Hi, I am looking at doing the online IT Masters in Multimedia and creative content at Harvard Extension. I have a MIS in undergrad. It was a pretty weak program and I haven't used it, as I have been doing administrative assistant work in a biotech co, so I had some exposure to working with data recording and manipulation. Also, I maintain several websites. I want to move on from the AA work and have always dabbled in IS, but no official programming skills. I would love to hear from anyone involved in the Harvard extension program, or advice on getting my foot in the IT door. I like the multimedia and am looking at working on elearning websites, but from what I have read on the boards, seems like the $$ for web design work is not very good. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
There are specialized graduate degrees in the area of e-learning ranging from portal development and implementation to course content design and authoring. In my opinion, you might be better served by a degree which focuses on these aspects instead of bread-and-butter web site development. You heard correctly traditional web design work rarely pays well. Investigate the course management systems already used by schools or other organizations such as BlackBoard, WebCT, Angel Learning Systems, Moodle, etc. The M.A. in Educational Technology Leadership, George Washington University might be exactly what you are seeking.
Hi Sentinel, That is a great suggestion. I like the idea of looking more specifically into the course management systems that you listed and that are already in use. I will do that and have a look at GWU. Thanks a bunch.
Another option you may want to consider is Dakota State University. They offer an MS in Educational Technology (MSET), an MS in Information Assurance (MSIA), and an MS in Information Systems (MSIS). DSU is not ranked as high as GWU, but they are a solid school for technology related degrees and they are much less expensive than GWU.
Hi There, Thanks for the suggestion. I will certainly check it out, as money is an issue. It seems like the elearning would be fairly lucrative, due to all of the open courseware, Corporate training and CEU programs. Does anyone have any experinece they could share? Seems like it would also be a nice tranisition with the web maintenance skills that I already have.
The finances are pretty good if you have a job, but getting a job can be interesting. 99% of it is having a great portfolio. Being able to demonstrate that you can do the work and that your work will be good is, honestly, most of it.
I agree, getting a degree other than web designing should be your aim. It’s ideal at this time when so many IT courses have sprouted that you take a more specialized course. Maybe you can research first on what’s the most sought after course right now.
In the Seattle area, Flash is huge. If you can work with Flash and actionscript 2/3, a lot of small-end game companies and large corporations are hiring for that.
