Digital Storytelling for Social Innovation

Thandiwe Matyobeni, Ms, Community Engagement, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa

Course Type: General Education

Keywords: transdisciplinary, innovation, storytelling

University Department Level Credits Length Medium
Rhodes University Community Engagement Undergrad/Graduate/Post-Graduate 4 4 weeks In-person / online / hybrid

Course Description

The course is designed to nurture innovativeness in education. Its aim is to blend what is learnt in lecture halls and the real-world experiences of students. The course takes a learner-centered approach to teaching to stimulate agency through peer feedback, collaboration, and ownership. The course contributes to hidden curriculums by facilitating metaliteracy development and cohesion. The course is integrated into any discipline-specific course to complement and enrich the learning process and assessment. Focus groups are used as a central aspect of the course to provide peer feedback as the storytelling process unfolds.

Weekly Outline

Unit 1: Theoretical framework

Unit 2: Narrative building

Unit 3: Media literacies and video editing

Unit 4: Digital platforms and your discipline

Course Objectives ​

  • To develop metaliteracies in students enabling them to navigate complex information landscapes effectively.
  • To ensure comprehensive understanding of the discipline-specific course materials present.
  • To encourage critical reflection on discipline-specific course content ensuring deep engagement with subject matter.
  • To ensure learner-centered teaching that encourages ownership of learning.
  • To encourage peer feedback and stimulate cohesion

Reading

  • Digital Storytelling for Social Innovation, Rhodes University Community Engagement (Instructional Manual or Guidebook)
  • Using Digital Storytelling to Teach Psychology: A Preliminary Investigation (Research article)

Viewings

  • Stories of Change (YouTube)
  • WeVideo Tutorials (RUConnected)

Major Assignments (being assignments whose value is of 25% or more)

Story starters

  • Platform: Mindup
  • Purpose: Students are required to explore their own life experiences using visual techniques and critical reflection. They must reflect on how they came to be scholars of their discipline. 
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: 4 hours
    • Project Size: 
    • Project Aesthetics: Well-organized illustrations of the planning process, such as a life map or timeline.
    • Coding Proficiency: Navigating and using the platform or an equivalent software.  
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: Engagement in peer-review process
    • Story and narrative: The student can construct and present a clear and engaging narrative that describes and elaborates on the illustrations created as life map. Their perspective comes across authentically. 
    • Production values: There is clarity in the flow of the information. The features of the platform were well-utilized to create vibrant and engaging visualization. The product shows an understanding of basic design principles. A low-grade submission would have a lack of continuity between the experiences plotted and would not utilize the features of the platform.

Narrative Building

  • Platform: Moodle, MS Word
  • Purpose: The purpose of this assessment is to finetune the previous assessment into a coherent script that will serve as the narration to the summative digital story. The narration must be one or more paragraphs of an estimation of 200 to 250 words.
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: 10 hours (2 contact)
    • Project Size: 250 word or a 1-page document
    • Project Aesthetics: Clear, legible
    • Coding Proficiency: Basic computer literacy and navigating the Moodle site.
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: Engagement in peer-review process
    • Story and narrative: The story effectively connects the research to the subjects involved in it. The storyteller provides content for audiences to empathize with and relates lived experiences of the humans involved in the research to the research topics. The story has an extremely compelling and well-developed dramatic question that is central to the narrative and creates intense tension and suspense. The storyteller makes their perspective clear and shares the story from their point of view. narrative has a highly effective concept and structure and is well constructed. The storyteller’s voice comes through strongly.
    • Production values: The narrative is well constructed, clear, and engaging and shows meticulous planning and development, while a low-grade submission would lack a clear and coherent concept, and the narrative may be disjointed or unstructured. There would be no evidence of planning.

Storyboarding

  • Platform: Storyboardthat
  • Purpose: The purpose of this assessment is to create a plan for how the narration, audio and visuals will relate to each other when constructing the summative digital story.
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: 4 hours
    • Project Size:
    • Project Aesthetics: Understanding of the structure of storyboards and incorporation of compelling visuals with concise but clear text descriptions
    • Coding Proficiency: Navigating and creating a project using the platform. 
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: Engagement in peer-review process
    • Story and narrative: The planning shows a highly effective concept and structure, and the narrative is well constructed. 
    • Production values: The planning is detailed, edited and feasible, and attention to sourcing good quality footage is illustrated. The visuals proposed complement the story being told and are integrated into the storytelling. Evidence of planning for multi-layered and creative sound and editing techniques are also included in the planning. A low grade would have little detail and little coherence between the various multimedia elements. It would not be feasible to construct the story.

Video Making

  • Platform: WeVideo
  • Purpose: The purpose is to blend all the previous activities into a coherent, engaging and strong digital story that informs audiences while introducing them to the point of view of the storyteller. 
  • Requirements:
    • Project Length: 16 hours
    • Project Size: 
    • Project Aesthetics: Clear audio, good quality images
    • Coding Proficiency: Video editing skills
  • Evaluation: 
    • Interactivity: Engagement in peer-review process
    • Story and narrative: The digital story embodies the ethical standards of digital storytelling. The storytelling is meticulously planned and constructed. The narrative has a clear point of view, is told economically and uses emotion to engage with audiences.
    • Production values: crafted and highly effective in communicating its message in prescribed time frame. The visuals used in the digital story complement the story being told and are integrated into the storytelling. The digital story uses sound elements to enhance the storytelling well. The sound is well-mixed, multi-layered and creative. The voice in the digital story comes across strongly. Omission of voice complements the narrative or Voice is used creatively. The digital story has scenes that are timed intentionally to keep the viewer engaged throughout. Pacing is used to compliment the narrative and multimedia. A low grade would be exploitative to the subjects and not show the point of view of the storyteller. It would have unclear audio and poor-quality visuals.

Course Best Practices

  • Contact hours can be spread out according to the structure of the discipline-based course within which this short course fits. Typically, this would be one unit a week over a 4-week period
  • Feedback and story circles should be built into the sessions as a form of peer reviews.
  • Examples of stories must include ones relevant to the context of the course.
  • In contexts with limited access to technologies, particular consideration of accessible platforms and tools must be incorporated.
  • How knowledge is produced in the discipline which this course is integrated must be considered.
  • Indigenous (to the particular context) ways of telling stories must be considered and incorporated into the activities.  
  • Students can be required to create individual stories or work in groups
  • Multilingual storytelling is encouraged, with English subtitles