Overview of content and progression
Admission requirement: A Bachelor degree which has led to substantial knowledge of language and/or communication, as well as fluency in English (All communication is in English).
7th Semester. Rhetoric and Information ecology
Courses/activities | Description | Exams and credits |
Content Management and databases | Theory and practice. Data-modelling, search tools, methods of navigation. The emphasis is upon acquiring practical competence. | Written exam. 5 ECTS. |
Information Ecology | Basing design of IA on observations of users, information practice, information flow and user communities. Organisation of knowledge and learning in an information ecology, using IA, interaction design and navigation. | During the course of the 7th semester, students work out portfolios, which chart and document their growing understanding of the theory of IA. On the basis of each portfolio a synopsis is worked out, which serves as the basis of an oral examination. 25 ECTS. |
Categorisation | Classical theory of categorisation and conceptual hierarchies. IT-oriented approaches to categorisation: logic, terminology, controlled vocabularies, faceted categorisation. | |
Knowledge organisation | Interactive information retrieval, information search behaviour, indexing with metadata or automatic indexing, and controlled vocabularies. | |
Rhetoric | Classical theory of effective communication. The systematic relation between form (cf. interface) and content (cf. databases). Persuasive purposes within communication and IT. |
8th Semester. Design of Information Architecture
Courses/activities | Description | Exams and credits |
Content Management and interfaces | Relating content to interface. The role of content management systems in organising knowledge. Evaluation criteria and benchmarking for IA. | Written exam. 5 ECTS. |
Design tasks | Three concrete IA design tasks. Each project lasts three to four weeks, followed by a week of analysis, in which a report is worked out. The tasks are set by the sponsors of the IA-education (a network of private enterprise companies and public organisations). The students? proposals are discussed with the sponsors who gave the design tasks. | An oral examination based on the three analysis reports describing the design tasks of the semester. 25 ECTS.
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9th Semester. Strategy and change
Courses/activities | Description | Exams and credits |
Content Management and design tools | Practical course, which supports the development of IA and design for IA. | 5 ECTS. |
Strategies for change | Theories presented in the 7th semester are followed up adding higher theoretical dimensions. On this basis as well as the experiences gained form the 8th semester design tasks, the communicative consequences of changes in IA are studied. A strategy for change with respect to some specific task and context is then worked out. | 15 ECTS.
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Persuasion (optional) |
| 10 ECTS required
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Data-visualisation (optional) |
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10th Semester: Master?s Thesis 30 ECTS
Through the Master?s Thesis the student becomes specialised within one of the fields of IA as laid out by the preceding semesters. The following specialisations are possible (as well as cross-combinations of these):
- The relations and dependencies between the architecture of databases, the architecture of interfaces, and IA
- Rhetorical architecture as concept development and/or persuasive design
- Communicative, technical and business dynamics in IA planning and construction
- Information ecology with an emphasis on information practice and interaction design