HUMN 281W: Food and Film
HUMN 281W: Food and Film
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Course Description
Course Description
This course explores themes about food in domestic and international cinema, with special attention paid to the social, cultural, and historical context of food as depicted in film, the cultural issues regarding national, ethnic, and gender identity, and how the art and history of cinema influence the many roles that food plays in our lives.
The is a General Education course that satisfies the Area C1 requirement.
Course Modality
Course Modality
This fully asynchronous online class requires students to complete work on a weekly basis. The course is organized in Modules, where students can access all material (lecture, readings, assignments, activities, videos, etc.). Students are responsible for watching the video lectures and completing all the required readings and screenings before they post vlogs to their respective group discussion boards. Here, the students respond to their peers' posts, generating a productive and in-depth discussion thread around that week's material.
Elements of Course Design
Elements of Course Design
The course design focused primarily on building consistent modules that can provide students with all the course material needed for each week of class. Each module offers an overview of that week's material, learning objectives (themes), an academic article related to the weekly film, a lecture available in 2 formats (video lecture, PPT presentation), and a link to the film screening.
Student Engagement & Feedback
Student Engagement & Feedback
Increasing student engagement is the primary objective and each week students must turn in a 1-2 minute vlog that presents their interpretation of the class material (film, lecture, reading). The students are then responsible for responding to each other's vlogs, creating a network of communication and discussion. Engagement is facilitated through group communication and accountability. Furthermore, it lends a platform for students to present their findings, ideas, interpretations, and analytic critiques of the material. The instructor weighs in throughout the process to help facilitate stronger discussions and interject more film/food-related information to place the conversations into a more beneficial and historical context for the students.
Above all, this is an area where students can congregate and find some common ground with their peers, as discussion portions of the F2F method were a highlight of the course. If students are patched into the digital board and relying on one another for a more nuanced experience, the material becomes that much more relatable and easier to access.
Assessment of Student Learning
Assessment of Student Learning
Course Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to analyze the progressive/problematic representation of cultures and environmental factors of humanity (agriculture’s place in society) in domestic and international film.
Students will be able to write for different audiences, including academic critiques and film reviews.
Students will be able to apply principles of film production techniques to various assignments and understand how to utilize technology as a critical tool for analysis.
Recurrent assignments such as reading reports and major writing assignments (a film review; a critical paper) allow the instructor to assess the students' ability to understand and evaluate readings and lectures. There are also weekly group discussion boards designed to foster student engagement and experiential learning. Lastly, the instructor assigns a final project designed to assess students' ability to create a recipe vlog. Here, the student utilizes technology to recreate a recipe from a film and provide a critical discussion around said recipe. Below are two examples of the final project:
Technology & Access
Technology & Access
Traditionally, HUMN 281W: Food and Film is not a production class, but the critical assessment of film is intrinsically linked with all elements of production, so the instructor introduces students to the concepts of aesthetics, cinematography, sound, and editing. By emphasizing the importance of the production side of films, the methods of the filmmaker become more transparent to the students, leading to richer discussions on humanistic aspects, historical contexts, and roles of food within the film. Additionally, the class is structured with access in mind as students are tasked with creating their own vlog recipe videos that require not only access to a phone or other recording device but to free software like Adobe Spark, Davinci Resolve, or Adobe Premiere (all students have access to free Adobe CC accounts).
Challenges
Challenges
A major challenge for this course relates to student engagement outside of an F2F environment. Through group discussion boards, students can interact in smaller groups, but the implementation of technology in the course (cellphones) made a positive impact on their overall performance with class activities. Some examples of class activities are listed below:
Post weekly vlogs that provide a detailed overview/interpretation of the weekly course material. Here, students explored issues within films screened in class and included personal/cultural backgrounds to emphasize various cultural representations presented in the films.
Research contemporary film review styles from the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Variety and create a review based on a film screened in class. This way, students can explore more opinion-based styles of writing.
Critically assess academic articles on films and generate reading reports that deconstruct the author's main argument and methodology.
Write a short critical paper on a film screened in class that discussed the role of food within the narrative, any historical significance found in the film, and humanistic aspects. The critical paper is scaffolded with the reading reports to demonstrate to students the importance of utilizing academic sources to move away from opinion-based writing into a more academic realm.
Create a short recipe vlog on a recipe from any food film of their choice. The student is responsible for filming themselves creating the recipe, researching the historical nature and narrative role of the recipe, and editing together all elements to create a cohesive video that assesses their critical and production skills.
Go Virtual Course Design
Go Virtual Course Design
Based on Go Virtual, I made the following changes to my course:
Scaffolding assignments, based on course objectives (reading reports into the critical paper; production techniques and technology use throughout the semester, ending with a final project based on production techniques and critical discussion)
Refined levels of assessment through new assignments (recipe videos and the use of technology in the classroom)
Revisement of the critical paper rubric to focus on the most important aspects of the assignment, and distribute points in a more cohesive fashion.
Digital Pedagogy FLC
Digital Pedagogy FLC
Based on the Digital Pedagogy FLC, I made the following changes to my course:
Creating environments that provide opportunities for students to use technology to their advantage, based on their level of access.
Finding ways to make the material more relatable to students.
Adhering to their levels of preparedness, especially since most students are not formally trained in film theory and writing.
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