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REQUEST FOR STUDENT INPUT :: video responses
Writing with Video is a work in progress and we are very interested in student input. But rather than asking you to fill out something along the lines of an ICES form, we thought it would make sense to use the medium around which the course is built: video. So we are asking you to consider producing a short video response to the questions below.

Your video does not have to be highly polished. In fact, it doesn’t even need to be edited – you could just record directly into the iSight video camera on your laptop. We just want to hear from you, and to make this as easy for you as possible. Of course, if you want to be more ambitious, feel free. Consider interviewing some of your classmates, or making a collaborative group video. You’re free to answer all the questions below, just one or two of them, or to talk about something we didn’t think to ask. The approach, format, and details are entirely up to you. We just want your feedback.

The questions:

• Has this class helped you become a better communicator? If so, how?
• Has this class altered the way you look at media in general?
• How do you think you will use what you’ve learned in this class?
• What importance would you give this course in terms of your overall education at UIUC? How about in terms of it being a Gen Ed and an Advanced Comp course?
• Have your writing skills improved? Has your relationship to the writing process been altered?
• What was the best part of the course? What are its strengths?
• What should we consider changing? What can we improve?

Some technical specs:

• Try to keep your video to around 3 minutes or less
• Please produce a compressed quicktime file that is, preferably, less than 10mb
• e-mail your file to joseph squier (joseph@pobox.com)

Thank you!

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Use the instructor blogs tab above to access the blogs of the various instructors who teach the undergraduate sections (ART 250). The recent posts tab contains postings by joseph squier, who teaches the graduate version of the course (ARTS 499) and coordinates the undergraduate sections.

Writing with Video is an Advanced Composition course that engages students in a comprehensive exploration of video as a rhetorical narrative medium, with emphasis on the actual production of video work. Directed writing is integrated into all aspects of the production process — brainstorming and conceptualization, drafting and storyboarding, revision, and critique. Writing is positioned as an integral part of the process of thinking, problem solving, and creating.

Electronic media play an increasingly important role in today’s communication landscape. Consider, for example, the role that time-based visualization now plays in many areas of scientific research, or how video is used in popular culture to inform and persuade. Students who understand visual, time-based communication and have robust writing skills will have a competitive advantage in the coming decades. The leaders of the next generation will possess sophisticated, multi-dimensional communication skills — the type of skills taught in this course.