2017/18 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

MODL2250 Digital Communications Across Cultures

20 creditsClass Size: 50

Module manager: Elisabetta Adami
Email: e.adami@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2017/18

This module is mutually exclusive with

MODL3250

Digital Communication Across Cultures

Module replaces

MODL2080 – Multimedia, Multimodal and Intercultural Communication

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

The module offers a unique international learning and professional training experience in digital communication, which you will be able to include in your CV. The module is part of a European project and will be run jointly in 5 European universities in Denmark, Italy and the UK. You will learn to communicate successfully with an international audience through digital videos and online texts in English, including blogs, corporate videos, fanvids, website pages and video-chats. Teachers from all 5 universities will run workshops in Leeds, each on one specific text type, and you will be paired with students of the other European universities. Lectures and hands-on workshops will teach you how to design and create blogs, website pages, corporate videos, fanvids and video-chats. You will learn how to choose the resources used in these texts, to analyse their meanings, and to evaluate their aptness for your international audience. Teaching activities will take place in Semester 1. In Semester 2 you will be supervised to work on your assignment (the production, analysis and evaluation of one digital text in English for international communication). After the end of the module, the 5 best achieving students in your class will attend a one-day professional training workshop in web communication at a private company in Sheffield (UK) and a two-day event in Aarhus (Denmark), where you will share your learning experience. Taking this module will enable you to include this unique European learning and professionalising experience in your CV and EuroPass, which will certify your achieved digital skills for international communication in English.

Objectives

The module aims to provide students with the abilities to design/produce, interpret/analyse, and assess/evaluate digital texts used in international and intercultural communication. It is part of the Erasmus+ KA2 funded project EU-MADE4LL and is run jointly in 5 European universities in Denmark, Italy and the UK. The module integrates digital texts, multimodality and intercultural communication. Teaching activities involve lectures on core contents and workshops focusing on specific digital texts, run by teachers of all 5 universities through teaching mobility. Digital texts include: Blogs, Corporate Videos, Fanvids, Websites, and Video-Chats. Students will select one digital text for their assignment. They will have to (1) produce their own digital text, (2) analytically comment on their design choices, and (3) anonymously peer-assess the text and analysis produced by a student in another EU class. After module completion, the 5 best achieving students will join their European peers in two short mobility experiences: a one-day professional training workshop in web communication at Rocca Creative Ltd (Sheffield, UK) and a two-day event at Aarhus University (Denmark), where they will report on their learning experience.
The module has the following objectives:
- Provide students with an international learning experience, through a transnational syllabus, joint teaching by European scholars, student mobility, collaboration on the e-learning platform, and cross-class peer-assessment
- Develop integrated skills in digital text design/production, analysis/interpretation, and evaluation/assessment
- Integrate the learning of three knowledge areas: digital texts, multimodality, and intercultural/international communication
- Offer integrated and highly research-led theory-oriented and hands-on teaching at European level
- Enhance students' employability, through professional training in web communication for international contexts

Learning outcomes
By the end of the module you will be able to:
- Design and produce digital texts and videos, such as blogs, website pages, corporate videos, fanvids, and video-chats
- Interpret and analyse the design choices used in these texts, and the meanings produced by the multimodal resources deployed in them
- Assess and evaluate the aptness of the design choices, the resources and the meanings of web-based videos and texts produced by others internationally
This will include your awareness and experience of:
- The resources used in main forms of digital communication and interaction
- The basic issues involved in intercultural communication and strategies to communicate meaning successfully with an international audience

Skills outcomes
Basic knowledge, awareness and direct experience of:
- the multimodal resources used in web-based communication, digital video and online interaction
- the basic issues involved in intercultural communication and strategies to communicate meaning successfully to an international audience
- transcribing and analysing multimodal communication
- interpreting and evaluating the meaning made in blogs, websites, corporate videos, fanvids and video-chats

Syllabus

Concepts and tools in Multimodality:
- mode, affordance and multimodality
- tools and methods in multimodal analysis
- multimodality in digital texts
Intercultural and International Communication:
- culture
- intercultural communication
- English for International Communication
Introduction to weblog design and analysis:
- technological aspects
- multimodal resources
- interactive resources
- genre- and audience-specific aspects
Video-chats: Introduction to video-based interaction:
- discourse in action
- linguistic resources
- multimodal resources
- intercultural communication
Introduction to corporate videos design and analysis:
- multimodal corporate communication
- corporate videos
- promotional discourses
- intertextuality and interdiscursivity
Website design and analysis: the 'about us' page:
- Usability Vs Information overload (entropy)
- Multimodal web communication
- Writing for the web
- About us page as a self-branding process
Introduction to fannish music videos
- Fannish discursive practices
- Technology and design
- Multimodal analysis
- Socio-cultural components

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	5	1.00	5.00
Practical	5	2.00	10.00
Seminar	5	2.00	10.00
Tutorial	5	1.00	5.00
Private study hours			170.00
Total Contact hours			30.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Students will be expected to prepare for each lecture and seminar by undertaking private study of set texts and appropriate secondary material. More in-depth preparation, combining mixed private study and work, will be necessary to design and produce the selected digital text, to draft the analysis of its design choices and to anonymously peer-assess the production and analysis of a peer student in another European university class.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Monitoring of student progress will be done:
- throughout the second semester through informal formative assessment given during the tutorials and supervising activities (both face-to-face and via email) on the progress in the preparation and production of the assignments. Supervision will be given both by the module convenor and by the teacher of the other European university who has delivered the workshops on the specific digital text selected for the student’s assignment
- monitoring of attendance, active participation at the activities in class and engagement with the learning materials on the e-platform

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Report	Creation of 1 digital text and commentary on its design choices (2000 words)	80.00
Self/Peer Assessment	Peer-assessment of a digital text and analysis produced by a student in another European class	20.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Resit will remain the same for the project report – instead of the peer-assessment, resit will consist of a self-assessment, using the same form of the peer-assessment. Resit will be done in the next available exam session.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 26/04/2017

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