Pamela Wilson PSW@reinhardt.edu. Presented at 17th Intl Conference on Books, Publishing & Libraries, Granada, Spain, July 2019

1. TEACHING
MULTIMODAL
DIGITAL
STORYTELLING
Dr. Pamela Wilson
PSW@Reinhardt.edu
Communication &
Media Studies
Reinhardt University
Waleska, Georgia, USA

2. EVOLUTION FROM TRADITIONAL COMM
CURRICULUM TO MEDIA STUDIES &
DIGITAL STORYTELLING
Reinhardt University is a small, private, rural-suburban university in Southern
U.S. one hour from Atlanta, Georgia
Students are regional, with average grades, come to us with vague notion of
what Communication and Media Studies means. Choose major usually
because they want to write or create film & video; unsure of future careers.
Most students go into workforce after graduation; few go straight to grad
school, while others may go back to get professional Masters degree after
5+ years.

3. Program started in late 1990s when college started offering 4-year degrees;
began as generalist Communication degree
Two faculty members
Courses in Mass Media, Interpersonal, Intercultural, PR, Advertising, News & Feature
Writing, Comm Theory, and a few video production courses.
As one of about 12 early BA/BS programs on campus, had strong enrollment of 60-80
students at first.
Between 2005-2012, we decided to refocus major just on Media studies,
renamed Communication & Media Studies
Changed course titles and content (e.g., Comm Theory Theories of Media & Culture),
developed new courses, eliminated those not focused on media
Created a number of different concentrations (at one point we had six); students tended
to segregate, especially those taking production courses
As institution grew and many new major programs were added college-wide, our
numbers diminished to 40-50 students.

4. CURRICULUM REFORM 2015-2018
During this time, we reconceptualized our program’s focus around
a core notion of communication as media STORYTELLING, with
an attempt to focus on INTEGRATED MULTIMODAL
STORYTELLING that would combine theory and practice.
Developed one new major curriculum (COMMUNICATION &
MEDIA STUDIES, or CMS), with two concentrations:
•STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION for those interested in careers creating
stories for clients (advertising, corporate, or public relations) or serving
the public through journalism
•DIGITAL STORYTELLING for those interested in creative content-
producing careers, especially in film, video, audio, and/or web writing and
design
We also partnered with Art to develop a BFA degree in Digital Media
Arts.

5. INTEGRATING THE CURRICULUM
Restructured curriculum to provide an integrated, developmental sequence of
core courses:
--perform a collaborative overview (all faculty working together) of the content,
learning objectives, and prerequisite skills needs of all courses
--strategize so that each component or building block is introduced in the order
needed -- not just for one course, but for the entire program.
--adjust each course syllabus so that all faculty know what skills, objectives, and
knowledge areas will be covered by other faculty and feed into their own courses.
--make sure that each course (if possible) includes assignments integrating theory
and practice, building upon skills already learned in previous courses.
--e.g., Collab review revealed weaknesses in student preparedness in certain areas,
so we either inserted assignments in certain courses or, in some cases, developed
new courses (such as a Research Methods course).

6. NEW CMS CURRICULUM (2018)
MAJOR CORE: Liberal-arts-based historical, institutional and theoretical knowledge,
and critical thinking taught in sequence includes required courses (all courses 3
credits/semester unless noted):
1. Multimedia Workshop (campus news staff) (1-2 credit hours)
2. Feature Writing (Creative Nonfiction)
3. Media & Culture
4. Intro to Digital Storytelling (Film/Video & Photography)
5. Research Methods
6. Organizational & Professional Communication
7. Intercultural Communication
8. Media Law & Ethics
9. Theories of Media & Visual Culture
10.Capstone: Transmedia Storytelling
11.Capstone: Internship or Thesis Project

7. MAJOR ELECTIVES in 3 clusters:
 Media Storywriting -- Choose one: Screenwriting or Integrated Multimedia
Storytelling
 Strategic Communication -- Choose 2: PR, Advertising, Strategic Writing,
Editorial Role for Campus News
 Visual Storytelling – Choose 3: Documentary Photography, Cinematography,
Digital Art, Digital Video Editing, Web/Interactive Media Design, Film and TV
Studies

8. In addition to knowledge areas, our aim is to also provide students
with foundational and developmental (pre-professional) skills and
creative/technological instruction in
 academic and media writing and editing
 image production (both still photography and moving
images/videos)
 audio production
 basic graphic design and layout skills
 web design
 online publishing skills.

9. WRITING
 We’ve struggled to improve grammar and writing mechanics -- students come with many deficits in
writing and language skills; we are still looking for solutions to individualize this instruction
 A decade ago we developed a Freshman-level hybrid research/media writing course as an
alternative to the ENG 102, but abandoned it last year and now send students to the ENG 102-103
professors to learn academic research writing and work on grammar skills.
 We teach fundamentals of news writing in our 1-2 credit multi-semester campus news course
 We now require a Feature Writing course as well as elective Screenwriting and also Strategic
Writing courses.
Feature Writing is a required Freshman/Sophomore-level creative nonfiction storytelling course,
taught as a workshop, giving students personalized instruction and practice in writing, editing,
revising, and rewriting different types of stories. It provides each student the most intensive writing
instruction.

10. IMAGE PRODUCTION
Each Sophomore takes Intro to Digital Storytelling
 Introduces students to a variety of digital narrative strategies
 Foundational components of film/television as well as internet memes,
virality, and unconventional or experimental storytelling concepts
 Enables students to approach the media they consume from a critical,
formal perspective, thus empowering them to create meaningful digital
narratives of their own.
 Provides basic skills that can be used in assignments for all future courses,
coupled with more advanced elective-course skills

11. SOUND PRODUCTION
The recent renaissance of audio storytelling and the explosion of podcast
productions in the U.S. media is mirrored in our students’ enthusiastic approach to
podcasts covering a variety of topics.
A full-semester Audio Design course is currently an elective, although audio
assignments are included in several courses, and students embrace them eagerly.
Audio design assignments range from
 Script analysis for film production (making audio design choices for a film, working
from the text alone)
 Podcast productions based upon adapting creative writing into audio scripts and
then performing them and adding sound effects and music
 Documentary or news-type podcasts based upon interviews or in which groups of
students have discussions about issues of interest.

12. TECHNOLOGY
We have a low technology budget, and we recognize that all instructors or departments at all
universities do not have access to professional-level film, video, still photography, or sound
recording or editing equipment.
Never fear! Students can engage in digital storytelling even without cutting-edge, high-cost
equipment.
Many, if not most, audio or visual recording assignments may be carried out using students’
smartphones.
Audio recording apps (tape recorders) can be downloaded, and the best free audio editing
software online is called Audacity.
If students have access on campus to Adobe Creative Suite, photo, video, and audio editing is
included. If not, many free programs are available online such as iPhone Video Editor/iMovie.

13. WORKSHOP: INDIVIDUAL FLASH
REFLECTION
FIVE MINUTES: Choose an assignment from a course that you teach.
Make notes about ways that you might incorporate an audio and/or visual
element into your writing assignments.
Example: AUDIO REPORT/SLIDESHOW. Students in a modern history
course conduct oral history interviews and (like a news reporter) write a
scripted overview they read/narrate on tape, inserting sound bytes from the
interviews.
Alternately, they might gather old photos, and then edit the old photos into a
slideshow that runs simultaneous with the above audio story.

14. CREATING HYBRID
ASSIGNMENTS

15. THE HYBRID CLASSROOM
The creation of HYBRID CLASSROOMS – integrating
theory and practice -- has been the greatest success of
our new curriculum and approach, integrating what we
teach across courses in meaningful ways.
Such integrated classrooms encourage students to
bring skills and interests from one course into another
course -- and we as faculty facilitate that cross-
fertilization.
They engage the students in higher levels of critical
thinking and more complex project management.
Most important, they engage both sides of the brain,
the rational and the creative, simultaneously.

16. INTEGRATING THEORY INTO THE
PRODUCTION CLASSROOM
Integrating theory into a production classroom
(a) Infuses depth and meaning into practical, technical work
(b) Works well with high-level projects, such as the senior-level Producing &
Directing course, which expects students to have already mastered and
internalized production skills. It challenges them to pursue works that
concern meaningful content or that explore and invert (and/or subvert) our
narrative expectations to create a more compelling story.

17. EXAMPLES
Examples might include the cross-fertilization from the Media Theory,
Intercultural Comm, or Film & TV Studies courses where they have
learned about concepts such as “The Gaze,” “Representation,” or
“Orientalism” -- and these insights inform their screenwriting and/or cinematic
strategies of looking at and representing the Other.
Last year, students who were inspired and empowered by discussions on
race and social justice in Intercultural Communication decided to use
those discussions as the basis for a podcast series, initiated by a group of
African-American students:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCUkNh9fld73SdjWjM5yg8w/videos

18. INTEGRATING CREATIVE VISUAL
+/OR AUDIO PROJECTS INTO THE
THEORY / HISTORY COURSE
Invigorates the students and brings enthusiasm to the project and the
learning
Allows them to apply concrete production skills mastered in one course to
demonstrate theoretical understanding in another course.
Helps them to understand the interconnectedness of their major curriculum
and the potential application (beyond their initial learning assignments) of
knowledge and skills they are gaining.

19. FIRST STEP: FROM ESSAYS TO
BLOGS
Having students write strong, well-crafted critical essays is an art in itself, but
taking it a step further by having them consider
how to write for a particular audience (choosing appropriate language and examples)
as well as
how to lay out and illustrate such an essay on a web or blogsite provides students
with the foundational concepts of combining the verbal and visual to communicate.
My students in sophomore-level Media and Culture write and post blog essays
every two weeks based upon readings and class discussions. These are standard 5-
paragraph essays. I require them to find images to illustrate their essays that are in
the media commons (e.g., using Google Image search using ToolsImage Rights).
EXAMPLES: https://ctdalton98wixsite.wordpress.com/2018/08/29/the-fake-news-
mis-disinformation-propaganda-debate-an-analysis-of-my-thoughts-of-the-crisis/
https://notesfromnataleigh.wordpress.com/2018/08/30/propaganda-disinformation-
and-fake-news/

20. COM 306 INTEGRATED MULTIMEDIA
STORYTELLING
This new course provides students with knowledge needed to serve in editorial
roles in magazine production (including producing multimedia online
magazines).
The three major assignments that were very successful were:
1. A multi-stage creative writing project (students wrote a story from a prompt)
which, after several rounds of workshopping, was then converted into an
audio script and then produced as a podcast, with multiple voices, sound
effects, and music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GpZOWyW5iY

21. 2. A layout project to learn to use InDesign: students as a team were given the
already-written copy for a departmental student advising manual, along with
access to a photo archive, and assigned to use InDesign and learned layout
principles to transform the material into a visually interesting manual that would
appeal to students.
3. The final project was a whole-class assignment to conceptualize, collect
content for, edit, and produce an online magazine, using InDesign for creating the
PDF and then ISSUU as a web publishing platform. This can be published in print
as well, if budget allows.
The result was the finest accomplishment yet: The Catalyst
https://issuu.com/reinhardtuniversity/docs/thecatalyst__final_?e=4151480/69
656287

22. COM 350 FILM AND TV STUDIES
This course is a film style, history, and analysis course, exposing the students to a range of
types of moving images (historical, international, Classical Hollywood, contemporary
independent feature films, and various styles of documentaries). Students learn a variety
of analytic models and concepts, from formal to narrative.
Students have three options to combine the received theoretical and analytical concepts
with digital storytelling tools:
I. Weekly web (blog) essays during first half of semester combine academic essay writing
with graphic design, layout, and illustrative images and video clips from the films.
https://kaylasmith153.wordpress.com/blog/
https://masononfilm.home.blog/
http://jamesh2o.blogspot.com/

23. II. Video Essays
 A. Student may substitute a video essay for any of the blogs. This requires a
written essay transformed into audio narration and supported by underlying
images and video clips. (3-5 minutes)
 B. The same option of creating an extended, research-based video essay is
offered in lieu of a final research paper. Last year, one student chose this
option; this past semester, two-thirds of the students chose this option.
 NOTE: I required a script and works cited to be submitted as well.
 https://youtu.be/6-pwllZuRCg
 https://youtu.be/6-pwllZuRCg
III. Team Documentary Film Final Project (in lieu of final exam)
A 3-5 minute documentary video modeling their techniques upon styles studied
in class.
https://youtu.be/PoQINDK52mY

24. SENIOR-LEVEL HYBRID AND
CAPSTONE COURSES
COM 490 Transmedia Storytelling (capstone course): Students integrate
theory and application as they create a transmedia storytelling project for a
client of their choice, which involves telling their story across multiple
platforms.
https://mckennahaag.wordpress.com/blog/
https://transmediastorytelling2017.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/nature-right-
landscapes-transmedia-portfolio/

25. COM 407 INTERNSHIP
COM 407 is the final test to see how well students can take knowledge and skills
from the classroom and apply them in a real-world job setting, working in a
communication/media role as an apprentice to a professional for 160 hours.
Some students spread their wings and fly, clearly ready to face the world of work.
Others, in a middle group, start off with some falterings (generally of personal
maturity and self-discipline) but then end up showing a good deal of growth.
The weakest group, on the other hand, struggles when faced with the reality of the
expectations of the working world. Since successful completion of the internship is
required of every student, those lacking the maturity and discipline to meet the
professional demands generally end up failing and retaking the course the next term.

26. THESIS PROJECT OPTION
This option is structured to allow a high-achieving student to design a
research-based and/or creative project that utilizes and applies both their
theoretical and their applied/creative knowledge. In addition to traditional
research writing, we will accept proposals from students to produce a feature
or documentary film, web series, multimedia work, etc.

27. WORKSHOP: DISCUSSION &
SHARING
In small cluster groups of 3, share the ideas you
came up for your own teaching with group members,
giving feedback and ideas. Request input based
upon participants' teaching experiences.
Examine strategies, consider effectiveness &
shortcomings. Suggest strategies.

28. EXAMPLES OF CREATIVE
ASSIGNMENTS
Write from a prompt: flash fiction or short story or a dramatic scene
 Prompts may be a type of interaction between 2-3 people (e.g., an argument, a negotiation, or
a seduction)
 Prompts may be a photo or photos provided by the instructor that evokes the imagination
 Prompt may ask for dialogue OR the creation of a series of images that tell a story, without
dialogue and with or without voiceover narration
Once a story or scene is written, ask students to
 Create a script for either video, audio or both (if audio only, be sure to include 3 tracks:
voice(s), sounds, music)
 Create a storyboard
Storyboard blank: https://freeology.com/wp-content/files/storyboard.pdf
Example of really excellent professional storyboarding https://www.toddjacobsen.com/the-mighty-b/#

29. PROMPTS FOR VIDEO CREATION
ACTIVITIES
In teams of 2-3 (cannot be solo), use their mobile phones to create a 30-90-
second piece in-camera based upon some conceptual guidelines you provide. (In-
camera means to plan it and shoot it in sequence, so that no editing is needed)
IDEAS:
Have them pull up the trailer to the most recent film that they watched and ask them
to analyze it for
1) the emotions or sentiments it evokes, and then
2) Storyboard it.
Provide them with a multi-panel page (6 panels per page is usually). Have students
transcribe the trailer’s key visual moments onto those panels (in order) as they make
notes on story/sentiment/emotions per panel in the space provided.

30. (CONTINUED)
If there is time, or the group is small enough, challenge them to re-create
that trailer and specifically advise them to seek clever solutions that evoke a
similar experience (discourage them from merely trying to recapture accurate
visuals--it would be impossible).
In full class, do a final reflection on the experience and have people share
their favorite clever tricks that were effective (if there's enough time, they can
share the entire thing).

31. MORE VIDEO ACTIVITIES
Provide one (or more) of the additional constraints to focus the final product:
1. Must make the audience experience the following emotions in this order ( _____,
______, ______)
2. Must (as closely as possible) recreate
 a certain sample clip from a movie, or
 A particular film genre,
 A specific camera technique
 A specific auteur’s style
3. Create a parody interpretation of one of the above options
Share either as a whole group, if it's small, or in small groups, if it's large. Discuss
what they created.