THE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGY

PERIODIC PROGRAM REVIEW

Submitted with the approval of the Humanities Department Chair Written by: Associate Professor James L. Richardson 2013

2006 -2012

Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 2

Section I - Issues, Trends, and Program Challenges .................................................................................. 2

Section II. Key Data Elements .................................................................................................................. 5

Enrollment trends ................................................................................................................................. 5

Graduation, Retention, and Transfer .................................................................................................... 6

Full-time/part-time faculty ratio ......................................................................................................... 10

Industry Outlook ................................................................................................................................. 10

Section III. Educational Goals of the Program........................................................................................ 13

A. Programmatic Competencies ......................................................................................................... 13

B. General Education Core Competencies .......................................................................................... 15

C. Transferability, Placement, and Advisement .................................................................................. 16

Section IV. Student Learning Outcomes ................................................................................................ 16

A. Overall student learning and development .................................................................................... 16

B. Individual Course Review ................................................................................................................ 18

C. Student Perceptions: Alumni Survey ............................................................................................. 22

Section V. Action Plan ............................................................................................................................. 28

Recommendations for the program going forward ............................................................................ 28

Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 30

Appendix #1: Overview of the changes implemented when the New Media Technology Program was revised in 2009. ........................................................................................................................................... 32

Introduction The last New Media Technology Periodic Program Review (PPR) was completed in August 2006 by an external evaluation team from Center for Advanced Study in Education. The review was conducted by the evaluation team, under the supervision of key faculty members within the LaGuardia Community College Computer Information Systems (CIS) Department, and covered the evolution of the New Media program from inception in 2001 through the submission of the report in 2006. The 2006 external review was funded by the initial NSF grant used to finance the creation of LaGuardia New Media Technology program. This PPR has been compiled by the current program coordinator, James Richardson, and covers the period from the summer of 2006 through the fall of 2012. The following report will address how the program has performed, the challenges facing the major in the years ahead, and how the degree can be best positioned for success on a student, program, and institutional level.

Section I - Issues, Trends, and Program Challenges Since the last PPR evaluation in 2006, there have been a number of significant changes to the New Media Technology program, and to the industries which impact the major. The most significant change was the dissolution of the LaGuardia Computer Information Systems department in June of 2008, and the subsequent relocation of the New Media Technology program and faculty to the Humanities Department. One of the reasons for the relocation was to better position the New Media program for long term growth and efficiency. It was hoped that move to the Humanities department would provide a number of opportunities to revise and strengthen the curriculum of the New Media program and give students access to a greater range of creative courses from programs such as Visual Arts (Graphic Design), Music Technology (Digital Audio), and Media Studies (Video Production), and Photography.

It was anticipated that an ancillary benefit of the program relocation would allow New Media Technology students with an artistic focus to tailor their studies to match their professional interests and creative passions. Since the majority of four-year schools with new media programs have designed curricula that focuses more heavily on creativity and design than on just technology, by breaking down the informational silos between technology and the arts, it was hoped that the greater range of options in the creative areas of Humanities would make articulation to them easier. Unfortunately, relocating the program from a technical to a design oriented department did not go far enough in considering the cross-disciplinary nature of New Media and merely traded one informational silo for another. While the artistic and the design aspects of the program were strengthened by the relocation of New Media to Humanities, the technical aspects of the program in important areas such as programming, database development, web server administration were subsequently weakened when the courses dealing with those subjects did not follow along in the transfer to the Humanities department. In addition, of the five full-time faculty members teaching within New Media prior to 2008, only one instructor was relocated to the Humanities with the dissolution of the CIS department. This reduction of full-time staff created significant challenges for the program as a single faculty member now became responsible for all curriculum development, advisement and mentoring, course scheduling, adjunct procurement, and teaching the newly revised capstone and other core NMT classes.

To offset the challenges listed above, in the spring of 2009 revisions to the New Media Technology Program were submitted to both the departmental and college wide curriculum committees. Both committees, and CUNY Central, approved the totally redesigned curriculum effective as of September of 2009. The purpose of the revised curriculum was to integrate and emphasize all of the college-wide core competencies into the major. This included placing a greater emphasis on skills such as writing (technical writing and systems documentation), oral communication (project presentation), information literacy and research (project planning and database design), quantitative literacy (programming), and critical thinking (project and career planning). Critical new media concepts that were learning objectives, such as those in previously required CIS courses had to be integrated into the revised curriculum. This required the development of new courses such as Internet Game Design, and modifications to existing classes to cover information on database design and dynamic websites. In addition, since technology continues to change at a rapid pace, it was necessary to adjust the program structure to enable the department to easily adapt our curriculum to match industry shifts both now and in the future.

Since the technology inherent in New Media is constantly evolving, curriculum development for the major happens on an ongoing basis. Every year course syllabi, for each class, has to be updated and revised as new standards, software, and hardware are introduced into industry. Textbooks need to be selected yearly as major vendors such as Adobe, Apple, and Microsoft implement new software. When the New Media Technology degree was migrated to the Humanities in 2008, the department took the mandated organizational changes as an opportunity to strengthen the old program of study by creating curricular links between the technical courses and the creative liberal arts based courses within the Humanities department. As a result, classes with a digital focus in Media Studies, Visual Arts and Music Technology were added as elective courses within New Media Technology curriculum. Furthermore, the initial focus of the departmental restructuring was expanded to include updates to the curriculum that would effectively allow the college wide competencies, and initiatives such as ePortfolio, to be integrated throughout the program. This revision to the curriculum also included redesigning the introductory and capstone courses within New Media to reflect industry shifts and embrace the LaGuardia mandated adherence to the new college-wide core competencies. The program changes were then presented and approved by both the Humanities and the College Wide Curriculum Committees during the fall of 2008.

In order to smoothly facilitate the transition, at the start of 2009, the New Media Technology program was awarded an ePortfolio mini grant from the LaGuardia Center for Teaching and Learning to create new and updated course syllabi that would help implement LaGuardia’s recent ePortfolio and capstone requirements. The six core courses for the New Media degree were all included in this process, as well as the four of the nine elective courses within the discipline. It was decided to take the conditions of the grant a step further and address a possible future programmatic issue for New Media, the limited number of full-time faculty within degree. Since there was only one full-time faculty member for the New Media program, it was deemed important that institutional, programmatic, and departmental standards be put in place to guide adjunct instructors in teaching New Media classes. As a result, class textbooks were selected with pre-existing lab assignments to help guide adjunct instructors and ensure that a certain level of consistency was maintained throughout the courses. In addition, pre-built

Blackboard course sites were created with lecture materials, homework assignments, audiovisual supplements; ePortfolio influenced projects, and revised syllabi to enable all New Media adjunct faculty to be ready to teach and address the programmatic, departmental and college wide goals on the first day of class. It was hoped that this “course in a box” strategy would give the program coordinator the latitude to research emerging areas, while insuring that critical new media skills are taught by qualified professionals in a consistent manner across semesters. Furthermore, the ease of the course setup for the adjunct faculty also enabled greater opportunities to mentor and communicate efficiently with adjuncts to address ongoing concerns.

It will be necessary to simplify the orientation process to further enhance the effectiveness of the new media adjuncts teaching within the LaGuardia environment. Currently there is no formalized process to quickly and easily introduce newly hired adjuncts to key LaGuardia initiatives such as ePortfolio, advisement and assessment, and course management via Blackboard. In order to address this challenge it will be necessary to incentivize adjunct instructors to attend training in these procedures to ensure that everyone teaching within the New Media Technology program is fully in sync with the College Wide, departmental, and programmatic goals. Another of the objectives will be to either develop, or repurpose existing, web based resources to create a portal/page where adjuncts could visit to educate themselves on the LaGuardia processes and initiatives if they are unable to attend seminars during the day. I believe that the New Media Technology program is not alone in facing difficulty in training adjuncts on these critical topics, so if this project is successful, the procedure could be replicated to other departments to the overall benefit the larger college-wide community.

As preparations for the Periodic Program Review began, it had become evident that one of the challenges facing the program was that many areas within digital media are in high demand, thus making it difficult to find qualified adjuncts to teach emerging topics. Instructors trained in topics such as Actionscript 3 game programming language and mobile application development can command salaries, even on a freelance basis, far in excess of what typical adjunct faculty members are paid. Subsequently, it can be extremely challenging to secure digital media professionals willing to commit to a semester long course and teaching at rates far below their standard freelance pay scales. This can be especially problematic in attempting to acquire faculty coverage for early morning and afternoon classes when many new media adjuncts may be engaged in short term development projects or are working at their regular full-time jobs. Accordingly, the turnover rate for adjuncts that can teach highly in demand technical courses is great due to competition from better paying short term freelance opportunities, high paying full time employment prospects, and other teaching openings at schools that might be more convenient for them to travel. Thus, the program will continue to be challenged to hire additional adjunct faculty to cover emerging new media classes in the future. Additional full time instructor help will be required to support the program as it continues to expand beyond the capacity of a single faculty member to sustain.

Section II. Key Data Elements

Enrollment trends

Since the last PPR in 2006, student enrollment for the New Media Technology program has shown a slow but fairly consistent increase to the current figure of 153 total students. The sole year in which a decline in total enrollment occurred was the period from the spring of 2008 until the fall of 2009. This is the year corresponding with the transition of the New Media Technology program from the CIS to the Humanities department. During this time period the program experienced a drop in total enrollment of 12 students, or approximately 10.5% of the major. This decrease can be attributed to student uncertainty about the restructuring of the degree and the hurdles encountered during the initial migration process. After the first year migration, the total enrollment for the major begins its upward trend once again. The program averages approximately 22.5 new students per semester, with a greater percentage of these incoming students arriving during the fall sessions.

During the entire 2006 - 2012 evaluation period, the ratio of part time students fluctuated in upward and down shifts. Part time students comprised an average of 35.3% of the new media student population, with a greater percentage of these students arriving during the fall sessions. However the ratio of full time students within the New Media Technology program remained fairly consistent from the fall of 2006 through the spring of 2010, with only minor dips in enrollment between the fall and spring sessions. After the spring of 2010 the full time student enrollment started to trend upwards at an average of 9.75 new full time students per fall and spring session. The one significant drop in full time enrollment occurred between the fall of 2007 and the spring of 2008 when there is a decrease of 10 students. Once again this drop corresponds to the period surrounding the migration of the New Media program from the CIS to the Humanities department and the student concern over the future of the New Media Technology program after the subsequent dissolution of the CIS department.

116 112 119 114 111 102 107 117 116 135 142

153

29 16 26

15 25 17 20 14 32 24 34

18 0

20406080

100120140160180

Fa 06 Sp 07 Fa 07 Sp 08 Fa 08 Sp 09 Fa 09 Sp 10 Fa 10 Sp 11 Fa 11 Sp 12

Total StudentsNew Students

Student Enrollment from Fall 2006 - Spring 2012

The demographics of the New Media population reveal a predominantly male student body, with the majority of all learners coming from minority backgrounds. It is important to note that while the female population comprises just over one third (34%) of the students, according to a 2010 American Association of University Women (AAUW) study on women majoring in technology fields, the representation of women within LaGuardia’s New Media Technology is higher than the national average (20%) for other STEM related areas.

Graduation, Retention, and Transfer

From the fall of 2006 until the fall of 2011 there were 252 new incoming students that declared New Media Technology as their major. Out of these declared students there were 94 students that have gone on to graduate the program, 37 students that transferred to another school within one year and 52 students that transferred within three years. The remaining 69 students declared as New Media Technology majors either did not transfer or have yet to complete the program.

74 69 68 58

75 69

76 69

81 89

100 108

42 43 51 56

36 33 31

48 35

46 42 45

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Fa 06 Sp 07 Fa 07 Sp 08 Fa 08 Sp 09 Fa 09 Sp 10 Fa 10 Sp 11 Fa 11 Sp 12

Full Time vs. Part time Students Fall 2006 - Spring 2012

Full time

Part time

Males 66%

Females 34%

Gender Demographics Average from '06 -'12

ASIAN, 15.3%

BLACK, 13.6%

NATIVE AMERICAN,

0.3% WHITE, 11.3%

HISPANIC, 46.1%

OTHER, 2.9%

UNKNOWN, 10.7%

Ethnic Demographics Avg. from 2006 - 2012

The early transfer rate per semester for the New Media Technology program averaged out to 2.3% over the course of the evaluation period. The early transfer rate of the declared New Media Technology majors per semester, that either left school or failed to return, was approximately 15% on average. Reasons for these students not returning to school can be attributed any number of issues ranging from financial or family hardship, scheduling conflicts, or reevaluation of their educational goals.

Based on the data, students that opted to transfer prior to graduation had a slightly higher grade point average (GPA) than students who completed their time at LaGuardia. It also appears that early transfer students had obtained an average of 56.4 credits, just 3.6 credits shy of the 60 credits required for graduation in most majors. It is unknown why these students opted for early transfer with so many

Graduated (94 students)

37%

Transferred within 1 year (37 students)

15%

Transferred within 3 years (52 students)

21%

Did not finish (69 students)

27%

Graduation and Retention Rates Fall 2006 - Fall 2011

252 Incoming New Media Students

Early Transfer Rate by Semester

Semester Total

Fa 06 116 14 12% 3 2.6%

Sp 07 112 8 7% 1 0.9%

Fa 07 119 20 17% 6 5.0%

Sp 08 114 16 14% 4 3.5%

Fa 08 111 15 14% 1 0.9%

Sp 09 102 14 14% 5 4.9%

Fa 09 107 6 6% 1 0.9%

Sp 10 117 19 16% 3 2.6%

Fa 10 116 20 17% 3 2.6%

Sp 11 135 28 21% 2 1.5%

Fa 11 142 31 22% 1 0.7%

Total 1291 191 15% 30 2.3%

Leave after the Term Early Transferred Rate

credits. One possible scenario for these high credit early transfers could be that all of the accumulated credits may not have been applied towards the major, and thus, treated as elective credits. This can sometime occur when students decide to shift their major at point during their time in school.

Information on the transfer of LaGuardia New Media Technology students within CUNY comes from the CUNY Data Warehouse. This data is dependent on student reporting and may, therefore, be incomplete. The Warehouse contains data on 55 students who transferred to senior colleges upon graduation. The period of collection was from 2006 to 2011.

As evidenced in the chart below, the majority of the New Media Technology majors that transferred after graduation chose to stay within the CUNY system, with the largest group of those students (18) deciding to attend the New York City College of Technology (CityTech). One possible reason for the high rate of students transferring from LaGuardia to CityTech may be due to the close working relationship shared between the coordinators of the digital media programs at both schools. Because the coordinators had collaborated in the past on inter-collegiate projects, there was a familiarity with the level of instruction at each institution that made transfer credit evaluation less tenuous. City College and Queens College were the recipients of the next largest group of transfer students, numbering 10 and 6 learners respectively. All of the schools that garnered large numbers of New Media transfers students, with one exception, are senior colleges that have well established digital media programs that align very closely with the course material taught at LaGuardia. The one two year school listed was LaGuardia Community College, where it can be assumed that the four returning students transferred to obtain an associates degree within a different discipline than NMT upon graduation. This is a fairly common occurrence because the lower cost of studying at a community college can make it economically feasible to obtain a second degree in another field in order to broaden employment opportunities in the future.

70.7 56.4

0.0

50.0

100.0

Graduated Transfer Early Transfer

Avg. Cumulative Credits Earned at LAGCC

3.04

3.24

2.9

3

3.1

3.2

3.3

Graduated Transfer Early Transfer

Avg. Cumulative GPA at LAGCC

Placement

The basic skills placement exam results for the program demonstrates that NMT students entering LaGuardia will generally require remedial coursework in basic math, reading, and writing. The pass rate for the basic writing exam highlights the fact that only 46.7 percent of NMT students are effectively able to write at the collegiate level. The statistics for the other exams reveal similar challenges for NMT students, with only 54.2% and 72.7% of these learners functioning at college level in the areas of the basic math and reading.

18 10

6 4

3 3

2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 5 10 15 20

NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGYCITY COLLEGE

QUEENS COLLEGELAGUARDIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

HUNTER COLLEGEBROOKLYN COLLEGE

LEHMAN COLLEGEHARVARD UNIVERSITY - CONTINUING ED

GRADUATE SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITYJOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTIC

SUNY FARMINGDALELONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY

SUNY FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYYORK COLLEGE

BERNARD M. BARUCH COLLEGESCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS

Transfer Schools

54.2% 72.7% 46.7%

45.8% 27.3% 53.3%

Basic Math Basic Reading Basic Writing

New Media Basic Skills Placement

Pass Fail

Full-time/part-time faculty ratio

Prior to the relocation of the NMT major to the Humanities department in the fall of 2008, there were five full-time CIS faculty members instructing within the program. In addition to web and multimedia design, the instructors were responsible for covering classes ranging in database design, web server administration, basic computer literacy, and web programming. The remaining courses that could not be covered by full time faculty were supplemented with adjunct faculty from private industry. The relocation of the program reversed this trend and reduced the number of full time faculty down to a single instructor.

Currently the NMT program utilizes approximately 20 adjunct instructors to teach the six core and four elective classes designated with the HUW prefix. The remaining elective courses designated as HUA/HUM/HUC are staffed by full time faculty and adjuncts from Visual Arts, Music Technology, and Media Studies. The large number of regular adjuncts is required to support the HUW courses because many NMT adjuncts either maintain careers as freelance designers or work full time within the field of digital media. As a result, especially in the case of freelance designers, short term projects can prevent adjunct instructor availability from remaining consistent across semesters. Thus an extensive pool of adjuncts is required in order to guarantee that classes will be able to run on a reliable schedule. The rapid nature in which technical innovations occur within new media so makes it necessary to obtain specialized adjunct instructors for private industry until the full-time instructors can be sufficiently trained in the new techniques being adopt within the discipline. Since the Program Coordinator is the only full-time faculty member on staff, and the high rate of adjunct turnover, it is his responsibility to locate and mentor instructors on the material to be covered in all of the classes with the major. This means providing them with course material (syllabi, readings, homework and lab assignments, PowerPoint presentations, lecture notes, video, and web links) to get them up to speed.

Industry Outlook The recent technological shifts brought about by the rise of tablet and mobile devises has created an increasing demand for qualified digital media students, with a combined aptitude for programming and design, to develop applications for these new platforms. According to the Gartner Group, a leading authority in charting technical trends, it is expected that the mobile experience will soon eclipse the desktop environment as consumer demand drives tablets and smart phones into the forefront of the mainstream. Tablet and mobile devices are projected to surpass both laptops and desktop PCs as the most common Web access tools by 2015. The shift from desktop computing towards a greater range of mobile devises will require a more holistic approach towards educating students in both design (front-end) and technical (backend) principles in future years.

Changes in web and application development standards have begun as HTML 5, CSS 3, and JavaScript phase out earlier versions of themselves, as well as older technologies like Adobe Flash. Because native Flash based content is not supported on many popular mobile devises, major companies like YouTube and Facebook have started migrating away from the technology in order to insure that their multimedia

content will continue to be widely distributed. This change in standards will require that designers previously experienced in Flash and Actionscript development develop new talents in HTML 5/CSS 3/JavaScript in order to remain employable within the field of new media.

In addition to changes in the way users will access multimedia based content in the coming years, the convergence of disciplines previously separated by clear delineations have now been brought closer together due to advances in technology. As a result it will be necessary to research these topics for possible inclusion into the New Media Technology program in order to maintain the ongoing viability of the degree. Shifting industry standards and student requests for courses in the emerging fields of mobile application design and visual effects need to be addressed in order to better promote the long-term success of the program.

One of the proposed changes to be put forth in this review will be to outline how additional collaborative cross-disciplinary curricular links to other LaGuardia programs such as the new Digital Journalism major (English), the existing Commercial Photography (Humanities), and the Entrepreneurship program (Business) could strengthen the New Media Technology degree from an industry standpoint. For example e-book and digital magazines are challenging traditional publishing outlets while photographic cameras that shoot high definition video have started to replace conventional video camcorders. These are merely a sampling of some of the technical innovations that are emerging in previously disconnected areas.

According to a recent report by the Gartner group and the 2013 Interactive salary guide compiled by the Robert Half Technology Group, the digital media trends most likely to take place are:

1. Mobile applications & HTML 5 - Through 2014, JavaScript performance will push HTML 5 and the browser as the mainstream application developer environment. There will be long shift to HTML 5 from native apps as HTML 5 becomes more capable. But native apps won’t disappear, and will always offer best experiences.

2. Tablets and Smartphone growth - In 2013, mobile devices will pass PCs to be most common Web access tools. By 2015, over 80% of handsets in mature markets will be smart phones. 20% of those will be Windows phones. By 2015, tablet shipments will be 50% of laptop shipments, with Windows 8 in third place behind Apple and Android. Microsoft‘s share of overall client platform will fall to 60%, and could drop below 50%.

3. Responsive Design – Large screen web browsing will become a more popular activity in the living room and corporate boardroom. Websites must be ready when they're called upon in these large-format scenarios. Websites and apps will soon need to be optimized for both large and small formats as advancements everything from web-enabled dashboards in cars to large flat screen smart TVs become the norm. As a result Responsive design, which offers an adaptive and fluid approach to designing web layouts, will become an essential skill for developers as they try to neatly distribute content across a wide variety of devices, from desktop computer to smartphone and everything in between.

4. IT Talent shortage - According to the 2013 Interactive salary guide compiled by the Robert Half Technology Group, the majority of chief information officers (CIOs) surveyed for their IT Hiring Index and Skills Report stated that finding skilled professionals posed a severe challenge for companies looking to recruit new talent. The shortage will be especially pronounced in the areas of mobile application design and web development.

79,000 65,750

52,000 75,000

49,000 65,000

50,000 37,500

55,250

0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000

Mobile App DeveloperWeb Developers

Web Designersecommerce analyst

Writer - BloggerMotion Graphics Designer

Video ProducerGraphic Designer

Multimedia Designer

New Media Industry Est. starting salaries (2013)

The Creative Group Robert Half International

30.0%

22.0%

6.0%

8.0%

4.0%

13.0%

8.0%

14%

0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% 30.0% 35.0%

Mobile App Developer

Web Developers & Designers

Writer - Blogger

3D & Motion Graphics Designer

Video Producer

Graphic Designer

Multimedia Designer

Average for all Jobs

New Media Industry Est. job Growth through 2020

Bureau of Labor and Statistics

Section III. Educational Goals of the Program New Media Technology pertains to the convergence of communication technologies, including television, the World Wide Web, and computer-based interactivity and nonlinear structure. It extends well beyond the scope of the business and technical world. Interactive games, education, CD-ROMs, DVDs, digital video, and dynamic websites are changing the ways in which we learn and entertain ourselves. The New Media Technology (NMT) program was created in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and was designed to meet the needs of one of the fastest growing sectors in the computer industry. The goal of the program is for students to receive a well-rounded general education, with an emphasis on the LaGuardia defined educational core competencies, as they acquire the skills essential to working in the digital media industry. Graduates from the program should be able to start entry level careers in multimedia production, video editing, web design and development, graphic design, ecommerce and internet marketing, or any other areas utilizing digital media technology. Each graduate is required to create an industry standard digital portfolio that will fully demonstrate the student’s command of new media principles in order to help them either transfer to a senior college, secure full-time employment, or work as a freelance design professional. The program is open to all students who show an interest in digital media and who complete the general college admission procedures.

A. Programmatic Competencies

The New Media Technology program is a cross-disciplinary degree whose goal is to build new bridges of understanding between the traditional and the modern, between media concepts and skills application, between media arts and other fields of study. After completing a core sequence, students can design their own course of study according to their own interests and abilities, made up of a mix of both theory and production courses. The capstone course with the major, The New Media Project Lab, is a portfolio and digital thesis seminar which culminates with a final project which integrates these two approaches. Throughout the two year course of study students may work individually, but are encouraged to work within a creative collaborative team, since this model is typical of most media work places today. Production will always be informed by critical analysis of aesthetics as well as cultural and social issues.

Skills students are expected to master at the completion of the program include:

Web Capabilities and Constraints

• Browser constraints, capabilities and differences (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome) • Usability standards • Graphic Design Theory • Search engine optimization and liabilities • Source code limitations (cross-browser, cross-platform limitations)

Site Management, Monitoring and Metrics

• Web site effectiveness tracking, logs, and metrics

• Site management tools • Traffic analysis (Web Trends, Fast Stats, etc.) • Accessibility and cross browser/cross platform compatibility • Web site file structure

Web Design

• Web design, typography and layout skills • User interface design principles • Creating Graphics • Color theory and color limitations on older computers • Information architecture/information organization • Copyright restrictions • Diagramming software

Research Methods and Techniques

• Consumer satisfaction research methods • Human factors and user interface methods and principles • Information search and acquisition techniques for web and non-web sources • Content organization techniques • Research techniques and tools • Business case and competitive analysis methods • Methods for qualitative concept testing

Multimedia Design Concepts

• Media limitations and issues, screen resolution, navigation and user interface considerations • Cultural, social and ethical issues and considerations for media • Design elements and principles for interface design • Graphic, animation, audio and video industries and vendors • Market cost for design elements in customization of media • Principles of color and the cultural and contextual uses of color • Media types or combination for specific content areas • Camera movement and lighting placement • Styles of animation and digital illustration • Theory of color, emotion, movement and expression • Methods of framing and composition, lighting and shading • Rendering techniques • Storyboarding techniques • Visual and audio design effectiveness • Technical information design • Indexing and search functionality and use • Media development and delivery platforms

Design & Creation

• Animation, motion-capture, lighting, typography and composite techniques • 3D shapes and textures on paper or using technology • Design and user interface alternatives • Output techniques (print, disk, 2D, 3D) • Naming conventions • Graphic, animation, audio and video development tools and multimedia software • Hardware and software color specifications and palette color manipulation tools • Media format conversion principles and tools • Rapid prototyping tools • Video production • Audio and video production tools • Web publishing techniques and software (e.g., Dreamweaver) • Multimedia authoring, integration, editing and software design tools

B. General Education Core Competencies

The five core competencies mandated by the college in the areas of technical literacy, critical literacy, oral communication, quantitative reasoning, and information literacy are reinforced throughout the six core NMT classes. However, all of the core competencies which have been built into the curriculum for the express purpose of institutional and programmatic assessment can be found in the new introductory course (HUW 112 Introduction to New Media) and a new capstone course (HUW 269 New Media Project Lab) within the major. The new classes were designed to address the unique requirements for students in the field of New Media Technology by integrating ePortfolio, Writing in the Disciplines (WID), and the college-wide core competencies into critical introductory and capstone courses. The HUW 112 class was created to become the new introductory new media course and replace the old CIS 100 (Introduction to Computers) that had a more general technology focus. As the capstone course, students enrolled in HUW 269 are required to develop a final professional portfolio to display their command of multimedia design. This new portfolio is to serve as the student’s final thesis project and contain revised examples of their best work. This will assist students in transferring to a senior college for additional instruction in New Media Studies, or enable them to secure work as a freelance designer or as a corporate new media professional. Over the past two years I have been revising syllabi for the HUW 269 to improve upon the capstone course in the future. In addition to the capstone, new and emerging key concepts have been introduced in earlier New Media courses, such as the newly created HUW 112 (Introduction to New Media) and the HUW 161 (Introduction to Multimedia and Web Design) classes. By staging core competencies in a more holistic manner throughout the New Media curriculum, the capstone course becomes more of a “review and refining” experience as opposed to a class where introduction to new material must occur. Projects and assignment require students to research information to refine their educational goals, search existing web based archives for technical solutions to their specific portfolio challenges, and begin

inquiries into the careers paths they are preparing to enter upon graduation. Based on these assignments and others, each student is required to present a final professional portfolio that can be used for transfer, employment, or entrepreneurship.

• More extensive information on the development of these classes can be found at http://jamesrichardson.net/jtalk/2007/12/17/new-media-capstone-course/.

• Examples of work from these classes can be viewed at http://jamesrichardson.net/jtalk/student-examples/

C. Transferability, Placement, and Advisement

By hosting the New Media program within a single LaGuardia department our students may be at a disadvantage when transferring to a four year college where the New Media program may be housed in a different department than what is in place at LaGuardia. Transfer those schools can be difficult without established articulation agreements. LaGuardia’s Liberal Arts based curriculum structure results in students having fewer courses in their major than students at dedicated New Media colleges. This may put our students at a disadvantage when their creative portfolios are compared against those same students from dedicated New Media colleges.

To further complicate matters, the cross-disciplinary nature of digital arts and technology program has made it far more difficult for education policymakers to differentiate between the subtle and various subsections within multimodal studies like new media. Articulation and assessment of program equivalency becomes a serious issue when digital media based program have no consistent naming or departmental conventions across universities systems. For example the digital media program at one school make be housed in the Art Department and called Media Design while at another institution the same program might be located in the Computer Department and called Communication Technology. The lack of consistency can make it extremely difficult for potential students to identify the correct programs in which to transfer.

Section IV. Student Learning Outcomes In January and February 2012 New Media artifacts were read against the Core Competencies by the Benchmark Reading Assessment Team. These readings provide a snapshot of the work being done by students majoring in New Media Technology across the competencies of Research and Information Literacy, Critical Literacy, Technical Literacy, Oral Communication and Quantitative Reasoning. In total, 54 artifacts were read across these five core competencies.

A. Overall student learning and development

In January and February 2013 New Media Technology artifacts were read against the General Education Competencies in Benchmark Readings. Readers came from all programs undergoing PPR including New Media Technology. This reading focused on students with 25 credits or less earned and students with

more than 45 credits earned, thus allowing us to examine student work at the beginning and end of their LaGuardia careers. These readings provide a snapshot of the work being done by students majoring in New Media Technology across the competencies of, Critical Literacy, Oral Communication, Quantitative Reasoning, and Research and Information Literacy. These scores are not statistically significant, but are still informative. All artifacts have been deposited since Fall 2010.

In total, 54 New Media Technology artifacts were read across these four Core Competencies.

Competency Total Artifacts Available in System with Credit designation

Artifacts Sampled

Critical Literacy 55 21 Oral Communication 29 12 Quantitative Reasoning 38 16 Research and Information Literacy 21 5

Critical Literacy:

In Critical Literacy, there were 10 artifacts from students with 25 credits or less. All 10 were scoreable. The artifacts scored an average of 5.6 on a 12 point scale. There were 12 artifacts from students with 45 or more earned credits. In this sample, 3 artifacts could not be read against the rubric. The remaining artifacts scored an average of 6 on a 12 point scale. Thus artifacts show a gain of about .4 points in their beginning work to their ending work at LaGuardia.

Oral Communication:

Out of the 12 samples artifacts for Oral Communication, 6 could not be scored against the rubric. This indicates that the New Media Technology program might want to do some work around assignments that appropriately respond to the rubric. The remaining artifacts scored an average of 5.75 on an 8 point scale when under 25 credits and 7 when over 45 credits. Thus, artifacts show a gain of 1.25.

Quantitative Reasoning:

Out of the 16 artifacts for QR, 2 could not be scored against the rubric, and 1 was scored against the rubric 4 times, but readers could not agree upon a score. Out of the 13 samples that remained artifacts with 25 credits or less scored a 5 on a scale of 8 with a decrease to 4.4 when over 45 credits. This indicates that further investigation of QR artifacts might be useful. Additionally, the New Media Technology program might need to re-examine the Gen Ed QR rubric and use some professional development to develop appropriate assignments.

Research and Information Literacy

Surprisingly, this was the lowest number of deposits in the New Media Technology category. The small sample shows a gain of 2 point from under 25 credits to over 45 credits. However, since this sample was so small, it might not be an accurate representation of the work in the program.

B. Individual Course Review

Required Core Classes

1. HUW 112 (formerly CIS 112): Introduction to New Media The HUW 112 course was specifically designed for New Media majors as a foundation in the discipline and a replacement for the CIS 100 course. The new HUW 112 will serve as the introductory course for the program. Instructional Objectives for HUW 112 • Introduce students to new media industry and career options. • Familiarize the students with basic Internet and networking concepts. • Learn basic file and directory management tasks in a Windows or UNIX environment. • Introduce simple graphic and photo manipulation for the web. • Introduce the digital imaging concepts of formats, resolution, color, and compressions. • Introduce basic graphic design concepts. • Introduce basic web design and development concepts. • Familiarize students with HTML and cascading style sheets (CSS). • Introduce basic video and audio editing. • Introduce students to interactive objects such as rollovers and embedded audio/video.

2. HUW 161 (formerly CIS 161): Principles of Multimedia & Web Design

The HUW 161 course was previously an elective course within the programming option cluster. The HUW 161 class will now be replacing the CIS 260 Introduction to Teleprocessing course which is no longer part of the major. Some basic networking concepts that are important for digital designers from the CIS 260 class will be touched on in the HUW161 course. Instructional Objectives for HUW 161 • Reinforce basic Internet and networking concepts. • Introduce students to advanced design and color theory. • Reinforce basic HTML and cascading style sheets (CSS) coding. • Familiarize students with JavaScript programming and JQuery libraries • Introduce students to cross-browser and cross-platform limitations. • Introduce students to information architecture and site prototyping.

• Introduce students to usability standards and site testing. • Introduce students to search engine optimization and liabilities. • Reinforce techniques for modifying bitmapped graphics and creating .jpgs and .gifs. • Introduce students to the use of web development tools for creating web pages and reinforcing

their knowledge of HTML coding. • Reinforce digital audio and video creation principles.

3. HUW 162 (formerly CIS 162): Web Animation and Interactivity In order to strengthen the core requirements of the program, the HUW 162 course has been changed from a CIS elective to a new required course within the core. The HUW 162 course was previously an elective course within the design option cluster. Instructional Objectives for HUW 162 • Familiarize the students with basic concepts for developing interactive sites and applications. • Introduce students to web animation principles and storyboard development. • Instruct students how to prepare vector and bitmap graphic elements for use in web

animations. • Introduce students to scripting language for programming interactivity. • Reinforce students’ use of commercial and open source tools for creating digital audio and video

content. • Introduce students to tools to export animations and applications as digital audio and video

artifacts or interactive applications.

4. HUW 163 (formerly CIS 163): Internet Video & DVD Development Students in this course develop their skills with streaming video tools that include: video capture, video editing, and video compression for online delivery of media. Students will be introduced to professional level video software such as Final Cut Pro and After Effects to create media that can be embedded into Web pages or burned into DVDs. Students are required to complete a final project that demonstrates mastery of the material covered. The HUW 163 course was previously an elective course and was changed to a required class during the restructuring. It also replaces the HUW 111 eCommerce Technology course, which has now become an elective course within the major. Instructional Objectives for HUW 163 • Reinforce the application of plug-ins for audio and video. • Reinforce Animation and Interactivity. • Introduce digital recording compression. • Introduce audio and video compression. • Introduce advanced video editing tools. • Introduce advanced audio editing.

• Introduce streaming media tools for delivering web based content. • Introduce DVD creation software for creating disk based content.

5. HUW 166 (formerly CIS 166): Introduction to Web Development This course introduces students to the Internet and the World Wide Web. Students will learn about web browsers, HTML coding, JavaScript and CSS. Students will code and generate web pages by hand in preparation for creating both static and fully dynamic sites. The HUW 166 class will now be replacing the CIS 250 course which is no longer part of the major. The HUW 166 course was previously an elective course within the programming option cluster. Some of the database concepts from the CIS 250 will be touched on in the HUW166 course. Instructional Objectives for HUW 166 • Reinforce basic Internet concepts networking concepts. • Reinforce techniques for modifying bitmapped graphics and creating .jpgs and .gifs. • Introduce students to HTML coding by hand. • Introduce students to creating Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) by hand. • Introduce students to basic JavaScript programming. • Familiarize students with basic database concepts. • Familiarize students with Content Management Systems (CMS) and custom theme creation.

6. HUW 269 – New Media Project Lab The New Media Project Lab is the capstone course in the major and was created to reinforce key digital design concepts. Students develop a final professional portfolio to display their command of multimedia design to utilize in interviews, evaluation for transfer, or obtain freelance design opportunities in the field of New Media. The portfolio will serve as a final thesis project and contain revised examples of their past work. Instructional Objectives for HUW 269 • Reinforce animation, interactivity, audio and video editing principles. • Reinforce Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as it relates to marketing an online

portfolio/resume. • Reinforce graphic and multimedia design principles such as layout, color and typography for the

web and digital portfolios. • Reinforce methods of Information Architecture for multimedia and the web (i.e., the principles

of effectively organizing information and its retrieval). • Reinforce Web page creation using HTML WYSIWYG editors that facilitate dynamic database

driven designs. • Reinforce professional portfolio design principles.

Elective New Media Classes (HUW Designated)

1. HUW 111 (formerly CIS 111): ecommerce Technology This course will explore the various technologies that help make the Internet a viable economic entity. Employing the resources of Internet, students will investigate various technologies, commerce, and social media sites that can be leveraged to earn and generate profit from digital mediums. By the end of the semester each student will develop ecommerce business concept and create a working prototype with a corresponding marketing plan. Instructional Objectives for HUW 111 • Introduce students to basic ecommerce concepts and the technology driving the medium. • Help students identify services or digital/physical products that can be sold via the web. • Introduce the basics of email marketing and search engine positioning for business. • Reinforce basic web site usability concepts and strategic domain name selection. • Instruct students how to enact web site and financial transaction security concepts. • Help students identify third party services and affiliate sites to generate revenue streams. • Introduce students to rapid site develop via Content Management Systems (CMS) to create an effective web business presence.

2. HUW 167 (formerly CIS 167): Dynamic Web Design This course continues the principles introduces students to creating dynamic database driven web sites with XHTML and web programming languages like PHP, MySQL, Coldfusion and ASP. In addition, Javascript and CSS programming will be reinforced before advancing to the server side language. The HUW 167 course was previously an elective course within the programming option cluster. The database concepts from the CIS 250 will now be integrated within the HUW 167 course. Instructional Objectives for HUW 167 • Reinforce basic Internet and networking. • Introduce networking and application security concepts. • Reinforce HTML coding, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and Javascript programming. • Introduce students to Server Side programming language (PHP, Coldfusion, ASP). • Introduce students to SQL database commands and scripting. • Enable students to use a web development editor for creating web sites and reinforcing their knowledge of coding. • Introduce students to custom theme creation for Content Management Systems (CMS).

3. HUW 168 (formerly CIS 168): Advanced Dynamic Web Design This course continues on the web programming foundation introduced in HUW167, Dynamic Web Design. Students will continue developing dynamic MySQL database driven web sites with HTML and web programming languages like PHP, Coldfusion and ASP. Special attention will be given to the integration of newer technologies like JQuery, Spry, and AJAX into effective web

page design. As well as the use of Content Management Systems (CMS) like Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal in the rapid development of web sites. Instructional Objectives for HUW 168 • Introduce advanced Internet and networking concepts. • Introduce advanced networking and application security concepts. • Reinforce techniques for modifying bitmapped graphics and creating .jpgs and .gifs. • Reinforce XHTML coding, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and Javascript programming. • Introduce students to advanced Server Side programming language concepts (Object Oriented PHP, Coldfusion, or ASP). • Introduce students to advanced SQL database commands and scripting. • Introduce open source Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal to assist in rapid development of web sites. • Reinforce custom theme creation for Content Management Systems (CMS).

4. HUW 169: Internet Game Design This course deals with the technology, science, and art involved in the creation of computer games and applications. The focus of the course will be hands-on development of browser and mobile/tablet computer games. Students will study a variety of software technologies relevant to game design, including: platform considerations, programming languages, scripting languages, operating systems, file systems, networks, simulation engines, and multimedia design systems. Instructional Objectives for HUW 169 • Introduce students to the various video game genres and game interfaces. • Introduce 2D and 3D game planning and design principles. • Reinforce 2D graphic design and introduce 3D graphics for online games. • Introduce basic sound design for gaming. • Introduce programming that utilizes collision detection techniques, gaming physics and

basic artificial game intelligence. • Introduce students to exporting games for browser and portable/mobile devices.

C. Student Perceptions: Alumni Survey

The following student survey was conducted with the assistance of 61 alumni of the NMT program. Utilizing the NMT social media presence on Facebook and Twitter it became possible to contact former students and graduates of the major in order to gauge their perceptions on the effectiveness of the program. The survey data was gathered via the online service called Survey Monkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com). The charts below are screen shots of the survey results produced by the service and are not presented in a particular way.

Section V. Action Plan

Recommendations for the program going forward

1. Establish a Technical Education Advisory Committee The creation of a New Media Technology Advisory committee that would include members from private industry and other higher education digital media programs. Members of the advisory committee should have a demonstrated competency in digital media. An exception to the above may be a lay person directly involved in a related program field such as counseling, public relations, or administration of a business or industry.

Specific Duties of Advisory Committee:

• Serve as a communication channel between the college and the digital media community by suggesting ways to improve public relations and articulation of the program with other institutions;

• Help to determine specific skills and technical direction of the degree by advising, recommending, and assisting in assuring program quality;

• Assist in recruiting, providing internships, and in placing qualified graduates in appropriate jobs;

• Keep the program personnel informed on changes in labor market • Recommend curriculum revisions as necessary to comply with current trends; • Help in assessing the major from a programmatic standpoint; • Assist program personnel in searching for sources of funding for scholarships,

equipment, etc.; • Serve on a capstone review board to evaluate the final professional portfolios of NMT

students prior to graduation. The final portfolio will represent the culmination of the student’s educational, professional, and personal achievements at LaGuardia. The portfolio will demonstrate professional and educational accomplishment for employers and transfer institutions.

2. Establish a greater cross disciplinary approach with other LaGuardia departments In order to enable greater economies of scale (i.e. sharing of resources, knowledge exchange, cross training, etc.); the NMT program should create formal and informal linkages with other academic disciplines as changes in technology force a natural convergence. The establishment of interdisciplinary partnerships will produce a NMT graduate with a more sophisticated professional portfolio. For example, due to the technological shifts in regards to the increased demand for mobile application developers, tablet based e-book/magazines challenging traditional publishing outlets, and photographic cameras that shoot high definition video starting to replace conventional video camcorders, it may be necessary to make curricular links to other LaGuardia

programs. Most notably, the programs in Computer Science, Journalism, and Commercial Photography would be the likely candidates that could help to address these shifts. Discussions on possible collaborations with these majors have already begun with the Program Directors and will continue along this path to see if a substantive alliance has long term viability. In addition, back in 2006 I collaborated with the Business Department to design a cross-disciplinary New Media option in Digital Entrepreneurship to teach students how to establish online business ventures. The joint option was approved by the departmental and college wide curriculum committees before being placed on hold due to the pending CIS dissolution. It is my intention to revisit this option in light of the current economic climate and the benefits a program in Digital Entrepreneurship would bring to our students.

3. Continue to update Curriculum to reflect Industry Shifts It is strongly recommended that the New Media curriculum make provisions for enhancing the skills of students in the major to correspond with the industry trend towards mobile application development, responsive design, and greater reliance on database driven content.

4. Enhance the transferability of the degree Establish articulation agreements with senior CUNY colleges and private four-year digital media universities. This should help to improve enrollment in the major by creating a program that leads to easier transitions for current and potential students to a four-year degree.

5. Enhance Internships Opportunities The industry reviewers underscored the extent to which prior work experience enhances the employability of NMT graduates. It is recommended that the employability of NMT graduates would be enhanced if they have an additional internship experience over and above basic coursework and the current internship requirement. This should help to improve enrollment in the majors by creating a program that leads to positive career outcomes (i.e., a program that leads to employment).

6. Staffing Additional full time instructor help will be required to support the program as it continues to expand beyond the capacity of a single faculty member to sustain. In lieu of financial ability to secure more full-time faculty, the database of qualified adjuncts in key technology areas will need to be expanded further so as to guarantee the NMT program will be able to offer professionally relevant classes to the students.

7. Promote Program Growth: Publicizing the New Media Technology Program It is recommended that the New Media program conduct greater student outreach via social media, the college web site, and traditional onsite recruiting events to attract students interested in the digital arts. This includes:

a. Enhance descriptions of the New Media Program on the college web site with rich descriptions of the student success stories and examples of student projects.

b. Continue promotion of the New Media program through our social media presence on Facebook and Twitter to keep students and Alumni up to date on Media events, course schedules, career opportunities, and technical changes in the industry. Create a video commercial to promote the New Media Technology program and distribute it on video sites such as YouTube, iTunes University, and Vimeo to inform people of our offerings. Using these sites will assist in informing potential, current, and former students about the program.

c. Leverage the success of LaGuardia’s Web TV by creating a separate video stream on the existing YouTube channel to highlight the New Media Technology student videos.

d. Establish a database of New Media students’ post-graduate job placements and/or continuing education experiences to inform new and perspective students about program growth and development.

e. Create a plan for greater outreach to local feeder High Schools to increase awareness of the Media programs at LaGuardia. This might involve attending local and regional career fairs, hosting area high school competitions in digital design, and providing individual school tours for potential students and parents.

8. Secure external funding Locate sources of available funding to upgrade hardware, purchase new software, and provide training opportunities for faculty to continue updating the skills required to instruct students in a frequently shifting industry.

9. Repurpose New Media Curriculum for Hybrid/Online Instruction Investigate if which of the courses within the New Media program can be taught in a hybrid or online environment. Develop and test online course materials and determine and effective method of student and course assessment.

Conclusions

After reviewing data from institutional databases, student surveys, industry sources and external comments from reviewers, it is the opinion of the NMT Program Coordinator that the New Media program has also been and continues to be nimble in its ability to adapt to changing equipment and software requirements by constantly and rapidly updating its curriculum even as the program was reorganization and transitioning to a new department. The implementation and integration of the

revised A.A.S. degree program in New Media was accomplished at a high quality level, and in keeping with the following pre-established criteria:

1. The program was aligned with industry standards and workplace requests, 2. The program drew in part from faculty experiences in the IT industry, 3. The program included explicit outcome competencies (skills) for students that can be evaluated

through the review of each student’s final professional portfolio developed in the capstone course.

Appendix #1: Overview of the changes implemented when the New Media Technology Program was revised in 2009.