MSc in Interactive Media

Hi,

I read some of these posts about the Interactive Media course in UCC and I made an account just to share my own experiences in this course.

I am currently enrolled, just finishing up semester one as we speak, 3 exams left. I don't think the opinions expressed here are a fair representation of the opinions of an average student enrolled in the course at all, so here's what I have to say.

This course is very tough. We've had about 5 dropouts so far, (out of 30 who started) despite everyone showing up to all labs, classes, putting in the time doing assignment work in the evenings etc. I'm coming in most weekends (both Saturday & Sunday), but I am in the minority, I don't usually see a lot of others doing the same. From speaking with my classmates, I can say that while there are some organizational issues with the course, everybody who is still here is really enjoying it and getting a lot from it. Personally I still don't believe how far I have come in such a short space of time. As a rule you will not be given enough time for assignments, although for every assignment that we felt we had an indefensibly short amount of time to complete, we were given extensions. (Our two toughest assignments for example, have been pushed back from the start of December, to early January.) The lecturers are all decent lads, are aware of the immense workload, and of the fact that we are all noobs, and will do their best to ensure everybody does the best he/she can.

I would definitely recommend to everybody coming into this course to do some prep work beforehand in any programming language, as I did. I studied music as an undergrad, and so had next to no programming experience coming into the course, but I did a couple of internet courses during the summer months before starting this course, which were invaluable. For anyone interested in starting the course, here's what we did so far, and here are the things I would recommend doing some prep work in:

Languages we covered:

HTML, CSS {
These are both web-based, and handy enough to pick up. I did about 6 hours overall on codeacademy.com with these languages, which was more than enough imo to get through everything we did with ease.

PHP, MYSQL {
The other two web-based languages, used with databases. These two are a bit tougher, we don't do a lot with them though, so there's not a lot to learn. I had no previous experience with these.

JavaScript, Processing {
These are the two toughest from semester one. I had done a fair bit of work on processing.org for processing and codecademy.com for javascript before starting this course, about 15-20 hours each. This was invaluable, as almost all cases where someone was having difficulties with an assignment were a result of these two bad boys. I had no real difficulties with these two, but I had done a lot of work on them.

Actionscript {
This has huge similarities with javascript. I had never used Actionscript before, but knowledge of javascript made this one easy.

Programs/Environments:

Logic, Photoshop {
These are both handy enough, noone had any problems with these as far as I could see.

Blender {
This one is definitely worth downloading before you start also. I had never used it, but if I had a month to myself right now, you can bet I would spend it getting comfortable with and learning how to be efficient using Blender.

Well, that's my two cents anyway. I was pretty well-prepared for the course, so I know I'm biased in that respect, but I did all that prep myself, just teaching myself on the internet. Anyone could do the same. I knew absolutely nothing about coding before last summer and now at the end of semester one my average assignment grade is about 87%.

In conclusion: Not for everyone, but highly-recommended from this poster. If you go for it, do some prep.

Hello,

I was looking between this course and MSc in Digital Games which is been taught at DIT.
Which one would you guys recommend. What the practicality for both the courses. What kind of job opportunity i can expect with this course .

Regards.

Hi All,
I’ve been offered a place on the MSc in Interactive Media in UCC however I have read very mixed reviews from students of previous years in this forum and i’m having second thoughts. Can anyone that has done the course in the last year or two say if the issues with course have been resolved and if they would recommend it? Thanks a million!