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School of Informatics

MA / MSc Electronic Publishing
Course content for 2010 entry

The syllabus of the course reflects the multi-disciplinary nature of interactive media publishing. The first term's teaching comprises core modules that cover: the creation of written and aural content, usability, and technical knowledge and skills required by web publishers. The first term also includes a module on Master's level research skills - an essential pre-requisite for the project/dissertation that students complete in the summer.

In the second term students are free to choose from a number of more specialist modules covering the many disciplines involved in the art and practice of electronic publishing including web application development and e-commerce.

The course has excellent links with industry. See our graduates' employment record and the guest speakers who have shared their expertise with our students.


4 core module(s):

Click on a module title to display key features.
Information Architecture
  • Web analytics
  • Search, metadata and users' information-seeking behaviour
  • Website organization and navigation schemes
  • Key design documents in the IA process
  • Knowledge of content management and e-commerce systems
  • Introduction to system specification
  • Introduction to databases
Interaction Design
  • Demonstrate detailed understanding of the importance of usability and the consequences of poor usability for interactive systems
  • Identify the theoretical foundations in cognitive psychology for human-computer interaction
  • Critically evaluate a user-centred design process for interactive systems, including analysis, design and evaluation activities
  • Interpret HCI principles and guidelines, applying them to a variety of situations
Research, Methods and Professional Issues
  • Research activity in terms of the effectiveness of its approach and implementation
  • Understand and apply a range of research methodologies such as inductive and deductive reasoning, explanation and prediction in the evaluation of published research
  • Recognise and use a range of secondary data sources when performing a research task
  • Communicate effectively with individuals and groups using a range of media
  • Evaluate the legal, ethical and professional dimensions of typical information professions and information industry practices
Writing & Editing for Electronic Media
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the origins and characteristics of interactive media
  • Locate and analyse information about the audience for electronic publications and make appropriate decisions about the subject matter and style of textual content for those publications
  • Create and format textual content for electronic publications
  • Write, record, digitise, edit and stream a short audio package
  • Be aware of the genres of textual content in electronic publications including emerging styles such as blogs and wikis.

choose 4 elective module(s) from the following list:

Click on a module title to display key features.
Cognition and Technologies
  • Explain different approaches to user-centred design, design lifecycles, and evaluation of interfaces, usability and terminology used in human-computer interaction
  • Discuss the perceptual and cognitive capabilities of users and how these influence use of interfaces
  • Undertake analyses of planned or existing interfaces with techniques such as GOMS and Task Analysis
  • Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the state-of-the art practices and leading academic research that are aimed at addressing the range of Human-Computer Interaction issues
Data visualization
  • Create graphics and applications that reveal the structure in data sets.
  • Apply the seven stages of visualization to analyse and present data graphically.
  • Use 'Processing' -- the open source programming language and environment -- to develop interactive graphical applications for visualization.
Databases
  • Identify the key issues relating to the management of relational database systems and object-oriented database systems
  • Model the logical structure of database systems using different data models
  • Analyse data and document structures using different models
  • Create and query relational databases using SQL
  • Evaluate the new developments in data and document handling systems and understand their practical applications and implications
Design & Layout for Electronic Media
  • Analyse and respond to a creative brief using appropriate visual metaphors
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the principles of layout and composition including the use of the grid system
  • Use web editing packages, HTML mark-up and stylesheets to compose and layout web pages
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the principles of typography and use graphics packages and web technologies to format type
  • Create or scan and edit digital images for use in electronic publications
Electronic Commerce
  • Explain the use of business models in the development and evaluation of an e-commerce application
  • Design e-commerce applications supporting user registration, profiling,payments, and secure transactions
  • Apply internet technologies such as HTML, Javascript, MySQL and PHP to implement e-commerce activities
  • Evaluate problem solutions best suitable for a specific e-commerce application
Information Law and Policy
  • Identify the legal principles underlying specific information issues
  • Demonstrate a professional understanding of the use of relevant information law to help provide accurate information
  • Critically evaluate and analyse information policies and their legal expression.
Multimedia Design and Development
  • Demonstrate the importance of planning in a multimedia production environment and some of the tools and techniques used e.g. storyboarding and navigation charts; evaluate techniques used to capture, edit, store and present multimedia data, in particular images and movies
  • Demonstrate competencies in the use of a widely used multimedia authoring tool e.g. Macromedia Flash; evaluate the issues involved in multimedia delivery on the World Wide Web
  • Use a multimedia scripting language to add further interactivity to their applications.
Open Source Systems
  • Evaluate the usefulness of open source systems to solve real world problems, by drawing upon known case studies
  • Critically analyse the open source software development process, its opportunities and problems in developing IT systems, with a particular focus on the individuals and organisations involved; compare and contrast open and closed source software development, by referring to established opportunites and difficulties in developing IT systems
  • Assess open source systems from the legal, ethical and ideological perspectives
Web Applications Development
  • Understand the principles of operation of web-based applications and databases
  • Understand up-to-date web technologies; learn about the tools available to develop web-based applications
  • Develop true client and server applications that will render correctly on any browser, on any platform

The Departments' computing equipment and network are maintained by a dedicated Technical Support Team provided by the School of Informatics.


Students also have access to the Department of Journalism's audiovisual and computing facilities, comprising:


Note: The University reserves the right to make changes in syllabuses, programme options and modules as necessary.