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# Faculty Stories
This section of the Media Commons site aims to give our faculty clients from across the Commonwealth a space to share their stories: where their project ideas came from, what goals they had for their students and how Media Commons helped bring it all together.
To schedule a media software training workshop for your class, fill out the 
## SOILS 071 at University Park
Estelle Couradeau, an Assistant Professor of Soils and Environmental Microbiology at the University Park campus has been working with Media Commons to engage her SOILS 071 students. By using Adobe Express, learners in the class are able to present their research into local and regional sustainability topics in ways that appeal to a broad audience. Professor Couradeau then packages these presentations into an Adobe Express class portfolio, highlighting all students’ work for the semester.
## English 015 at Beaver
Athena Pangikas-Miller teaches in the English department at Penn State Beaver where she focuses on grammar and creative writing courses. Students in all sections of ENGL 015 participate in video assignments and Athena’s sections have had their projects refined over numerous semesters. This continual revision has steadily raised the level of student work – and also gotten the class closer to the learning goals of the initial grammar lesson video assignment.
## Sustainability 200 at Behrend
Ann Quinn has been a leader in sustainability efforts at Penn State for years, advising and leading initiatives including Greener Behrend and International Coastal Cleanup. When she learned she’d be co-teaching the SUST 200 as part of the Sustainability Leadership Minor in Fall 2012, she began working Media Commons to develop a video project that would connect her students with sustainable practices, resources, technologies and organizations in the larger community. Listen in as Ann discusses her experiences with multimedia in her SUST 200 course.
## Geosciences 320 at University Park
Dr. Richard Alley is an American geologist and Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Penn State and is one of several Penn State earth scientists who are contributors to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the 2007 Nobel Prize. After years of teaching GEOSC 320, Alley found that his students ceased to be inspired by traditional group projects and, in Spring 2012, he changed to offering video projects with the help of Media Commons. After the switch, he found that his students, who needed to be able to explain paleoclimatology in layman’s terms, were far more able to do so through video. Listen in as Richard discusses his experiences with multimedia in his GEOSC 320 course.
## Social Studies Education 430W at Berks
Dr. Jessica Schocker has been working the Media Commons for several semesters. She teaches upper level Education students at the Penn State Berks campus. She wants her students to focus on using technology in effective ways in their future classrooms. Schocker has had students create videos supporting content they are teaching in their student teacher classrooms. Additionally she challenged her students to produce a “virtual field trip” for some of their student teacher classes.
Listen in as Jessica discusses her experiences with multimedia in her SSED 430W course.
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## Let’s Hear Your Story…
If you’ve been using Media Commons to help assign your students exciting projects that push them to engage with the topics of the course you teach, **why not share your experiences with your colleagues across the Commonwealth**?
There are a few easy ways to get started: You can either run off the four quick questions, find someone to ask them and stop by a  on campus, set up in your home office with our  guidance – or contact your location’s  to film your responses as a recorded Zoom meeting. Our team will handle the editing and uploading.
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# Case Studies
Thinking of adding a media project to your classroom but not sure where to begin? Get inspiration from Penn State faculty teaching with multimedia in a variety of areas of study – all across the Commonwealth. Each case study features examples of outcomes, grading rubrics, targeted skills and more so that you can pick and choose elements to add into your own courses.
## EDPSY 014: Diversity Issues Multimodal Project
### Example
### Project in Brief
**Instructor:** Martha Strickland
**Number of Students:** 32 per semester
**Semester:** Fall 2011-Spring 2018
**Duration of Assignment:** 13 Weeks
## BIOL 220W: Environmental Documentaries
**Course:** BIOL 220W
**Instructor:** Cassandra Miller-Butterworth
**Number of Students:** ±20 per semester
**Semester:** Spring 2012-Fall 2021
**Duration of Assignment:** 15 Weeks
## GEOSC 320: Critical Earth History Events
**Course:** GEOSC 320
**Instructor:** Richard Alley
**Number of Students:** 30
**Semester:** Spring 2013
**Duration of Assignment:** 9 Weeks
## ERM 499A: Costa Rica Study Tour
**Course:** ERM 499A
**Instructor:** Tammy Bennett
**Number of Students:** 16
**Duration of Assignment:** 7 Weeks
## FOR 201: Global Change and Ecosystems
**Course:** FOR 201
**Instructor:** Matthew Hurteau
**Number of Students:** 18
**Semester:** Fall 2012
**Duration of Assignment:** 6 Weeks
## AEE 440: Communication Methods + Media
**Course:** AEE 440
**Instructor:** Brad Olsen
**Number of Students:** 40
**Duration of Assignment:** 5 Weeks
## Share Your Project
Got a great project of your own that we could turn into a case study?
# Case Study: EDPSY 014
Featured:  (← Spark page) | Others: ,  (Spark)
## Diversity Issues Multimodal Project
EDPSY 014: Introduction to Educational Psychology provides future teacher candidates with an understanding of major concepts, principles and theories, and related research of teaching and learning framed by child development, young adolescent development, and adolescent development. Students work in small groups as part of the course to identify issues of diversity in education and to create multimodal projects that present research on these issues to a wide audience.
## Project in Brief
**Course:** EDPSY 014 (Introduction to Educational Psychology)
**Duration of Assignment:** 13 weeks
##### Key Benefits
Students are at the beginning of the process of becoming a teacher and, as such, need to start to develop a scholarly mindset towards diversity. Upon completion of this project, students should be able to: 1) identify and research an issue of diversity in education as a scholar; 2) accurately and effectively articulate their research for consumption in the public sphere using modern media techniques; 3) intentionally engage in the process of learning and using intentionally available technologies in pursuit of their teaching despite individual levels of comfort with the tools; and 4) demonstrate the ability to collaborate as co-researchers and co-presenters spontaneously and iteratively with their peers.
##### Application to Other Courses
As a foundational course for Education majors, students in EDPSY 014 develop skills necessary to become pre-service teachers. Vital, longterm practices are instilled from the very start by asking students to not only research contemporary diversity issues in the classroom but to translate this research into easily accessible presentations for wide audiences.
EDPSY 014 students will add the media production skills acquired in the course to other presentations. Specifically, when they enter their methods courses, they are expected to effectively leverage multimodal work into their lesson planning and teaching.
##### Project Description for Students
By completing the Multimodal Diversity Project, each teacher candidate will demonstrate deep and critical understanding of how research informs a school issue related to diversity.
### Multimodal Presentation
**Goal:** 3-minute production to inform classmates/university students of the issue and position(s) on the issue
**Required Contents:** Research-based information that is produced as a documentary.
**Project Planning:** Consider the steps found on PSU Media Commons Website ()
**Draft:**
* *Audience:* Classmates/University Students
* *Training/Template:*
  1. Create an account with Spark (the platform you will use for your multimodal project 
  2. Upload one interview, an introduction video and create a draft of your Spark post presentation.  Be creative, clearly and convincingly communicate with supported information
### Production
**Technical Items:** 
#### You have a choice of software and device.
* *Required components for video editing:*
  + Able to do voice over
  + Create transitions
  + Add titles
  + Access still images
* *Device:* (must support movie making software and internet access)
  + Windows PC
  + Apple device [iPhone, iPad, Mac]
  + Android [tablet, phone]
* *Address the following:*
  + Lighting
  + Best Practices
  + Broadcast Release Form (MUST be submitted for each producer and anyone in the movie)
  + Copyright (MUST include credits at the end for any references and media used)
  + Free Media Library ()
### Spark Post
Should include video introduction, short interview and supporting text/graphics.
+ **Production:** must include content & use of technical components as listed above.
  - Length: no more than 3 minutes.
+ **Editing:** using software & Free Media Library
  - Be sure to have title, effective transitions and attributions/citations
+ **Publish Multimodal Production**
### Evaluation
Creativity, Clear Communication, and Content (supported by scholarly sources & integrated with learning theory) are all necessary. See Rubric on Canvas for further details.
**Evaluators:** Dr. Strickland & Nick Smerker (Media Commons)
##### Grading Process
The assignment counted towards 35% (105 points) of the overall course grade. The grade includes all aspects of the multimodal assignment and milestones: Preparation, feedback and reviews (10 points), paper (40 points), final multimodal project (40 points) and teamwork (15 points). The grading rubric was provided to students ahead of time so they knew what to expect.
## Technology
* One Button Studio
* Video camera or mobile phone
* Adobe Spark
* Audio + video editing apps
## Skills
* Identifying diversity issues
* Researching scholarly and popular
* Articulating findings
* Working in groups of peers
* Interviewing experts
## Target Skills
* Researching
* Writing
* Presenting findings
* Communicating clearly
* Intentional reflective practice
* Working in teams
## (Instructor’s) Lessons Learned
“Being able to facilitate collaboration across teams of learners to create intentional group dynamics is crucial for success in both their professional, academic lives as well as beyond. Groups will often identify their own roles organically, allowing students to leverage individual interests, talents and skill sets – and rely on one another’s as well.
Providing a public-facing outlet for publishing projects not only ensures that student-led research becomes informative for the larger community but also raises the stakes for groups in a beneficial way. Since its second or third iteration, this project has included a research fair, YouTube channel, conference or some combination of options there-of where finished work is put on display. The quality of work that is, from the start, intended to be seen outside the classroom is much higher across my courses.”