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Digital Story Final Project –

Using research skills to gather background information to provide story context, you will produce a mini-documentary/digital story. This project will be different from previous JMC 102 projects I have assigned in that it will go beyond a talking-head interview and will actually be a digital story.  You will tell a story about … a person, place or thing.  Here are the specifications. Digital Story Final Project Assignment Details

JMC 102  – Spring 2015  Fall 2015   Spring 2016

Digital Story Final Project – Using research skills to gather background information to provide story context, you will interview and tell the story of a person working in the field you intend to pursue (or a media-related position you find interesting) in the form of digital video.   The course instructor must approve your selection of an interviewee. You may NOT select an interviewee who works at Marshall University. (Get out! Expand your horizons! Get to know someone new and challenge yourself to get outside of your comfort zone!) You will edit your video story and produce a 10-minute digital video feature on this person. You will upload your edited video to YouTube and will submit it on a USB to the instructor. You will make a presentation to the class of your Final Project. All components of this project, including the presentation, will comprise the overall Digital Story Final Project grade.

Fall 2014

Final Project Assignment – Interview

What do you want to be when you grow up? What occupation are you considering? Locate a person in the field you intend to pursue. Using research skills to gather background information to provide story context, you will interview and tell the story of that person and his/her occupation in the form of digital video or audio story. Full assignment details are available here. FINAL PROJECT INTERVIEW

Please select the Fall 2014 link at the top of this page to find students’ interviews.

Prior Digital Story Projects

In the JMC 102 section I taught in spring 2013, I tried an experiment.  I introduced a new assignment to the course – creating a digital story.  This project is the result of suggestions SOJMC faculty shared at a retreat last year.  Faculty discussed the need/desire to get students involved in active learning, in hands-on projects in introductory journalism courses.  Faculty were concerned that students might lose some enthusiasm while waiting to take “The Parthenon course” or MU Report.  Those classes have pre-requisites, and students generally do not get involved in hands-on practice, at least in the context of a course, until they are sophomores or juniors.  (WMUL, of course, offers students prime opportunities to get involved.  Some students take advantage of that wonderful opportunity; too many do not.  However, no introductory journalism course requires students to practice using their budding research and interviewing skills, to practice telling a story, to practice journalism – until now!)

Using the menu on the right, take a few minutes to watch and listen to the stories these students produced.

Keep in mind that this is an experiment, a learning experience!  Is there room for improvement in terms of audio and video production values?  Absolutely!  Might we have benefited from the use of more sophisticated cameras and editing software?  Sure, but we used what we had at hand – HD Flip Video cameras, in most cases, and either Apple’s iMovie or Windows Movie Maker for editing with a little Garageband and/or Audacity thrown in for good measure.

Students will have access to more sophisticated cameras and audio equipment in upper-level courses, and they will be challenged to learn how to use more sophisticated software like Final Cut Pro in future courses.  This project wasn’t about learning to use the most sophisticated tools and technology.  This project was about learning how to put into action some of what we have learned about doing background research and conducting interviews.  This project was about learning how to tell a story.  Enjoy!