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Introduction to Digital Media

Stay at the cutting edge of today’s modern media world by exploring fundamental digital media processes and technologies.

407 enrolled on this course

Digital media permeates every aspect of our lives through the Internet.

Introduction to Digital Media

407 enrolled on this course

  • 6 weeks

  • 4 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Introductory level

Find out more about how to join this course

  • Duration

    6 weeks
  • Weekly study

    4 hours
  • 100% online

    How it works
  • Unlimited subscription

    $244.99 for a whole yearLearn more

Upskill for new media industries with digital technologies

From Metaverse to VR, Netflix to mobile applications, we’re surrounded by and interact with digital networks more than ever before. But what’s driving this digital revolution and how can you harness these transformative technologies?

On this six-week, digital media course from the Communications University of China (CUC), you’ll uncover the processes behind digital content and learn to build digital media applications for our interconnected world.

Explore digital image, video, and audio

You’ll first explore the primary differences between digital and traditional media to understand why digital formats dominate today.

You’ll also unpack processes and technologies behind popular digital formats, from creating digital images through encoding to storing and transmitting digital video, and how digital audio technology enables recording, editing, and playback.

Discover common data compression formats

With this foundational knowledge, you’ll then understand the purpose of data compression in optimising digital media.

You’ll explore how coding technologies can more efficiently store and transmit images and video, and how different audio compression methods, such as lossy and lossless techniques, balance file size and sound quality.

Delve into computer graphics, animation, and games

Next, you’ll explore popular digital formats, learning how graphics are represented and processed, how 3D models power animation, and how game engines accelerate game development.

You’ll also examine the role of computer vision and information visualisation in understanding and presenting data across various fields, from tracking objects with computer vision to using big data and visualisation in industries like finance, biology, and e-commerce.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Digital image and video

    • Digital forms of media.

      What is digital media technology?

      Compared with traditional media, digital media has the advantages of interactive and fast transmission through the network.

    • A digital image is a representation of a two-dimensional image using pixels with finite digital values.

      Digital image technology

      A digital image is an image obtained by digitizing an analog image, with pixels as basic elements, and can be stored and processed by a digital computer or digital circuit.

    • Digital video refers to various technologies that capture, record, process, store, transmit and reproduce a series of static images in the form of electrical signals.

      Digital video technology

      Digital video is video recorded in digital form, as opposed to analog video. Digital video has different ways of generation, storage and broadcasting.

  • Week 2

    Digital audio

    • Digital audio has developed rapidly with the development of digital signal processing technology, computer technology and multimedia technology.

      Fundamentals of digital audio technology

      Digital audio is a technology that uses digital means to record, store, edit, compress or play sound.

    • Language information is mainly contained in the parameters of speech signals, so accurately and quickly extracting the parameters of language signals is the key to speech signal processing.

      Digital speech processing

      Digital speech processing mainly studies the speech production process, the statistical characteristics of speech signals, automatic speech recognition, machine synthesis and speech perception.

    • Speech recognition technology is an important branch of artificial intelligence, involving many disciplines, and is a key link in human-computer natural interaction technology.

      Typical applications of digital speech processing

      Speech recognition technology is a technology that enables machines to understand and recognize human speech. It has a wide range of application scenarios in many fields.

  • Week 3

    Digital media compression

    • Data compression is possible because most real-world data has statistical redundancy.

      Intruduction to data compression

      Without losing useful information, reducing the amount of data can reduce storage space and improve its transmission, storage and processing efficiency.

    • Transforming and encoding image data can remove redundant data to reduce the amount of data required to represent a digital image.

      Digital image compression

      Since the amount of image data is huge, it is very difficult to store, transmit and process, so digital image compression is very important.

    • Digital video compression technology can compress video streams to about one-tenth of their original size.

      Digital video compression

      Encoding and compressing the original video can remove redundancy in spatial and temporal dimensions.

    • Digital audio compression coding is achieved by removing redundant components in sound signals.

      Digital audio compression

      Digital audio compression compresses the audio data signal as much as possible while ensuring that the signal does not produce auditory distortion.

  • Week 4

    Computer graphics and animation

    • The core goal of computer graphics is to create effective visual communication.

      Computer graphics

      Computer graphics mainly studies how to represent graphics in computers, and how to use computers to calculate, process and display graphics.

    • Computer-generated animation makes it possible to create cinematic videos without the use of actors, expensive sets, or props.

      Computer animation

      Unlike traditional animation techniques which use frame-by-frame animation of 2D illustrations, computer animation generates continuous image frames by building 3D models.

    • Computer games are interactive games that are played on electronic devices.

      Computer game

      The emergence of various game engines has greatly facilitated game developers. They can provide game designers with various tools needed to write games, allowing game designers to easily and quickly create game programs.

  • Week 5

    Computer vision and information visualization

    • Computer vision is a simulation of biological vision using computers and related equipment.

      Overview of computer vision

      Computer vision refers to the use of cameras and computers to identify, track and measure targets instead of human eyes.

    • The sources of massive video data are diverse, which determines the diversity of the forms of visual big data.

      Visual big data

      Visual data information has more mixed characteristics than other big data information, so the authenticity of the data is particularly important.

    • Information visualization uses computers to interactively display abstract data, thereby enhancing people's understanding of abstract information.

      Information visualization

      Information visualization is the application of visualization technology in the field of data. Information visualization technology is widely used in various fields such as finance, network communication, biology and e-commerce.

  • Week 6

    Digital media network

    • Common storage media include semiconductor devices, magnetic materials and optical materials.

      Digital media storage

      Data storage refers to saving media data on certain media in a reasonable, safe and effective manner according to different application environments and ensuring effective access.

    • The transmission media used in computer networks can be divided into two categories: wired and wireless.

      Digital media transmission

      Transmission media is also called transmission medium or transmission medium. It is the physical path between the sender and the receiver in the data transmission system.

    • The goal of media network security protection is to protect the security of infrastructure, networks, applications, data, etc.

      Digital media network security

      With the advent of the digital age, the information security and protection of digital content have become topics of extensive research by many scholars.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

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Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Apply digital media technology to solve specific engineering problems.
  • Develop the basic scientific research capacity to carry out research on digital media technology.
  • Compare the processing technology principles of different types of digital media.
  • Explore the application of digital media technology in different fields.

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone interested in the evolving world of digital media, new media, and media convergence.

Whether you’re a college student specialising in media technology, a professional looking to expand your skill set, or an enthusiast eager to understand the role of digital media in everyday life, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of key industry technologies and applications.

No prior knowledge is needed to begin.

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

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Communication University of China

The Communication University of China (CUC) is one of the China’s key universities included in 211 Project and “985 Project Innovation Platform” under the Double First-Class Initiative, which is directly administered by the Ministry of Education. CUC was the first communication university founded in 1954 . In August 2004, it was renamed from Beijing Broadcasting Institute to Communication University of China.

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$244.99 for a whole year

Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$79/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 18 Mar 2025

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 3 March 2025 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 3 March 2025 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

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