“The programming is supposed to be about cultural affairs, academics and anything having to do with culture and the university at large, and hopefully expanded to the university system.” – Douglas Barthlow, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Communication.
Practicum, a new course available for film and journalism students, is now available for the spring 2014 registration time period.
The course will allow students to record and produce programming to be used on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s (GPB) television channel, according to Georgia State officials.
Douglas Barthlow, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Communication, said the course has general expectations but will have an impact on students.
“Practicum is a course that really is unlike virtually any other course that we have from the standpoint that there isn’t going to be a set classroom, time or lecture,” he said.
Barthlow also said the goal of the class as a precursor to the internship offered for journalism and film majors.
“Internships want to have students who have already done things. With Practicum, students will be able to say they did this and this working for the video channel and know how to shoot and edit programming,” he said. “Internships want students to come in and hit the ground running and I think our students will be very competitive with those types of internships.”
Hours for the Practicum count will be assessed as lab credits. This means that while regular courses require 50 minutes a week per credit, the amount of time is doubled for lab, according to Barthlow.
Barthlow said the course has variable credit hours possible and students have the choice of how many credits they want to earn from the course.
“It’s a hundred minutes per credit. In terms of three credits, that would be 300 minutes, which is five hours per week. If you wanted to register for three credits, then you would need to spend a minimum of five hours weekly across a 15 week semester in order to be able to get that amount of time working for the video channel,” Barthlow said.
He also said there is flexibility on how students can get hours through recording and editing programming.
“Some weeks you may not be able to do all five hours and other weeks you could go to two events and do eight hours. It’s not going to be just recording events; they have to be edited and produced for the broadcast standards of GPTV,” Barthlow said.
June 1, 2015 is the starting date for when GPTV will air student-made programming on the channel and has transmitters across the state, according to Barthlow.
Barthlow said travel-time off campus will be included for students and their weekly hour requirements.
“It’s going to be a very interesting process to see what kind of varied events we can have recorded and have edited for the channel,” he said.
He also said programming from other schools, part of the University System, can also supply the channel with programming.
“For instance, if anything interesting happens at Valdosta State, they record it and send it to us and we play it on the video channel. We are trying not to be completely Georgia State-centric or even Atlanta-centric. We want to be statewide because those transmitters are all over the state,” he said.
However, the material to be recorded and edited for GPTV programming is not specifically centralized to Georgia State and Atlanta-centric, according to Barthlow.
“The programming is supposed to be about cultural affairs, academics and anything having to do with culture and the university at large, and hopefully expanded to the university system,” he said.
Barthlow also said although his name might be registered for the course, Practicum will instead be monitored by three new faculty members specifically assigned for the video channel as instructors.
Registration for the class cannot be completed on PAWS, but instead students must individually contact Barthlow via email with a resume and a brief description as to why they want to work for the channel.
They will then be entered into the authorization process to be registered.
Barthlow did not offer any validation as to if the course will be open summer 2015. It is also currently undecided whether the course will remain open for both majors next fall.
