2020-2021 Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog
Digital Studies Minor
Website: www.gvsu.edu/ds
The widespread influence of digital media in almost every aspect of contemporary life requires new literacy skills for understanding and using digital technologies. Regardless of their specialized major program, students will work and evolve in environments that increasingly rely on digital tools and platforms to create and share information. To address this need, the digital studies minor provides ways for students from all disciplines to explore the role of digital tools and to become productive and ethical digital citizens.
Focused on theory and practice, the digital studies curriculum helps students gain experience using digital tools and develop a complex understanding of digital cultures. The modular curriculum allows students to customize their experience in the minor based on their interests and major.
The curriculum covers topics such as:
- Multimedia production
- Social media
- Ethics and digital culture
- Design and data visualization
- Data literacy
- Digital identity and representation
The minor has two overarching goals, both oriented toward helping students navigate the increasingly digitized world that we inhabit. The first is to teach students the skills necessary to use digital skills and tools foundational to their careers, including data literacy, visualization, multimedia production, visual rhetoric, and design. The second is to gain the knowledge to critically assess digital culture, including the interrogation of social media, digital identity and representation, and exploring the ethical implications of digital access.
Requirements for a Minor in Digital Studies
The minor requires 21 credits.
Core Courses
All students minoring in digital studies are required to complete the following two courses:
- DS 201 - Digital Identities and Communities (3 credits)
- DS 202 - Digital Data and Design (3 credits)
Module Courses
All students minoring in digital studies are required to complete two courses from each of the following modules.
- Students must take two courses from different disciplines in the digital tools and production module.
- Students must take at least one digital studies designated course in the digital culture module. With approval from the director of digital studies, students may complete DS 490 - Digital Studies Internship in place of one of the two required module courses.
1. Digital Tools and Production
- ART 209 - Graphic Design Basics (3 credits)
- ART 271 - Digital 3-D Modeling and Design (3 credits)
- FVP 125 - Media Production I (3 credits)
- CIS 231 - Problem Solving Using Spreadsheets (3 credits)
- CIS 238 - Internet Media and Programming (3 credits)
- CIS 320 - Visualization of Data and Information (3 credits)
- CMJ 260 - Multimedia Journalism Workshop (3 credits)
- PHO 175 - Understanding Still Photography (3 credits)
- DS 310 - Digital Preservation and Archiving (3 credits)
- DS 490 - Internship in Digital Studies (3 credits)
- GPY 307 - Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (3 credits)
- MKT 360 - Digital Marketing (3 credits)
- PA 311 - Public Sector Information Technology (3 credits)
- STA 216 - Intermediate Applied Statistics (3 credits)
- WRT 351 - Writing for the Web (3 credits)
- WRT 455 - Multimodal Composing (3 credits)
2. Digital Culture
- CIS 358 - Information Assurance (3 credits)
- DS 314/ENG 314 - Digital Literacies (3 credits)
- DS 330 - Game Culture (3 credits)
- DS 335/CJ 335 - Digital Crime, Media and Culture (3 credits)
- DS 340 - Identity and Representation in Digital Culture (3 credits)
- DS 350 - Social Media in Culture (3 credits)
- DS 360 - Ethics of Digital Culture (3 credits)
- DS 490 - Internship in Digital Studies (3 credits)
- PLS 340 - Mass Media and American Politics (3 credits)
- SOC 366/INT 366 - American Society and Media (3 credits)
- STA 340 - Statistics in the Media (3 credits)
Capstone Requirements
All students minoring in digital studies are required to complete the Capstone course: