Active Research Project Reflection

1. Creating my static project, I found it more limiting than the video. The video allows for more creativity and impact through empowering music, compelling graphics, video imagery, and nuance through voice-over tracks. I encountered many technical issues with the voice-over process, though I jumped through some hoops with some “work-arounds” and managed to get it done. The video format allowed me to paint a bigger picture of the situations being described. It also allowed me to tuck in a little bit more content/messaging.

2. My goal is to inspire hope. I believe that the video project does a better job of this. The static project is a good way to open the door to new ideas, though the video does that too, and also takes you a bit further conceptually. As I proofed the video project, I watched it oodles of times, an attempt to bring more clarity to the viewer. This caused me to rearrange many of the pages/slides within the storyboard.

3. My audience stayed the same with both projects. Of course, our classroom audience is in the forefront of my mind, though anyone paying attention to national and world news could use a bit of hope right now!! Bright colors, empowering information, and hopefully a bit of inspiration will be found in both projects.

4. I intentionally chose a simple outline for my static project; it contained less information than the video to limit the number of pages. Having the chance to do the voiceover in the video allowed me to make the verbiage sound more natural by adding or changing a word here and there. It sounds like someone is speaking to you, rather than just reading a slideshow. The video process allowed more space to really help concepts sink into a person’s brain.

5. Working in the two formats allowed me to sample what it is like to convey research information. Having limited space in the first project helped me to drill things down to what was important, getting key information to the reader. The active project allowed a slightly deeper dive into the concepts without getting too deep. Just deep enough to inspire interest or perhaps learn a few things.

6. I used AI only for streamlining and helping me to format my citations at the very end.

7. Thanks for the chance to dabble with how to convey research to the world! In the fall term, my honors course is UHON 301 Introduction to Narrative Medicine Health Humanities. I will also be taking an online course, IADL1 110 Information Digital Literacy, both courses focus around creative graphics and other media to convey important information. :)