Dave Harte, Sue Heseltine and Paul Bradshaw hosted the fringe group on MA courses at Birmingham City University; Social Media, Online Journalism and Freelance Journalism and Enterprise. The courses are open to those who have either completed undergraduate courses or those who have worked or have experience in the industry.

The basic structure of the courses was explained. Dave, who leads the Social Media course said that students have the chance to manage a ‘micro’ project to begin with and then work on a bigger second project, having developed the skills and knowledge from the previous. The courses are largely driven by students and their interests, capabilities and skills. Sue adds that the courses are also very much about networking and creating relationships with organisations and projects outside of the university.

Paul, leader of the MA Online Journalism course at BCU said that some of his teaching was done at the local coffee lounge; ‘it gets students away from the classroom environment and helps conversation and interaction.’

Two other university lecturers from Sheffield University attended the session and asked how best to teach the core skills of journalism but using the tools of online. Sue and Dave said that most of the students on the MA courses already have the core skills or experience to apply them to new projects. Paul: ‘The most interesting thing is how students learn from each other, those with web skills help those who aren’t so skilled.’

Another group member asked the kind of backgrounds students come from and what they go on to do. Dave said that some of the current Social Media students come from undergrad courses, communications/PR and also public services and local government. He said they go on to do various things; one lady has gone out to Strasbourg to work with the European Union for example. Some students have had some form of short/long-term career and others have no experience of Social Media at all.

Dave said the project aspect of the MA allows students to see how organisations like West Midlands Police are using social media and manage their own projects as part of the program. He also thinks the peer-to-peer learning is important and helps students develop skills and share knowledge.

The use of uni intranets as learning resources was briefly discussed - BCU students use a system called Moodle which allows lecturers and students to post resources, links, assignment briefs etc and use forums to discuss projects. There was also talk of experiments with Google Wave but several people admitted that students often don’t see the point or don’t engage as fully as they could. This is an area for improvement it seems.

Finally, the question was asked whether those who have come to the MA as undergrads get more or less out of the course than those who have the experience of industry. Generally, it was agreed that it depends on what the individual wants to get out of the course. Paul thinks that it helps to have some experience of the industry but largely the benefits are there for anyone who wants to learn more and widen their skills base.

For more information on any of the MA media courses at Birmingham City University visit www.mediacourses.com