Digital storytelling workshops were first introduced at Ulster University in 2015 and were very popular, booking out within 20 minutes and requiring additional sessions to meet demand. Feedback was very positive, with some saying it was the best training they had received in 20 years. The digital storytelling approach inspired others within the university to use it for various purposes, such as recruitment and assessment. It has now been expanded to other institutions and contexts, including early career researchers and undergraduate students.

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Digital storytelling
»Richard Beggs
› Instructional Design Consultant, Ulster University

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How did it start?
»Connect More 2015
› Dragons and butterflies
› Chris Thomson session last June

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Train the trainer
»Colette Murphy arranged training
› Chris Thomson workshop
› 2 day + webinars

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Pilot
»Research/Teaching Nexus
»Dr Maire Braniff
»Created first digital story ‘NI is at peace’
»Success

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Rollout - Ulster
»First session booked out in 20 minutes
»Ran 3 workshops to meet demand
»Waiting list
»Assisted by Gemma McFaul (placement student)

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Workshop
»Across faculties, PhD candidates
› and central departments
»Used for dissemination of research and innovative teaching
practice, conference presentations introductions

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Feedback very positive
»“Best training I have had at Ulster in 20 years”
»“The Digital Storytelling sessions were by far the most
useful I have undertaken during my time at Ulster “

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Inspired others
»Maire Braniff showed her story to a research partner, PSNI
»She is now working on a suite of digital stories with them

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Post Grad certificate
»Colette Murphy asked me to teach digital storytelling
on an Ulster digital learning module at SRC
»30% of module
»FCE – Postgrad certificate in Learning Technology

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Ripple effect
»This has inspired Dr Liz Finnigan (SRC) to use it to recruit
students for English and History degrees, and have doubled
their applications for this period (June) year on year.
»I have delivered webinars to Ulster and SRC on sourcing
open content - creative commons.

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SRC
»The school management have added digital stories to their
HE recruitment toolkit
»Liz is also investigating using it for student’s dissertation
proposals

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Writer’s festival SRC
»Presented a ‘How to’ to English undergraduates at SRC
Writers Festival on 17 June

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Student generated content
»I am working with social work (Denise MacDermott) and
journalism staff (Ciara Chambers) in Ulster to bring digital
storytelling into undergraduate courses as assignments to
produce student generated content

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Assessment
»Feedback from the sessions indicated
staff wanted to know how to use digital
storytelling for assessment
»Sharing my level 7 qualitative rubric

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SFHEA
»I recently used a digital story as part
of my successful application for
Senior Fellowship of HEA
»My professional journey - Reflection

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Early career researchers
»Maire Braniff has asked me to teach digital storytelling to
early career researchers as part of British Academy funding

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British Academy
› St Andrews, Canterbury,Wales and Ulster (Belfast)
› March 2017 showcase at Institute for government

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Other opportunities
»I am running workshops with Research Institutes in Ulster in
preparation for the next Ref 2020

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What’s next?
»More workshops in September 2016
»Showcase event & website

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Thanks to:
»Andy Jaffrey, Chris Thomson (Jisc), Colette Murphy,
Gemma McFaul, Maire Braniff and Liz Finnigan