Ateneo - UPO

This year we will face communication skills from the perspective of storytelling, the long-standing and tested activity of sharing stories and narratives through written and oral texts, visuals, and life experiences. Students will gradually learn steps, types, and techniques of storytelling, which will enable them to autonomously and rationally manage the processes of writing and speaking for the dissemination of information and through traditional and digital media.

Handouts and PowerPoint presentations will be uploaded on DIR website.

• Learn the basics of communication sciences (types of communication, verbal and non-verbal language)
• Learn the basic techniques of storytelling
• Learn the basic techniques of storytelling
• Acquire the skills to prepare, to write, to tell and to listen to a story
• Acquire the skills to manage an oral presentation and to use social media to disseminate scientific knowledge

None.

Lectures and laboratories.

Students with physical disabilities, Learning Disabilities or Special Education Needs can request specific services and tools via the Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti, consulting the University webpage: https://www.uniupo.it/en/services/services-students-physical-or-learning-disabilities. Consequently, they can refer to the teacher to define the examination modalities and any other academic aspects.

During the course Students will be required to prepare stories, papers and PowerPoint presentations, which will be discussed collectively.
The exam will consist of an oral presentation on a topic agreed upon collegially during the course and will relate to a science-related experience lived by the student.
The student will therefore have to create a story and a PowerPoint presentation based on the techniques learned and present it orally.
Evaluation grid:
- for the story: the self-presentation, introduction, method, development, results, X-Factor, curiosity attractors;
- for the slides: the layout, graphics, readability, understansability of text, appropriateness of language;
- for oral presentation: fluency, command of language, self-confidence, empathy, command of voice, use of nonverbal language.

• Unit 1. What’s Communication? Large and Narrow Perspectives. Storytelling and its phases.
• Unit 2. Story preparing. How to build up a story and to build up a communication plan. Inputs, context study, strategy.
• Unit 3. Story building. Audiences, imaginative and narrative projects, personae. The hero's journey. Calvino's six memos.
• Unit 4. Story writing. The 'meaty sandwich'. Dramatizing: plot, curiosity, suspense, surprise.
• Unit 5. Spoken language and public speaking techniques. Effective presentations.
• Unit 6. Story telling. How to perform a great story. Oral presentations. Gravitas and auctoritas. Non verbal language. Visual aids.
• Unit 7. Story telling with social media. Content strategies, do's and dont's.

To achieve a pass score, the student is asked to demonstrate:

KNOWLEDGE
- to know the basic techniques of storytelling (the hero's journey, the narrative project)
- to know the basic techniques for creating a presentation

SKILLS
- to know how to apply the theoretical foundations of storytelling
- to know how to identify the X-factor of a story

SKILLS
- to know how to present a story both through the use of PowerPoint and orally

To achieve an advanced level of learning, the student is asked to demonstrate:
- to know how to use nonverbal language techniques
- to know how to use curiosity attractors