Welcome to Storylab, the Creative Technology Lab’s initiative to help instructors and their students create meaningful digital storytelling projects.

Overview

Many instructors turn to digital storytelling as an inclusive teaching practice, to offer assignment choices that move away from the traditional 5-10 page paper, to help students develop the skills to communicate ideas that are important to them, and even to encourage original thought and authentic assessment in the face of AI-generated content. Storylab aims to help instructors design meaningful digital storytelling assignments for students and to help students develop the skills to complete these assignments. 

Digital storytelling can take many forms, including short videos, podcasts, or media-rich web-based digital exhibitions. While often used as a means to tell personal narratives, this genre also includes stories about other people, and can take on broad or innovative topics from climate change to engineering inventions, or any number of subjects that go beyond the personal. After all, when we convey information we often do so by telling a story.

Depending on what the instructor wants to accomplish and the size of the class, Storylab support can likewise take many different forms.

• In consultation with the instructor, our project assistance can include assignment design, assessment support, supporting narrative development and creativity, and technical support on the use of various digital storytelling tools.  
• We offer in-class demonstrations of digital storytelling options for both large and small classes, and have also created a self-paced course module that can be modified to fit course needs within Canvas. Students can work through this module to become familiar with story creation and the use of various software packages.  
• For smaller classes, we can facilitate peer review sessions and help students iterate the development of their story, as well as give technical demonstrations and assistance. 

Space and Equipment

The CTI maintains two self-recording studios that are available to instructors for Podcasting, lecture capture recordings (Panopto), or conducting web conferences.  Both rooms are outfitted with high-end media equipment, along with sound-dampening treatments to assist with audio quality.

Contact Us

To assist with story creation and technical assistance, we can provide sign-up hours for your students with our Storylab staff in our Creative Technology Lab.  

If you are interested in learning more, please fill out the Creative Technology Lab intake form and we'll arrange a meeting to discuss your interests.