See our Work
Form and Technique of Fiction
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Department: College of Arts and Sciences Date produced: Spring 2021 About the course: Form and Technique of Fiction is a core course in the creative writing concentration for English majors and was developed in collaboration with Dr. Heather Sellers. Dr. Sellers' vision for the course was to leverage iconography to make meaningful connections to writing techniques exemplified by a diverse collection of short fiction works in various genres, and for students to employ the forms and techniques depicted as blocks and tools in crafting their own fictions. We also added interactive objects to illustrate how literary and popular fiction genres serve various audiences and often overlap in their storytelling methods. This resulted in a visually vibrant, engaging course in which students annotate the techniques in published works, draft their own fictions, critique their peers, and incorporate peer feedback to produce improved fiction pieces. |
THE CHALLENGE
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THE SOLUTION
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THE RESULTS
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Access to readings - It was of paramount importance to the instructor that the curated works for this course reflected diverse authorship, were properly cited, and ethically sourced. Accessibility – while we had creative ideas about how to represent concepts visually, we were mindful that an alternative version would be required for students who needed to access the content in a non-visual way. |
To tackle this challenge, we worked closely with the instructional design librarian
to ensure that we did not run afoul of copyright law and included a Citations page
to model the expectation we have for students to cite sources properly. We created detailed written explanations in Microsoft Word so that students who are not able to see the visuals can still access the content in an alternative form. |
Students who take this course can now easily access a wealth of ethically sourced
fiction works that reflect diverse styles and viewpoints. Foundational materials now include an interactive continuum to elucidate the idea of fiction and nonfiction works as part of a spectrum rather than a binary classification. Additionally, an interactive pie chart further illustrates the concept as it relates to specific genres with relevant, timely examples. |
Tools that were used:
We used a web-based authoring tool called Genially, to create many of the interactive pieces in the course. We also used design tool called Cidilabs and its advanced element capabilities within Canvas pages to make additional information available via popups by clicking on the iconography.
What it looks like