outreach of the Raleigh-based agency Virante, is listed in more than 32,000 Google Plus circles.

You read that correctly. 32,000.

Traphagen (@marktraphagen) and fellow SEO superstar Phil Buckley (@1918), SEO director at Virante, shared their insights with the iMedia community last Thursday about how to improve a personal or business brand’s web presence through search engine optimization.

“You have to think of leading Google through your site like a blind five-year-old.” – Phil Buckley

Associate Professor Amanda Sturgill invited Buckley and Traphagen to move their wildly successful SEO Roadshow from Raleigh to Elon. The current students, alumni and other guests were honored they agreed.

Here are some of top things from the session:

1. It’s imperative that web developers and SEO specialists have experience in each other’s fields to improve communication and collaboration.
2. Search engines want to know more about a page through metadata. Think about all the data on your page and let search engines know what’s the context of that data. Buckley: “You have to think of leading Google through your site like a blind five-year-old.”
3. Your code should be as much a thing as art as graphic design. Keep it clean and organized.
4. Use web-based tools to improve your code, such as Schematic.org and SEO-browser.com. The first adds additional metadata to your page. The latter helps you examine and understand the component parts of a Web page. It shows you what the like looks like to search engines.
5. Validate your sites using Validation.w3.org because it’s one more thing that Google likes, and shows that the site is well-maintained. The Google Webmaster Team considers validation when determining a site’s quality.
6. Learn how to effectively use Google Plus. Just do it. Be like Traphagen and join more than 32,000 circles.
7. Pay attention to Google Authorship and Author Rank. Traphagen said, “It’s Google’s identity engine.” Google authorship allows an individual content creator to establish who they are and connect their face to all of the content they made.
8. Why is Google Authorship important. It makes sure search results stand out. “And nothing stands out more than a human face.” This could be a huge factor in search later. Companies will want to feature authors who have high social capital and a large web presence and reach.
9. When networking, leverage your existing connections by calling them every once in a while. Do something memorable. Buckley passes out French coins from 1918 instead of business cards.
10. Build authority online by creating content. Traphagen: “The content that you create becomes a calling card for you.”

Want to read more? Chip McCraw, who attended the event, collected key #SEOatElon tweets on Storify.

Phil Buckley gives tips on search engine optimization at the SEO Roadshow at Elon on March 1. (Photo by Iris Maslow, iMedia ’13)

Elon iMedia students listen intently to SEO enthusiasts Mark Traphagen and Phil Buckley at the SEO Roadshow on March 1. (Photo by Iris Maslow, iMedia ’13)

DIONI L. WISE IS A FORMER NEWSPAPER REPORTER WHO WANTS TO ENHANCE HER SKILLS IN MULTIMEDIA STORYTELLING AND DIGITAL MEDIA STRATEGY. SHE HAS A KNACK FOR DOING CARTWHEELS AND TURNING MUNDANE PHRASES INTO SONGS.

The faculty members in the iMedia program hold the highest degrees in their fields and have revelant real-world experience. Being a graduate of the program, I wanted to profile the wonderful faculty members who help to make the iMedia program so successful.

Professor Qian Xu is a dedicated professor and usability expert. She grew up in Nanjing, China and completed her undergraduate and master’s degrees at Nanjing University. Professor Xu then moved to Shanghai to work for Newegg in the online marketing department. She then relocated to Penn State to complete her Ph.D.

Lucky for Elon, Professor Xu was hired a little over two years ago to teach interactive media strategies. One of the highlights of the class is developing a user experience test, which is her favorite thing to teach.  I was lucky to have Professor Xu as a teacher and capstone adviser.

How has your background influenced what you teach in the interactive media program?
I received my Ph. D  in media effects, focusing on the influence of online technology. I conducted a series of research on user experience with interactive media in my graduate studies, which contributed a lot to my teaching interests in user experience, user-centered design, and usability testing. My past working experience with the online marketing department for an e-commerce company also sparked my research and teaching interests in tracking and analyzing user behaviors.

Is there a college class or experience that has most influenced your teaching philosophy?
Not really. But I believe in that “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Therefore, I tried to avoid teaching hard facts in class but discuss more about the ways of thinking.

What is your favorite thing about teaching iMedia students?
iMedia students are a very vibrant group. Students come with very different backgrounds that bring a lot of interesting perspectives into class discussions.

How will the skills you are teaching translate to the future?
User experience and user-centered design are the trends of interaction design. Understanding users’ needs and responses is crucial for designing successful interfaces. The user testing tools and methods that the students will learn in my class for assessing user experience and eliciting user response towards the interface will assist them to gain helpful insights for the interactive projects.

What would your students be surprised to learn about you?
There is not really anything surprising about me. But they might be surprised to learn that the theory class is not that boring and can be quite approachable. The things that they will learn in my class will shed light on practical interface design.

What is your favorite thing to do on the weekend in the Triad?
Cooking and walking. I am recently became interested in Thai cooking and experimenting with curry and coconut milk. I like Lake Mackintosh in Guildford County. They have a nice 3-mile walking trail which I walk often.

Thank you for all of your insights, Professor Xu!

I have been fortunate in the past few days to be able to talk to several iMedia alums on their thoughts on the program, now that they have some distance from it.

By far the iMedia program’s biggest strength and weakness is its 10-month structure. Yes, we get out fast compared to most other master’s programs and we certainly work hard, but as many of us are discovering, it’s not enough time to really master a tool or a technology, to fully grasp all the fundamentals. For many of us, it’s the first time we’re really exposed to design principles or how to edit photos professionally, and we may not have had the opportunity to explore as much as we wanted throughout the school year. iMedia is very much an interdisciplinary and overarching program, introducing us to a lot of things in a short time.

In looking at other master’s programs that cover one aspect of the iMedia program (art, design, journalism, communication, marketing, web development, digital media, branding), many of us discovered that what makes iMedia unique is not just its structure – 10-month programs aren’t that unusual anymore – but that it is so broad. Most other graduate programs that touch on “interactive media” – however that term is defined – are siloed, very specialized.

The key is to make the degree work for us. Allie Boardman ’11 suggested twisting the degree to emphasize the portions of it that fit best with what we want – if you want a tech job, focus on that aspect and downplay the theory, while those interested in strategy or project management emphasize the holistic media approach and the more traditional graduate classes. You won’t be a master unless you go outside of what you’re being taught, she said.

Several students have already gotten that message, working on projects and gigs outside of schoolwork to gain greater familiarity with something of interest. For Anna Davis, that means working on web design for outside clients. “The only way I know how to learn is by doing,” she said, adding that with outside projects, you don’t have the same type of deadlines as you do in an academic setting.

Others pick up cameras and recording equipment, trying to integrate photography or film production into a jam-packed schedule, or design and code websites for interested parties. Some people take leadership roles, looking to become project managers. Allie is in a project management role, and she says the well-rounded nature of the degree means she understands the process and work that goes into each element, adding that she can communicate between all the parties involved.

Sometimes we do get an opportunity to explore something we’ve always wanted to do for projects outside of class. iMedia students plan our exhibition of capstone work at the end of the year. I finally get the chance to use social media for a real cause, something my previous employers weren’t interested in, while Ruth Eckles and Audra Macri get to produce the videos that will grace the website that Rachell Carroll, Jake Amberg, Madeline Chapin and Will Neff get to build and design. All of them have indicated their interest in these areas and many of them have worked on outside projects to build up their production portfolio.

Each of us can add these experiences to our resume and can continue to hone our skills in these areas after graduation. Jackie Hartley ’11 echoed that the degree does give you the tools for you to specialize, and that you’ll have to become an expert in your particular field in your own time.

David A. Kennedy ’10 said that working with clients helps with time-management and introduces you to a broader work of working with others in an agency-type setting. Along with Allie and Andrew Mauney ‘12, he stressed networking. Allie was one of the students who did an internship during the spring semester, and she suggested finding an area where you want to work and then trying to build a network in that region. Brittany Ison ’12, who works in Burlington, reiterated many of the things our professors have told us: that putting in the extra hour or two on a project will make a big difference, especially when it comes to our portfolio, and in the end, that’s what matters.

Above all, the alums emphasize one thing: learning. For Lou Tuffillaro ’12, his capstone project was an exercise in execution and planning for deadlines. For Caitlin Smith ‘11, it was about process. Mitch Donovan ’11 echoes a tagline often used in iMedia marketing: “You learn how to learn.” While we may not be saying that exact phrase, we know what he means: tutorials, Googling, talking to others, using what resources we have, and experimentation.

Wherever we’re headed, we all know that interactive media is always being redefined. Not just the tools and the technology, but even accepted best practices and established theories. We’re being prepared to recognize when they are and how to adapt.

Fact.  Elon University’s  School of Communications has created a leading edge master of arts program and students are landing jobs after graduation. Great jobs.

Matt Duncan is a Multimedia Designer with NASA in Washington DC.  He has combined his skills and passion, found a great job in an exciting city and took time to meet with me and share his words of wisdom about Elon’s Interactive Media program.

“After graduating from North Carolina A&T State University with my degree in Graphic Design I was looking for a master’s program where I could grow my skills in digital media, digital marketing, and social media. Elon’s iMedia program allowed me to study and gain knowledge of all of these disciplines. Another reason I decided to attend Elon was because of the facilities and incentives the program provides. Having all the Adobe software for free, and given to me when the program began, was a huge benefit for my life after Elon. I was able to land internships/jobs because I had my own laptop with the software I needed.

“My interactive master’s degree has made a significant impact in my career. It allowed me to gain the skill sets needed to become a well-rounded graphic designer by mastering web design, film and photography, and motion design. It also added additional skill sets I did not have before such as, project management, social media, and digital marketing. 

“I would recommend the iMedia program to others because of the versatility it offers and the up to date training you receive on current trends in the industry. There are many different avenues you can take in this program. If you are undecided on what you want to do this program exposes you to different projects and assignments and helps you find your right path. The digital media industry changes so frequently, learning from professors who worked in the industry and still have connections is such a big help. 

“My advice for current and prospective iMedia students is to make sure you use the resources that Elon has to offer. Elon has some of the best professors you will ever have. Take time out to pick their brain and gain valuable insight. Also make sure that you speak with people in Career Services as much as possible. They can help you with your transition for your life after graduate school. Ross Wade is best career guidance counselor! Make him your best friend.”

Visiting Matt at NASA was fantastic.  He is creating, contributing, and continuing to prove the strengths and benefits of our iMedia program.