Course Descriptions

42.221 Writing for Interactive Media
Adds new dimensions to traditional, text-based writing. Hypertext links allow for multiple story lines, while integrating audio, animation, and video presents new challenges for the writer. Participants will examine successful multimedia scripts and work on their own creations.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3

42.224 Business Writing
Studies the theory and practice of writing letters, memoranda and reports on specific business and technical problems. Registration preference for students enrolled in Business programs.
Prerequisite: 42.102
Credits: 3
Special Notes: Note: Students may not receive credit for both 42.224 and 42.226

42.226 Technical and Scientific Communication
Studies the theory and practice of letters, memoranda, reports and oral presentations on specific scientific and technical problems.
Prerequisite: 42.102.
Credits: 3
Special Notes: Students may not receive credit for both 42.224 and 42.226

42.300 Journalism
An introduction to techniques of writing for the news media.
Prerequisite: 42.102.
Credits: 3

90.160 Introduction to Information Systems
Provides the student with an understanding of how computer hardware and software are combined to build efficient and effective information systems for business professionals. The course takes a user's orientation toward the use of the application tools, how to develop applications without programming, how users can build decision support systems, how to use the structured system development life cycle, how to control information systems and life cycle, and how personal computers can be interfaced with other systems.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3

90.238 Website Development: Microsoft® Expression® Web
This course focuses on the design, development, and implementation of websites using available visual development tools. Each participant will design, build, and maintain their own websites. Topics covered include: basic navigational structure; page layout incorporating tables and CSS; graphical design and placement; image maps; streaming audio and video; and basic website administration.
Prerequisite: 90.291; 90.231 recommended
Credits: 3
Special Notes: Formerly Designing Multimedia for the World Wide Web

90.291 Introduction to DHTML
Starts with the basics of Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language using the tool that most professional Web developers use - HTML-Kit. The course covers the W3C standards for HTML 3.2 and 4.0, Web protocols, Web server basics, Web design theory, and provides a survey of JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets, XML, Perl, and Dynamic HTML.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3

91.113 Exploring the Internet
This course focuses on the primary tools used to navigate the Internet from a Windows desktop: e-mail and the web browsers. In addition, this course covers many of the other applications of the Internet: ftp, listserve, newsgroups, chat, search engines, and portals. Students will complete hands-on exercises, including construction of their personal web page.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3
Special Notes: Non-CS Majors only

45.202 Introduction to Logic
Studies the methods used to distinguish correct from incorrect reasoning. This course will aim at developing (1) an ability to express one's ideas clearly and concisely; (2) an increased skill in defining one's terms; and(3) a capacity to formulate arguments vigorously and to scrutinize them critically.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3
Special Notes: VC

46.210 Media and Politics
This course addresses the role of the media in American politics and the role of politics in the American media. We will begin with a survey of general readings on the historical development of mass communications and the transformation of the media in the Information Age. Then we will focus on ways in which the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and the Internet changed the political landscape. Next, we examine how the right to privacy evolved in response to the rise of investigative journalism. Finally, by studying a few major stories in depth, we will try to gain a better understanding of the factors involved in the conversion of events and developments into seemingly significant news.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3

62.201 Marketing Principles
The role of marketing in the economy. The elements of the marketing mix--product, price, distribution, and promotion--are discussed in the context of social and political constraints on marketing activity.
Prerequisite: 49.201, 48.101, 47.101
Credits: 3

90.250 E-Commerce on the Web
This course examines the impact of emerging technologies on how we conduct business in a wired world. Topics include: ingredients for a Commerce-Enabled Web site from hardware and software to necessary operational processes; copyright, authentication, encryption, certification, and security; on-line payment strategies (SET, E-cash, check, and charge) and companies offering solutions: E-Commerce Business Models.
Prerequisite: 90.238
Credits: 3

90.460 Computer Ethics
This course is an introduction to the major issues surrounding the use of computers in our society, with a special focus on fields related to computer science and information technology management. The course will cover an analysis of major trends in emerging computer technology and their potential effects on work, leisure, government, and human relations. Students will examine the assumptions which underlie our culture's relation to technology and the relation between their own ethics and the values and ethics implicit in our uses of technology and information.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3
Special Notes: VC

70.291 Introduction to Graphic Design
Exercises, lectures and projects will introduce students to graphic design principles and techniques. Course will begin with a fundamental study of image, form, and space relations, then cover such topics as working with grids, typography basics, page layout, the introduction of color, rendering techniques, history, and more. Students will be assigned a series of projects to enhance their visual communication skills.
Prerequisite: Basic Macintosh or Windows proficiency
Credits: 3
Special Notes: This course will not transfer directly into the Art Department's BFA day school degree program, but certain two-course clusters may be accepted for transfer upon department approval.

90.230 Introduction to Multimedia
Provides participants with an overview of multimedia and its professional applications in training, education, marketing, and entertainment. Scanning images, digitizing video and audio, and exploring the design and production of interactive multimedia are the focus of this class. Includes technical/hardware considerations and production procedures pertinent to interactive multimedia.
Prerequisite: P: Basic Macintosh or Windows proficiency
Credits: 3

90.231 Graphics for Multimedia and the World Wide Web
The focus of this class is on the basic components of shape, color, texture, typography, and images as they are applied to multimedia and web interface design. Other topics covered include scanning, image editing, resolution and color palettes. Students will work on projects that integrate elements such as buttons, navigation bars, and background images to communicate creative visual information. Photoshop will be used.
Prerequisite: 90.230
Credits: 3
Special Notes: Formerly Graphics for Multimedia

90.232 Desktop Video Production
This course will focus on introductory desktop video production techniques. Using desktop editing software, students will complete projects including photo montages, interview sequences, storyboarding, pre-production planning and a five minute final project. Some experience with PhotoShop or similar software and access to a digital still camera or scanner is helpful for success in this course.
Prerequisite: 90.230
Credits: 3

45.205 Argumentation and Rhetoric
This course will cover a range of popular means of persuasion, and provide tools for detecting and resisting them. Drawing on concrete examples from advertising, television, politics, and the like, the course will demonstrate how to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate persuasion. Central topics will include: the nature of language and meaning, the role of ambiguity and vagueness, and the use of logical argumentation both as a tool for uncovering illegitimate persuasion and as an effective means of persuasion in its own right.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3

45.207 Corporate Communications
In this course students will learn how to communicate ideas clearly and effectively to a business audience. The course will cover: the basics of communication, business writing, how to make effective presentations, the optimal use of visual aides, the uses of web pages, global communication and cultural sensitivity, the ethics of communication, and the impact of the Internet on the communication environment. Special attention will be paid to the communicational demands posed by the rapid globalization of business and the rapid transformation of communication technologies.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3

45.356 The History, Theory, and Practice of Rhetoric
The course will use interactive television between UMass Lowell (origin) and UMass Boston (destination). Students will learn not only what the great rhetors from Demosthenes, Cicero, and Quintilian to Lincoln, Churchill and M.L. King can teach us about effective oral presentation, but also how to apply what they learn by practicing with the leading edge broadcast communications technologies available in our classroom. Both written examination papers and short presentations will be required.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3

46.316 Politics and Film
Analysis of the role of film in creating, expressing, revealing, and responding to social and political ideas and values. Examines a variety of film and film styles and introduces students to elements of film theory, the theory of popular culture and the role of film in forming our ideas about the world.
Prerequisite:
Credits: 3

Certificate Requirements