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University College Cork

Digital Cultures

This MA in Digital Cultures programme will be delivered in a blended fashion: predominantly online, and in conjunction with three (3) intensive on-site workshops that will reinforce and provide effective direct instruction in digital skills. Online delivery in our case also offers online, synchronous, face-to-face tutorials to support the other online material accessed by the student.

Life is being transformed by digital technologies - are you equipped to understand, to contribute to and indeed to make the changes happening around you?

The MA in Digital Cultures will prepare you to understand the transformation in our society, identity, and culture; to develop digital literacies in using and in creating
digital artefacts in a range of media and to provide innovative and creative leadership in the digital age.

The accelerating velocity of digital transformation: the explosion of social media since Facebook (2004); the widespread adoption of smartphones (2007) and tablets since 2010 - devices now outselling traditional PCs, demonstrate the digital revolution that is reshaping our society. These tool and platforms are enabling profound social and political changes from the Arab Spring to how we interact in our families and communities.

These societal transformations raise new questions for the Arts and Social Sciences, and demand graduates who can not only effectively employ these tools, but more profoundly leverage them through critical appreciation of the profound ways they are transforming our everyday lives.

The UCC MA in Digital Cultures operates within and about the digital moment, developing knowledge, skills and critical awareness through praxis.

The MA in Digital Cultures not only develops practical skills to flourish in the digital age, but also to explore the impact of the digital on culture, power and identity in society. The programme fosters new literacies for the contemporary world - of digital consumption, literacy of digital production, of digital creation. Most importantly, the MA in Digital Cultures considers the moral and ethical implications and social, cultural, political and economic impacts of technology on human organisation.

This MA encourages a truly trans-disciplinary engagement that is creatively enriching for students within a scholarly atmosphere. We offer an unique interdisciplinary opportunity for participants in a distinctive synergy within Digital Cultures. The programme offers an introduction into how digital tools and methods can be used in research and it combines innovative elements of theory and practice in Digital Cultures.

Course Practicalities
Students passing modules to the value of 45 credits in Part I may opt to exit the programme and be awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Digital Cultures.

Entry requirements

The entry requirement is a primary degree with a Second Class Honours Grade 1 (or equivalent) in any discipline.

Candidates who hold a primary degree with a Second Class Honours Grade 2 will also be considered subject to the approval of the programme selection committee.

Some applicants who do not fulfil the usual entry requirements may be invited for interview to satisfy the selection committee of their suitability for the programme.

English Language Requirements: IELTS 6.5 with no individual section lower than 5.5 or TOEFL equivalent.

All applicants are required to comment on the following statement:

Please explain your interest in the MA in Digital Cultures. Briefly outline the narrative extent and analytic issues which you may be interested in as research topics for the MA Thesis. As this programme, requires engagement with digital tools for research, you should indicate your experience and aptitude for working with digital tools (750 words approximately).

If you are applying with Qualifications obtained outside Ireland and you wish to verify if you meet the minimum academic and English language requirements for this programme please view the grades comparison table by country and for details of recognised English language tests.

Duration

1 year
This programme will be delivered in a blended fashion: predominantly online, and in conjunction with three (3) intensive on-site workshops that will reinforce and provide effective direct instruction in digital skills. Online delivery in our case also offers online, synchronous, face-to-face tutorials to support the other online material accessed by the student.

Careers or further progression

Skills and Careers Information
The UCC MA in Digital Cultures will equip you with a range of tools and methods to provide the digital element now essential for careers in education, heritage and the cultural economy, in digital content creation and management, in web content creation, editing and management in a variety of domains.

Digital Cultures is a field that equips practitioners with the conceptual awareness to apply digital tools to research problems in the Arts, Humanities and related fields. It produces digitally literate interdisciplinary graduates who may fill a variety of roles in the knowledge economy.

Further enquiries

Dr. Orla Murphy,
School of English, UCC
Email: o.murphy@ucc.ie
Telephone: 00 353 21 4902591

Subjects taught

The programme will provide a grounding in how digital tools can be used to capture social and cultural data sources in digital form, using standards-based tools (TEI, XML, SQL amongst others) to frame research questions, collaborate on research using social networking tools, and present results both in print and on the web using current standards-based presentation technologies. Students will be encouraged to and facilitated in the creation of digital artefacts individually and in teams.

International engagement and participation is expected and encouraged led by the teaching team.

Digital Cultures at UCC provides opportunities for students to explore how the "digital" is impacting on society and changing our culture. Students on the programme will seek to discover what is it to be human in the digital age, and the answers will help to shape how we see ourselves and others in an age where humanity is becoming increasingly connected by ubiquitous technology. The MA programme serves to introduce students to this dynamic and developing field, and lay the foundations for further research or careers that use digital tools to address the creative questions in the Arts, Humanities and related fields.

The DC MA is geared towards introducing graduates to the use of appropriate digital tools to address research questions in their 'traditional' disciplines. It lays the foundations for work on capturing, reading and writing sources in digital form, and using them for analytic and creative work. The core module will include topics such as digital assets management, creative commons licensing , and the open access and open data agendas.

The programme will provide a grounding in how ICT tools can be used to capture humanities data sources in digital form, using standards based tools such as TEI, XML, SQL, to frame research questions, collaborate on research using social networking tools, and present results both in print and on the web using current standards based visualisation and presentation technologies.

The core is based on two modules: Communities of Practice in Digital Scholarship (5 credits) and Conceptual Introduction to Digital Arts and Humanities (5 credits) and 15 credits of modules covering tools, methods and the institute in the digital arts & humanities. The programme is further complemented with 20 credits from a list of elective modules.

The capstone delivery of the remaining 45 credits consists of a minor thesis.

Comment

Unique Aspects of the Course
If your career and interests drive you to engage with cutting edge concepts and tools to forge new knowledge and practices in the digital age, then this course will provide a fresh challenge. It will appeal to those interested in the performing arts, telecommunications, information technology, philosophy, law, language, literature, and education, and provide a structured perspective on contemporary digital culture. You will engage with a group of like-minded students in a framework designed to foster the skills of self-directed, life-long transformation and development for the 21st Century.

This course is provided by a diverse team experienced in teaching, development and research in the digital arts and humanities at every level from undergraduate to PhD.

This experience has been demonstrated and delivered using blended and online learning tools to foster student-centred, research-based learning.

It is the only online masters programme that engages with digital cultures in a critical manner.

Assessment method

Modules in the programme require students to work 'hands-on' with current and emerging tools and interact with standards based ICT. This will include assessments requiring engagement with both theory and practice of inquiry in the digital age. It is expected that students will create digital research artefacts in the course of their research. Assessment may include practice and/or performance based elements where appropriate.

Application date

Applications for 2017-18 intake are now open.

While UCC operates a rounds system for Postgraduate Taught courses (detailed below) we would advise you to apply as soon as possible.

Deadline for receipt of Applications: Offers will be made:

For all completed applications received by January 16th 2017 Offers will be made by January 30th 2017

For all completed applications received by March 1st 2017 Offers will be made by March 15th 2017

For all completed applications received by May 1st 2017 Offers will be made by May 15th 2017

For all completed applications received by July 3rd 2017 Offers will be made by July 17th 2017

Late applications may be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis for any courses that have remaining capacity for places.

Non-EU Applicants:

Please visit the following page for further information for Non EU applicants http://www.ucc.ie/en/international/studyatucc/postgraduateprogrammes/tau...

Course fee

Costs: 2017/2018 Irish/EU FEE: 6,000 full-time

Enrolment and start dates

Next Intake: 11 September 2017

Application Weblink

Course web page

Link to course fee

International Students

Key information

Qualification letters:

Qualifications:

Degree - Masters (Level 9 NFQ)

Attendance Types:

Daytime

Counties:

Cork

Apply to:

PAC

Application Weblink

Course web page

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