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Media and Communications EGS Graduate and Post-Graduate Studies
EGS StarEuropean Graduate School Faculty
Hendrik Speck
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MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND PRODUCTION

The course offers a broad, rigorous orientation for understanding the basic elements of media production, management and planning and intends to equip the student with the skills necessary to complete complex projects across various media. Students will also explore their personal strengths in various technologies, positions and tasks as well as their individual roles within the production process.
In addition to discussion sessions, group projects and presentations, lectures will help students handle typical problems of media management and production and focus on topics as intellectual property, media technologies, communication, distribution, competition, team organization, project management and marketing.
Group projects will demonstrate the proficiency level in project management, problem analysis and solving, programming, coding, visualizing, presenting and marketing. Proposals include methods and elements of information retrieval, databases, CVS (concurrent versions system), web services, technologies to be explored, methods and data to be visualized, and results presented and documented.






ATTENDANCE


The lectures introduce a great deal of material that is not covered in the readings. Lectures are essential for passing the course; therefore students are required to attend every class meeting and to arrive on time. More than two absences will result in the loss of 10 percentage points from the final grade. More than three absences from lecture or two absences from section without prior consultation with the instructor will result in a failing grade for the class.

In any case, students are responsible for all work assigned at each class period and any assignments lose at least 5% for each calendar day that they are late. Absence from class must be excused in advance, with an expectation of a written submission of the material of the day. Any unexcused absences may substantially harm class partition grade.


ASSIGNMENTS

Because it is essential for the course to learn and evaluate methods, solutions, ideas and programs designed by class participants, assignments must be completed on time. Students are expected to submit all completed assignments on the due dates indicated on the class schedule. Late assignments will only be accepted at the sole discretion of the instructor up to one week after the due date. Handouts of presentations have to be prepared and distributed to all students prior to the presentation. In fairness to students who complete assignments on time, late assignments will be assessed the loss of one grade. After the one-week grace period, late assignments will not be accepted.

In addition to placing all written assignments in a designated box that will be set out outside the office until 4:00 P.M. on the day they are due; all assignments are to be submitted online to the bulletin board. Do not leave assignments in the professor or teaching assistants (TA's) office or mailbox. Everyone has to register to the online classroom.


ONLINE PARTICIPATION

Participation in asynchronous, online discussions and other course activities is mandatory. This course will require significant weekly participation in the online environment. Students are required to submit each week two questions to the bulletin board/online classroom on each reading assignment, topic, problem or section. These questions will form the basis for class discussion. Each student will then select two questions from another student and respond to that question in the online classroom. All students are required to read, evaluate and grade the answers of their peers in the bulletin board.

Students must do assigned readings and participate in discussions and collaborations. Students must participate in critiques of projects, providing feedback about other students' work. Students who are having apparent difficulties in the course will be asked to arrange to meet with the instructor.


OUT OF CLASS OPTIONAL PROJECTS

All students are encouraged to develop and propose an optional assignment. Each project, worth up to 5 points, may be used to improve your grade. A written report must be submitted at the final presentation of each optional project. Examples of optional projects can include but are not limited to: researching of a particular area of education, preparation of class materials and handouts, and/or maintaining a weekly electronic discussion. A maximum of 2 optional projects may be submitted.


MIDTERM EXAM

Taking the midterm is a requirement of the course. Missing the midterm without a valid excuse will result in a failing grade for the entire course. To be considered valid, an excuse must be proffered prior to the exam that is to be missed, if at all possible. The excuse must be in writing, and it must be verifiable. These criteria are necessary, not sufficient, however. I reserve the right to deem an excuse meeting the above criteria invalid. If a student does have a valid excuse we reserve the right to decide to give a written make-up, to give an oral make-up exam or to give no make-up exam and put extra weight on the problem sets and final exam.


FINAL EXAM/PRESENTATION


The Final Exam will be a certification-style exam consisting of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, and short essay questions to demonstrate mastery of the material covered; questions will be based on the learning objectives for each topic.


GRADING POLICY


The grading criteria for the class will be as follows:

Description:
Percent
USA
GPA
D
Superior, outstanding or striking work
reflecting substantial effort
95 - 100%
A
4.00
1.0
90 - 94.99%
A-
3.70
1.3
Adequate work fully meeting that
expected of a graduate student
85 - 89.99%
B+
3.30
1.7
80 - 84.99%
B
3.00
2.0
75 - 79.99%
B-
2.70
2.3
Weak but still marginally satisfactory work
that would benefit from increased effort
70 - 74.99%
C+
2.30
2.7
65 - 69.99%
C
2.00
3.0
60 - 64.99%
C-
1.70
3.3
Substandard work not meeting reasonable
expectations
55 - 69.99%
D+
1.30
3.7
50 - 54.99%
D
1.00
4.0
Failed or unsatisfactory work
0 - 59.99%
F
0
5.0

(USA – letter grading system of the United States,
GPA – United States grade point average,
D – European university grading system.)

Final Course Grade Calculation:

Individual Presentation, Team Project Exercises, and Participation (Assignment One)
(Final paper submitted to conference)

20%
Project Proposal and Business Plan (Assignment Two)
(Objectives, Technology, Risks, Resources, Schedule, Business Model/Business Plan).

20%
First Prototype and CVS (Assignment Three)
(Core Functionality, Elimination of Technological Risks)

20%
Final Revision and Graphical User Interface (Assignment Four)

20%
Website, Marketing, Documentation (Assignment Five)
(Corporate Identity, Product Documentation/Project Documentation/Developer Documentation)
20%

Grades will depend largely on level of effort, with class contribution, participation and attendance influencing borderline decisions.

All requests for regrades must be submitted in writing within one week of the exam being handed back or graded.


ACADEMIC INTEGRITY


Students are expected to maintain high standards of ethical conduct and academic integrity. Cheating and plagiarism in any form are unacceptable and will result in a grade reduction and possibly grounds for a failing grade. Students are responsible for adhering to the ethical policies and the policies for responsible computing, which can be found online at the following location: http://www.informatik.fh-kl.de/dm/organisation/po_aktuell_text.html

All students are expected and encouraged to discuss topics and questions raised by this course. Students shall also identify appropriate resources, authorities and projects, Open Source projects in particular, that will help them preparing their assignments. Ideas or material incorporated from outside sources or another student however, must be documented appropriately. Similarly, in the case of group work and Open Source projects, the bounds of what was contributed by whom or from which source, should be explicitly and clearly delineated in the final individual reports. Any material quoted or paraphrased from other sources must be fully identified, including secondary and original sources according to the MLA (Modern Language Association) style guides. (The latest version of the MLA Style Manual, the standard guide for graduate students, teachers, and scholars, can be found online at the following location: http://www.mla.org/.)


COURSE ACCESS


Each student has access to the course for a period of 6 months from the day of enrollment in the course. Please read our Courseware License for more details.


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