We have four departments; mine is Journalism. We have a department committee right now that has been charged with reviewing the existing curriculum and suggesting ways to change. One of the areas we have already identified as needing improvement is the lack of emphasis on non-text (non-print) reporting techniques in the early, required courses. From what we can see, the students can complete the first two courses (mass media writing, then news reporting) without ever having any online journalism assignments. Last fall, the students in the first course DID upload a story to a Web site, but that seems to be the extent of it.
So the committee is looking for ways to ensure that every journalism student gets some exposure IN THE REQUIRED COURSES to current online practices.
It seems wrong, to the committee members, that there is no guarantee that journalism students will learn the new techniques. If a student takes no electives in online journalism, that student might learn nothing except print journalism practices.
