NAIT Faculty held a presentation March 20th, revealing that there are big changes coming to its DMIT Program. As soon as 2025, DMIT will undergo major changes to the curriculum and offerings for students. Mainly presented by Associate Dean Sonja Gauvin, she stated faculty is early in the process of proposing a reformation of DMIT to the government. This will effectively split it into six separate diplomas: Game Development, IT Business Analysis, IT System Administration, Narrative Cinema Production, Software Development and Digital Design. Game Design and Digital Design will also each be split into two specializations. The Game Design stream will have Programming and Game Design Animation concentrations, and the Digital Design stream will have Visual Communications or Web Design concentrations.
The presentation explained that these changes are happening because of the success of the DMIT program, as well as providing clarity to what students are actually studying. Since ‘Digital Media and IT’ is more of an umbrella term, it’s not immediately clear whether you’re a software developer, animator or any of the other specializations under said umbrella. The courses are also being updated for industry relevance. Current students attending the presentation did have concerns about if they are getting out-of-date information, but Gauvin assured them that the diploma they are acquiring is still very successful in job attainment after graduation.
If these changes are approved by the government, they will be implemented in the beginning of 2025. The impact this will have on existing students should be minimal, as NAIT will be offering the current DMIT programs in tandem until June 30, 2025. Students can email dmit@nait.ca for questions or concerns, especially those with worries about the timeline required to complete courses and acquire a diploma.
