On 15 July 2025, we will celebrate 25 years since the first promotion of the UOC-UPC Multimedia Distance Graduate, which opened a new area of knowledge on a global educational level: multimedia.
This knowledge area embodies the core spirit of the UOC and has served as a repository over these 25 years for values such as interdisciplinarity, creativity, a disruptive and pioneering spirit, innovative results, and ultimately, the creation of unconventional areas of knowledge.
Multimedia has a strong presence in almost everything we use today: from the screens of ever-present mobile phones to interactions with the dashboards of our home appliances, artistic proposals for building mapping, smart assistants like Alexa, and the ubiquitous World Wide Web. However, it is a term that has been diluted by media overexposure due to the numerous popular technologies and tools it encompasses.
Therefore, to quickly and easily understand it (even if incompletely), we can discuss image and code. “Image” because it includes video (moving images) and accounts for 80% of the information we gather through our senses. “Code” because it is the language used to communicate with computers, allowing us to create and modify images, videos, audio, animations and texts. To handle all these elements, we need a range of deeply interconnected disciplines, such as: graphic design, programming, web layout, interaction, publishing platforms, digitization of media, entrepreneurship, data visualization, visual and audible language, digital composition, generative artificial intelligence, scripting, animation, augmented reality, networks… The list is extensive, and the presence of all these elements is essential to consider something a multimedia product.
Teaching in this field is both a challenging and innovative endeavour. It creates an environment that supports a slow but consistent progression for others. In an era when network speeds prevented video delivery, effective and reputable solutions were devised to enable remote training in this discipline. When digital practice spaces comparable to labs were needed, we developed them too. The UOC implemented synthesis tests, open resources, personal portfolios, and a range of proprietary tools (galleries, toolkits, codelab…) thanks to its commitment to multimedia.
Multimedia remains a successful venture, continuing to thrive with the same innovative and interdisciplinary spirit that defined it 25 years ago. In today’s context of expanding generative artificial intelligence, multimedia training is more relevant than ever: understanding visual languages, mastering digital creation, and possessing technological and ethical judgment are essential to addressing the new challenges and opportunities this technology presents.
The UOC’s Multimedia studies, which have evolved over time with programmes such as degrees in Multimedia, Digital Design and Creation and Arts or master degrees in Interactivity and User Experience, Website and Web App Development or Video Game Design and Programming, have established itself as a privileged space to train professionals who will shape the new digital age. A proposal with conceptual projection, human force and social relevance, aiming to continue moving forward and celebrate again in 25 years.
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