The School of Undergraduate Studies at UT is where students go to get their collegiate feet wet. They take core classes while they learn about academic programs across campus and decide where to transfer and declare a major.
Signature Courses is one avenue students can take to explore their varied interests. These are small classes of no more than 18 students; they are multidisciplinary and, more often than not, taught by tenured or tenure-track professors who propose the courses. Courses this semester range from Hidden Treasures of Plants: Fuel, Food, Meds, and Money; Road Movies, Quixotic Journeys; and Middle East Today.
Signature Courses are unique to UT and highlight the specialized resources that only a research university of this caliber could support. Landmarks is one of these resources, and numerous UGS students visit the collection every semester. For Digital Media Tech and Learning, Professor Min Liu brought her class on a tour of the collection. Students then chose a Landmarks work for their assignment:
In a pair, you will visit one of the UT Landmarks, read about it, and create a 90-sec video about this Landmark. Your video should be edited to present your ideas. We will have a class session on using iMovie to edit your video. But you can use any video editing tools. Whether to include audio narration and/or music is your choice. Be creative!
After reviewing the videos, Professor Liu explains “By working on this project, students not only have learned how to shoot and edit video, familiarized themselves with a UT Gem as a UGS requirement, but also have learned to work in groups and are pushed to think out of the box and be creative. I think different digital literacy skills are applied through this project. Students have really liked this project and are especially pleased their videos got compliments.”
Watch Vermillion by Deborah Butterfield, produced by Gabby Ramirez, Rodrigo Delatorre and Gabriel Lopez
Watch Circle with Towers by Sol LeWitt, produced by Kara Power, Eryn Li, and Ladees Tayem.
Landmarks chose two videos to feature in this segment of Learning with Landmarks. It was a tough decision, as all the videos were visually interesting and highlighted each work in a new and interesting way. Thank you Professor Liu and her students for including Landmarks!