Web Design
Mark has been a lecturer with the Faculty of Information and Media Studies since the turn of the century, when he started teaching Introduction to Digital Imaging and Web Design in the MIT program. At the time, he believed there was a five-year lifespan for the course. By then, he reasoned, the tools for producing websites would be so good, there would be no need for a course anymore.
He was so wrong.
Since then, the web has changed radically. He finds the curriculum really needs to be updated yearly as standards change and research improves our understanding of how audiences engage with the medium. The need for the course has increased. As the web has developed, and its instruments have become more invisible, the need for understanding how to use the tools, and what makes them tick, has become even more critical.
MMJC
From 2013-2018 he was the program coordinator of the Master of Media in Journalism and Communication (MMJC), first leading the team that designed the new curriculum, and then coaxing the professional program into existence. He teaches the first-term required MMJC course, The Social Media and Digital Production Dojo. This he revises yearly, as social media changes even faster than the web.
Advanced Web Design
In 2019 he designed an advanced web design course for FIMS graduate students, which focuses on the emerging discipline of content strategy. The Faculty plans to offer an undergraduate version of the course in 2020.
Course websites
Social Media
Feel free to connect with Mark on Twitter or LinkedIn
Publishing
When he’s not teaching or designing curriculum, Mark lives in imaginary worlds, writing novels, short stories and plays –within the genres of satire, literary and speculative fiction. He’s published four novels, dozens of short stories, and had several plays produced. His most recent book is The Fatness (2017), which won an IPBA Benjamin Franklin silver award for humor and a IndieReader Discovery Award for best humor. His satire focuses on the foibles of information technology, the follies of capitalism, and the feckless nature of human organizations, so he feels right at home at FIMS.
You can learn more about Mark’s writing at his website, markarayner.com
