Course:LFS400
| Audio Storytelling | |
|---|---|
 | |
| LFS 400 | |
| Section: | 001 |
| Instructor: | Duncan McHugh |
| Email: | duncan.mchugh@ubc.ca |
| Office: | MCML 264B |
| Office Hours: | |
| Class Schedule: | |
| Classroom: | |
| Important Course Pages | |
| Syllabus | |
| Lecture Notes | |
| Assignments | |
| Course Discussion | |
In LFS 400, we will teach you to use audio technology, storytelling technique and a journalistic framework in order to tell powerful stories and present academic content in new ways. It is a seminar course with a lot of personal attention, critical feedback, and weekly lab-based work. By the end of the course, you will have the ability to share your knowledge in new, effective, and creative ways, and to think critically of the science and stories you encounter.
UBC’s Point Grey Campus is located on the traditional territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nation. The land it is situated on has always been a place of learning for the Musqueam people, who for millennia have passed on their culture, history, and traditions from one generation to the next in this place. We encourage you to learn more about the Musqueam Nation by visiting the Musqueam Nation’s story page on their website
Course Policy
As a teaching team. we respect and value diverse ways of knowing and learning. This course was a part of UBC’s inaugural Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Fellows Program. As such, we have been working to improve the contents of this course with the goal of creating a supportive learning space where all students can access and engage with course materials in a way that works for them. We are continuing to expand on content and assignment diversity, in the hopes that every student may get the chance to apply and convey their strengths.
If there is anything we can do throughout this course to improve your learning experience, we’d love to hear about it! Please let us know of accommodations that will help you to fully participate and succeed in this course. We also welcome any general feedback on how we can improve LFS 400. You can reach out to us anytime.
How to contact us: 1) Talk to us before or after class 2) Email 3) Send a message through Canvas 4) Drop by or schedule a one-on-one or group meeting
Every student is responsible for showing up to class and participating in a way that respects instructors and fellow students alike. This involves regular attendance, considerate active class participation, and completion of assignments with attention to deadlines.
We recognize that—amidst complicated academic workloads and personal responsibilities— deadlines can be difficult for some. Our late policy for assignments is therefore as follows:
Late Policy
Late submissions are subject to a 10% per day penalty. In case of emergency or illness, reach out to us before the deadline and we can arrange a plan with you. Further academic concessions will be facilitated by Student Services in your home faculty.
There are several helpful UBC support streams available for students. Below is a brief list. Please consider making use of these services:
- Academic advising
- Centre for Accessibility
- Mental health and wellbeing support
- Equity & Inclusion Office student support networks
Course Modality
The first half of this course is structured as a fast-paced, skill-developing ‘intensive’ to give you each the opportunity to engage with key technological and theoretical skills for storytelling and content dissemination. The topics for the first six weeks are as follows:
- Week 1: Course introduction
- Weeks 2 & 3: Storytelling in sound & on the web
- Week 4: Interviewing, scripting & performing
- Weeks 5 & 6: Journalism ethics & information literacy
The second half of this course is focused on the creation of your audio story. Weekly lectures will feature guest lectures, workshops, and feedback sessions for your podcasts.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the term, we aim for every student to learn to:
- Synthesize information to form an original personal narrative or story;
- Apply technological tools to convey their content in podcast format;
- Develop media literacy for critical engagement with disciplinary knowledge;
- Apply critical and creative thinking skills in the collection and analysis of information;
- Compare different channels and purposes of journalistic communication (e.g., traditional media outlets, social networks);
- Integrate discipline specific knowledge in powerful messages through 'humanizing the content';
- Understand the basic mechanics of creating a message for a purpose (e.g., story for emotional engagement, dissemination, awareness building, advocacy, news etc.);
- Develop skills to effectively critique their own and peers' work;
- Give and receive meaningful feedback.