Thirty-nine students from all around the world have come to take part in the year-long Master of Digital Media program. The MDM degree is conferred by BC’s top universities: UBC, SFU, Emily Carr and BCIT.

This year's cohort is truly international with students from 11 countries including Mexico, Brazil, India, China, Singapore, the US and Canada.

The diversity of the group is also reflected in the wide variety of skills and an impressive variety of professional experiences. This is the most diverse group ever to be enrolled in the program.

The cohort includes artists, engineers, visual storytellers, programmers, animators, musicians and teachers. Three of the students in the group graduated from the IDEA-X program. And 3 students are faculty in our partner institutions—one from Emily Carr and 2 from BCIT.

Although the formal course work didn't start until this week, the students began their studies last week where they were introduced to the MDM program and the core competencies needed to earn a Masters of Digital Media. The curriculum was introduced by faculty within the context of overall learning objectives of the entire program. To fully immerse the students in these objectives they participated in a mind mapping exercise to connect the competencies to their own personal learning objectives.

Photo by Kareem Negm.

Students presented their mind maps, requiring them to get over their public speaking fears—something that they’ll all be working on this semester in their Improvisation class.  Articulation of ideas through presentation are core competencies of the program.

The week culminated with a Welcome BBQ put on and hosted by the previous cohort. There were burgers, beer and lots of energy as the new students met their predecessors and were welcomed into the building. Alumni from all 7 previous cohorts helped make the welcome complete.

This week, the real work started. Monday, students began their Interdisciplinary Improvisation class with Patrick Pennefather, which included trust exercises and mapping out what success looks like. 

Photos by Kareem Negm.

The rest of the week included 3 more courses: Projects 1, Visual Story and Foundations of Digital Media. 

With such a talented group of students, it’s sure to be an exciting year. Stay tuned for more student profiles and, later on in the semester, profiles on the projects they’re working on. In the meantime, you can read the students’ bios and backgrounds on the Cohort 8 Student Page.