Digital Learning Design and Storytelling

EDUC26042 Digital Learning Design and Storytelling 20 Semester 2 Undergraduate Level 5 Xin Zhao Unit coordinator Education 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Middle part of Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0 In this unit, students will explore the rationale, development, and design of digital (and non-digital) storytelling for the purpose of engaging with educational challenges faced by individuals, and communities. The unit aims to foster an understanding of the importance of storytelling in human society by discussing its historical roots, forms and uses and examining how newer genre have emerged and impact popular culture. By exploring diverse educational narrative practices from around the world, students will develop an understanding of how stories can be used as a meaningful vehicle for engaging with social justice issues. Educational story design techniques such as visualising and planning key elements through storyboarding and scriptwriting will be introduced. The unit will encourage students to reflect on ethical considerations in digital storytelling design, including issues related to privacy, representation, cultural sensitivity, and the responsible use of various modalities to convey educational messages. A theoretical and conceptual foundation will be built by exploring multimedia design theory, neuroscience of stories and design principles related to various medium (visual, audio, audiovisual). By drawing on this theoretical understanding, students will be able to critically assess the effectiveness of educational digital (and non-digital) stories from cognitive, affective, and contextual perspectives. Through a range of digital workshops, the unit also aims to build practical skills necessary to create meaningful and engaging narratives using various digital media tools. Students will have the opportunity to further develop and apply their conceptual understanding and practical skills by creating digital stories over the semester and showcasing their work in a final Portfolio. Overall, by bringing together the head, the heart and the hand, this course aims to empower students to become proficient storytellers with the purpose of positively impacting the social fabric of the community. The unit begins by engaging with the history and rationale for storytelling. In this phase content such as history and role of stories in society, storytelling across contexts and cultures, significance of stories for learning, storytelling for social justice will be introduced. This section will help develop understanding regarding why storytelling is important for human beings.The unit will then move on to story development, broadly aiming to foster understanding of how best to tell stories for engaging with educational challenges. In this phase, the main content covered are elements of a compelling narrative, structuring, visualising and planning key elements through storyboarding and scriptwriting, ethics and legalities in digital storytelling.The third phase covers theoretical foundations of storytelling design by introducing Multimedia learning theory and principles. The neuroscience of stories and opportunities and challenges of digital and non-digital storytelling will also be discussed.The fourth and final phase consists of exploring storytelling modes in greater depth. In this phase the unit will examine the affordances of different modalities, and discuss the design principles of visual, audio, audiovisual and interactive narratives. There will be hands on workshops and activities to further develop and apply these understandings.    <ul><li>Develop understanding of principles and elements of meaningful and engaging digital (and non-digital) storytelling as a vehicle for engaging with individual, or community level educational challenges.</li><li>Foster an understanding of how various medium (i.e., visual, audio, audiovisual etc) can be strategically employed to achieve educational purposes.</li><li>Expose students to diverse educational narrative traditions from around the world, encouraging them to critically reflect on how stories can be harnessed to convey educational content within varying cultural and global contexts.</li><li>Enable students to explore the opportunities and limits of digital and non-digital medium for educational storytelling.</li><li>Enable students to analyse and critique the effectiveness of educational digital stories from cognitive, affective, and cultural perspectives.</li><li>Enable students to develop an understanding of ethical considerations in digital storytelling, including issues related to privacy, representation, cultural sensitivity, and the responsible use of various modalities to convey educational messages.</li><li>Equip students with the technical skills required to effectively utilize diverse digital tools and platforms for storytelling.</li><li>Equip students with time management skills required to create a digital story effectively</li></ul>  <ul><li>Describe and reflect on the principles and elements of meaningful and engaging storytelling</li><li>Reflect on the role of interaction and non-linearity for engaging with various audiences</li></ul> <ul><li>Justify the choice of medium/mode to address specific educational challenges by drawing on theories introduced in the course</li><li>Analyse and critique digital narratives across different media platforms by drawing on related literature</li></ul> <ul><li>Apply story design and multimedia design principles to the development of meaningful and engaging digital stories</li><li> Demonstrate digital proficiency in creating digital stories </li></ul> <ul><li>Evidence time management skills </li><li>Developing awareness and evaluation of own learning</li><li>Development of assessment literacy through providing constructive feedback on peer projects</li></ul> Why tell stories? History and role of stories in society: From oral to digital storytelling Storytelling across contexts and cultures Significance of stories for learning Storytelling for social justiceHow to tell stories? Elements of a compelling narrative Structuring and designing effective narratives: style, genre, visualising and planning key elements through storyboarding and scriptwriting Ethics and legalities in digital storytelling  Modes and medium of storytelling:  Cognitive theory of Multimedia learning The Neuroscience of stories Opportunities and challenges of digital and non-digital storytellingCreating stories: Interactive narrative experience and non-linearity Visual design principles  Audio design principles Video design principles   Lectures (2 hours)There will be weekly interactive lectures aiming to introduce the main concepts, theories, and frameworks. Part of the lectures will involve student centred activities. Students will be immersed in an interactive storyline embarking on different synchronous and asynchronous group quests across the week. Through a combination of lectures, storytelling, group discussions, and practical exercises, students will develop insights related to meaningful digital (and non-digital) storytelling.Seminars (2 hours):There will be two seminars. The first seminar aims to develop skills around peer assessment, which will be held at the beginning of the semester. Peer assessment skill is needed as students will be evaluating each other’s digital stories and providing constructive feedback. The second seminar aims to develop writing skills for justifying design decisions and reflecting on learning. This seminar aims to support writing the final critical reflection piece.Story circles (1.5 hour)Reflective story circles will be held every alternative week. In these sessions students will share stories of their learning journey and collaboratively reflect on their experiences. The aim is to develop reflective skills for the final critical reflection piece. There will also be group reflection exercises on time management. Most importantly the story circles will act as a space through which students can informally provide feedback on their learning experiences.Digital workshops (2 hour):Digital workshops will be held every alternative week. These will be hands on workshops through which students will learn to use various digital tools and platforms to create and edit digital stories. The digital workshops will help develop digital literacies.    2 Written assignment (inc essay) 45% 5 Portfolio 55% Fifteen days after submission. Feedback will be provided in textual format BA Educ, Leadership & Culture BA Educ, Leadership & Culture Second Year Mandatory N Dunford, M., & Jenkins, T. (Eds.). (2018). Digital storytelling: Form and content. London: Palgrave.Fernandes, S. (2017). Curated stories: The uses and misuses of storytelling. New York: Oxford University Press.Gitner, S. (2015). Multimedia storytelling for digital communicators in a multiplatform world. Routledge.Gottschall, J. (2012). The storytelling animal: How stories make us human. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Hartmut, k. (2023). Understanding Interactive Digital Narrative: Immersive Expressions for a Complex Time. Taylor & Francis.Lambert, J. & Hessler, B. (2018). Digital storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community. Routledge.Leinaweaver, J. (2017). Storytelling for sustainability: Deepening the case for change. Routledge.Lupton, E. (2017). Design is Storytelling. Cooper Hewitt; Illustrated edition.Mayer. R. (2020). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press.Rodgers, T. (2018). Approaching Sound. Routledge.Towndrow, P. A., & Kogut, G. (2020). Digital Storytelling for Educative Purposes. Springer Singapore.Vernalis, C., Herzog, A., & Richardson, J. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media. New York: Oxford University Press.Zeman, N. B. (2017). Storytelling for interactive digital media and video games. CRC Press. Lectures 20 Practical classes & workshops 8 Seminars 4 Supervised time in studio/wksp 6 0 162