We consult regularly with our professional faculty to determine the skills and curriculum students need to become successful communicators in the immersive media space. To find out when the courses below are offered and to register, visit the UO Class Schedule.
Core Courses
JCOM 594 Qualitative Research Methods 4 credits
Learn how and why public relations and advertising professionals conduct research, and how they use it to formulate strategic campaigns and evaluate their effectiveness. This class is a mix of theory and skill building.
JCOM 611 Mass Communication and Society 4 credits
This introduction to graduate study in communication emphasizes the major intellectual traditions and enduring issues in the field of strategic communication.
JCOM 627 Current Topics in Immersive Media 4 credits
JCOM 629 Communication Ethics in the Digital Age 4 credits
This course explores the ethical issues communications professionals face almost daily. It addresses how to survive and thrive in the turmoil and disruption of the current media landscape with an emphasis on the power of immersive media. We will explore what is changing, why it is changing, and how you can do good work despite, and sometimes because of, these changes. You’ll focus on ethical decision-making and potential outcomes—on a continuum of positive to negative—of communicating through digital media.
JCOM 664 Foundations in Immersive Media Communication 4 credits
Explore the uses of virtual worlds and augmented, virtual, and extended reality through the strategic lens of communications (marketing, advertising, branding) and community building. Investigate the attributes of the technologies that create both opportunities and barriers to adoption and effective use.
JCOM 665 Immersive Media Psychology 4 credits
This course offers an overview of media psychology with an emphasis on emerging media platforms. Learn why humans consume certain types of media content and gain an understanding of the affective, behavioral, and cognitive implications of media messages to better understand audiences.
JCOM 667 User Experience and Design 4 credits
Learn fundamental principles of user experience (UX) and human-centered design (HCD) in the context of strategic communication. The class teaches theoretical and applied approaches from human-computer interaction, media psychology, and more and features domains for mobile apps, traditional web, service/customer experience, gaming, and others industries.
JCOM 668 Experiential Marketing 4 credits
This course provides fundamental immersive media marketing concepts. Learn to develop a framework for building immersive media marketing strategies. Specific topics include leveraging augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), or mixed reality (MR) to meet branding and marketing objectives.
JCOM 669 Creating for Immersive Platforms 4 credits
Get an introduction to the tools used for designing and building virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences. Work with the game engine Unity to design your first interactive VR scene, AR builder Zapworks to create mobile augmented visuals, and 3D content creation software to learn the foundational skills for building real-time ready assets. Explore off-the-shelf resources to get started quickly and gain an understanding of the overall production pipeline for generating content for immersive spaces. This course sets the foundation for future building class electives. No prior experience necessary
Terminal Project
JCOM 609 Terminal Project 6+ credits
Your program culminates with the option of a capstone project or an internship. You’ll need to register for at least 6 credits of JCOM 609 and get your faculty advisor’s approval. There are many ways to approach this capstone project, and the Program Director will share past projects so you can get an idea of the expectations. Students may also replace the capstone projects with a professional internship or additional coursework, with approval from the Program Director.
Elective Courses
Students can choose electives that build focused skills in their areas of interest. Some elective topics are not offered every term or year. Talk to your program director about the electives offered each term.
JCOM 610 Immersive Media Seminar 2–4 credits
This course allows a timely deeper dive into the most relevant emergent technologies in immersive media. Topics may include:
- Understanding the Metaverse
- AI in Communication
- Social Media Strategy
- Building Communities in VR
- Digital Identities
- Intro to Game Studies
JCOM 624 Introduction to Social Virtual Reality* 2 credits
Get insight into the history and evolution of social virtual reality, from its early stages in the game space to the emerging social platforms designed for immersion with VR headsets. Explore and experience several platforms and critically analyze current and potential use of immersive VR in community building, storytelling, marketing, design, education, and more. Consider the ethical implications of this technology and its potential impacts on equity and inclusion.
JCOM 624 User Experience and Design* 4 credits
This course is designed to teach fundamental principles of user experience (UX) and human-centered design (HCD) in the context of strategic communication. This course is heavily interdisciplinary, relying on various theoretical and applied approaches drawn from fields of human-computer interaction (HCI), media psychology, and many others. UX is also context-specific, and we will be highlighting UX design in various domains, including mobile apps, traditional web, service and customer experience, gaming, and product design.
JCOM 624 Marketing with Immersive Technology* 2 credits
An introduction to social virtual worlds (VW), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR) within the frameworks of building communities, marketing and storytelling.
JCOM 624 Creating for Immersive Platforms* 2 credits
An introduction to designing and building tools for virtual reality and augmented reality experiences, including Unity, Maya, WebXR, and other character-generating tools used to create immersive VR experiences. Students work with industry-standard software to create their first interactive VR environment and explore the foundations for AR-driven applications. Students will become familiar with off-the-shelf resources to get started quickly and gain an understanding of the overall production pipeline used in generating content for immersive platforms. No prior experience required.
JCOM 624 Introduction to Building Real-Time Ready Assets for Immersive Media* 4 credits
Students will get an introduction to the production pipeline used in creating custom assets for immersive and interactive media. They will gain hands-on experience using cross-platform workflows to bring their original ideas to life. This course focuses on 3D modeling, texturing, and lighting for real-time rendering environments.
JCOM 624 Comparative Software for Immersive Media Development* 2 credits
Students will work with comparable production applications like Unreal Engine to develop VR scenes used for storytelling and visualization. The technical focuses of the course are setting up user functionality, basic interaction and UI, prototyping using Blueprints, high-dynamic lighting, and working with material graphs to generate visually compelling environments. This course also examines factors that contribute to a successful user experience and how to develop with those elements in mind. (Prereq: Creating for Immersive Platforms and Building Real-Time-Ready Assets for Immersive Media)
JCOM 624 Photogrammetry for Immersive Media 2 credits
Get an introduction to photogrammetry, a technique that stitches together dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of photos to create a virtual model of a room, object, or environment.
* Offered in the Oregon Reality Lab
Questions?
Need some guidance? Here are a few options:
- Download our graduate handbook for more details about program requirements and resources.
- Contact our graduate recruiter with questions about the program, the application process, and admission.