• What next
  for you?
  • Courses
  • Life at Ravensbourne
  • Money / Support
  • Fees & finance
  • Accommodation
  • Learning experience
• Why choose
  Ravensbourne?
• What does
  industry say?
• What next
  for students?
• International
  students
• Showcase
• Apply

Your Selection

• FdA Editing and Post Production: Industry Practice
• BA (Hons) Animation
• BA (Hons) Architecture
• BSc (Hons) Broadcast Audio Technology
• BSc (Hons) Broadcast Information Technology
• BSc (Hons) Broadcast Technology
• BA (Hons) Design Interactions
• BA (Hons) Design Products
• BA (Hons) Digital Advertising and Design
• BA (Hons) Digital Film Production
• BA (Hons) Digital Photography
• BA (Hons) Editing and Post Production
• BA (Hons) Fashion
• BA (Hons) Fashion Lifestyle Products
• BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion
• BA (Hons) Graphic Design
• BA (Hons) Interior Design Environment Architectures
• BA (Hons) Motion Graphics
• BA (Hons) Music Production for Media
• BSc (Hons) Outside Broadcast Technology
• BA (Hons) Sound Design
• BA (Hons) Web Media

Other Courses

Go back to...

• Further Education
• Undergraduate
• Postgraduate

What next for you? > BA (Hons) Web Media > BA (Hons) Web Media

BA (Hons) Web Media

As the web continues to evolve, our society and economy is being transformed. The global growth of the Internet is having a huge impact on how we communicate, do business or consume information. This new course has been introduced as a direct result of demand from leading media organisations such as the BBC for producers who have the skills to produce, maintain and manage dynamic and interactive media to help organisations capitalise on the opportunities offered by the Web 2.0.

The BA (Hons) Web Media course aims to provide you with a thorough grounding in the working methods and production processes involved in the creation of web content and services and offers both a practical understanding and theoretical insight into this increasingly important industry.

The course examines how the media is being changed by creative, active, consumers and engagers and offers the opportunity to explore the synergies between design and communication in order to provide a new kind of producer-manager who is transliterate.

The course extends the theoretical grounding given to students in the contextual studies area of study by providing discipline-specific theoretical perspectives pertinent to the convergence of old and new media forms, and participatory and sociable media practices. The aim will be to encourage the use of theory as a lens through which you may begin to see emerging commonalities between semi-converged media forms and previously separate industry practices; a ‘situated’ application of theory within practice.

Developed with industry

The course has been created in response to direct requests from industry and developed in consultation with them over the last seven years. These bodies included Ofcom, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Service (CEOP), the BBC, eModeration, Tempero, The Association of Online Community Professionals, firms from the creative industries such as the makers of the childrens’ virtual worlds Moshimonsters and Habbo Hotel, and The Voice of the Listener and Viewer.

The course addresses a need for producers who understand the tasks involved in managing the complex interactive content and services that define the advanced web and internet, including the legal and regulatory frameworks which relate to social media and the commercial exploitation of the web.

This is not merely a course on ‘gaming’; as you will gain an in-depth understanding of a wide range of new media forms including virtual worlds, children’s online media (and the integration with traditional media and other artefacts), immersive environments used for business, electronic marketplaces, search engines, and media players.

The course will also examine new platforms for the delivery of media such as ebooks, ‘smart’ mobile devices and media players; e.g., the BBC iPlayer.

Learning and teaching on the course will draw from a range of specialisms and expertise at Ravensbourne, encouraging collaboration and innovation. You will be encouraged to work with your peers from other courses at Ravensbourne such as content development, production, design interactions, animation, digital film production, digital photography, fashion, and sound design.

Level 1

Level 1 builds a critical awareness of the development and current state of the Internet as a creative destination, within the context of the convergence of the media and communications industries. You will be provided with a solid introduction to basic web production; learn how to manage creative users online; and gain a basic understanding of user behaviours. Throughout the course practical work is informed by critical analysis. You will also be given an introduction to theoretical perspectives, which are specific to the web and the internet; social media theory, network theory, participatory practices, communication power, and identity.

At level 1 you will study the following subject areas:
contextual studies: theory and context; opportunities, trends and ideas; professional context; communication and visualisation; multi-platform journalism; linear and non-linear narratives; shared online spaces; and production systems for the web.

Level 2

Level 2 has a stronger user-oriented focus and subject areas such as ‘serious play’ and ‘motivating and leading attention’, will contain workshops where the observation of users and engagers over time will be of importance. Case studies and practical engagement over time with (for example) Second Life, eBay, Amazon, Club Penguin, Google, Facebook give insight into how to build and manage participatory services. You will look at specialist online content in areas such as children’s media and online gaming, as well as how these can be harnessed for more serious educational ends.

You will undertake practical projects as part of a team, to create projects. There are opportunities to explore particular interests in specific genres of web-based media such as complex websites, e-commerce, social media, serious play, single and multi-player gaming, online film-making, immersive media, 3D media, and augmented reality.

At level 2 you will study the following subject areas:
contextual studies: debate and polemic; contextual studies: dissertation preparation; marketing strategy; advertising and promotions; managing creative users; live multi-platform production; children’s media and serious play; and designing the user experience.

Level 3

Level 3 has a more business-orientated perspective. The course shifts the perspective to the practical and ethical challenges involved in the commercial exploitation of the web, the monetisation of web services and the development of new business models.

Building on the practical and creative skills gained in levels 1 and 2, you will work independently to create innovative web content, which incorporates video and audio in websites, reflecting the increasing convergence of broadcast and web-based media. Delivery will be increasingly flexible and web based, including online learning using the college VLE. Finally, you will undertake a ‘major project’, of your own choosing.

Engagement with industry will normally take the form of an individual industrial placement for the duration of a term as either one long placement or two shorter ones. We will support you when seeking and undertaking a work placement – alternatively, this may also take the form of an industry-focused project.

At level 3 you will study the following subject areas:
contextual studies: dissertation; enterprise and entrepreneurship – making it happen; major project report; digital advertising; the intelligent web; major project; and globalisation and localisation.

Programme Specification

Click here for the full programme specification.

Contextual Studies, and Enterprise and Entrepreneurship

The adaptability necessary to succeed as a design or media specialist comes not only from deep disciplinary knowledge. Graduates also need a breadth of knowledge and skills which some commentators have referred to as being ‘T-Shaped’. These additional skills include the ability to work with and increasingly work across disciplines, entrepreneurial attitudes and a knowledge of the business contexts in which they will operate. All undergraduate Ravensbourne programmes incorporate curriculum and learning activities designed to develop these skills in our students. Cross-disciplinary collaborative projects offer students the opportunity to work in teams with other disciplines.

The course structure draws on the creative synergies and frictions of the different disciplines at Ravensbourne and provides physical and intellectual opportunities for students to meet, learn and work together with students from different disciplines.

Students study subject specialist units, shared units and core units. Subject specialist units focus on subject specialist methodologies, technologies and processes and offer project-based learning that simulates contemporary professional practice.

Shared units are units which bring together courses in analogous specialist subject areas and allow students to gain skills common across these specialist subject areas, or to develop skills complimentary to those of the other specialisms and to work together on collaborative projects in the kinds of interdisciplinary teams common in industry. They therefore begin to introduce students to the real world context of specialism, a world where inevitably specialists work in inter-disciplinary teams.

Core units provide fundamental knowledge, skills and contexts which we believe are necessary for all the creative professionals who graduate from Ravensbourne and set students up with a model of the types of knowledge they will need continuously to update throughout their careers. Core units equip students with the ideation, visualisation and communication skills required in the creative process characteristic of design and media industries and common across our disciplines. They also provide the conceptual skills, theoretical frameworks and professional contexts necessary for students to position their work and develop their professional identity. Additionally, they ensure that students gain the promotional, marketing and enterprise skills necessary to make success happen in the real world.

Three years full-time

Ravensbourne’s BA (Hons) Web Media course is available as a full time three-year course.

Assessment

Assessment will be through a mixture of project work, group work, individual creative activities, essays, engagement with the web, and placements with local industries. There will also be critical self and peer-evaluation to allow you to reflect on your development, and support to give you feedback and help you to succeed.

Learning and support

The stimulus for the course will be wide, incorporating storytelling and narrative with sound, vision, animation, mapping, information gathering and a sense of the built virtual environment. Enhanced learning and e-learning will be used to support a blended learning approach. The emphasis will be on creativity and fun, harnessed for serious educational and business purposes. Innovation, experimentation and practical creativity will be underpinned by contextual studies and theory.

Laptops

You are required to own or have access to a laptop from the beginning of your studies. Laptops are an essential tool to support personalised learning and give you access, when and where you want it, to many of the creative tools and educational resources you will encounter during your studies.

Laptops are used extensively in all of our courses. You will need one to access our network, and to research, communicate and collaborate during your studies.

Career prospects

Possible career paths includes: interactive media producer, new media creative / producer, producer, online media producer, video and audio casting, multimedia producer, multiplatform content, project manager, senior producer, social media producer, immersive environments producer, e-commerce, online community manager, online community moderator, digital executive, marketing manager.

You could become a...

View >Social Media Producer

View >Interactive Media Producer

View >Online Marketing Manager

...and many more!

See life as a student

Please note from 2012 this course has been renamed BA (Hons) Web Media

“For years I was confused about what I wanted to do with my life, but I’m so perfectly suited to this course and it’s going really well for me. I used to do a lot of video blogging which has now led me to this area…