Swinburne creates new online media course for Indigenous Australians
In Summary
A new Certificate II in Media online training course has been developed by Swinburne University of Technology to help deliver education and training to rural and remote Indigenous Australian communities.
The web-based program delivers skills and knowledge for careers in digital media production, and will initially be delivered to two pilot groups, the Yorta Yorta Aboriginal Nation Incorporated in Shepparton and the Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation (ALPA) in East Arnhem Land.
Jill Slater, Project Manager of the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) Indigenous Futures Project at Swinburne, describes the program as innovative, creative and fun.
“Students will build the skills to conduct an interview, develop a narrative and to create digital media. Importantly, the course introduces rural and remote Indigenous students to online learning, work opportunities in digital media and further study options,” Ms Slater said.
“By taking ideas from our pilot groups, course work will include recording oral histories, documenting on country plants, producing education videos in local languages and digitally promoting Indigenous arts and culture.”
Scott Baker, Screen and Media teacher at Swinburne, says the content of the course integrates knowledge from Goolarri Media, Broome, who are pioneers in Indigenous media production.
“We held a train the trainer workshop with experts from our Indigenous partners in Broome and East Arnhem Land to ensure the program imparts the wisdom of Indigenous design and utilises effective remote delivery methods,” Mr Baker said.
“The challenge of developing a course that can be delivered with limited face to face time and with limited technology and still give the students professional media production skills is one we feel we have achieved.”
The course has been developed as part of Swinburne’s Reconciliation Action Plan, which aims to engage and support the participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in education and employment.