Student academic video projects
Faculty in several courses have benefitted from support provided by the Duke Digital Initiative to design student assignments that use digital video technologies to explore curricular themes and objectives in ways that traditional activities could not address as easily. The creation of original films, documentaries and other short projects gives students first-hand, personal experience of what it takes to develop an idea, give it shape and carry it through all stages of the production process. Instructors report that the potential for others to see their work provides very high motivation for students to express their knowledge in the video medium.
Duke courses that include a student digital video project
French 76 (Deb Reisinger). During the 2006-2007 academic year, students in all sections of Advanced Intermediate French Language and Culture developed, filmed, and edited 8-10 minute short films. Students worked in small groups to write creative scripts based on literature and films studied throughout the semester. These "courts métrages" were designed to showcase an understanding of the course materials, an ability to think and write creatively in French, and fluency in the spoken language.
After working closely with their professor on storyboarding, cinematography, and linguistic expression, students filmed the skits, which were shown to the other students in their section in DVD format and distributed to the entire enrollment across French 76 in iPod video format. In Fall 2006, the best video project from each section was shown at a Cannes-like film festival in late November where a faculty jury voted on the best film in several categories. In Spring 2007, students from all course sections selected from a pool of finalists to pick the ultimate winner. Although student feedback showed that they found the film project to be technically challenging and time consuming, the large majority of students indicated that they found the project to be an interesting and worthwhile activity that provided strong motivation for them to demonstrate their language competency.
Public Policy 196S (Michele Strano). Students in this Spring 2007 course, “Media Campaigns and Public Policy”, created a Public Service Announcement to address a health or social problem they identified on the Duke campus. Their assignment was to design a research project that tests the effectiveness of their media message in changing knowledge, attitudes and/or behavior. Students used iPods to play the PSA for study participants and record their responses to the message. The inclusion of the video project enabled the student' to experience first-hand the difficulties involved in designing PSAs and in testing their effectiveness.
Writing 20 (Diana Solomon): This Spring 2007 course, "Austen's Costumes: The Novelist in Theater and Film" examined the way that plays influenced Jane Austen -and- the way that her novels have been adapted into films. Students read three Austen novels, two of which have been adapted several times and one, Northanger Abbey, which has not yet been adapted into a film. Their final course assignment was to make their own film adaptation of a scene from Northanger Abbey.
Students reviewed other Austen adaptations to examine how the adaptation process worked and for possible use in their own films, and then worked in small groups to develop their own scripts and production plans. They then used video equipment to film their scenes, and ipods and video editing software to edit and transmit their films. The use of digital video equipment helped enhance their understanding of the difficult theoretical and practical aspects of adapting a novel for film, and the overall project transformed the curriculum of the course by giving the students a strong experiential basis for class discussions and research.
