Our Project
In 2015, David Letterman, a 1969 Ball State Department of Radio and Television graduate, shared more than 1,000 pieces of memorabilia from his life and late-night television career with Ball State. The collection includes physical artifacts and digital content from his personal life and career as one of the country’s most famous late-night talk show hosts. The David Letterman Learning Experience (DLLE) is an interdisciplinary, project-based learning opportunity that places students at the center of storytelling, placemaking, technology, and art. The DLLE seeks to inspire Ball State students, faculty, and staff to think creatively, take chances, laugh in the face of failure, and smile in the light of success. We bring students from various backgrounds and skill sets together to tackle real-world problems using technology and digital media.
Our Project
Transmedia storytelling is the expansion of a story across multiple mediums, with the intention of promoting audience interaction. Various media forms work together to illustrate a detailed storyworld where the audience can enter from any point. For example, consider the Star Wars universe. Star Wars is a transmedia story example because it’s more than a stand-alone movie. Rather, it encompasses an entire storyworld that includes a series of films, television shows, video games, toys, exhibits, collectable art, and more. When all of these elements combine, they create an expansive storyworld that invites the audience to become active participants in the storytelling process.
Design thinking is a creative approach to problem solving that places the user at the center of solution development. The process heavily relies on empathy and collaboration, and it occurs in five non-linear steps: conducting empathy research, defining a problem or opportunity, ideating solutions, prototyping ideas, and testing ideas with audiences. Empathy research lets developers seek out experts, conduct interviews, and learn more about the problems they will explore. During the define phase, developers zero in on the target audience, identify objectives and goals for the project, and characterize the challenges they may face along the way. Ideation refers to the process of sharing ideas among a project team and identifying those worthy of development. Once a few ideas are developed, prototypes are created. Finally,the testing phase allows developers to solicit feedback about their ideas and find out what works – and most importantly – what does not work. Design thinking allows students to think differently about problem solving and find solutions to tricky problems.
Human-computer interaction is the relationship between technology and people. From theory to methods, students learn how to build and test user interfaces.
Our Project
Each year, DLLE students are presented with an opportunity to explore that leverages the rich storytelling potential of the Letterman Collection. Then, they identify a target audience and gather research about industries that explore similar opportunities. Students then begin the prototyping and testing phases, during which develop a project, test it, and make necessary changes. Finally, the design phase begins. At this point, the project’s focus narrows, goals are identified, and students have a strong understanding of what needs to be accomplished.
