Context

Students wanted to have meaningful conversations about tragic current events such as Ferguson, but there was not an academic opportunity to make meaning of such tragedies. Given the process by which new courses are introduced, it is difficult to be agile in response to student demand.

Goal

To rapidly develop an interdisciplinary 1-credit course to meet student needs, and to develop assets that could be used as open educational resources to engage a public audience.

My Role

I was the project manager on the course development, facilitating meetings, developing a timeline, and navigating University policy to rapidly develop the course. On video production, I interviewed faculty off- camera to elicit a cohesive narrative. We deliberately produced longer format videos given the nuance and complexity of the topics. I developed learning goals and the assessment strategy, including a multimedia project for students to complete.

Outcome

The course filled immediately and was extremely popular with students. The project inspired a new course format, and was followed by a course on the election in Fall 2016 and a sports ethics course in Spring 2017.