Background
Engaging students in seminar settings remains a challenge. Seeking to innovate, Patrick Creedon, Postgraduate Academic Tutor and Supervisor in the School for Business and Society turned to puppetry as an interactive teaching tool. Through a short video, he used this creative method to illustrate key pedagogical principles in an engaging and dynamic way. The project aimed to serve as an accessible resource for both the School of Business and Society (SBS) and the wider university community.
Support from the Creativity Lab
The Creativity Lab played a crucial role in bringing Patrick’s video project to life, offering both technical expertise and one to one support. The Creativity Lab team provided personalised training in Coral video editing software. Patrick states “Sam showed me how to use Coral (software) and gave me support in editing, adding in music and effects on a puppet show which I made for my history tours.”
The Creativity Lab also offers a diverse programme of workshops and training sessions available to all staff and students at the institution. Patrick also attended the “10 Tips for Video Editing” webinar, which proved to be invaluable. “The session was very clear, well-structured, and easy to follow. I liked how Sam and Siobhan worked together to make the session engaging and informative. Their stories and demos made the software easier to understand”
Impact and Outputs
The support provided by the Creativity Lab significantly enhanced the project’s success. “Fantastic impact! Sam was patient in showing me how to use the Video Recording Suite, which has given me the confidence to use it for other projects.”
The guidance and training allowed Patrick to develop the necessary skills to produce a high-quality video, something he felt may have been impossible without the Lab’s assistance and the project’s outcome would have been vastly different.
Patrick acknowledges that the Lab’s support was critical in transforming the idea into a polished and effective educational resource. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it, or the quality would have been so poor as to be unusable.”
The skills acquired from the Creativity Lab are now being applied beyond the initial project. Patrick states “Yes, I am now using it as the basis for my scholarship and intend to share my scholarship project with the whole of the School for Business & Society and the university.” demonstrating the long-term value of the Creativity Lab’s contributions, as the knowledge gained continues to influence pedagogical development and engagement across the university.
Watch a short clip of Patrick’s video: The Harrying of the North