Digital Media and Digital Arts programs have grown from a few fl edgling programs to hundreds of successful programs and departments around the world in the past ten years, and more are being developed every year. The digital umbrella encompasses a variety of programs with diverse origins, structures and curricula. The primary distinction among these programs is refl ected by the name of this journal—The International Digital Media and Arts Journal—some programs have their roots in the Fine Arts and some programs have emerged from the humanities or the sciences. Many programs, however, manage to bridge these divisions and combine elements from the fi ne arts with elements from the humanities and the sciences, especially computer science.

In preparation for the Digital Education workshop at the First Annual International Digital Media and Arts Conference (March 2004), workshop participants were surveyed via e-mail concerning their programs. Of 45 surveyed from 25 different institutions, 78% responded before the conference (n=35). Within these responses, we found that Digital Media and Arts programs are being offered: (1) within traditional academic departments (40%), (2) as interdisciplinary programs (17%), (3) as separate Digital Media or Digital Arts departments (20%), and (4) as separate centers for internal departmental use (1%). Traditional departments offering Digital Media and Arts programs within our survey included departments of: Art, Communication Arts, Communication Studies, Journalism, Mass Communication, Math & Computer Science, Telecommunications, Studio Art, and Visual Arts & Dance. The departments working within interdisciplinary Digital Media and Arts programs included: Architecture, Art, Art History, Business, Communication Arts, Communication Studies, Computer Science, Engineering, Graphic Design, Journalism, Music, and Theatre. Stand alone Digital Media and Digital Arts programs were well represented and showed the diversity of their offerings through their different department names, such as: Graphic & Interactive Communication, Digital Media Technology, Multimedia/ Web, Media Arts & Digital Technology, Digital Media Production, and Media Arts. This initial survey illustrates the great diversity in the structure and curricula in Digital Media and Digital Arts programs.

Yet, despite the diversity within the origins and structure of these programs, the workshop revealed a unity in the challenges the faculty face and the opportunities they see within their various programs. The discussion at the Digital Education workshop centered around four major themes: (1) program development and curriculum, (2) academic structure, (3) business relations and career paths, and (4) pedagogy.

The primary challenge in program and curriculum development is defi ning what Digital Media or Digital Art truly entail, and gaining consensus among faculty and administrators, and eventually in the greater academy. The lack of a clear defi nition made it possible for faculty at different universities to develop unique programs that exploit the strengths of their departments, allowing them to be seen as innovators by the administration and faculty. But the lack of a clear defi nition and clear boundaries of a fi eld of study also led to challenges in terms of evaluating these programs, determining qualifi cations for new faculty, and providing guidelines for promotion and tenure. In defi ning “digital,” some have focused on the delivery of digital content, while others have focused more on the skills necessary for creating something digital.

One university defi nes digital media as “the binary intermediary used for the creation, storage, and transmission of content.” Another university emphasizes the desired learning outcomes for their digital media students, which included problem solving, versatility, adaptability, multitasking, and creativity. Weʼre still left to contemplate the meanings of “digital media” and “digital art.” The answer to this question will drive many of our program and curriculum decisions, and this line of inquiry will produce ongoing discussion within the fi eld and within the iDMAa.

The question of these defi nitions also infl uences the academic structure of digital programs. As the workshop survey showed, the majority of Digital Media and Digital Art programs are housed within an existing, established academic department, but there is no consensus as to what department should house digital media or digital art courses.

Interdisciplinary programs are even more diverse, involving many different departments within a given university. Some universities combine Art, Communication Arts and Computer Science to provide a curriculum focused on digital media creation, while others combine Music, Computer Science, and Business with a focus on digital media management. Lack of consistency in the academic structure seems to create problems when approaching professional development, training, budgeting, and promotion and tenure. It is quite possible that Digital Media and/or Digital Arts will eventually evolve into an independent department on most college campuses, similar to the way many Journalism departments evolved out of English departments and many Mass Communication or Radio-Television-Film departments evolved from Speech Communication departments. If digital programs follow that pattern, however, it will take many years until a stable fi eld of study and academic structure is established.

Another area of discussion in the workshop explored the use of industry advisory boards in digital education and the opportunities and challenges created by such business relationships. A number of schools have successfully used industry advisory boards to provide internships, travel funding for faculty, visiting professors, and seminars with professionals. Yet there are concerns that when private-sector businesses give money, they will want to determine how to spend it, or that they might expect something tangible in return for their investment. Industry relationships can be very benefi cial for all involved—with universities receiving much needed funding and valuable industry experiences for their students, while the companies involved receive a much stronger potential hiring pool of students ready to work. But fear of excessive outside involvement remains. There appears to be a consensus that colleges and universities cannot let industry forces drive the educational decisions in Digital Media and Digital Art programs.

The fi nal area of discussion in the workshop centered on questions of pedagogy, specifi cally what courses should be offered and how courses should be taught. While there is great diversity in the types of courses offered at different universities, most participants agreed that faculty should be focused on teaching concepts and not technology. Several faculty expressed frustration with the pressure from students to teach specifi c software programs and the struggle with trying to keep current with software versions that are updated frequently. Some universities have shifted to requiring zero-credit courses to develop and maintain profi ciency with various software packages.

So, for example, before students could take a course in Interactive Media, they would be expected to pass a profi ciency exam in Macromediaʼs Flash and Director. Whatever the specifi c solution, digital education must move away from a process-based model of education, more prominent in Computer Science programs and formerly common in Broadcasting programs, and move toward a more outcome-based approach that focuses on the creation and evaluation of media and art rather than over-emphasizing the methods available for such creations.

The workshop on Digital Education provided a starting point for discussions in curriculum development, professional development, and pedagogy. One of the goals of the iDMAa is to develop these discussions into tangible expressions that can serve as common ground for further growth and refi nement of Digital Media and Digital Arts programs around the world. To that end, iDMAa is currently drafting a working promotion and tenure guidelines in Digital Media and Digital Arts document, is developing a syllabus sharing service, and will conduct a broad professional information sharing survey this year. This survey will collect data on all known Digital Media and Digital Arts programs, paying particular attention to their academic structure, faculty and professional development, curriculum, and external activities. The results will be presented at the 2005 iDMAa conference, March 16-19, in Orlando. These documents will serve as a catalyst for further discussion and prove to be a useful resource for those involved in digital education.