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Study undergraduate certificate online with Curtin University through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

The Undergraduate Certificate in Digital Communication is designed for people who are interested in pursuing a career in the Digital Communication field. The Undergraduate Certificate may enable entry (and credit for the four units completed) into the Digital and Social Media major within the Bachelor of Arts among others at Curtin.

Learn about the technologies, techniques, and issues surrounding online communication. You’ll explore social media and other forms of digital communication, and get the opportunity to collaborate and create online. Digital comms careers start here.

Undergraduate Certificate in Digital Communication

Web Communications

Communication and Media

Culture to Cultures

Popular Music, Culture and Identity

Online Games and Play

Visual Culture

Digital Culture and Everyday Life

The Digital Economy

Web Media

This subject investigates culture, communication and representation. We examine the complexity of culture and our engagement with other cultures and culturally diverse thinking and perspectives. As part of this, we explore Indigenous cultures, histories, knowledge, perspectives and values. The unit also explores the relationship between media and culture, critically analysing media representations that inform our ideas about particular topics, other cultures and people. We examine the effects and consequences of representation by analysing the ideological role played by global media, and how this connects with power.Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject, you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.Find out more about the <a href="https://academicintegrity.curtin.edu.au/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Challenge your ways of thinking about other cultures and values. Take apart your cultural background and see how it shapes your worldview. Get to know Indigenous knowledge and perspectives. Examine topics including othering, prejudice and the media.

This subject was previously known as Internet Commerce and Consumers.
The Internet has fundamentally reshaped the global economy, and with it our experiences as workers and consumers. In this subject, you will come to understand the dynamics of the digital economy, including the importance of platforms, networks, attention, and growth. You will also explore alternative economic models facilitated by the Internet, such as the gift economy. This subject will provide you with a nuanced perspective on how the economy has changed over recent decades, why it matters, and what might happen next.
Further Information: List of topics is indicative and subject to minor change prior to the start of each Study Period.
Please Note:  If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Learn to understand the dynamics of the digital economy, including the importance of platforms, networks, attention, and growth. Explore alternative economic forms, such as peer-to-peer and gift economies.

For at least 20 years, we have seen a trend towards &#39;convergence&#39; in the media, as new social understandings and new business models emerge that break down the distinction between traditional media forms (print and broadcast news, films and games and so on). We have also seen the development of social or participatory media, without rigid boundaries between consumers, creators and producers. The internet has played a critical role in these processes, becoming the key frame of reference for discussions of the future of converging and participatory media. In particular, the World Wide Web enables the production, distribution, remixing and remediation of an extraordinary array of digital media content and the linking together of otherwise separate media forms. In this subject, you will investigate why and how media are transforming in the era of convergence and participation, and then put these insights into practice by creating web-based media content.
Further Information: List of topics is indicative and subject to minor change prior to the start of each Study Period.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Get a snapshot of how social and web media tore down the wall between creators and consumers. Investigate television, cinema and music’s changing roles in an online world. Create online content and use it to unpack emerging communication formats.

The Internet has dramatically changed the way people and organisations communicate, whether for better or worse. For many, online communication through digital and social media is now one of their most significant forms of interaction with others. Digital and social media also underpin collaboration between people, either in formal groups or loose networks. Understanding how the Internet affords us new and different ways of communicating is, therefore, essential. This subject will enable you to become an effective and sophisticated user of digital and social media, able to deploy techniques, technologies and underlying concepts for online communication, collaboration and media creation.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Identify the various technical strands that make up the foundation of the world wide web. Dig into wikis, blogs and social networks. Take a look into the future of online communication tools. Find new and different ways of communicating online.

*** This subject is not available for self-enrolment. Enrolment in this subject is at the discretion of the major coordinator based on results achieved in other subjects of study. Students must be in their final year of study. Please email the course coordinator at <a href="mailto:internetstudies@exchange.curtin.edu.au" target="_blank">internetstudies@exchange.curtin.edu.au</a> to request a requisite waiver. ***In this subject, you may plan for and undertake an industry placement/project, depending on staff and project availability. Special projects may also be available, such as working collaboratively in a digital and social media and online community management strategy and management or an identified research topic in a team for the university or for an industry partner. Under supervision, you will prepare a project proposal, complete a literature and resources review, and research and produce a relevant outcome, such as a website or social media presence, as appropriate and determined with your supervisor/s. Students may be permitted to present the final outcome of projects using elements of online design or production; students may be permitted to link their project to tasks or duties within their employment or community.Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Plan and execute a research project that explores how society connects online. This could be a scholarly paper or an online project such as a website. Use your imagination and get creative with your final presentation.

Digital and Social Media Project

This subject was previously known as Internet and Everyday Life.
For many people, everyday life now involves constant interaction with the Internet via digitally networked platforms and devices. As cyberspace and real space come together, it can be easy to miss the impacts of the Internet on us and on our society and culture. Students will explore how their own experiences and ‘everyday Internet’ may be different from others, and the implications of this for studying digital culture. Through specific topics such as entertainment, politics, sex, and relationships students will analyse digital culture conceptually, towards better understanding how technology and society are intertwined.
Further Information: List of topics is indicative and subject to minor change prior to the start of each Study Period.
Please Note:  If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Explore where digital life ends and real life begins. Identify ways in which every day social activities like dating and praying have become digitised. Look into the causes and consequences of our increasing social connection with the online world.

This subject was previously known as Online Games, Play and Gamification.This subject explores the broader spaces and nature of play online, and how it relates to the development of digital forms of gaming. The nature of immersion, and its relationship to interactivity, is examined, investigating how narrative is constructed and communicated through game play. The subject provides critical perspectives on the notion of gamification and the growing area of research centred around videogame streamers and the labour ecosystem of eSports. It examines a series of gaming tropes and themes, games as texts, and the ways that games enter social frameworks to convey, refract, engage with, and resist power structures. An ongoing focus is on the function of rules in framing play, particularly in relation to how players cheat, hack and mod their games to break those rules..Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Delve into a world of gaming and play. Explore the interplay between commerce and game mechanics. Check in on ongoing debates about gaming. Critically analyse everything from casual and social games through to massively multiplayer online games.

This subject was previously known as Power, Politics and the Internet The Internet has had a massive impact on our political systems, from grassroots activism through to global politics. This subject helps you to understand how and why this has happened, and why it matters. It explores the new challenges and possibilities for governance created by the Internet, as well as attempts to control the Internet by governments and others. Ultimately, you will come to understand how networked communications are intertwined with long-running political struggles around control and resistance. Further Information: List of topics is indicative and subject to minor change prior to the start of each Study Period.Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Understand the ways in which people try to exert, and resist, power online. Explore why algorithms, censorship, surveillance, and infrastructure matter, and how they might be reshaped.

Online Power and Resistance

This subject was previously known as Internet Communities and Social Networks.Digital and social media offers many opportunities for people to share their lives with others and engage in social interaction and dialogue. Initially digital and social media seemed to be about &#39;virtual&#39; community; but these days, online and offline networking and community practices merge. Social media now plays a major role in &#39;being together&#39; - whether to maintain relations with friends and family, to advance political causes, to escape into fantasy worlds, or to strengthen communal belonging. In this unit, you will investigate the excitement, the scepticism, the possibilities and the pitfalls of communities, networks and digital and online social interaction and become more effective in managing and facilitating them.Further Information: List of topics is indicative and subject to minor change prior to the start of each Study Period.Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Surf online worlds, communities and sub-cultures. Explore the relationship between technology and social bonding. Plug into gaming, social and Indigenous online networks. Analyse how on and offline ways of communicating are beginning to blur.

Social Media, Communities and Networks

Contemporary media is a vital and pervasive presence in many aspects of our lives, both personal and professional. This subject explores the ways in which 21st century media &#39;engages&#39; our attention through a variety of texts and communicative modes. It also focuses on the ways in which we, as users, consumers and producers, engage with the media. We will explore how our relation to media is impacted by the institutions and processes involved in its production.
Further Information: List of topics is indicative and subject to minor change prior to the start of each Study Period.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Get informed about mass media’s modern print, television and online forms. Chart the changing role of news and entertainment in the digital age. Watch how institutions impact production and control. Pick apart how consumers engage with various formats.

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