Certificate / Diploma in Information Media and Internet
(for Community and Voluntary Sector)
The School of Communications is offering from September 2001 a new and innovative Certificate and Diploma in Information, Media and Internet. These programmes are targeted at administrators, project workers, and others in the Community and Voluntary Sector. They each run for a year and they are designed to meet the specific and known needs of community and voluntary organisations. The programmes are intended to help build professional and organisational capacity in that sector, to facilitate its developing role in Irish society.
Background
Aims
Entry
Timetable & Content
Assessment
Staff
Fees
The School of Communications has considerable experience in providing short courses in media, information and Internet skills for organisations and individuals within the community and voluntary sector. Members of School are advisers to community development projects and have published extensively on social uses of information and communications technologies and on strategies to address social exclusion and inequality in Irish society.
Dublin City University is committed in its Strategic Plan to "directly addressing the needs of the community on an even greater scale". The University recognises "an increasing need … for lifelong learning, including professional development and adult education."
The role of the community and voluntary sector as an important contributor to the fabric of democracy in Ireland is increasingly acknowledged in public policy. For example, the White Paper on the role of the community and voluntary sector, Supporting Voluntary Activity. The White Paper on Adult Education, Learning for Life, emphasises "the increasing importance of the community and voluntary sector in influencing policies and services to address marginalisation".
In this context, the Certificate and Diploma in Information, Media and Internet aim to contribute to the further development of the community and voluntary sector as a significant force in Irish society by enhancing professional capacity within that sector. Students completing the programme will be able to play a more substantial role in their own organisations and in the community and voluntary sector as a whole.
The programmes aim to help build organisational, professional and technical capacity in the community and voluntary sector by:
- Strengthening the professional, analytical and learning capacity of the participants in the programme
- Developing a critical understanding of the social aspects and implications of information systems and media technologies, and of the social role of the community and voluntary sector
- Equipping community and voluntary sector representatives to deal confidently with established media and to produce their own media
- Developing a competence within the sector in the use of information and communications technologies, specifically Internet technologies and services
- Providing a framework for community and voluntary organisations to implement and develop communications and information management projects
Entry to the Certificate in Information Media and Internet will be open to administrators, project workers and others in the community sector. No formal educational threshold will be set for entrants to the programme. All short-listed applicants will be interviewed and tested on their computer skills. The successful candidates will undertake a Study Skills module over the first two weeks of the Certificate programme before any other modules are taken.
Entry to the Diploma programme will be open to those who have successfully completed the Certificate programme, subject to a further interview. Exemptions from parts of some undergraduate degree programmes in the University will be available to students who have completed the Certificate and Diploma programmes.
The courses for the Certificate programme will be delivered on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, representing a total of 9 hours per week. The modules on the Certificate programme are:
- Study Skills: library usage; reading for research; note-taking; essay and report writing; independent learning; time management.
- Information Gathering: identifying information sources; general reference resources; search strategies; freedom of information; interview skills.
- Introduction to Internet: how the Internet developed; email messaging; participating in mailing lists and discussion groups; effective use of the Web.
- Writing and Editing Skills: basic elements of story-telling; writing clearly; planning a newsletter.
- Information Society Policy: Irish and EU policy development; economy vs. society debates; access and equality issues.
- Information Management: storing documents; managing electronic archives; internal communication and information sharing.
- Internet Production: creating content for the Web; developing and maintaining a Web site.
- Media Opportunities and Challenges: how the media work; preparing press releases; being interviewed; developing media strategies.
- Community Media: analysis of 'community' concepts; international experience; distinctive role of community media.
The modules on the Diploma programme will be delivered on Friday afternoons, representing a total of 4 hours per week. The modules on the Diploma programme are:
- Research Methods: preparing a project proposal; stating aims and objectives; selecting research methods.
- Social Role of Non-Profit Sector: history and contemporary profile of the sector in Ireland; the sector's role in social change; strategies to make the non-profit sector a more effective actor for the kind of society it espouses.
- Research Seminar: group tutorials; literature review; seminar presentation of proposed projects
- Project/ Dissertation: individual supervision and student research leading to production of the completed work.
The Project/Dissertation on the Diploma programme will give participants an extended experience of self-directed learning, and enhance significantly their contributions to their own organisations. Organisations supporting a staff member to participate in the programme should have, through the Project/Dissertation, a direct return on that investment. The Project might, for example, be the design and pilot production of a newsletter, Web site, communications strategy or in-house archive for the student's organisation.
Assessment in all modules of the Certificate and Diploma programmes will be through continuous assessment, e.g. essays, articles, reports, seminar presentations and interviews. Assessments will be graded on a Pass/Fail basis only. Lecturers and examiners will be encouraged to give substantial, qualitative feedback.
Among those who will contribute to teaching on the programmes are:
Dr Roddy Flynn, who lectures on community media and the information society and has researched social and policy issues of information technologies
Miriam Judge, who has trained many hundreds of students in information technology and researched the uses of IT in education
Dr Peadar Kirby, who has written many books and articles on the role of non-profit organisations and on issues of social exclusion and inequality
Martin Molony, who has provided information technology training to many different kinds of students and IT advice to commercial and non-profit organisations
Pat Montague (external), managing director, Montague Communications, who has extensive experience of providing media consultancy and training to non-profit organisations
Dr Susan O'Donnell (external), founder Models Research, who has undertaken ground-breaking research in uses of information technology by community and voluntary organisations, and provided advice to many group
Eoin O'Mahony (external), founder of FAQs Research, which provides information management and training services to the community and voluntary sector
Brian Trench, who has extensive experience in research, advice and training in media and information technology for the community and voluntary sector
The fee for the Certificate programme (entry September 2001) is £1,500, and for the Diploma programme (first entry, September 2002) is £500.
Further information from The Registry, Dublin City University, Dublin 9. Information about the School of Communications at: www.comms.dcu.ie Specific queries about the programme to: Dr Roddy Flynn, tel
700 8355; email roderick.flynn@dcu.ie |
