With the explosion of the World Wide Web, many higher education facilities are constantly up-dating their visual media and multimedia departments.
The Visual Communications program (also referred to as Vicom) teaches students how to design and build websites, in addition to applying digital video and sound.
According to instructor David Thomas, “The program is an integration of art and technology for electronic content delivery. Nearly all visual content is being delivered on the web. So now the program is heavily web oriented.”
Thomas added that the program fell victim to budget cuts which affected the students and their projects.
He then came up with the idea of promoting a video contest using social media.
The students then formed teams which allowed for them to use the in-demand video equipment normally reserved for the television production department.
All the Vicom participants chose their own subject matter and learned very quickly how to overcome beginner video-making blunders. The results were final projects that they were all proud of.
Notes Thomas, “We did not use a formula. Students (were sent out) to get the story and tell it in their own way.”
Kathleen Hohl, director of communications stated that “Each video has its own, unique personality and helps tell the MATC story.”
The videos were posted on the MATC Facebook page last week (on April 26) and can be viewed until May 17.
Hohl added, “The team with the most views will receive recognition.”
To access the videos go to the home page for MATC and scroll down to the You Tube icon.
Thomas stresses that, “Social media is (similar to) many other phenomena and changing rapidly. We need to keep our finger on the pulse of these trends and try to prepare our students to be on the front end when they leave MATC,” adding that, “We offer video as one of several tools students need to be visual communicators in business. Profit or non-profit, all organizations need the same communication tools.”
The student videographers and a list of their projects appear in the following diagram.