Derek Lackaff and Philip Motley from the Department of Communications describe their Writing Excellence Initiative Grant Project.
Tuesday, April 21, 10-11 a.m.
McEwen 213
Primary Audiences
Faculty who teach first-year courses, especially Instructors of COM 100; other Communication faculty
School of Communication faculty; faculty using writing to enhance the professional value of project/problem-based learning
Open to all faculty and staff
Two Communications faculty team up to describe the results of their research projects, each that could have broad application for many faculty across the university. Much synergy will erupt from this dual presentation.
Derek Lackaff
I will will report the results of a new writing-centered curriculum for Communications in a Global Age (COM100) that was developed in Summer 2014 and piloted in Fall 2014, and invite further discussion on writing in conceptual courses. COM100 is a first-year survey course designed to introduce students to both the scholarly and professional fields of mass communication, as well as inform students about the department’s majors and associated programs. The learning outcomes that guided this project included: Students should be able to compellingly describe “communications” as it is approached by this department, and by the broader academic and professional community; students should be able to describe – with specific and detailed examples – the ways in which convergence is occurring, and the impacts of convergence on industry and the public; and students should develop an increasing sophistication in their skillset and methods that enable them to “write to think” about communications topics.
Phillip Motley’s presentation
Can writing be used to enhance the professional learning in the capstone course of a 1-year professional master’s degree program in interactive Media? This project explores this question by assigning a variety of writing assignments to iMedia graduate students in the final semester of their graduate studies at Elon. Students in this course typically create a self-guided project that spans the entire semester and that leverages what they have learned about graphic design, interactive technology, media studies, and mass communication theories.
This project is focused on ways to enhance the role that writing plays in the Interactive Media program, specifically in the capstone course. Currently, beyond the creation of a written project proposal, students focus primarily on the creation of a semester-long project artifact in a 6-credit thesis development course (all other iMedia courses are 3-credit). While writing is initially a companion component of the students’ capstone projects—mostly during the proposal phase—the projects themselves are primarily visual, interactive, digital media artifacts.
My presentation will address the impact that introducing an array of writing assignments into this course has on students during the development of their capstone projects. Specifically, this presentation will discuss findings relative to students’ understanding of their own creative processes with the goal of making their thinking and decision making more explicit and of how to create relevant professional documents such as design specifications, content strategy plans, or design documentation reports.