Media production and criticism, Journalism, Distance Education, Instructional Design
Mr. David J. Miller is the Coordinator of the Media Production & Criticism in the Department of Communication at George Mason University. David is an experienced academician of over 25 years teaching coursework in media production, criticism, and journalism at the university level. His academic area of interest is in curriculum development and experiential learning through online education. He is also serving as the Academic Director of the Global Public Relations in London through Mason's Study Abroad Program.
A recipient of Blackboard's Catalyst Award for Teaching and Learning (2018), he has developed coursework in Media Criticism for Distance Education at George Mason University and was also awarded the 2015 Sloan-C Effective Practice Award at the Eighth Annual Emerging Technologies for Online Learning International Symposium.
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is the leading professional organization devoted to advancing quality online learning by providing professional development, instruction, best practice publications and guidance to educators, online learning professionals and organizations around the world.
Mr. Miller was named 2018 Online Teacher of Distinction through The Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning at George Mason University. He has also been recognized with an Online Course Excellence Award for Online Journalism (COMM 361) through the Office of Digital Learning at Mason in 2016.
His professional experience covers working in terrestrial non-commercial radio and the broadcast television industry. His freelance credits include the Military and History Channel, Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA), Voskresnoye Vremya (Sunday Time), Channel One Russia, and The Center of Excellence in Command, Control, Communications, Computing and Intelligence (C4I Center at GMU). Other professional experiences include film support for exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and film editor at Paramount Television Network.
Although a lifelong resident of the Washington Metropolitan area, international travel is his passion whether it be for work or pleasure.
COMM 208: Introduction to Multimedia Production (3)
This is a beginner’s course designed to provide students with an understanding of camera operation, framing, and composition, lighting, audio, and editing. Grading will be heavily based on technical proficiency and artistic expression using the basic tools of media production. This course is demanding in terms of one’s time and technological abilities.
COMM 361: Online Journalism (3)
The asynchronous online course focuses on online journalism, research, reporting, web page and weblog creation, and writing for the Internet. Using the constructivist approach to learning, students conduct sustained research and reporting on a predetermined theme for the duration of the semester. The student will identify and produce compelling and effective stories by collecting and interpreting data and illustrating one’s findings using a variety of visual elements such as photographs, infographics, and multimedia presentation tools.
The approach I have taken with this class is to move away from the faculty-centered approach to learning to student-centered learning. To that end, I have gone away from lecture-based learning to what I described as experiential learning. This means that the focus of activities and assessment is on students working with and learning from doing as well as from each other i.e. peer to peer learning (P2P).
COMM 380: Media Criticism (3)
This asynchronous online course examines practical criticism of a wide variety of media texts including television programs, newspapers, articles, films, photographs, and advertisements. This course introduces principles of major contemporary modes of analysis for systematically interpreting visual and verbal forms of communication. Additionally, the course is designed to enable students to formulate their own philosophies on the role of mass media-making and popular culture through the careful analysis of key theories of communication, the meaning, and interpretation of media-making, and the institutions that shape our social, political, economic, cultural and social values in contemporary society.
B.Sc.
M.A.
Librarian-faculty collaboration: Effective strategies for embedding online and face-to-face library services
Panel & Roundtable Discussion
Innovations in Teaching & Learning Conference (2017)
Are You Ready to Teach Your Online Summer Course?
Facilitator, small-group discussion at the Online Faculty Learning Community (2017)
Best Practices for Creating Videos
Presenter, Online Faculty Learning Community (2017)
Integrating multimedia and LMS tools to cultivate creative and reflective learners
Presenter, Innovations in Teaching & Learning Conference Proceedings, (2016)
Thinking Outside of the Box to Assess Learning
Presenter, Faculty Development Lunch & Learn (2015)
Designing and Implementing Experiential Learning through Multimedia-Based Activities and Blogging in Asynchronous Online Courses
Co-presenter, Innovations in Teaching & Learning Conference (2014)
#MasonCOMM's Award-Winning Faculty David Miller Is Always Learning!