The Philip Seymour Hoffman Project

The purpose of this chapter, and the class project upon which it is based, has been to demonstrate the prosocial role social media, and in particular Facebook, can play in media literacy, by providing a framework for showcasing rigorous student research and harnessing creative responses to salient social welfare and policy issues. Specifically, Facebook can potentially raise awareness of opioid abuse, which has spiraled into a global epidemic, provide narratives that reach broader audiences, and thus fill a gap in substantive mainstream media coverage on the topic. The chapter traces the evolution and progress of a student project in a media literacy class at a New York public university and puts efforts to address the current opioid crisis in an historical context. The immediate catalyst for the project was the sudden, tragic, heroin-related death in 2014 of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, but the “bigger picture” has been broader communities. This study may interest media educators, their educational institution, government agencies, and health institutions that deal with health policy.

Considerations for Potential Global Expansion of Serum Institute of India

In a time of global vaccine shortages, especially for COVID-19 products, Serum Institute of India (SII) is straining to meet demand for vaccines in India. While this organization is not known worldwide, they entered into a recent alliance with AstraZeneca, who is partnered with Oxford University for Covid-19 vaccine, to manufacture their supply of vaccines for distribution in India. Several other such partnerships are also underway. And, SII is considering plans to become a much larger player, not only in India, but globally. This commentary is focused on if, when, where, why, and how global expansion could proceed. Our work was carried out as a class project to identify options and strategies appropriate for expansion and has been expanded subsequently as events continued to develop.

A Citizen's Guide to Navigating Information Disorder

This is a class project for Colorado State University's Fall 2021 POLS492-004 Senior Capstone

Rethinking the One Button Studio: An Alternative Solution

This design case focuses on the development of an alternative to Penn State’s One Button Studio, but with a do-it-yourself mentality and a substantially smaller budget. The development of our one button video kiosk began as a class project but is part of a larger design-based research project. Video production is not something that all faculty, staff, or students are comfortable with. Our one button video kiosk is intended to minimize barriers and concerns with such productions by helping users produce video content as quickly and easily as possible. The case focuses on the design, development, and initial testing of the kiosk. By freely sharing these details, it is the hope of the authors that readers will join the conversation by sharing their revisions or new designs for such kiosks or alternative solutions.

Ways to Improve the Regulation of Projects of the “Megascience” Class

The creation of unique scientific facilities of the “Megascience” class is a very complex and lengthy organizational and technical process, for the implementation of which the resources of several states are usually involved. In connection with the participation in the creation and implementation of a scientific project of the “Megascience” class of several states, it becomes necessary to distribute the rights, duties, costs and powers of project management among the participants. Currently, the Russian Federation lacks a sufficient level of legal regulation of projects of the “Megascience” class. Based on the analysis of Russian and foreign experience in the implementation of scientific projects of the “Megascience” class, the article presents proposals for improving the legal regulation of these projects being implemented on the territory of the Russian Federation. The article also discusses the specific problems that one has to face when implementing projects of the “Megascience” class in Russia, and the ways to solve them. In addition, the authors’ definitions of such key terms as “Megascience” class project, “unique scientific facility of the “Megascience class” and “scientific collaboration,” which are absent in the current legislation, are proposed. This research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 18-29-15036mk “Models for legal regulation of unique scientific facilities of ‘Megascience’ class at the national and international levels in the context of technological development of the Russian Federation”).

Digital Storytelling as Pedagogy in Linguistic Anthropology

This article explores teaching linguistic anthropology through digital storytelling as a pedagogical foundation. In a course titled Language, Power, and Social Identity offered remotely in the fall of 2020 at Kenyon College in Ohio, storytelling practices provided a way to explore connections between language and identities among a diverse group of twelve students. Using storytelling throughout the semester in multiple ways, activities and assignments culminated in a final class project of a digital storytelling video. Integrating digital storytelling as pedagogy suggests there is potential to generate greater understanding of experiences of identity formation through creative and inclusive learning practices.

Improving Students’ Oral Communication Skills Through an Interdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning Opportunity in a Sport Management Course

This study adopted several pedagogical foundations to determine if an interdisciplinary, problem-based learning (PBL) opportunity applied to teaching sport marketing would improve student’ individual and group oral communication skills. Faculty from two departments collaborated to create an assignment that was a hands-on class project designed around formative assessment, lecture intervention, and final PBL deliverable. The PBL and interdisciplinary design addressed the need for enhanced communication skills in the sport management industry. The study results indicate a successful development of the students’ data analysis and presentation skills. Findings confirm an interdisciplinary approach to PBL by implementing communication skill development across disciplines.

To Teach the University is to Teach Reparations: A Class Project

If scholars and activists have long noticed that discussions about reparations re-emerge during periods of intense racial strife, then perhaps it is not surprising that reparations have again become an increasingly mainstream conversation in the US. Significantly, the university has not been insulated from these discussions, but in fact has become an important site of this struggle. As of now, most critical attention both on the page and in the streets has been pointed at private, elite universities in which the fact of the university’s founding during the antebellum US becomes a flash point for the discussions of the legacy of slavery. However, using my own university teaching context as an example, I show that the discussion of reparations in the context of the American University need not – and indeed, as many scholars and activists argue, should not – be limited to those institutions that were funded from slavery’s profits or were literally built with slave labor. By discussing a course project that looks into my own university’s history, I model one strategy for educators to normalize the discussion of reparations as well as expand its reach to encompass more recent and ongoing injuries to African-American communities.