Graduation is dependent upon the quality of work and mastery of material in the course of study in the master’s degree in interactive media. The iMedia degree is a professional master’s degree. As such, mastery of material and the quality of the work that students complete is of more importance than the grade that is received. Within mastery, there are levels, however. For that reason, students are not judged on a traditional grading system. The grading scale used by the iMedia program is not one that has been devised solely by Elon University. It is one that is used by a number of universities across the nation. Students in the interactive media master’s program will be evaluated using the following grade scale:

Grade               Evaluation                      Credit hours

H                     Honors in mastery                3

P                      Pass with mastery                3

L                      Low pass                             3

F                      Failure                                 0

I                      Incomplete

WD                  Medical withdrawal 

W                    Withdrawal

NR                   No report

If, in the judgment of the graduate program director, faculty, and the administrators of the School of Communications, a student fails to make satisfactory progress toward the completion of the degree or to demonstrate sufficient promise in the discipline, the student will not be allowed to continue in the interactive media master’s program. Registration in the following term for academically ineligible students will be cancelled automatically.

A student automatically becomes academically ineligible to continue in the interactive media graduate program for the following reasons:

1. he or she receives a grade of F,

2. receives more than 1 grade of L per semester (For iMedia, the August and January terms are considered a part of the fall and spring semesters respectively),

3. he or she is found to have violated the university’s honor code policy.

Plan of Study

Students from any undergraduate program of study are accepted into the interactive media master’s program. Certain foundational studies are deemed essential, though. Students who have not completed courses in basic media writing or in media law and ethics are required to attend seminars in these subject areas prior to the summer term. These seminars will be offered by the iMedia program to students, and are included as a part of the basic tuition for the summer, fall, and winter terms.

The outline of study for the interactive media degree includes a set of required courses completed by all students in the summer and fall terms, a winter term fly-in course, and a selection of three electives as well as the capstone course in the spring semester.

The plan of study is set up in this way in order to provide students with the best possible learning outcome from the iMedia program. The summer and fall required courses are designed to provide students with the theoretical and production abilities required to be successful in the world of interactive media. The winter term course is designed to provide students with real-world, practical experience working with a client and a team. The spring term allows students to select classes in order to tailor their course of study toward particular interests while at the same time completing the six-hour capstone course. The breakdown of required and elective courses is as follows:

Courses                                      Credit Hours

Required Courses: 

COM 620: Digital Media Workshop                                   3

Fall term

Winter term

COM 670: Interactive Project for the Public Good               3

Spring term 

Required Course

COM 695: Interactive Media Capstone                               6

Elective Courses* (9 hours):

COM 661: Intellectual Property Law                                  3

COM 662: Multimedia Storytelling                                     3

COM 663: Virtual/3D Environments                                   3

COM 664: Public Opinion Through New Media                    3

COM 666: Interactive Media Management and Economics    3

COM 667: Application Development                                   3

COM 672: Analytics and Search Engine Optimization            3

COM 673: Data Mining and Visualization                             3

COM 675: Game Design and Development                          3

COM 674: Digital Brand Communication                              3

COM 680: Contemporary Media Issues                                3

COM 681: Professional Apprenticeship                                3

COM 691: Special Topics in Interactivity                              3

Total iMedia Credit Hours                   37

*All electives m not be offered during the spring term.

Assessment and Progress

Students in the iMedia program will be assessed on whether they are making satisfactory progress at three points in the first half of the program. The first will occur at the end of the summer term and COM 520: Digital Media Workshop. If faculty have concerns about elements of a student’s progress, the student will receive a report about areas of deficiency as well as suggestions for addressing these deficiencies. Students are expected to discuss these reports with their academic advisers to plan for remediation. If the faculty of COM 520 find that a student’s understanding of overall course content is unsatisfactory and does not seem to be correctable with extended work, a student may be removed from the program because the student’s ability to complete the program successfully is questionable.