Sophia Junior College Faculty Journal
Vol. 30, 2010, 1-10

Developing Narrative-based Multimedia
Material in an Academic Setting
Kenneth E. Williams

Abstract:
This paper looks at Internet based social networking and its expansion of thepersonal-social narrative among college age students. In turn this expansion of thepersonal-social narrative milieu allows teachers to develop effective multimedia
material based on tools traditionally used to create cinema.

Introduction
Along with the widespread use of personal computers and mobile phones,
participation in online social networks, especially among high school and university
students, has become more widespread as well (Cotterell, 2007; Ormrod, 2008). A
distinctive feature of this online communication is the increasing use of personal
narrative (Levinson, 1999), not only as text but also as multimedia storytelling (Horn,

1998; Hana, 2009). Participants in online social networks enhance their stories withphotos, graphics, audio, and video. As a result, this new generation of students hascome to expect the transfer of information to be audio-visually rich and engaging.
The implication for educators in higher education should not be missed. If we wantto effectively convey information to our students in an academic setting, we need to
exploit the genre of personal narrative and employ the most powerful of multimedia
forms: cinematic storytelling. In this paper,“multimedia”refers to a combinationof images, words, and sounds presented in a narrative sequence to students in aclassroom or viewed on a computer, and“script”refers to the lecture (either oral or
written) instructors use in class.

The Growth of Online Social Networks and Personal Narrative
The Internet has intensified and broadened social networks and personal
narratives (Lenhart, Hitlin & Madden, 2005 ; Haskett, 2008 ; Osttertag, 2008 ).

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Consequently, it is important that we understand how it has been done before we
start to make any multimedia material. The artifacts of Internet-based personal
narratives are all around us and include but are not limited to computers, mobile
phones, e-mail, online social networks and video websites. Mobile phones and e-mailare ubiquitous among college-age students and are used on a regular basis (Lenhart,
et al, 2005; David, 2006; Brown, 2009; Lenhart, 2009). Online social networking
sites are gaining popularity quickly and online video websites are also very popular.
“According to a survey recently conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life

Project, more than half of all Americans between the ages of twelve and seventeen use
some online social networking site”(Rosen, 2007).
Computers were originally central to this new universe; however, mobile phones
now are begging to supersede them (Brown, 2008). Initially, mobile phones were mereextensions of landlines and like landlines they were used to make verbal contact
with other people. What is obvious though is that mobile phones can, more or less,accomplish this activity anytime and any place the user wishes. Presently, mobile
phones allow the user not only to talk to people, but also enable them to use instantmessaging and e-mail, send photos and short videos, and access social networks andvideo Websites. All of these have facilitated the use of personal narrative among
teenagers and young adults and in turn helped continue to extend and bolster what
may be considered a personal narrative society.
Online social networking and video Websites are the newest and the mostdynamic form of personal narrative communication that continue to fuel the personal
narrative explosion (Young, 2006; Stanic, 2009). Many social networking sites exist.
In the United States, Twitter and Facebook are widely used, and in Japan Mixi is
described as the“largest social networking site in Japan”(Cashmore, 2006). At
Twitter, people may put up short, often personal, information and, if they wish,
connect it with one picture (LeFever & LeFever, 2008; Williams, 2009). For longer
personal information, related pictures and short videos people use Mixi in Japaneseor, Facebook for Japanese or English. More information may be found about these
networks at“How social media can make history”(Shirky, 2009).
Twitter is interesting because it has the ability to function much like amultimedia presentation. Members are limited to a maximum of 140 characters at
any one time. For example,“I am having dinner in Shinjuku.”Along with an“update”
like this, a picture that extends or complements the statement may be uploaded
from their mobile phone. For instance, they may upload a photo of the outside of

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the restaurant, the food or the people they are having dinner with. Although this ispossible on Facebook, in general it seems to serve a different purpose. Japanese often
refer to Mixi as an online diary and people on Facebook may feel the same. Like manythings on the Internet, there is often overlap on how they may be used. Additionally,
along with the capabilities of the site, the shape a social network will take is up to theindividual and the goals of groups that the individual belongs to.

Application to an Academic Setting
There will be some differences depending on the school or area in the world, butthere is a commonality in the departments and in turn the courses that are taught
at the university level (Universities Worldwide, 2008). The courses taught vary from
Agriculture to Zoology with a plethora in-between. The wide variety of courses may
also be roughly viewed as falling into the humanities, social sciences, and physicalnatural sciences. Of course, these groupings will overlap and at times envelop all at
the same time. The point is Philosophy will likely be taught in a different mannerthan one of History. Nevertheless, there are components and objectives of each thatwill allow teachers to develop good multimedia material.
Designing a multimedia presentation for an academic setting should be based ona form students will connect with (Nunes & Gaible, 2002). Furthermore,“the hybrid
or the meeting of two media is a moment of truth and revelation from which new form
is born”(McLuan, 1964: 55). Some believe this new form is a multimedia language
or close to it (Horn, 1998; IML. 2009). This new mode or language may be viewed
as a story-narrative in a cinematic form because of the relationship between photos
and movies (Monaco, 1981; Kawin, 1992) along with words, which create images ora ﬂow of ideas. Therefore, to create good multimedia materials, an instructor needs
to use resources that suit the cinematic form. This approach leads to viewing theend product as something connected and flowing rather than a slideshow of static,
independent frames.
No matter how well teachers believe their multimedia programs are constructed,
there is a signiﬁcant possibility that the point aimed at will be missed if the viewers
are not considered ﬁrst. Hence, before starting a multimedia project it is important tounderstand the people you wish to communicate with along with the circumstancesthat helped to create the situation. In this paper, college-age students will be thefocus, and in this group personal-narrative is the base of story-narrative. A personal

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narrative is one where people share their life (events, incidents or experiences) withothers and vicariously experience the things that happen to each other. A storynarrative has characters, settings, and conﬂicts.

Creating the Script
Although oral presentation has been and is the basis of transmitting informationin most classrooms, often little time has been giving to the process other than thedissemination of information. It is just as important to evaluate the script as astory-narrative. It is also equally vital that teachers understand their script andtext as a visual presentation if they wish to develop it into an effective multimedia
presentation. For that reason, the first thing to do when developing a multimedia
project is to think of the script in a narrative structure form. This not only describes
the topic but it starts to create the visual story that is essential for a multimedia
presentation (Block, 2007).
As already pointed out, classes will be taught in diverse ways and in turn somewill ﬁt the narrative structure easier than others. To describe a script in a narrative
structure form, we must understand the following (In Point, 2004):(1) Where the script is located. This may be in a real place, an abstract one, oreven real time. Everything must happen somewhere. At times this may be
hard to comprehend, but there is no alternative. Some places are just more
obvious then others. Even in psychology or philosophy topics are likely to go
back and forth between ideas or emotions and the real world.
(2) What started this script? Another way to approach this is to ask what is so
important about this story that it needs to be told. This may be something
teachers need to consider because they are often so involved with a topic
that they have not thought what would be compelling for students. If this istroublesome it may help to look at the ending and then proceed back to thebeginning. This will likely resolve the issue, if there is one.
(3) Who or what is the main focus or topic of the script? In other words, what
is being talked about? This would include characters, ideas or both. Also, it
is important not to forget that there often are secondary focuses along withthe primary one(s). This should be worked on until the main focus can bepresented in one sentence or less and then under that secondary focusesshould be presented.

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Developing Narrative-based Multimedia Material in an Academic Setting(4) As the script moves along, what conﬂict must be met and surmounted? There
are always things to overcome or subjugate. At ﬁrst this may not be obvious orappear small or even just normal changes but they are there and important.
Even moving from simple ideas to complex ones involve that something belost, left behind or changed into more complicated ideas.
(5) How does the topic or character change as it overcomes or is defected by
the obstacles that arise? It is not likely that the topic will stay the same
throughout the course. Does it grow or diminish? Change is always something
we can count on.
(6) How are things resolved? In other words, how does the script end? Think
about how it is different from the beginning. Something is resolved. This
resolution may be found by considering or recognizing the main point orchanging of the script (Lipman, 2003).
After organizing the script into a narrative form, it needs to be put together ina structure. The three-act structure is a basic form that goes back as far as Aristotle(Deemer, 2000 ) and is still popular (Arnold & Eddy, 2007 ). There are various
components in a classical three-act narrative structure format that all scripts will
have. First would be the opening, beginning or setup.
All scripts must have a beginning. Often students know little or nothing about
the topic teachers are introducing. Therefore, at first the teacher often needs topresent the boundaries of this topic along with the main characters or ideas, the goals,
likely obstacles and location. In other words, the topic is deﬁned and given a body thatthe teacher wants the students to hold in their minds. Another way to look at this ﬁrst
act or beginning is to consider it an in-depth expansion of the introduction. History
classes probably have a linear narrative based on characters, places and time. Other
classes are set in ideas that will be built upon. These ideas will perhaps interact withtime and characters. The beginning is where the overall shape of the topic takes place.
This starts what may be seen as a thickening arc. As the script moves through the
beginning it thickens and rises in the sense that more parts are added and it likely
becomes more complicated.
The second part of the script is the main section of the story, journey, or quest.
Conﬂicts arise in the information presented and the ideas become more complex. The
basic topic or character interacts with the surroundings and is challenged in some
way or confronted by people, issues, or ideas that must be overcome. The main focus
of ideas or events is presented in the second part. In this phase the students are often

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Kenneth E. Williams

asked to move to a different level of thinking. Urgency often enters in that the“storyarc”thickens and more demands are put on the students as the information or ideas
presented becomes more complicated.
In the third or end part of the script, the loose ends are tied up. Resolution or
conclusion involving the topic and subtopics happens in this part. This may show the
topic in a new light with new importance or increased status.
It is essential to remember that the length of the three acts will vary dependingon the amount of information that needs to be presented in each one. They are notnecessarily divided into three equal parts.

Creating the Storyboard
At this point, the script has been observed from a narrative point of view anda three-act structure. The script now may be analogous to all of the wood required
to build a house and the storyboard the assemblage of the house. Here the script isturned into a visual form via the storyboard in a series of pictures that tell the story
using drawn images. Along with the images, supportive words or phrases are written
in or next to frames the pictures are drawn in. The easiest way to think about astoryboard is writing in pictures. Storyboards are the way most film or animation
scripts are transformed into visual stories (Palazzi, 2009).
The layout of a storyboard is very flexible. One style would be to write thenarrative three-part script on the side and then add pictures along with pertinent
words or phrases in boxes that expand or illustrate the ideas, action, or people
relevant to the story. This is something like illustrating a book. A second way is
to draw pictures related to the script as it is read. A few words are written in eachbox that can be used in the ﬁnal design. This is similar to drawing a comic book. A
storyboard generator may be found at Incompetch (MacLeod, 2007).
There is no single way to develop a storyboard. One approach is viewing theprocess similar to assembling a jigsaw puzzle. There are various strategies whenworking on a jigsaw puzzle. Starting with the outside edges is one of them. The threeact structure as a body could be considered the outside edges of the script. A second
tactic is to ﬁnd common colors. This could be seen as the topic or main focus of thescript. Finding the lines or shapes in the jigsaw puzzle is a third way. The story arc
may represent this.
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Developing Narrative-based Multimedia Material in an Academic Setting

to ask what the picture does say, not what it looks like but what it says. A second andalso very important feature to consider is what the relationship of the picture is being
viewed to the one in front of it and following it. In other words, do not forget that aﬂowing story is being told. As already mentioned, using a storyboard is like writing inpictures. It will likely take a number of rewrites before it is completed.
Once the storyboard is ﬁnished, the development of a narrative-based multimedia
material project has been completed. The next parts depend on a number of variables.
First is the availability of pictures for the project. This involves the area of copyrightlaws (Copyright, 2009: Harper, 2004) or making pictures. The next step depends on
how this material will be used. Is the project to be presented by the teacher in theclassroom (Green, & Brown, 2002) or put on a computer (Lee, & Owens, 2000) andcontrolled by a student? If the multimedia project is in the classroom to support alecture, than the information presented by written words will likely be less thenperhaps that of a computer-based presentation. The rule of thumb is too many words
ruin a project. My question is why was a multimedia project made if words dominate
the presentation? Let the images do the talking.

Conclusion
It is not difﬁcult to ﬁnd people that view multimedia boring, at best (Tufte, 2003;
Bolton, 2007; Johnson, 2009). To avoid dull multimedia projects, it is important toﬁrst understand the audience by being knowledgeable of the milieu they function in.
In this paper, it is argued that students, for the most part, live in a personal narrative
setting. This world has been expanded by the use of social networks on the Internet.
Understanding the personal narrative world and that multimedia is a form of visualstorytelling allows us to view a multimedia project something closer to a movie thana series of independent slides. There are three points that educators should bear in
mind. First, transforming the classroom script in a narrative form will begin to moveit into a style students can relate to. Second, viewing the narrative form in a three-act
structure, beginning, middle and end, gives the script a body. Finally, the script needs
to be turned into a visual form via a storyboard. The process of developing a firstrate multimedia project is not easy and it is time consuming. However, it is far better
than boring students and not having the message hit the mark. As Mayer (2001) puts
it,“multimedia learning offers a potentially powerful way for people to understandthings”(194).

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Kenneth E. Williams

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