An engaging digital storytelling case project created an inspiring learning environment for the co-creation of international marketing stories at SFH Heidelberg international week. The stories were created by small teams of students from different cultural and educational backgrounds, and they were designed in such a way that they were ready to be distributed on different digital channels at the end of the week.
We applied the Learn to Change Digital Storytelling Model developed in the project to guide the students’ digital storytelling (DST) assignment, which also required the use of various digital storytelling tools that can be found in our Digital Toolbox.
Bridging generations through digital storytelling
In the annual international week organized by SRH Heidelberg, two teachers from Haaga-Helia UAS held a digital storytelling course for a multicultural group of students. The theme of the international week was “Bridging Generations”, and it turned out to be an excellent topic for storytelling. The project assignment was to produce a story that promotes SRH Heidelberg’s international week and inspires new students from different countries and cultural backgrounds to participate in the week next year.
The starting point was easy: each student already had first-hand experience in the topic! They were very excited to test and apply the step-by-step digital storytelling model we have developed in our project. They also selected suitable DST tools to apply at each planning stage. Regardless of their educational background and orientation, all students immediately understood the importance of successful stories in marketing and communication.
DST teamwork was met with enthusiasm
One key element of a successful digital storytelling project is engaging and effective team collaboration. Before moving on to team building, the students completed Adobe’s Creativity Test, which allowed them to get familiar with their own creative profile. The teams were formed on the basis of the test results, so that all teams had an appropriate mix of creative profiles: visionary, dreamer, thinker, adventurer, producer, innovator, and artist. The results of the creativity test inspired and empowered students, and through comparing their profiles they got to know each other better and even formed new friendships.
Enthusiasm for storytelling was seen and felt during team collaboration. At the end of the process, a happy atmosphere filled the classroom as the teams were getting ready to do their best to present their stories designed to promote next year’s international week. The teams made use of their multicultural perspectives and managed to build unique and meaningful digital stories for channels preferred by the target group. The final creations took many forms, such as videos, memes, and social media posts.
Students’ reflections on their use of digital storytelling tools
At the end of each day of the international week, the participants were asked for their feedback on the usefulness of the DST planning tools they applied. Although most of the tools were new to the students, they were found both useful and easy to use. The importance of the DST tools in supporting the storytelling process was evident and the benefits could directly be seen in the success of the stories created.
The students found the customer/target persona empathy map (Gamestorming) to be the most useful tool. This map can be used to describe the most authentic target persona and the behavioral factors that are relevant to take into account when planning the story. The storytelling canvas (DigitalStorytellers) was also considered a good tool with which to visualize several different perspectives to story planning.
During their DST planning process, students also learned to analyze and identify good channels where to share their stories to reach the target group. When reflecting on the DST project steps, students also learned to define SMART goals for their story. Such goals are time-bound, precisely defined, measurable, relevant for success and, above all, achievable. Although it is challenging to go through all the steps of a digital storytelling project thoroughly in just one week, students’ stories pleasantly surprised teachers and students alike.
Digital storytelling inspired students and brought them together
The feedback given by the students was extremely inspiring. The students felt that they were very likely to make use of the knowledge and skills they gained during the course. They also felt that they will use the tools they tested for their future studies and work projects. They also appreciated the authentic project challenge and were very proud of the digital stories they produced.
The structure of the course was also praised by students. At the beginning of each day, there was a short theoretical presentation along with an introduction to a new set of tools. This was followed by creative planning of each team’s own story. An important benefit of the international week was the opportunity to form networks and friendships with new people. We received a lot of positive feedback stating that storytelling is a topic that really brings students together. The students have been keeping in contact with each other and with us teachers even after the international week.
Text and images: Päivi Penttilä and Tarja Autio, Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, Finland