The Who Am I? project (WAI) project asks you to explore the knowledge, values, and problems that motivate you professionally. The WAI results in a video or vid series that explores elements of the identity you seek to project to colleagues and prospective employers. The WAI is challenging in that it pushes you from introspection to professional expression.
This project requires a final submission. All files are submitted to a Who Am I? folder in your shared course space on Dropbox.com.
Document type: memo; video / video series
Document length: 150 words (memo); 6-8 minutes (video)
Project value: 200 points
Evaluation rubric: _RPW425_Eval_WhoAmI.pdf
The WAI project is designed to serve your needs as you work to connect with other professionals, whatever the purpose: growing your network, job seeking, application to graduate programs, for example. Many new and established professionals struggle to articulate their identity despite a long-time emphasis on presenting meaningful narratives about ourselves, our values, knowledge, and motivations in professional contexts.
The WAI project offers you options based on what will serve your needs most effectively at this stage of your professional development. Are you ready to enter one or more professional markets? Do you need to grow your professional network? Are you struggling to communicate what matters to you in your studies or in your career?
The goal is to present 6 to 8 minutes of video content to serve some or all of these goals. That may take the form of a single video or a series of videos, depending on what you feel will best serve your needs.
During the WAI? workshop, I directed you to respond to specific content prompts. At that point, I wanted to emphasize possibilities for constructing your narrative(s), to offer you a spectrum of topics that might inspire you to express your core values. My hope was that if that did not work, you might instead discover narrative pathways that are more meaningful to you.
Now it is your chance to plan what knowledge, values, and motivations to promote, how to present that content, and how to build a promotion strategy around that content. Build off of your draft from earlier this semester, if you see any of those topics as strong possibilities. In that case, refine, rethink, recreate around the best of what you did before. And if you need new directions, then pursue them. See the Project Strategies section below for a few more ideas on how to frame content.
The WAI project seeks to create connections with current and prospective colleagues. Exactly how you do so depends on how you define the purpose and approach for the project. Regardless of the approach, your video(s) should incorporate the following content and design elements.
A memo of transmittal introduces the accompanying document to its audience(s). Your memo should be addressed from you to me, and should introduce the accompanying project. Your memo should incorporate the following content elements.
Recommended tool(s): digital video camera, Adobe InDesign (or Scribus Team Scribus), Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Audition (or open-source Audacity), scanning device, Adobe Premier or Techsmith Camtasia
This section offers guidance for how to interpret the project, and for how to proceed with your work on it. Therefore, as you work, consider the following strategies:
Perhaps the most difficult element of this project is determining who you are, what expertise you want to claim, and what values you want to convey. Doing so requires that you cast yourself in the role of worthy professional. That is difficult to do if your experience is limited. That said, now is your chance to claim a sense of identity. As you ponder who you are and what you bring to a prospective employer or client, invest yourself in the task. This project offers you a mechanism for creating connections with peers, professionals, employers, and clients. Dig deep.
There are so many ways you might approach this project. Begin by considering several possibilities. Then you can determine the options that feel most appropriate to you. In addition to what you have already experimented with, consider the following options.
Whatever approach(es) you opt for, stay focused on your values, knowledge, and motivations.
Research professional videos as a genre. You have ample tools and resources for doing so. What do you observe from reviewing their approaches, efforts? Design your video to present your content effectively, and to establish a strong professional ethos.
This section is designed to help you anticipate and avoid problems as you work on this project. Therefore, as you work, consider the following hints and tips:
The heading says it clearly. Do not invest time in a project without also investing in the professional tools and technologies necessary for producing quality work. You have paid to have access to the proper equipment. Take advantage of that.
Be as specific and concrete as you can throughout your video(s). Details make the story. The more and more-tangible the details you incorporate, the more intelligent, aware, and professional you appear to be. That helps establish and maintain your credibility and authority.
Professional promotion materials are scrutinized more carefully by colleagues than any other documents. Strive for high levels of professionalism and consistency in your work.
Read and attend carefully to these submission guidelines. Failure to do so may result in delays in receiving feedback on the draft of your project, or in points lost on the final evaluation of your project.
Create a project folder inside your shared class folder on Dropbox.com. Remember, I can only view files that you place inside the shared folder. Until you place files in that space, you have not in practice submitted them.
Name the folder Who Am I?.
Make sure the memo is available to me in the project folder by the final deadline. Model your filename on this examples:
Note. Do not share the individual file with me. By placing them in your project folder, you have already shared them by default.
This section describes the standards by which your final submission will be evaluated.
There are 200 possible points for this project. The first draft is the final submission. You will earn points according to the standard described on the policies page (40% content development, 40% design execution & delivery of the video/series, and 20% professionalism & attention to detail; see Policies). The specific areas of emphasis for this project are drawn from the description and discussion of the project, and are detailed in the evaluation rubric (_RPW425_Eval_WhoAmI.pdf).
Remember that I will only post the point values for projects on the Grades page in SVSU Canvas. I will post the details relevant to that evaluation in your class folder in a project-specific file.
If you are here because of random chance, or because this content came up in a search, then poke about, and read if you see something useful or interesting. If you are a teacher in any context, and would like to use any of this content in your courses, feel free to do so. However, if you do so, please do two things: