JRL 225: Media Tools & Applications

Spring 2015

Prof. Mu Lin
E-mail:
Spring 2015
Office Hours: online; by appointment

Course Description

This lab course covers fundamental principles and practice of multimedia content gathering and editing in preparation for upper-level courses at the WVU Reed College of Media.

Course-Level Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

  1. Gather, produce, and present information and content using still photos, audio, video and graphics
  2. Use current multimedia tools and technology to conduct multi-platform storytelling using still photos, audio, video and text
  3. Demonstrate a grasp of the language of each medium through discussion and projects
  4. Integrate ideas, values, ethics and history of multi-platform communications into practical applications
  5. Use online tools to independently find answers about new media forms and how to use them
  6. Understand basic principles of web design and coding
  7. Tell the stories of diverse individuals and groups in West Virginia

What's Expected of You

  1. Regular attendance to labs and completion of all assignments
  2. Responsibility for materials and course communication (e.g., email)
  3. Creativity, teamwork, style, and brilliance

About the Course Structure

This is a hybrid course, consisting of online and lab components. However, the majority of the content will be taught online through eCampus. This places the responsibility for learning on you. If you are not prepared, you will quickly fall behind in the class.

Students are responsible for completing readings, watching videos and posting to a discussion boardbeforeattending the weekly labs. In order to complete the exercises within the lab session, you will need to come to class with a strong understanding of the skills and concepts covered each week.

Although there will be separate instructors for the online and lab components, the online instructor is the lead instructor for the course and will be grading all assignments and providing feedback. All questions about assignments and grades should be directed to them.

Open Labs

There may be times when you will not be able to complete assignments during the scheduled lab time, or you may have unanswered questions about assignments or use of tools and technology. To help you with problems or questions you may have, there will be two open labs each week specifically for students in JRL225. The labs will be staffed with students and faculty who will be able to answer most of your course-related questions. Your instructor will send details about the times and locations of these labs during the first week of the semester.

Required Materials

  1. Website to display your portfolio. More information will be provided in lesson 1.
  2. iPhone, iPod Touch, Windows or Android phone with 5 GB free space.
  3. A portable storage drive (USB thumb or hard drive) for saving all course work. The drive should have be at least 16GB.
  4. Lapel microphone compatible with your phone (before Lesson 5).VERY IMPORTANT- although you can find fairly cheap lapel microphones, theonlyone that will work with iPhones and all Android phones is theRode SmartLav. You have a few options:
  5. Purchase it online:
  6. Buy one from a student who has already taken this class
  7. Share the cost with a classmate
  8. Tripod compatible with your phone (before Lesson 8).
  9. The JobyGorillapod is a good option. You can also find several similar, cheaper tripods like this one. Be careful that you don't order one from overseas, or shipping may take several weeks:
  10. If you have an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, or a large Android phone (like the Galaxy S5), you’ll need to get a larger tripod mount:
  11. Headphones or earbuds.

Highly Recommended Materials

  1. One year subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud software suite (Photoshop, Premiere Pro). This is the software we will use in class, and buying it will allow you to complete major assignments at home without having to rely on the computer labs. Visit a student discount of $68/year.
  2. One important note: Be sure to check the "system requirements" to make sure your computer is fast enough to run the software before purchasing.
  3. We'll use Text Wrangler for the Web Design/Coding assignment. It's free, and can be downloaded here:

Equipment Checkout

You are required to purchase all of the required materials listed above. However, the College of Media has alimitednumber of kits available for students to check out inextenuating circumstances onlyon a case-by-case basis. If you think you will need to check out equipment, you should obtain permission by emailing David Smith at at least three daysbefore you plan to check out the equipment. Explain your circumstances and reason for needing the required equipment.

Assignments

The class is broken into five segments. The first three (photo, audio and video) are three weeks each. In each module you'll complete one exercise worth 25 points and one major project worth 50 points. The exercises are designed to be completed during the scheduled lab time, while the projects will be completed primarily outside of lab. More detailed criteria will be provided at the times of the assignments.

All of the exercises and assignments you complete in this class will be published on a website you create for this course. Theportfolio assignmentis worth 50 points and will be graded at the midterm and at the end of semester. Full details will be provided at the time of the assignment.

Discussion Assignments (10 points each)

Each week you will be required to:

  • Post one answer to the weekly question.
  • Respond to a total of four of your classmates’ discussion postings.

Each week's discussion board posts are worth a total of 10 points. Please note that all posts should contribute something substantial to the discussion. You should avoid posts that merely compliment (e.g. "Interesting post...") or support (e.g. "I agree with you...") another student's work; you will not be given credit for these sorts of comments because they don't intellectually contribute to the discussion. Since the discussions happen in real time, no late posts will be accepted for any reason. Do not post on the Discussion Board in advance unless you will be out of town or will not have Internet access the following week.

You can find a detailed rubric for the discussion board on ecampus, but the guidelines are simple:

  • Well-written posts with proper grammar and spelling.
  • Answer all parts of the discussion board prompt.
  • Make clear connections to course content and direct references to concepts from the lessons.
  • Ask thoughtful questions to encourage discussion.
  • Respond to direct questions. If the instructor or another student asks you a question, you must respond. In the real world, it's generally considered rude to ignore someone who asks you a direct question. The same applies to online communication.

Grades

Each student should keep track of his/her own grades. There are a total of 520 points possible in this course, and grades will be based on the following:

  • 12 discussion board posts worth 10 points each for a total of 120 points.
  • 3 projects worth 50 points each for a total of 150 points.
  • 6 exercises worth 25 points each for a total of 150 points.
  • 2 portfolio assignments worth 25 points each for a total of 50 points.
  • Lab attendance and participation grade worth 50 points.

Grading Scale

Final grades will be based on the following scale:

Grade Earned / Minimum Pts. / Maximum Pts.
A+ / 502 / 520
A / 481 / 501
A- / 466 / 480
B+ / 450 / 465
B / 429 / 449
B- / 414 / 428
C+ / 398 / 413
C / 377 / 397
C- / 362 / 376
D / 310 / 361
F / 0 / 308

Things to Be Aware Of

Attendance: Attendance and participation are expected and can help or hurt your final grade. Attendance is recorded for each lab, and you are expected to use the entire lab time to work on class assignments, and not leave class early unless excused by your instructor. One unexcused absence is permitted (this does not include the first week, which is mandatory). After that, your grade will drop 5 points with each subsequent unexcused absence. Three or more unexcused absences is grounds for failure.

Office Hours: If you have questions about the course or problems with course material, please direct your questions to the online instructor. They are the lead instructor for the course. The lab instructor will be able to help with any technical issues you might have during lab, and will provide more information about their availability during class.

Electronic Resources: Communication in this course will be primarily through MIX email. You should be in the habit of checking your MIX email account on a regular basis. Missing an email sent more than a day in advance is not an acceptable excuse. It is easy to have your MIX mail forwarded to your phone or the account you usually use.

Diversity: You will find that several of these assignments require you to seek out individuals to interview and profile. WVU, Morgantown and North Central West Virginia are diverse communities, and your stories should reflect this. Whenever appropriate, you are expected to actively seek out individuals who are not involved with the same organizations and activies as you are. Do not photograph or interview your friends and acquaintances.

Academic Integrity

As journalists and communicators, your reputation for honesty and integrity is the basis of your credibility. In this course, you will be held to the highest standard of ethical behavior. If you are caught cheating, or engaging in plagiarism or fabrication*, you could receive an F for the course, or an F for the assignment. You could also receive an Unforgivable F on your academic transcript.
The Reed College of Media defines fabrication as the invention of any fact, quote or source in a work of journalism. Any student who presents work that knowingly, and without instructor approval, fabricates quotes of sources can be found guilty of cheating.
The University defines plagiarism in terms of proscribed acts. Students are expected to understand that such practices constitute academic dishonesty regardless of motive. Those who deny deceitful intent, claim not to have known that the act constituted plagiarism, or maintain that what they did was inadvertent are nevertheless subject to penalties when plagiarism has been confirmed. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the following:
1. Submitting as ones own work the product of someone elses research, writing, artistic conception, theme, thesis, dissertation, commercially prepared paper, musical piece or other written, visual, oral or electronic/computerized material that has been copied in whole or in part from the work of others, whether such source is published or unpublished.
2. Incorporating in ones submission, without appropriate acknowledgment and attribution, portions of the works of others; that is, failing to use the conventional marks and symbols to acknowledge the use of verbatim and near-verbatim passages of someone elses work or failing to name the source of words, pictures, graphs, etc., other than ones own, that are incorporated into any work submitted as ones own.
Cheating

The University defines cheating and dishonest practices in connection with examinations, papers, and projects as including, but not limited to:

  1. Obtaining help form another student during examinations.
  2. Knowingly giving help to another student during examinations, taking an examination or doing academic work for another student, or providing ones own work for another student to copy and submit as his own.
  3. The unauthorized use of notes, books, or other sources of information during examinations.
  4. Obtaining without authorization an examination or any part thereof.

Violations of the Academic Integrity and Responsible Conduct Policy will be handled by the instructor, the Student Code Administrator, and the Student Conduct Board, as appropriate pursuant to West Virginia University Board of Governors Policy 31. Please see the WVU Conduct Code at

Inclusion, Diversityand Civility

The West Virginia University community is committed to creating and fostering a positive learning and working environment based on open communication, mutual respect, and inclusion. As such, we are committed to providing students, faculty, staff and job applicants with a work and educational environment free from all forms of harassment. Therefore, harassment, in any manner or form, is expressly prohibited. Any suggestions as to how to further such a positive and open environment in this class will be appreciated and given serious consideration.

If you are a person with a disability and anticipate needing any type of accommodation to participate in this class, please advise me and make appropriate arrangements with the Office of Disability Services (293-6700).

Through its faculty and student work, the Reed College of Media is actively committed to presenting diverse viewpoints to a general audience and to seeking, nurturing and maintaining ties to a base of multicultural sources. In public relations and advertising, the school equates excellence in campaigns to representing and communicating with diverse clients and audiences. In news storytelling, excellence is equated with the ability to produce stories for and about a wide range of communities and audiences.
For more information on West Virginia University's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, please see
Days of Special Concern
WVU recognizes the diversity of its students and the needs of those who wish to be absent from class to participate in Days of Special Concern, which are listed on WVUs Web site. Students should notify their instructor by the end of the second week of classes or prior to the first Day of Special Concern, whichever is earlier, regarding such absences. Your professor will make reasonable accommodations for assignments that a student misses as a result of observing a Day of Special Concern, providing the absence/s are discussed with the professor in advance.

eCampus Assistance

For Help Desk assistance related to WVU passwords, network connectivity issues, software issues, etc., please call 1.877.327.9260 or visit:

Student Support Services

The WVU Student Support Services office provides students with a wide range of options (e.g., academic tutoring, computer assistance, library access) to help “students overcome class, social, academic, and cultural barriers to higher education.” For more information, please visit:

Questions

If you have any questions about this document, please contact me at the email address included at the beginning of this syllabus.

Course Schedule

Dates / Lesson / Assignments / Discussion Post
(Due by 11:55 p.m. Eastern Time) / Response Posts
(Due by 11:55 p.m. Eastern Time) / Assignments Due
(Due by 11:55 p.m. Eastern Time)
Intro. Week
January 12-16 / Syllabus, Course Intro / January 14(Intro) / January 16(Intro) / NONE
Unit 1
January 19-23 / Introduction to Multimedia Storytelling / Assignment 1 / January 21 / January 23 / January 23 -Exercise 1
Unit 2
January 26-30 / Introduction to Photography / Assignment 2 / January 28 / January 30 / NONE
Unit 3
February 2-6 / Photo Editing / Assignment 3 / February 4 / February 6 / February 6 -Exercise 2
Unit 4
February 9-13 / Ethics in Photography and Photo Editing / Assignment 4 / February 11 / February 13 / February 13- Project 1
Unit 5
February 16-20 / Introduction to Audio / Assignment 5 / February 18 / February 20 / NONE
Unit 6
February 23-27 / Audio Editing / Assignment 6 / February 25 / February 27 / February 27 - Exercise 3
Unit 7
March 2-6 / Audio Ethics / Assignment 7 / March 4 / March 6 / March 6-Project 2and Midterm Portfolio
Unit 8
March 9-13 / Introduction to Video / Assignment 8 / March 11 / March 13 / NONE
Unit 9
March 16-20 / Video Shooting and Editing / Assignment 9 / March 18 / March 20 / March 20 -Exercise 4
March23-27 / Spring Break / - / - / - / -
Unit 10
March 30-April 3 / Video Editing / Assignment 10 / April 1 / April 3 / April 3-Project 3 First Edit
Unit 11
April 6-10 / Infographics and Data Visualization / Assignment 11 / April 8 / April 10 / April 10-Exercise 5
Unit 12
April 13-17 / Coding / Assignment 12 / April 15 / April 17 / April 17 -Exercise 6and Project 3 Final Edit
Wrap-Up Week
April 20-24 / April 22 / April 24 / April 24- Final Portfolio