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UniversityofCambridge: Digital Platforms in Performance

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Advance your digital story-telling prowess and learn how to create interactive gameplay scripts for video games, radio drama scripts for radio and/or podcasting, as well as content for your YouTube channel. Learn to transfer your skill as a dramatist into these innovative mediums.

This course will broaden your understanding of how to start a career successfully as a digital storyteller, as well as offer you insights in how to maximise and enjoy the processes of your personal creativity.

Digital Platforms in Performance
4 weeks
8–10 hours per week
Self-paced
Progress at your own speed
Free
Optional upgrade available

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Starts Nov 15
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Digital Platforms in Performance

About this course

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This course is part of the University of Cambridge’s MicroMaster’s program in Writing for Performance and Entertainment Industries.

How can you utilise the innovative creative world of online digital platforms to advance and create new material as dramatic writers? We will be looking in depth at how to find an digital form that stimulates you as a writer. Do you want to write interactive gameplay ‘script’ for the video game industry? Or learn how to write soundscapes for radio drama and podcast plays? Perhaps you want to create new content for your own YouTube channel? We will be looking at how narrative skill and digital production coincide in all these mediums.

We will consider successful professional examples of digital narratives; look deeply into the changing form of scriptwriting in the video game industry, as well as acquire a knowledge of how to reach a target audience online. This is a comprehensive introduction to writing and innovating digital content.

Learning to write for online platforms, and how to communicate most effectively with an online audience, is now an highly transferable skill for any profession.

Digital expertise, flexible thinking, and expert storytelling abilities are now essential in a diversifying global job market - come and learn essential new skills, and have fun doing it!

You will be set writing exercises over the course of the module, and you will asked to keep a brief creativity journal to note how your ideas progress and how your intuition leads you into productivity. By the end of this module, you will have completed several pieces of script in a range of digital mediums of your choice.

At a glance

What you'll learn

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  • Specialised knowledge of histories, forms, and traditions of writing for digital performance as well as the cultural contexts of innovative practitioners and practices within digital performance; of contemporary critical, analytical, and narrative theories of digital media and performance;
  • detailed understanding of key performance components within the discipline, to include: ideational sources, body, space, image, sound, text, movement, environment.
  • dramaturgical and script-editing skills within digital and radio scripts
  • developed advanced self-management skills to include working in planned and improvisatory ways, as well as the ability to anticipate and accommodate change, ambiguity, creative risk-taking, uncertainty and unfamiliarity;
  • how to create effective structure within a scene; how to edit your script; how to create effective characters within online narratives.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Does this course give me a Masters degree from the University of Cambridge?

No. If on completing this course you choose to apply to the Master of Studies (MSt) in Writing for Performance – based in Cambridge UK – and are accepted as a suitable candidate, then this MicroMasters® will be considered as 30 credits of the 180 credit award.

Do I need a Creative Writing degree to take this course?

No. This course is open to all, although we believe that you will get more from it if you are already involved, or hoping to be involved in writing and associated literary professions. The entry requirements for the full Master of Studies in Writing for Performance at the Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge are available on our website.

Will I be a successful YouTuber if I take this course?

This course teaches the skills involved in becoming a successful writer for different performance mediums. Honing these skills is ultimately up to you, but the guidance offered will enlighten you and provide you with a solid grounding to enter the entertainment industries as a writer.

Will I receive feedback on my writing?

We are not able to give feedback to any students auditing this course on their individual pieces of writing. For those on the verified track, the final assignment will be assessed and feedback sent. In addition, throughout the course, advice and training will be given on how to give and receive feedback to others. Ideas will be explored through discussion forums.

How long do I have to complete the course?

The instructor-led course runs for 7-8 months. There will be further iterations of the course, and therefore opportunities to work at a slightly slower or faster pace as preferred.

I want to write for the stage, why do I need to know about YouTube and podcasts?

As writers we would always encourage you to broaden your horizons as it can only assist the creative process. In addition today’s YouTube videos could be tomorrow’s hit musical. If you are not interested in other genres there is also the option of studying modules on an individual basis.

What has resilience got to do with writing?

As a writer you should be prepared to have work rejected as well as accepted. The editing process alone may involve removing treasured words and phrases. In addition, world events can have an impact on the entertainment industries. This course will give you an understanding of how to cope and respond creatively to setbacks.

Who can take this course?

Unfortunately, learners residing in one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. edX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.

This course is part of Writing for Performance and the Entertainment Industries MicroMasters Program

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Expert instruction
8 graduate-level courses
9 months
8 - 10 hours per week

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