Sample Video Assignment

Digital Assignment:
Students research a public health issue facing Boise State students and produce a 20-source annotated bibliography with multiple perspectives in a variety of source types. They reflect on audience, and, using research, create a 2-5 minute video PSA and post to YouTube. They present research and PSA to class and lead a discussion on choices/rhetorical strategies and how to make their video “go viral.”

Addresses WPA Outcomes for Rhetorical Knowledge as students:

• Produce research-based “writing” in two genres appropriate to subject, context, purpose and audience.
• Collaborate in small groups and as a class to test ideas and revise projects.
• Articulate rhetorical choices, illustrating audience and context awareness.
• Understand how work in composition class transfers to other contexts.

Digital Resources Used (students usually have their own cameras):

• Photostory
• iMovie/Moviemaker
• YouTube

Challenges/Barriers:

• Varying levels of digital literacy – among students AND instructor!
• Limited access to resources/software.
• Evaluation – some students re-mix; some write scripts and shoot; others do talking head. Which is best?
• Varying levels of institutional support. What is the future of social/digital media in the classroom?
• Credibility/authority.
• Group dynamics. In making this a group assignment, are there students who could benefit from being pushed to explore digital technologies who don’t?

Making Research Public: The Public Health PSA
Unit 1 introduced you to scholarly research. Unit 2 required primary research to understand and describe a local culture. Unit 3 builds on those research and analysis skills in a group project addressing a public health issue relevant to BSU students. Through extensive library research, your group will become experts on the issue and how it relates to BSU students. Then, using that expertise, you will create a multimedia presentation to educate and persuade an audience to take action.

Research component
To gain expertise, each of you will be responsible for finding, summarizing and analyzing a minimum of five sources on the issue selected by your group. This will be the basis of a group annotated bibliography that gives a detailed and broad overview of an issue. This research should include a variety of source types, including government publications, scholarly journals, newspapers, pop cultural sources, and interviews of experts. The goal of the annotated bibliography is to be as thorough as possible. It is up to you as a group to decide how to divide up the research.

Video component
Using the research you’ve gathered and your own perspective as Boise State University students, each group will produce a 2-5 minute multimedia digital presentation aimed at BSU students that communicate a simple, clear message that explains the issue and presents a persuasive call to action. You will share these projects -- and lead a discussion on your topic -- on the final day of class. To complete this component of the unit, you may choose to check out a video camera at the Micron/Simplot building (hours 9-11, 2-4 M-F) and edit your footage using computers in The Zone in the ILC (hours 8-5, M-F).

Writing Component
Your unit should include a 3-5 page group-written paper that introduces and justifies your research (the annotated bibliography) and your video. This paper should justify your topic choice, summarizing the issue and the process through which your group chose and researched the issue. The introduction should identify who the issue impacts and why it’s important to address and present possible solutions. Your group should consider the cultural origins of the issue. The paper also should describe the multimedia component of your project.
Lesson Sequence

• Assign individual annotated bibliography on public health issue. We define public health by researching the field as a class using the Internet.
• Students share research with their groups and identify a main message for their Public Service Announcement. As a class we evaluate each group’s message based on relevance to audience (BSU students ) and researched support/justification.
• Once students have finalized their message, we turn to analyzing the format: Video Public Service Announcements. Students help identify existing PSA’s (often involving the Idaho Meth Project) and we look at each as a class to identify audience, subject, purpose and strategies.
• As a class, we decide what works well for an audience of BSU students – and what is less effective. Based on this, and previous work done in class, we develop evaluation criteria.
• One section of class is set aside for a digital workshop. Students are encouraged to get help in The Zone for final video editing.
• Students create video plans that are refined in a peer review workshop.
• At the end of the unit, students present their research and video to the class. Students evaluate each other based on developed criteria. This score is factored in to the overall grade for the unit

Example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev4GwYu7vCw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac4mLTjMvkE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJuUMYOZgJE