As you are planning your fall courses, the School of Communication wanted to let you know about some resources that are available for all courses at the University that may be of interest: podcasting, TV studio production, oral communication support, and streaming documentaries from the Media Education Foundation.
Podcasting
Our podcasting specialist Dawn Ennis provides support on how to use the equipment in our podcasting studio and guidance about how to produce engaging and informative video or audio only podcasts. Dawn, an experienced media producer and journalist, is available to meet with students and faculty to provide instruction and guidance on producing podcasts. Dawn has extensive experience in digital media including as a Freelance Writer and Video Producer for The Daily Beast, NBCNews.com, NewNowNext, GoMagazine, HuffPost, The Advocate, Into, and Outsports. Dawn has also been News Editor for The Advocate and National Assignment Editor at ABC News.
Students and/or faculty can meet Dawn at the studio, and she can also make visits to courses to provide a tutorial on podcasts depending on her schedule. Students and faculty can use our podcasting studio on the first floor of HJG for class assignments or personal interests, and have those podcasts made available on our site. You can reach out to Dawn at daennis@hartford.edu.
Oral communication support
Yasmin Shenoy is available to meet with students for help on oral presentation assignments. She provides individual guidance to students on how to make effective and engaging presentations. Some students who are very shy and averse to public speaking could benefit from individual meetings about how to overcome such challenges. Yasmin provides guidance on how to work effectively in groups to ensure all contribute to an assignment. Yasmin can meet with individual students or groups, and also come to classes for talks about effective individual and group presentations.
Yasmin has taught CMM 111 Business and Professional Communication and CMM 115 Improving Communication Skills at the University for many years. She received the Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award for Part-time Faculty at UHart in 2015. Yasmin also has been conducting day courses for state employees at CCSU since 2017 on “Tact and Diplomacy” and “Business Writing.” Yasmin can be reached at shenoy@hartford.edu.
TV production
The TV studio is available for students in courses to produce their own TV show on any topic. We have various sets for different kinds of shows including news or information where people sit behind desks, a talk show with a couch and chairs, or a panel discussion with table and chairs. There are video monitors on the back of the set where students can create their own graphic for their show, and students can include graphics or images during the show. TV Studio Coordinator Karl Rohrbach is happy to set up time with instructors to talk about using the studio for your class and meeting with classes in the studio. You can contact him at rohrbach@hartford.edu. Keep in mind that this would be a project where you would need to involve an entire class because it takes a minimum of about 10 people to put on a show.
Streaming MEF documentaries
A collection of educational documentaries from the Media Education Foundation (MEF) are available to all at UH through the streaming service Kanopy.
MEF produces and distributes documentaries on current social issues related to gender, sexuality, race, media, popular culture, education, politics, and the economy. Instructors can play these videos at any time for a class. Students can also watch certain videos either during or outside of class time. Faculty, staff, and students have access to all the videos in this collection either on or off campus.
Faculty and students can view all the videos here. To watch any of these titles off campus, you must verify your affiliation with the University of Hartford by entering your university email user ID (without “hartford.edu”) and password when prompted.
The list of titles in this collection is available here. Some of the newer and more popular titles include Beyond the Straight and Narrow: Queer and Trans Television in the Age of Streaming, The Man Card: White Male Identity Politics from Nixon to Trump, The Illusionists: The Globalization of Beauty and Latinos Beyond Reel: Challenging a Media Stereotype. Besides that group of titles, we also have purchased licenses to individual titles through Kanopy including Social Animals: The Real and Digital Worlds of Today's Teenagers, and The Mask You Live In that looks at how boys and young men grapple with cultural expectations about masculinity. To view those titles, search for the title name in the University library catalog.
Feel free to reach out to School of Communication Director Jack Banks at jbanks@hartford.edu with questions about any of these resources.