Learn it today, act on it tomorrow. In just 12 months, Full Sail’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship master’s program can help you expand your professional skills.

Let’s say you have an idea for a product or service. You know you have an opportunity to fill a niche, or maybe even disrupt an entire industry. But how do you get started?

Enter Full Sail’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship master’s program.

“In developing this degree, we realized that 12 months was a perfect timeline for a program that acts as an incubator,” says program director Ryan Kitelyn. “Our goal is to provide students who have an idea with the business acumen to get their product to market.”

Though many students come into the program with a product in mind, Kitelyn says not everyone does. And that’s okay.

“Some of our students have that entrepreneurial itch,” he says. “They’re interested in business and want to eventually work for themselves or as a consultant. They have a passion for learning about innovation, and maybe they plan to launch a business down the line. We can help them move toward those goals.”

Beginning with leadership courses focused on personal development, students will be taught the lean startup method, which streamlines the process of product development by eliminating costly and time-consuming practices.

For instance, students take a course in venture research early on. Using a series of research and development tools, they can determine whether or not their product is viable.

“Maybe you realize it’s not the right time, or perhaps the product just isn’t feasible. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it means you haven’t wasted your money developing a product that won’t work,” says Kitelyn.

When facing a lack of feasibility, most students choose to pivot their original idea before heading into the next course, which focuses on product development. Once students have a minimum viable product – meaning a product with enough early features to pique users’ interest – they move on to developing a business model that will enable them to (hopefully) turn a profit. Later courses include an overview of legal issues entrepreneurs face, as well as courses in marketing and building innovative work environments.

Finally, students take their final presentation course, where they present their thesis project in front of a panel of faculty members.

“They’re putting together an extended elevator pitch. It’s something they can use to pitch to investors. The final project sets the tone that they can carry with them after graduation,” says Kitelyn.

“This is a degree program for go-getters,” he adds. “Being intelligent, or responsible, those are great traits. But being dedicated is the biggest thing. To be an entrepreneur, you have to be willing to go all in.”

Learn it today, act on it tomorrow. In just 12 months, Full Sail’s Instructional Design master’s program can help you expand your professional skills.

As an educator or presenter, how do you effectively reach a room full of people, each with a unique learning preference? Current and emerging technologies can provide a solution in the form of immersive, multi-sensory experiences that cater to each style of learning all at once. But the rapidly evolving nature of technology can make it hard for professionals to keep up.

Enter Full Sail’s Instructional Design and Technology master’s degree program. According to program director Don Larson, the curriculum is designed not only to bring educators up to speed on the latest instructional design theories and practices but to also provide them with strategies for evolving those practices down the line.

“We serve a lot of educators who teach one subject and wish to make the leap to teaching something else, or to working with a different age group or demographic. We talk about theory at all levels, and so we’re giving people a foundation that they can use to do it all,” says Larson.

The program kicks off with a four-week long mastery course in personal development and leadership skills. From there, the focus shifts to cover the three main learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

People who do well in the program tend to be self-starters with a passion for education and some design training. The reason design skills are important? An overwhelming majority of the population are visual learners.

“Our curriculum starts off with them designing something simple, like an infographic,” says Larson. “Then, we have them take that simple design apart and make it more interactive.”

Another standout course is Music and Audio for Instructional Design, where students get an overview on how to optimize content for auditory learners. Larson says the course looks at how audio can be used in storytelling, a key component in creating compelling content for everyone from elementary school teachers to corporate trainers.

“It forces them to think about pacing in storytelling and hits on the idea that how you present information matters a great deal to how people accept it,” says Larson.

There’s also a course on Filmmaking for Instructional Design, which offers a look at how to properly light, shoot, and edit instructional materials. A course on Game Strategies and Motivation provides an opportunity to embrace a sense of play in learning that will help engage students of all ages. Throughout the program, students optimize content for a variety of channels – from printed materials to the web.

Ultimately, Larson and the rest of the faculty want to give educators and presenters the freedom and tools to explore avenues of educational content delivery they might not otherwise consider.

“If you’ve been working in this industry a long time, it can begin to feel like you’ve fallen into a rut,” says Larson. “Our program is a way to break out of that, and for educators who are hungry for new ways to reach their students to do just that.”

Learn it today, act on it tomorrow. In just 12 months, Full Sail’s Business Intelligence master’s program can help you expand your professional skills.

Over the years, data collection processes have advanced at an astounding rate, resulting in data sets so large and complex that they cannot be processed by traditional software alone. These sets, commonly called ‘big data,’ require human insight to turn raw numbers into consumer narratives. Full Sail’s Business Intelligence master’s program gives students the tools to analyze and interpret big data for a variety of industries.

“Our grads are at the forefront of data visualization,” says program director Heather Torres. “They know how to look at data, analyze patterns, and visualize it in a way that makes sense to executives and employees. They’re creating narrative pieces like infographics that make it easy to understand what data actually means.”

Classes focus on enhancing the skills of industry professionals or those looking to pivot into a new field. Beginning with a leadership course centered around personal development, new students quickly move on to study the foundations of business intelligence. Although many students come into the program with a working knowledge of the industry, newcomers are often surprised at the vast applications of large data sets.

“It’s well known that organizations are using data to help improve the customer experience,” says Torres. “But there are other applications as well. One example is personalized medicine. Hospitals can compare your DNA to the DNA of other people who have a similar illness and use that data to determine the most effective treatment. Nearly every industry is being shaped by data – medicine, sports, education, retail, and many more.”

An essential component of data interpretation is learning to recognize the human element in raw numbers. Courses in pattern recognition and process modeling provide students with tools for analyzing and interpreting information. Then, the Data Visualization and Creative Reporting course provides insight into how to present a data narrative to colleagues. In a lot of ways, says Torres, business intelligence is a form of translation.

“Creative reporting bridges the gap between the people who mine and compile the date and those who simply need it to make an informed decision. There’s so much information out there, and more and more comes through every second, so being able to tell that story quickly and efficiently can make all the difference when it comes to crucial decisions,” she says.

The program culminates with students performing a case study of a real company. They identify a problem within that company and create an extensive, data-informed business solution. The capstone course features a presentation component where students relay their findings to a committee of faculty and staff, similar to how they might present information to a future employer. The capstone also serves as a portfolio piece, which new grads can roll out during interviews to show off their skills.

“Our ideal candidate for this program is someone who is rational and can easily process information,” says Torres. “Most of this information is going to be used in a decision-making process, so we’re looking for linear thinkers who are decisive.”

Learn it today, act on it tomorrow. In just 12 months, Full Sail’s Entertainment Business Master’s program can help you expand your professional skills.

There’s no business like show business (or so the saying goes). And for those looking to obtain a graduate degree in business, Full Sail’s Entertainment Business master’s program offers an in-depth focus on skills related to the entertainment industry.

“We’re very similar to a traditional degree program in that we touch on traditional business topics,” explains program director Heather Torres. “But we are different in that we’re 100 percent focused on arts, entertainment, and media. So while you’ll still find courses in leadership and marketing, you’ll also take classes that dive deeper into the entertainment realm, like Negotiation and Deal-Making, or Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution.”

The goal of the program is to provide graduates with skills to either take their existing careers to the next level or successfully pivot into a new and exciting industry. Since a business degree attracts prospective students from all walks of life, the faculty developed a curriculum that is customizable to a variety of situations. Depending on location and whether or not they are working full-time, students can opt to complete the program online or attend classes at Full Sail’s Winter Park, FL campus.

Students can expect to begin with mastery courses in leadership and brand development. Then, in the fourth month of study, they begin building a digital leadership portfolio.

“The students develop their own website that’s focused on their personal brand, and they have the creative freedom to make it 100% their own,” explains Torres. “Each month, they add something new to their site.”

There’s even an elective track for students interested in studying sports management. Students following that course of study diverge from their cohort in the eighth month, attending specified classes such as Sports Management and Operations, Legal Issues in Sports, and Sports Marketing and Sponsorship Sales. Then, in their 11th month, they meet back up with the cohort to finish out their degree.

That’s when students in either track take the Business Plan Development course, where they create an in-depth business plan as a final project. They go on to present that plan to staff and faculty in the final month of the program.

“This is hugely beneficial to our students because our faculty brings such diverse experience to the table. We have people who have worked on Wall Street, at theme parks, at Fortune 500 companies, and more. We have accomplished authors and lawyers on the team. It’s a wide range,” says Torres.

Once they’ve gathered feedback and tweaked all necessary changes, they put everything together into a portfolio showpiece they can use to promote their newly-developed skills. By the time they reach the end of the program, they have a polished website that they can show to potential or current employers to help them advance their careers.

“One thing all of our students have in common is that they’re looking for growth in their professional lives,” says Torres. “We’re teaching them how to think and look at the bigger picture when it comes to entertainment business, but also how to look at the fine details that make up an organization. We’re helping them to find their fit within the entertainment industry.”

Learn it today, act on it tomorrow. In just 12 months, Full Sail’s Creative Writing MFA program can help you expand your professional skills.

We’re living in a golden age of media, and the demand for effective storytellers is greater than ever before. Students in Full Sail’s Creative Writing MFA program are rising to provide content for consumers who crave good stories across the world of entertainment.

“The ideal candidate for our program is someone who is already a good writer and wants to broaden the scope of the different kinds of writing they can do,” says program director Noelani Cornell.

Beginning with a course in leadership and personal brand development, new students learn the art of project management by looking at how different types of writing help shape the world of media.

Students often come in with either a project in mind or already in progress. The program aims to provide time and space for them to foster those projects while expanding their skills in other writing processes. They learn how to craft stories for different formats – from episodic and serial writing in film and television to writing for games. Along the way, the faculty encourages an agile approach, allowing students to pivot between writing for different types of media.

“A student might come in with an idea for a screenplay. They might find along the way that it works better as a comic book. We’re giving them the tools to be able to adapt and evolve their ideas depending on the market,” says Cornell.

She adds that unlike traditional creative writing programs, Full Sail places a strong emphasis on visual storytelling. Because of the accelerated nature of the program, candidates are expected to come in with both strong writing skills and a passion for seeing their work realized visually, often through collaboration with peers in industries like filmmaking or design.

As they study different facets of the business, students build a writing portfolio that functions as a showpiece for future employers. The goal is to show versatility and thus meet the growing demand for creative writers who can write across different industries.

“The focus is on their creative work, but these are skills that translate well to adjacent industries like marketing,” says Cornell. “By developing a sense of how narratives work, good writers can tell the story of a brand or business just as effectively.”

The program ends with a course on the business of creative writing, where near-grads learn how to market themselves and submit their work for publication. Cornell says she and her instructors hope their students leave with a broader definition of themselves than when they started.

“I tell students all the time, ‘You’re not a television writer or a writer for games. You’re a writer.’ In fact, I prefer the word storyteller. It speaks to the fact that the power of stories exists everywhere – not only in this industry but in everything we do as a people.”