Our Curriculum

Business Innovation

New! Available for Spring semester, 2010!
In this introductory business course, you’ll learn what it takes to be an entrepreneur while mastering the basics of planning and launching your own successful business. Whether you want to start your own money-making business or create a non-profit to help others, this course will help you develop the core skills you’ll need to be successful. Learn how to come up with new business ideas, how to attract investors, how to market your business and manage expenses. Get inspired by stories from teen entrepreneurs who have turned their ideas into reality, then plan and execute your own business!
Student Materials: Google Docs (free web service) View the Course Outline Watch the Course Trailer

New! Available for Fall semester, 2010!
Find out what it takes to market a product or service in today’s fast-paced business environment. In this two-semester introductory course, you’ll learn the fundamentals of marketing using real-world business examples. You’ll learn about buyer behavior, marketing research principles, demand analysis, distribution, financing, pricing, and product management. By the end of this series, you will have developed your own comprehensive marketing plan for a new business.
New! Available for Fall Semester, 2010

New! Available for Spring semester, 2011!
In the continuation of the two-course series, you’ll build on the skills and concepts you learned in Part I to develop a basic understanding of marketing principles and techniques. By the end of this series, you will have developed your own comprehensive marketing plan for a new business.
Prerequisite: BUS 170: Introduction to Marketing I

Digital Arts

This course will introduce you to 3D modeling tools and concepts. Using Blender, the popular open-source 3D modeling package, students will learn the basics of creating shapes, adding textures and lighting, and rendering. By the end of the course, students will have produced a series of increasingly sophisticated projects for their 3D portfolio. This course is suitable for students with no prior experience with 3D game design or digital media authoring tools.
Student Materials: PC with 1GB of RAM, Blender (free download) View the Course Outline Watch the Course Trailer

New! Available for Fall semester, 2010! In this exploratory course, you’ll learn the elements and principles of design, as well as foundational concepts of visual communication. While surveying a variety of media and art, you'll use image editing, animation, and digital drawing to put into practice the art principles you've learned. Discover career opportunities in the design, production, display and presentation of digital artwork. Learn how to combine artistic elements to create finished pieces that effectively communicate your ideas and respond to the artwork of others.
New! Available for Fall Semester, 2010

In this advanced course, you’ll build on the skills you developed in 3D Art I to learn 3D animation techniques. Using Blender, the world’s most powerful open-source modeling tool, you’ll master the basics of animation: rigging, bones and movement while learning how to apply traditional animation techniques to your 3D models. Interested in a career in 3D art? Learn about jobs in the industry while developing your skills.
Prerequisite: ART 110: 3D Art I - Modeling
Student Materials: PC with 1GB of RAM, Blender (free download) View the Course Outline Watch the Course Trailer

New! Available for Spring semester, 2011! In the second part of this two-part series, you’ll build on the skills and concepts you learned in Part I as you develop your vocabulary of digital design elements. By the end of the course, you will have created a collection of digital art projects for your digital design portfolio.
Prerequisite: ART 120: Digital Arts I

New! Available for Fall semester, 2010! In this introductory course, you’ll learn about the physics of sound and the history of recording technologies. Next, you’ll learn about the four stages of professional music recording projects: recording, editing, mixing, and mastering. Using Audacity, an open-source recording and mixing program, you’ll practice the techniques used by sound engineers to produce multi-track recordings. Through a series of engaging hands-on projects, you’ll learn the fundamental concepts of audio engineering.
Prerequisite: None

New! Available for Spring semester, 2010!
Computer-aided design systems are used by designers and manufacturers in virtually every industry. In this course, you’ll master the basics of CAD software: creating points, lines, and other geometric forms, isometric drawings, and 3D models. Learn how to translate initial concepts into functional designs and 3D walkthroughs. Explore career options for CAD designers in this hands-on introductory level course.
Student Materials: PC with 1GB of RAM, Cad Standard Light (free download) View the Course Outline Watch the Course Trailer

This is the perfect course for anyone who wants to create compelling, professional looking graphic designs and photos. You’ll learn the basics of composition, color, and layout before moving on to technical topics like working with layers and masks, adding special effects, and effectively using typefaces to create visual impact. At the end of this course, you’ll have created a variety of original projects for your graphic design portfolio.
Student Materials: GIMP (free download) View the Course Outline

In this course, you’ll be introduced to all aspects of digital video production, from storyboarding scenes to creating shot lists to editing a finished, professional product. Throughout this course, you’ll complete hands-on projects to master the essentials of recording, capturing, and editing video. This course is an excellent introduction to the exciting field of digital video production.
Student Materials: Windows Movie Maker (free with Windows) and a video camera capable of connecting to a PC. View the Course Outline

Flash & Web

This introductory course teaches all the animation essentials. You’ll learn cell animation, timelines, movies, sound—the work—using Adobe® Flash® Creative Suite® 4 (CS4), the preferred design tool of industry pros worldwide. Learn how to draw and animate movies, then publish them to the Web. Create your own original art, or choose from the art asset libraries included in each project. At the end of this course, you’ll have a portfolio of completed Flash animations.
Student Materials: PC with 1GB of RAM, Flash CS4 View the Course Outline Watch the Course Trailer

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the essentials of Web design, from creating page layouts to coding with CSS and JavaScript to create a complete Web site. Through real-world design scenarios and hands-on projects, you’ll create compelling, usable Web sites using KompoZer, one of the Web’s easiest to use open source editing tools.
Student Materials: KompoZer, GIMP (free downloads) View the Course Outline

Foundations

Today’s students must be able to effectively use technology to research, organize, create, and evaluate information. This course provides a foundation in the skills and concepts that defne computer literacy in the 21st century. From the basics of keyboarding to Internet research techniques, document creation, and digital citizenship, you’ll practice essential skills through individual and team projects. When taken with Computer Literacy II, this course maps to the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS).
Student Materials: Office 2003, GIMP (GIMP is a free download) View the Course Outline

Offered in Fall semester, 2010.
This course builds on level 1 to develop the skills and concepts essential for computer literacy in the 21st century. From the basics of keyboarding to Internet research techniques, document creation, and digital citizenship, you’ll practice essential skills through individual and team projects. When taken with Computer Literacy I, this course maps to the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS).
Prerequisite: Computer Literacy I
Student Materials: Office 2003, GIMP (GIMP is a free download) View the Course Outline

Game Design

Offered in Fall semester, 2010.
If you like playing Flash games online and want to find out how to design them, this course is for you. You’ll learn how to develop a variety of games for the Web using Adobe® Flash®, the world’s most popular authoring tool for online games. You’ll learn some basic programming concepts as you use ActionScript®, the native scripting language of Flash, to develop cool games, then publish them online to share with your friends. By the end of this course, you will have a fully-functioning multi-level online game.
Student Materials: PC with 1GB of RAM, Flash CS4 View the Course Outline Watch the Course Trailer

This course is for anyone who loves gaming and wants to design and build original games from scratch. You’ll learn how to use Multimedia Fusion 2 - a popular game design software program, to create engaging, interactive games in a variety of genres. In addition, you’ll get a solid foundation in the basic concepts of game development. By the end of this course, you will have a variety of polished games for your game development portfolio.
Student Materials: Multimedia Fusion 2 (Standard) View the Course Outline

Offered in Fall semester, 2010.
In the continuation of this two-semester series, you’ll expand your knowledge of the game design industry while you master event-driven game development through a series of interactive projects. By the end of this course, you will have a variety of polished games for your game development portfolio.
Prerequisite: GDN 110: Game Design I
Student Materials: Multimedia Fusion 2 (Standard) View the Course Outline

Programming

Programmers start here. In this course, you’ll learn key programming concepts and then apply them using Microsoft® Visual C++® 2008 Express Edition, the free version of Microsoft’s Visual Studio® toolkit. Complete a series of increasingly complex projects while you learn C++ - still one of the most versatile and powerful programming languages around. Learn the building blocks of programming: functions, loops, arrays, variables and classes. At the end of the course, you will have a portfolio of compiled executables.
Student Materials: Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express (free download) View the Course Outline Watch the Course Trailer