And, so with the start of the semester we are now an official program. Currently there is somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-50 Emerging Media Majors at the undergraduate level (it is hard to get an accurate count as many are undeclared or currently in another major and in the process of transferring over). We also have over 20 people enrolled in the masters program as well (again hard to get an accurate count for the same reasons as above). Now that the program is official this site will be more frequently updated with information about the program, what the students are doing, upcoming class offerings, and hopefully become a hub for discussion of the larger issues of emerging media and emerging media education.

But, for now a brief introduction to the program. If you are interested check out the requirements for the B.A. (you can also download the official degree plan), same for the M.A. (also available for download).

Right now we share a range of classes with the Arts and Technology (ATEC) Program here at UT-Dallas. But we also have a selection of classes specific to the EMAC program, so for those who are in the program, but only enrolled in a few classes, and for those who are on the outside looking in I thought I would do a quick run-down of a few of the course offerings for this semester. (All of these classes have publicly available material-syllabi, assignments, discussion, etc.-so, if you want to follow along at home please do.) All the instructors have Twitter accounts which we use as well.

• EMAC 2321 Introduction to Writing and Research in Emerging Media: This is the introductory Emerging Media course. I will not go into too much detail here about the course, but you can view the class syllabus, which is a wiki, as well as all of the material, such as the schedule of readings. If you are interested you can also check out this longer post that I wrote for my personal blog on the construction of the course. You can follow me as academicdave on Twitter.
• EMAC 3361 Internet Studio: This is an intro web design course. Right now most of the class material is aggregated through a netvibes account, but will apparently be moving as the class progresses. You can also follow Mona Karsa, the instructor, on Twitter as monaism.
• EMAC/ATEC 4346 Storytelling for New Media: This class looks at inventive ways to tell narratives using digital mediums (video games, ARGs, nonlinear narratives, chaotic fiction). Get the rundown at the class blog, and follow albrackin, on Twitter.
• EMAC 5300 Introduction to Emerging Media and Communication: This is the introduction for the masters students. This is a media theory heavy course. You can see the main course site is a blog, with the syllabus, and a list of links to the students individual sites. I am the instructor for this course as well.
• EMAC 6373 Emerging Media Studio. This is the production side to the above theory class. Dean Terry teaches this class and prefers Friend Feed (for now), you can follow along at the Emerging Media Studio account.

You can also follow the EMAC program on Twitter, an account I currently run, which will post updates about the major and other things of interest to emerging media scholars.

More later . . .