Digital Story Telling & Research Project
PS138 Conflict & Natural Resources
Nancy W. Gleason, PhD
Lecturer, Political Science Department
Tufts University
Presentation Outline
 Video Assignment Structure and Organization
 Assignment Assessment and Grading
 Technology Used – Digital Design Studio
 Sharing Student Work
 Examples of Video Projects
 Challenges and Next Steps
The Assignment
 Create a 3-5 minute video on conflict related to either diamonds
or petroleum
 Each video was directed to a specific stakeholder in conflict
 Assessments provided at three stages in the process:
 Storyboard submission
 Rough Cut
 Final Video
Assignment Structure
Students will work in groups of 5 to create a 3-4 minute video
about conflict related to either DIAMONDS or
PETROLEUM. Each group will present to a specific
audience:
 Consumers of resources
 Industry producers of resources
 People in the conflict
 Prevention workers
In total then, there will be 8 videos produced, 4 on each
resource that respectively address the above 4 stakeholder
groups.
Student Roles within the Group
Student Roles: Each group member is responsible for video content, but
there are also separate responsibilities for each group member to take on.
For example:
 Production manager – coordinate schedules, book technology, etc
 Artistic director – compile images, tasteful theme, scholarship quality
 Writer role – craft script etc
 Technical experts – iMovie guru
 Content supervisor – manage content collection and organization of
group members
GRADING BASED ON INDIVIUDAL AND COLLECTIVE
PERFORMANCE
Video Project Objectives
 Learn how to make an interactive, innovative video presentation
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using iMovie
Present critical information to a specific audience
Create a powerful education tool to reach out to conflict
stakeholders
Demonstrate academic prowess through sound research
Leverage social media to share your work
Project Timeline & Deadlines
 Thursday September 20th – Groups and topics finalized
 Thursday September 27th Class Held in DDS, 3rd Floor Tisch Library
 Tuesday October 25th – Story board and bibliography due. This
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initiates the productions stage, where students will create images and
sounds, identify images and sounds, record narration or a script of
some sort to present your research.
November 6th – 7-9pm DDS blocked out for your use
November 13th 7-9pm DDS blocked out for your use. ROUGH CUT
DUE 10pm
November 27th – Final Video Projects Due
Thursday November 29th, Video Viewing in Olin 12 Theatre – 3rd
Floor
Tuesday December 4th, Group Discussion and Analysis of the Videos
Grading
 Adapted from the Center for Digital Storytelling's "Seven Elements of Digital
Storytelling" as outlined in the Digital Storytelling Cookbook
 ASSESSED ON: Content, Dramatic Question, Script, audio, pacing, emotion,
images, economy and credit/sources
 EXAMPLE: Dramatic Question
 EXCELLENT: Content is engaging -- viewer is left with thought-provoking ideas
and/or the story develops in a way that's different from initial expectations. Useful
for prompting discussion and dialogue
 GOOD: Content is interesting -- viewer is left with thought-provoking ideas
and/or the story develops in a way that's different from initial expectations
 SATISFACTORY: Some surprises and/or insights, but realization barely differs
from the expectation
 NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: Predictable and not very interesting. Realization and
expectation do not differ
Teaching Challenge met by this
multimedia assignment
 Challenging students to think outside the box about a complex &
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dynamic problem
Enabling them to share their research beyond the classroom
Provide training in group-project management
Teaching them to articulate solutions to these problems, not just
identify root causes of the problem
Grading 40 outcome products effectively
Technology & Resources Used
 Tufts Digital Design Studio
 http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/dds.html
 Faculty interested in using the DDS to support a digital
media project must submit a DDS project proposal form.
 Bryan Revis, Digital Media Technologist
The Digital Design Studio (DDS)
Course related digital media projects:
 Assignment planning/scoping, course-specific workshops on
media literacy and copyright issues, storyboarding,
production techniques, etc
 Last Fall ~140 student videos were made in the DDS!
Sharing Student Work
 Sharing your students work from the DDS
 http://www.youtube.com/user/TuftsEnvStudies/videos?view=0
(1) They had to come up with a list of at least 15 people (email contact addresses) to whom
they planned to send a link to their completed project. These are to be strategic contacts relevant NGO thinkers, academics at other institutions, personal connections the students
may have, and industry relevant contacts. Ask for feedback or a chance to come in and
present the video where relevant
(2) Forward it to all their parents and if appropriate ask them to share it with all their friends
(3) Post it to the Facebook pages for their Tufts classes
(4) Tweet out the link to their video and ask their friends to do the same
(5) The group with the most hits on their link on the last day of classes got a gift certificate
for the entire group to eat out at CheeseCake Factory
 The idea is to learn how to use social media to get your message out there and to use it to
network for jobs.
Tufts Visualization Award
 http://sites.tufts.edu/trva/2013-winners/video2013/
 Revamping the Kimberly Process –
 This video was made for PS 138, Conflict and Natural
Resources Fall 2012
 By Dani Jenkins, Stephanie Krantz, Karen Bustard, Daniel
Goodman, Meagan Maher
Tisch Library Research Award
 http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/award/winners.html
 “We Be the Niger Delta”
 Rebekah Liebermann '13, Anna Vanderspek '15, Gillian
Leitch '13, Jessica Laporte '14, and Mark Rafferty '13
 VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMgdO_yGeuQ
Assignment Outcomes
What worked well:
 Narrowing the scope of the assignment
 Planned time in the DDS
 Clear Deadlines and grading rubrics
Challenges:
 Managing group dynamics is difficult
 Significant out-side class time commitments are required, this is
difficult for some off campus students and athletes
 Balancing in-class time for this assignment with covering course
content
Assignment Results of note –
unintended consequences
 Real friendships were made between the students
 This becomes part of their online portfolio for life
 Tangible skill set to add to their CV and note in interviews
Next Steps for this assignment
 Collaboration with an international NGO to ensure wide
exposure for the video
 Completing assignment earlier in the semester so as to
ensure time for “marketing” the video
 Working with the Career Center to better leverage the
videos for the students with employers – perhaps a lecture
on managing your online portfolio
 Helping students develop a list of strategic people with
which to share their videos
Thank you
Nancy W. Gleason, PhD
Lecture Political Science Department
Nancy.Gleason@tufts.edu