Students will be able to: Apply storytelling and visualization to STEM communication, especially for public audiences Analyze and produce various artifacts involving written and visual communication technique Gain skills in interpersonal communication by working on teams and subteams with a variety of community partners Develop cultural sensitivity in communicating with and about people with disabilities
The Graphic Medicine VIP is designed to explore the connections between health, storytelling, and visual communication. In the semesters of support, student subteams were paired with the Shepherd Center to produce comics on one of two topics: 1) the inpatient/outpatient process at Shepherd and 2) the experience of using new assistive technology. The TTL project expanded the learning community, supporting more face-to-face interactions with both patients and professionals at Shepherd as students endeavored to incorporate "own stories" into the narratives they were writing. Next, students will develop user testing plans for those comics.
Assessments for student growth come in two forms: 1) final reflections and 2) final comics. Based on student answers to the reflection questions at the end of the course, interviews and visits to Shepherd helped them develop their cultural competence in working with people with disabilities, while constant low-stakes experimentation with visual communication helped them improve those techniques, particularly in using visual storytelling to communicate STEM research. The impact of this project is particularly apparent in the comic about assistive technology. One of their interview subjects highlighted the psychological effects of having to use new tech, how it can make him feel lazy because he is worried about the judgments of others. In the final comic, the team used the visual metaphor of a pinned butterfly under a microscope to capture this experience. This example demonstrates skill with visual communication and storytelling while also encouraging empathy for those with disabilities.
Transformative Teaching and Learning helps students develop skills and habits of thinking that change the way they behave as future workers and citizens. TTL courses help students transform in this way by having them put learning into practice.