BSc (Hons)
Digital Media
Creating professional digital media producers
Course Overview
Why take this course?
We offer a creative environment to for you to produce exciting, high-quality websites, designed to international standards and incorporating current best practice. You’ll be threading together the fundamentals of digital media from animation, 2D and 3D graphics, video, and media streaming, to create your own digital media products.
What will I experience?
On this course you can:
- Get to grips with the cutting-edge, industry-standard software housed in our computer and multimedia laboratories
- Engage in large scale, client based projects
- Opt to do a salaried placement year
What opportunities might it lead to?
There is a growing need for media artists, producers and media production managers capable of designing and assembling digital media products. As technology advances, the skills you learn will allow you to adapt and change alongside safeguarding your future career prospects. On completion of this course, you’ll be able to meet this demand and enter a range of roles focused on digital media production in areas such as entertainment, business and education.
Here are some routes our graduates have pursued:
- web design and development
- mobile applications development
- multimedia production
- graphics and digital design
- streaming media development
This course covers all the different career paths of the creative industry, I like that I am able to try various things from animation to web design and mobile applications.
Annie Wilson, BSc (Hons) Digital Media student 2013
Key Facts
- UCAS Course Code:
- P301
- Duration
- 3 years full time, 4 years sandwich with work placement
- Entry
240-300 points to include a minimum of 240 points from A Levels, or equivalent.
Other qualifications- Fees
UK/EU/Channel Islands and Isle of Man full-time students: £8,750 p/a*
International full-time students: £11,000 p/a*
*Please note that all fees are subject to annual increase.- Contact
- create.admissions@port.ac.uk
+44 (0)23 9284 2421 - Department
- School of Creative Technologies
Subject:
Computing and Creative Technologies
Find out what our students say about studying at Portsmouth, including:
- Hands-on, practical work and real-life learning, which is transferable to future careers
- Modern facilities and access to the latest technology including numerous computer labs, TV studios and a motion capture suite
- Approachable lecturers who have experience and contacts in the industry
Visit us at our open day
Wed 10 Jul
Structure & Teaching
Year one
During the first year you will be provided with grounding in the basic knowledge and skills you’ll require throughout the course. There’s also an introduction to current professional issues and project management.
Core units in this year include:
- Digital Filming and Technology
- Introduction to Computer Graphics
- Scripting and Interactive Web
- Sound for Moving Image
- Web Engineering and Design
- EPortfolio
Year two
Broaden your skill set and choose from a wide range of options, tailoring your course to your specific areas of interest.
Core units in this year include:
- Data Manipulation and Presentation
- Linear/Non-Linear Animation
- Project Initiation and Career Management
- Streaming Media Website Design and Delivery
Options to choose from in this year include:
- Creative Industries Project Management
- Designing Interactive Content
- Digital Photography
- Music: Practice, Performance and Research
- Professional Experience
- Radio Production and Presentation Skills
- Student Enterprise
Year three*
In your final year you will develop and expand your professional competencies by means of individual and group projects, specifically focusing on your preparation for the workplace.
Core units in this year include:
- Interdisciplinary Group Project
- Final Year Project
Options to choose from in this year include:
- Communication Design
- Creative Platforms
- Database Driven Streaming Media Website Development
- Mobile Application Development
- Streaming Media Encoding
*This course is also available as a 4-year sandwich (work placement)
Teaching and Assessment
You will experience a variety of teaching through lectures, seminars, tutorials, laboratory sessions, online lessons and project work. Practical experience is emphasised throughout the course and you’ll be encouraged to put your ideas into practice, apply software packages and solve problems.
The teaching environment is designed to be challenging and to emulate the ‘real world’; developing your self reliance as well as your collaborative skills when building complex artefacts as part of a team.
How are you assessed?
Due to the practical nature of this course, assessment is extremely varied and includes:
- practical projects
- work portfolios
- essays/review articles
- multiple choice tests
- oral presentations
- examinations
Visit us open day
Facilities & Features
Specialist Software and Equipment
A wide range of powerful and modern multimedia computers equipped with the latest software
Computer Labs
You’ll have excellent resources at your fingertips
TV Studios
Our purpose-built TV studios that allow the production of all types of television work
University Library
Our library offers a wealth of information
Specialist Software and Equipment
You will have easy access to a wide range of powerful and modern multimedia computers equipped with the latest software. Such software will play a major role in this course and you’ll regularly be using packages such as Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, Avid Media Composer, Cool Edit Pro, Adobe After Effects, Protools and Logic. Though these may seem daunting at first – you’ll have day-to-day contact with knowledgeable, enthusiastic and highly motivated staff who will be happy to lend a helping hand.
Computer Labs
A full range of industry software will be available for you to use in the computer labs. You’ll have excellent resources at your fingertips including:
- The Virtual Reality Lab
- Motion capture facilities
- Half Life 2 (source game engine)
- Unreal game engine
- XNA (Dreamspark) Xbox 360 development environment
- Maya
- Macromedia software
TV Studios
You will have access to our purpose-built TV studios that allow the production of all types of television work. You will use our professional cameras (Sony EX1 and EX3), sound mixing kit, the Newtek Tricaster system and a TV Broadcast Server (Capital Networks - Audience.TV). All this equipment enables you to gets loads of practical experience and ensures you are working to an industry-standard level.
University Library
Modern, comfortable and a great learning environment, our library offers a wealth of information including 400,000 books, DVDs, maps and thousands of online ejournals and newspapers. Many electronic resources are available anywhere, 24/7 and our friendly staff are always on hand to help.
Careers & Opportunities
Career prospects
This course offers the complete package for those wishing to work in today’s thriving digital industries.
On completion of this course, you will have an excellent understanding of the development, integration and management of digital media products as well as their presentation via the web. You’ll have also produced an eportfolio, which will help you gain employment in a range of web applications involving media production.
Roles our graduates have taken on include:
- computer games animator
- 3D modeller
- web designer
- graphics artist
- video film-maker
- broadcast journalist
- games developer
Work experience
The best way to boost your CV is by doing an industry placement. This is a great opportunity to put your developing skills into practice in an industrial or commercial setting – and be paid for it! Taking a year in industry is an extremely effective way to increase your employability for when you finish the course. You may even find that your placement employer hires you once you graduate.
Our team at our placements office ensures you have access to a range of volunteering and work experience opportunities. We also offer support during your year-long industrial placements, and provide support for the different types of application processes.
Career planning
6.04 minutes
Finding a job is a competitive business, but the statistics show that 89 per cent of our 2011graduates went into employment, further study or training within six months of finishing their degrees.
To make sure you take the right steps on your career path, we’re here to give you help, support and advice throughout your study. Even after you’ve graduated, we continue to give you support for up to five years.
Employers tell us that they want graduates to be able to demonstrate certain skills when they come out of university. Our courses take account of this. We make sure we prepare you for employment through work-related learning, projects, placements and working in simulated environments that are designed to prepare you for the working world.
Open Day
Our next open day is Wed 10 July
VISIT US! Have a look around and get a feel for what it’s like to live and study here. We’ll be on hand to talk to you about your course interests and show you all of our amazing facilities. You’ll also get to meet tutors and other students…
Application, Fees and Funding — find out more