Record of Observation or Review of Teaching Practice
Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: Slides for the two-hour and a half session on “Immersive Journalism” Unit Critical Perspectives/MA AudioVideo journalism
Size of student group: Six students
Observer: Ellie Sweeney
Observee: Claudia Nuzzo
PART 1 (CLAUDIA)
Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review:
What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?
The MA Journalism programme has three different pathways: Arts and Lifestyle, Social Justice, and Audio Video Journalism. The Audio Video pathway aims to provide students with both practical and theoretical knowledge, equipping them to find work in the journalism industry with a focus on audiovisual production.
How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?
I am a lecturer. I have taught this group of students for one year.
What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?
By the end of the session the students should be able to:
– Define immersive journalism and its historical development.
– Identify key technologies used in immersive storytelling.
– Distinguish between VR, AR, 360-degree video, and MR.
– Critically assess the benefits and challenges of immersive
journalism.
– Explore emerging technologies and future trends.
What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?
Students need to write an essay for this unit to critically reflect on one or more of the topics explored during the course.
Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?
The students are a very engaged mature group. The main concern is that it is challenging to fully understand these technologies without hands-on experience that is not covered in other Units. I ensured that students had access to a headset and a special screen during the session to view some of the videos I included in my prestation. However, the available time was very limited. Also, the Audio Video pathway is only three years old, and the Unit Critical Perspective was introduced only this year to incorporate more theory for audiovisual students and some improvements in the coming years might be required.
How will students be informed of the observation/review?
This will be a retrospective review based on the slides produced for this session.
I will inform the students in class and the course leader of this review.
What would you particularly like feedback on?
I would like feedback on the clarity of the content and structure of the session, but any other feedback is very much appreciated.
How will feedback be exchanged?
Via video call and e-mail
PART 2 (ELLIE)
Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:
Claudias session was well informed and aligns with the intended learning outcomes. It is clearly presented how this session will help the students and including this within the presentation provided clarity and structure from the beginning.
I enjoyed the fact that Claudias presentation looked at both the positive and negative sides of immersive journalism. In our catch up about the session Claudia mentioned how many students were sceptical about how this type of journalism can be used and therefore purposely showed the good and bad sides to encourage a challenging thought process noting that it is ‘good for the students to question the ethics.’
The layout of the presentation slide deck was very clear, the slides did not have an overwhelming amount of information on them which allowed Claudia to elaborate on them in person, additionally the presentation itself only took up a portion of the session. Claudia allowed for an hour to an hour and a half for the theory side of the session, which included the presentation and questions and then progressed onto a more practical second half where students go to try some of the headsets, have access to the tech hub and watch one of the example videos in a 360-cinema type room. I think this is a great way of continuing the learning of this subject matter allowing the students to have more first-hand knowledge of how the equipment works but also the user experience which will no doubt inform their professional opinions.
Claudia checked in with the students to check they were clear and understood the information throughout the session, the class size is small, 6 students, which lends itself well to students opening up and voicing questions and feedback. The session was clearly run well as students feedback was very positive and expressed how they fully enjoyed the session. I think Claudia’s incorporation of practical with the theory for this 3 hour session was a great idea, it kept the students engaged and supported practice based learning.
A few suggestions I have are:
- Could any slides be issued in advance of the session to allow for a more informed discussion throughout the session as students will have been asked to read or watch some resources relevant to the content of the lecture. This could allow for a more in-depth deep dive into the topic within the 3hours.
- To include the source material under the quotes of Nonny de la Pena on slide 4 as then the students can trace back to this article/paper if they want to read more around this particular excerpt.
- Is there a way to include more testimonials/stories from user experience within your examples such as ‘Hunger in Los Angeles’ and ‘Project Syria’ to show how the use of immersive journalism within these examples was received and how it affected or impacted the delivery of information.
- As the outcome of this unit is an essay where they may want to refer to this information about immersive journalism you could possibly include some essay themes or hypothesise possible questions or scenarios that the students may be able to include in their essays to enhance their readings around this topic. Additionally, if past students have written about this topic, you could show an example or except from their essay to support the students understanding of how they can include this information relevant to their required unit outcome. However I am aware this is a new course and this idea should be supported by input from your wider course team and not rely solely on you as it relates to the unit outcomes.
PART 3 (CLAUDIA)
To help students engage critically with immersive journalism, I will integrate key suggestions from my colleague Ellie into my teaching.
Regarding the first point about issuing slides before the session, I already do this. However, it would be useful to ask students to engage with a specific part such as watching Chris Milk’s TED Talk on virtual reality and empathy. Since I will only have time to show a short extract during the session, I believe this might help students start reflecting on the topic in advance.
I will add source material for Nonny de la Peña’s quotes on slide four so students can trace the original article. This will support their research skills and help them cite sources properly in their essays.
I will also include more testimonials and user experiences, focusing on Hunger in Los Angeles and Project Syria. First-hand reactions from audiences, journalists and critics might help students analyse how immersive journalism shapes public perception and explore its ethical and practical challenges.
Since students will write an essay for this unit, I will introduce possible research questions to guide their thinking such as:
- How does immersive journalism compare to traditional reporting in generating empathy?
- What ethical challenges does virtual reality journalism present?
These prompts might help them develop strong arguments in their essays as suggested by Ellie.
Although this is a new course, I believe including examples from past student essays from similar units would be very beneficial. I will need to check with the MA course leader Lucia whether this raises any privacy issues. I suspect we may need to ask for students’ consent, but this seems both feasible and valuable.