{"id":679,"date":"2015-09-11T13:14:13","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T13:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/endlesshybrids.com\/?p=679"},"modified":"2015-09-11T13:14:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T13:14:13","slug":"a-new-course-multimedia-storytelling-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/endlesshybrids.com\/digital-humanities\/a-new-course-multimedia-storytelling-design\/","title":{"rendered":"A new course: multimedia storytelling design"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning starts the first class of a new course on multimedia storytelling design that I’m co-teaching with Professor Toni Locy<\/a> of our journalism department. \u00a0The subtitle of the course is “How’d They Do that?” The benefit of co-teaching with a journalist is that the copywriting\u00a0is great! Here’s the course description:<\/p>\n

Have you ever wondered how The New York Times <\/em>and The Guardian <\/em>put together their Pulitzer Prize-winning interactive stories, Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek<\/a> <\/em>and NSA Files Decoded: What the Revelations Mean to You<\/em>?<\/a> This course introduces students to digital tools that will help them imagine, design and create powerful, compelling interactive features with audio, video, graphics\u2014and words\u2014that are on the cutting edge of journalism and mass communications. Students will learn basic web design and programming skills through HTML, CSS and JavaScript.<\/p>\n

This course is designed for students with little or no coding experience but who have a burning desire to learn, \u201cHow they did that,\u201d so they no longer are mystified by what\u2019s behind the curtain on websites. Students also will learn key terminology and practices that will enable them to envision, report and execute compelling online narratives through the interplay of text, images, sound and video that optimizes the reader experience. By the end of the term, students will appreciate the power and potential of interactive storytelling, and the creative possibilities of gathering and delivering the news in the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The course meets Monday and Wednesday 10am – noon in the journalism lab, which is equipped with 15 iMacs. This is a very hands-on class, though we do not expect students to have had any prior experience with web design and development.<\/p>\n

Wait!? No prior experience with web design? That does make it challenging since we need to teach the basics of HTML and CSS. Obviously, there’s no way that anyone can fully come up to speed on interactive web design in course of only one term. We aim to showcase the possibilities and to ensure that the students learn the foundations of web design. We want the students to come out of this course with the confidence and excitement that they can pursue careers in this area. Some may be enchanted by the design aspects, others may be intrigued by the possibilities of coding. And others may not pursue a technical career in web work, but at least will know how to converse intelligently with designers and developers.<\/p>\n

The course is structured around deconstructing several examples of high-quality multimedia journalism. Among the sites we’ll be examining:<\/p>\n