Today was a rainy Monday with lots of computer work. Tonight we watched an Open Ed 2021 session entitled “Beyond the #Campaign: Capturing the Realities of Textbook Affordability Through Digital Storytelling” and presented by Adriana Poo, Christa Bailey, and Louis Tran from San Jose State University. They acknowledged the Muwekma tribes. Since 2018, their OER and low-cost textbook initiatives have had a faculty focus. In 2018, they did a student-focused event: an impromptu video during the event and a student success symposium in 2019 helped them realize the importance of including student voices. the presenters shared digital storytelling contest flyers and Instagram posts. The prompt for the contest was: “write a personal narrative or create your own digital story in response to textbook affordability” and they also shared guiding questions. The panel of judges was a group of five librarians. The voice tracks were recorded by students in the libraries at San Jose State University. In the summer of 2021, they began a second digital story contest. While they only received four submissions, the stories were impactful. Louis Tran, a student, shared quotes from the winners of the storytelling campaigns. The presenters shared the following best practices:
- Decide on the time commitment and when to launch a contest to engage students.
- Be prepared to pivot when things don’t go as planned.
- Don’t be too ambitious at first.
- Share with specific studnet populations. For this project, the librarians focused on several groups and student success programs.
- Look for inspiration in unexpected places.
- Offer different submission formats. This goes along with Universal Design for Learning approaches.
- Be preapared for all submissions to arrive at the deadline.
- Consider partnering with a writing class or first-generation program or instructor for class credit.
The timeline was challenging for students since they were busy with exams and projects. In the future, the group plans to start the contest at the beginning of the semester. The submission format could be varied to encourage submissions. Louis was integral to the team: has a background in graphic design and marketing, is an international student, and has life experience. Louis was a great ambassador for the program and presented two sessions at Open Ed! The group then played a video entry from a student describing her journey as a first-generation college student. The video consisted of cartoons that were captivating and really impressive. The presenters shared their favorite resources and mentioned Springshare LibWizard that I didn’t know about.
