Case Study: Ohio State University
The Many Dimensions of Digital Storytelling in Higher Education

Learn more about this project:
http://telr.osu.edu/storytelling

In 2005, two members of the University Library System at Ohio State, Karen Diaz and Anne Fields, attended the Center’s Standard Workshop in Berkeley, California and created a story about the University Library. Upon their return to Ohio, they engaged the newly formed Digital Union, a project connected to the Library System, in a project to integrate digital storytelling into the library system’s information technology and curriculum support services.

A year later, the Center was invited to Ohio State to lead a workshop for a group of faculty and staff. This session led to the formation of an Ohio State University Digital Storytelling Leadership Team, comprised of members drawn from several parts of the University. The Leadership Team has been very active in developing approaches to the academic use of digital storytelling methods. Several leading faculty members have become active proponents of the form in their lectures, presentations, and promotion of classes. This strong faculty engagement has in turn led to the active use of digital storytelling as a curriculum component for students, across multiple disciplines. In 2008, Fields and Diaz authored Fostering Community Through Digital Storytelling: A Guide For Academic Libraries, the first book on extensive university-level applications of digital storytelling.

The Center’s relationship with Ohio State offers an excellent portrait of how two pioneering academics can infuse digital storytelling practices throughout a leading institution of higher education. Whether as a method for faculty to present their ideas or a form through which students can reflect on what they’re learning, digital storytelling’s excellence as a pedagogical method has been firmly established.