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Module UXS-1055:
Digital Communication

Module Facts

Run by School of Languages, Literatures, Linguistics and Media

20 Credits or 10 ECTS Credits

Semester 1

Organiser: Mr Jordan Glendenning

Overall aims and purpose

The module introduces students to key ideas and current scholarship regarding the relationships between information, technology, and communication. Students consider what information is, how it is crafted, measured, valued, bought, sold, delivered, shared and communicated as well as the impact of the digital on information. The module will prepare students for further study in years 2 and 3 in new media, interactive design and communication, media studies and game studies.

Course content

The module looks includes a study of information theory in which students engage models for understanding concepts that include data, pattern, similarity of differences, information, structure, design, and communication. Students also explore the history and technology of the internet and the web, the communication models that have grown from them, and the relationship between these channels and the production, delivery, sharing and sale of information. The model includes a practical element in which students work with various software tools to engage with tools and technologies for information design/presentation; this includes background to the main types of information software available and some of the principles that inform them.

Assessment Criteria

excellent

(A)

  • Comprehensive knowledge
  • Detailed understanding
  • Extensive background study
  • Highly focussed answer and well structured
  • Logically presented and defended arguments
  • No factual/computational errors
  • Original interpretation
  • New links between topics are developed
  • New approach to a problem
  • Excellent presentation with very accurate communication

threshold

(D)

  • Knowledge of key areas/principles only
  • Weaknesses in understanding of main areas
  • Limited evidence of background study
  • Answer only poorly focussed on question and with some irrelevant material and poor structure
  • Arguments presented but lack coherence
  • Several factual/computational errors
  • No original interpretation
  • Only major links between topics are described
  • Limited problem solving
  • Many weaknesses in presentation and accuracy

good

(C) Good

  • Knowledge of key areas/principles
  • Understands main areas
  • Limited evidence of background study
  • Answer focussed on question but also with some irrelevant material and weaknesses in structure
  • Arguments presented but lack coherence
  • Has several factual/computational errors
  • No original interpretation
  • Only major links between topics are described
  • Limited problem solving
  • Some weaknesses in presentation and accuracy

(B) Very Good

  • Strong knowledge
  • Understands most but not all
  • Evidence of background study
  • Focussed answer with good structure
  • Arguments presented coherently
  • Mostly free of factual/computational errors
  • Some limited original interpretation
  • Well known links between topics are described
  • Problems addressed by existing methods/approaches
  • Good presentation with accurate communication

Learning outcomes

  1. understanding and use of key terms in information theory

  2. understanding of the role of technology in terms of media production, content manipulation, distribution, access and use

  3. an understanding of the audio, visual and verbal conventions through which sounds, images and words make meaning

  4. an understanding of the history of communication and media technologies, and a recognition of the different ways in which the history of, and current developments in, media and communication can be understood in relation to technological change

  5. an ability to make technical and aesthetic choices in the production and transmission of information and an awareness of the possibilities and constraints involved in digital production processes

Assessment Methods

Type Name Description Weight
Website 60
Presentation 40

Teaching and Learning Strategy

Hours
Workshop

Workshop: 2 hours per week

22
Lecture

Lecture: 1 hour per week

 11
Private study 167

Transferable skills

  • Literacy - Proficiency in reading and writing through a variety of media
  • Computer Literacy - Proficiency in using a varied range of computer software
  • Self-Management - Able to work unsupervised in an efficient, punctual and structured manner. To examine the outcomes of tasks and events, and judge levels of quality and importance
  • Exploring - Able to investigate, research and consider alternatives
  • Information retrieval - Able to access different and multiple sources of information
  • Inter-personal - Able to question, actively listen, examine given answers and interact sensitevely with others
  • Critical analysis & Problem Solving - Able to deconstruct and analyse problems or complex situations. To find solutions to problems through analyses and exploration of all possibilities using appropriate methods, rescources and creativity.
  • Argument - Able to put forward, debate and justify an opinion or a course of action, with an individual or in a wider group setting
  • Self-awareness & Reflectivity - Having an awareness of your own strengths, weaknesses, aims and objectives. Able to regularly review, evaluate and reflect upon the performance of yourself and others

Subject specific skills

  • An understanding of creative and critical processes, and of the wide range of skills inherent in creative writing. (NAWE Creative Writing Benchmark Statement 3.1).
  • Artistic engagement and ability to articulate complex ideas in oral and written forms. (NAWE Creative Writing Benchmark Statement 3.2).
  • Ability to connect creative and critical ideas between and among forms, techniques and types of creative and critical praxis. (NAWE Creative Writing Benchmark Statement 3.2; English Benchmark Statement 3.2).
  • Awareness of how different social and cultural contexts affect the nature of language and meaning (English Benchmark Statement 3.2).
  • Reflective practitioner skills, including awareness of the practice of others in collaborative learning (NAWE Creative Writing Benchmark Statement 3.2; English Benchmark Statement 3.2).
  • The ability to synthesize information from various sources, choosing and applying appropriate concepts and methods (English Benchmark Statement 3.3).
  • Ability to formulate and solve problems, anticipate and accommodate change, and work within contexts of ambiguity, uncertainty and unfamiliarity (NAWE Creative Writing Benchmark Statement 3.2; English Benchmark Statement 3.3).
  • Ability to engage in processes of drafting and redrafting texts to achieve clarity of expression and an appropriate style. (English Benchmark Statement 3.3; NAWE Creative Writing Benchmark Statement 3.2).
  • Ability to gather information, analyse, interpret and discuss different viewpoints (NAWE Creative Writing Benchmark Statement 3.2; English Benchmark Statement 3.3).
  • Information technology (IT) skills broadly understood and the ability to access, work with and evaluate electronic resources (NAWE Creative Writing Benchmark Statement 3.2; English Benchmark Statement 3.3).

Courses including this module

Compulsory in courses:

Optional in courses: