WBL and Digital Storyboarding

Designed by Chase L. Way

To efficiently structure the self-paced learning experience and ensure instructional continuity, all tutorials are divided into a suggested series of study sessions. The modules build on one another, so learners are strongly encouraged them to complete them in the recommended sequence. If you haven't yet had the opportunity to complete Tutorials #1-3, please consider doing so before exploring this tutorial

Why should our students learn how to digitally storyboard?

Storyboarding is used most often in video and film production - so why should the rest of us care? Here's why: the saturation of the work world with social media has made storyboarding a valuable skillset even in work environments outside of "traditional" entertainment industry venues. It has also been hailed as a useful tool for project management, all kinds of prototyping, and e-learning.

With this in mind, our goals in this tutorial are two-fold. First, we will work to identify a few ways that digital storyboarding might prove useful to professionals using knowledge from our discipline(s). Second, we will practice using a simple digital storyboarding technology called Canva (not to be confused with "Canvas"!).

Tutorial Session A

Read the following articles to get a sense of the professional and pedagogical value of storyboarding.
- Chris Hodgeson, "6 Reasons that Storyboards in eLearning Are So Powerful."
- Mind Tools, "Storyboarding: Planning and Checking a Process As a Team."
- Jake Knapp (of Google Ventures), "The 8 Steps to Creating a Great Storyboard."
Create a free account for yourself on Canva.
Optional, but encouraged because it's cool :-) Check out these super neat examples of storyboards from movies you might have seen or games you (or your students) might have played.

Tutorial Session B

Brainstorm at least three ways to employ storyboarding in your classroom.
- Think outside-the-box. You don't have to storyboard a film or video narrative. You can also have your students storyboard an analytical or professional process, a historical event, a potential professional interaction, an imaginary job interview, and so forth.
Read this article on the process of creating a storyboard:
- Philip Hunt, "Master the Art of Storyboarding."
Search Unsplash for images you think might work for your favorite storyboard idea.

Tutorial Session C

Select your favorite storyboard idea and create one storyboard on Canva. Make sure you include at least three images, with matching captions.
- After you've logged into Canva, you can pull up a storyboard template by:
  - going to the top lefthand bar on your screen (by "Home");
  - hovering over "Templates;"
  - navigating to the "Education" column; and,
  - clicking "Storyboard."
- I recommend that you either use the images which Canva provides, or that you pull images from Unsplash to use in this piece.

Tutorial Session D

The opening interface in the following video has been updated slightly since this was made, but the principles are still the same.