Important Changes to the Scheduling of Graphic Communications Technology/Digital Media Courses

The College of Technology´s new Digital Media Program was approved by the State of Texas´ Higher Education Coordinating Board for Fall 2009. As we implement this new stand–alone degree plan, several changes will be made to the scheduling of courses as well as to the prerequisites necessary before students can enroll in given classes.

These changes affect students who major in TELS/GRTC, DIGM, and SA/GRC.

Most importantly, not every GRTC (soon to be DIGM) course will be offered every semester. In particular, the only class that will be offered each semester is GRTC (DIGM) 3353. This class is a service class and is offered to many majors in the College of Technology. Thus, it will continue to be offered each semester, including summers.

All other classes will be scheduled in such a way that students will flow through the program together in a series of courses designed to built upon each other. We will handle large groups of students by scheduling a large lecture section (either face–to–face or online) with multiple smaller–group labs.

Students should know that prerequisites will be enforced. The GRTC/DIGM faculty have worked very hard to design a curriculum in which each course flows logically and technologically from the previous one. Only one prerequisite will be waived for the present time, and that is for GRTC 4376. Once all the new video classes have been offered, then the prerequisites will be enforced for GRTC 4376.

A course flowchart, which shows all the courses in prerequisite order and provides a listing of courses that will be offered each semester, can be found on–online at http://www.graphics.tech.uh.edu/img/side/Flowchart.pdf

To help current seniors graduate in a timely way, GRTC 4373 will be offered in Spring 2010 as it has been for many years. Spring 2010 will be the last time GRTC 4373 will be offered in the spring···it will move to Falls in Fall 2010. In addition, since most students who will need to take GRTC 4378 (Senior Project) will take TELS 4372 first, we will offer GRTC 4378 in the summer for the last time in 2010. Thereafter, it will be a spring course.

One new Digital Media course, Video Planning and Production (GRTC 3354) will be offered for the first time in Spring 2010. The prerequisite for the course is GRTC 2352 (Digital Photography).

To be specific, the following courses will be offered in Spring 2010:

GRTC 2351 GRTC 2352 GRTC 3350 GRTC 3352 GRTC 3353 GRTC 3354 GRTC 4373 GRTC 4376

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Jerry Waite at jwaite@uh.edu.