simpleshow foundation at DHBW Heidenheim
Last month we’ve been holding a workshop at DHBW Heidenheim for the second time. That’s the perfect opportunity to tell you a little more about our previous work with Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University.
The first time we were at DHBW in April 2016, we became part of the course “Web Project” and offered a one-day workshop. Prof. Dr. Sabine Moebs was our contact person and supported us throughout the process. She is in charge for the course and the field of Business Information Systems at the university.
Fifty students participated in our workshop and created explainer videos. The developed videos centered on topics regarding the university, as well as on our current campaign “Good Health and Well-being”, which we started in support of the UN’s 2030 agenda. If you want to learn more about our campaign, please take a closer look at our previous blog post.
But what does such a workshop look like?
When you’re holding a workshop at a university, you need to start with the theoretical foundations. Students are curious and want to be able to understand what we do and why we do it. So that’s where we started. Firstly we took a closer look at the human brain: How does it work? What does it react to? How long is our attention span, how can we influence it and (most importantly) how can we exploit its full potential?
Next we explained what an explanation is, since sometimes a description of, for example a paperclip, is told to be an explanation. But it’s not. This difference must be taken seriously, otherwise the explainer videos won’t be as good as we want them to be. With this we tapped into storytelling and offered some rules for a good story next. Of course we also brought these two fields together, since every good explanation is based on a good story!
That was tough! So many new informations cries out for a lunch break! The students and we were able to catch some fresh air, kill the hunger and get ready for part two of our workshop: The learning by doing.
Now the students created their own explainer videos. They started with an exposé and we offered guidance and tips to make the most out of their ideas. Then we moved to our video creation tool, mysimpleshow, gave a short introduction as to how to use it and then the students set to work. Their exposés became concepts and turned into storyboards.
Finally they were able to present their results. And boy! They were proud! And we are, too. This workshop resulted in some awesome explainer videos and we met some incredibly smart and talented students. Of course we went there for a second workshop and the results are just as great. Hopefully we’ll be able to collaborate much more often with DHBW and explain the world together. We hope that their first hand experience with our UN campaign encourages them to keep on with their voluntary work!