Tag: Blog Post

Choosing a topic

The topic I chose to talk about is the UMW volleyball team’s 2024 season, which just ended. As a member of the team, this topic is something that I’m particularly passionate about, and is something I know a lot about, since I’ve been there for all of it. The team faced a lot of challenges this year with the introduction of a new head coach and the loss of most of the starting lineup, and fell in the semifinal match at the conference championship last weekend.

Selecting equipment

I chose to use the voice memo app on my iPhone, as that is the recording device that is most easily accessible to me and when I made my sample recording, the quality sounded up to standard. There are some sound effects that I will most likely have to find elsewhere, since I couldn’t record during practice or a game.

Sample audio

Creating an outline

I used Microsoft Copilot to help with writing my outline, as it was difficult for me to try to write something like this from scratch. I took the original outline it gave me and made some changes based on my knowledge of our season and my ideas for how I wanted the final product to sound.

Here is the prompt I gave it:

write a detailed outline for a two-minute audio story about the University of Mary Washington 2024 volleyball team

Outline script

Detailed Outline for a Two-Minute Audio Story on the University of Mary Washington 2024 Volleyball Team

1. Introduction (10 seconds)

• Opening Music: Energetic and upbeat.
• Host Introduction: “Welcome to ‘Eagle Eye on Sports,’ your go-to podcast for all things UMW athletics. I’m your host, Lauren Foley, and today we’re spotlighting the University of Mary Washington’s 2024 volleyball team.”

2. Season Overview (20 seconds)

• Brief Recap: “The Eagles had a season filled with highs and lows, ending with a 14-17 record.”
• Key Matches: Highlight the opening win against Kean University and the tough loss to Virginia Wesleyan University.
• Sound effects: volleyball being hit

3. Highlighted Performances (30 seconds)

• UMW Invitational: “One of the season’s highlights was the UMW Invitational, where the Eagles secured a 3-1 victory over the University of Lynchburg.”
• Key Players: Mention standout players like Chloe Crosen and Emily Flamm, emphasizing their contributions and leadership.
• Sound effects: applause

4. Challenges and Resilience (20 seconds)

• Tough Matches: Discuss the challenging matches, including the loss to Gettysburg College.
• Comeback Wins: Highlight the team’s resilience with a 3-0 sweep against Virginia Union University.
• Sound effects: players shouting

5. Conference Tournament (20 seconds)

• Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference: “The Eagles fought hard in the conference tournament but were edged out in the semifinals by Salisbury University.”
• Team Spirit: Emphasize the team’s dedication and spirit throughout the season.
• sound effects: crowd cheering

6. Looking Ahead (10 seconds)

• Future Prospects: “With a strong foundation and promising talent, the future looks bright for UMW volleyball.”
• Closing Remarks: “We can’t wait to see what the Eagles achieve next season!”
• sound effects: whistle blowing

7. Conclusion (10 seconds)

• Outro Music: Fade in uplifting music.
• Host Sign-Off: “Thanks for tuning in to ‘Eagle Eye on Sports.’ Stay updated with all your favorite UMW teams by following us. Until next time, keep cheering for the Eagles!”

My Infographic

The final infographic for project 9

What is My Story?

Identifying the story represented within my infographic

My data showcased ratios of electronic cigarette usage within high school-aged individuals located in California. The data I decided to isolate are race and sex based. I wished to have my data guide my story in the fact that we hold unreasonable stereotypes in many social situations. However, as a society, we hold “deviant” acts highly when considering these racial stereotypes. Therefore, I wanted my data and infographic to tell the story that, despite what we are told to believe by society, usage of e-cigarettes actually defy these ideals. In fact, it is white males that are most likely to partake in using electronic cigarettes. However, this is only by a small percentage. So, e-cigarettes (which are believed to be a gateway device to more dangerous substances) don’t discriminate, so neither should we when considering this. Thus, we need to break the bias.

To further inspect the data reflected in the infographic, you can visit the exact dataset I chose at Data.gov!

Why an Infographic?

Why I decided on an infographic to tell my story

I’ve made infographics for past classes, and I love the way they simply display data without missing any important aspects. Therefore, I felt that with my specific isolated components, that an infographic would perfectly display these elements, and leave myself room to pinpoint the story I wished to tell, and how the data related to the story.

How I Did It!

How I made the infographic and visual representations

I made the whole infographic using Canva.com, along with all of the data charts. However, although many of the images can be found directly from Canva’s website, many of the resources are actually rooted from Pixabay.com, and other free-source websites. Canva was very straight-forward to use, as many of the visuals were easy to drag, drop and move around. Additionally, I love using Canva for many projects, academically and otherwise, because Canva also produces all of the visual representations from the internet all in one place. However, as aforementioned, it’s always crucial to double-check where these images actually came from.

Attributions and Credits

Giving credit to all of the resources I used!

Image by maartenvanderwerfcollection from Canva.com

Video Series

For my final project, I am going to make a three-part video series about movies. I have not decided on the movies yet, but they will have a range from ones that I personally enjoy, or movies that have a deeper meaning or message that needs to be discussed. Movies and cinema has been something I have always enjoyed, and I can not wait to deep dive into some of my favorites for my final project!

The Story

The main story that I could identify through the data is that departments that have a lower amount of people tend to have a higher average GPA in the Fall of 2022. These are the departments such as HEPE, NURS, and BLST. Although there were some outliers, such as ENLS and BUSI, which are possibly the biggest departments at UMW, they still have a higher GPA, but not as high as the departments mentioned before.

The Media

I chose to do an infographic chart that would show specifically where each department at UMW would land in terms of GPA average and the amount of students in each department. I did an x/y-axis sort of graph, where the more you went up the graph, the higher the gpa. As well as the more you went to the right of the graph, the more students that were in each department. This could also help in easily comparing different departments to each other. 

The Process

I chose to use Canva in order to create my infographic. Canva is very easy to use, and has many free items to use that helped get my story across. I could easily edit the size, color, as well as the position of the data in the chart. It was also very easy to download as a JPEG in order to upload it to anywhere I want.

Credits

I found the data that I used on the UMW’s site for Institutional Analysis and Effectiveness and I used the 2022-2023 Grade Distribution Summary. I only used elements in Canva in order to create the infographic chart. Any extra clip-arts were also found on Canva, such as the student symbol in the corner and the stack of books. 

UMW 2022-2023 Grade Distribution Summary Report

The Trends

I chose to focus specifically on the average of the GPA’s of each department at UMW. I found that the departments such as HEPE, NURS, and BLST had the highest average GPA, while departments such as THDA, PSIA, and WGST having the lowest average GPA. The most prominent trend that I could identify was that the departments with the least amount of students would have the highest grade point averages. This could be due to how the average of the the departments with the lowest amount of students are calculated differently to those with a higher amount of students. Another trend is that the departments that are more science-based have a lower average gpa possibly due to the intense curriculum.

The Process

I can admit I do not have a lot of experience at all with spreadsheets. I found any videos, specifically Professor Berge’s video on how to use Microsoft Excel, very helpful, as they explained thoroughly how to accurately analyze data using Excel. I used Microsoft Excel in order to create the data sheet. It made it easy in order to clean up any data that I did not need or anything that wouldn’t be relevant to the trend that I identified. I found the data that I used on the UMW’s site for Institutional Analysis and Effectiveness. They have all the grade distribution summaries dating back to 2017, even including the years during COVID. I specifically used the 2022-2023 Grade Report, as I thought it would be interesting to analyze since those were the years that COVID cases were lowering, and things could go back to normal.

Crafting the Perfect Event with Culpeper Parks & Recreation

The complimentary video for the audio podcast I made in project seven!

Video by Summer Koontz from dgst101.summersthoughts.com, streamed by Microsoft Stream

The Topic of My Video

What my video is about and online resources to support my topic! 

For my video project, I made a complimentary video to go along with the audio podcast I made in project 7 titled, “Crafting the Perfect Event with Culpeper Parks & Recreation”. In the video I discuss the ins and outs for creating a successful social event for the public with the advice of Culpeper Parks & Recreation, as they host several popular events every year. Within the video, I (Summer Koontz) interview the department’s Recreation Superintendent, Director and Parks Superintendent as they examine the aspects of planning, advertising and physically making an event come to life. 

As I mentioned previously in project 7 when making my audio podcast, I found two helpful online resources that further discuss the important points of crafting a successful event! They are as follows:

• The Event Planning Guide from Henrico.gov and provided by Henrico Recreation & Parks gives extremely detailed, and further in-depth notes of all the elements that go into planning an event for the public.

• The Event Planning Steps, Tips & Checklist for planning your public event created by Projectmanager.com displays an easy to understand list and descriptions for everything needed to plan a successful event. This includes all the equipment needed from start to finish, different templates to use to stay organized throughout the process, volunteers, how to advertise effectively, etc.

The Process for Making My Video

The camera, editing software and streaming platform I chose to use for my video, and why!

While I was recording videos for my project, I was also taking pictures for my job with Culpeper Parks & Recreation. So, I used my IPhone 12 to record the videos taken, as it was the easiest to carry while also having a camera. Speaking of cameras, all of the pictures used in the video were taken by me on a Nikon D3500. Once I uploaded the pictures I wished to use for my project, I used Adobe Lightroom to edit the photos and Adobe Photoshop to add text to the photos. Furthermore, videos I used were edited together by Apple’s IMovie. I decided on this platform because I was the most familiar with it, and I find it to be extremely user-friendly for the type of video I was wishing to create. As far as the streaming platform I chose, I wanted to try something new, so although I was the most familiar with YouTube, I had never really heard of Microsoft’s Stream before. Therefore, I wanted to try it out – and I found it very helpful and straight-forward when it came to editing captions and transcripts for the video! 

Credits and Attributions for My Video!

Giving the proper recognition for everything that made my video come to life!

• Video and photo attributions: 

All videos are by Summer Koontz from dgst101.summersthoughts.com recorded on IPhone 12’s Camera Application

Video of Culpeper Parks and Recreation’s Facebook page by Summer Koontz from Facebook.com

All photos are by Summer Koontz from dgst101.summersthoughts.com taken on a Nikon D3500 camera

• Audio, music and sound effect attributions: 

Audio by Summer Koontz from IPhone’s Voice Memos Application

Crowd chattering, heavy machinery and children in crowd chattering sound effects by Summer Koontz from IPhone’s Voice Memos Application

Introduction music: “Jetsonmade – Racket (Piano) + (Clap)” from Soundtrap.com

Conclusion music: “Vocal – Dumb 6” from Soundtrap.com

• Editing attributions: 

Photos edited by Summer Koontz from Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop

Videos edited by Summer Koontz from Apple IMovie 

Audio edited by Summer Koontz from Soundtrap.com 

Video streamed by Summer Koontz from Microsoft’s Stream

The Topic

I chose the topic of focusing on green spots around campus because my friends and I love to take advantage of the spaces on campus that are made for students to sit outside and enjoy the weather. In college, you can be stuck inside for the most of the day, even if it is if you are in class or just doing work in your dorm. Outdoor spaces are useful not only just to heighten the aesthetic of the campus, but to also help the mental-health, academic and social life of an individual. In an article by The California Aggie titled The benefits of outdoor study spaces, they emphasize how it can boost productivity, as well as having numerous health benefits. Additionally, in an article by APPA titled Colleges and Universities Should Invest In Outdoor Spaces, they can have environmental benefits as it can conserve natural settings and create a smaller carbon footprint as opposed to building a new academic building. Overall, there are many benefits to having outdoor spaces, and all campuses should utilize them.

Credits and Attributions

In the audio portion of the video, I found the intro/outro music on Pixabay.com called “Vibe Intro”, which does not credit a creator. There is also some sound effects in the background which I also found on Pixabay called “Avala Trail Forest Nature” by dbsound. For the visual portion, I also used Pixabay to find any extra videos I needed, specifically called People laptop team free stock video by Samidurrakzai. I also used Canva templates in order to make the graphics throughout the video.

The Process

In order to record the video, I used my phone to get all the shots I needed. It was also useful in order to get the stable and moving shots, as well as transferring the videos from my phone to the computer in order to edit them. I used ClipChamp to edit the video, which was very easy to use with creating good cuts and transitions between the shots. Finally, I uploaded the video to YouTube, since it is a video platform that I love and use often in order to watch or upload my own videos. It is also very simple to use in terms of creating captions or any possible restrictions that need to be added. Overall, the softwares and equipment that I used made the process a lot smoother.

My Project Shot List, and Why I Chose It 

My Well-Schemed Plan to Make my Audio Project Come to Life! 

For this project, I did things a bit backwards. To explain, the event I was covering for the podcast took place on Friday, October 18th. Therefore, I had a bit of a stricter time frame to work with. Luckily, my professor was kind enough to give details about project 8 ahead of time, so I could make sure I captured everything needed. Therefore, I had covered this event with my list last week – thus why most of the columns on the side of my list are marked “TRUE” instead of “FALSE”. So, for my shot list, I planned several recordings of various scenes such as the event environment, staff working, vendors and the people who partake in the event! Specifically covering the topics that were talked about during the interview I conducted. This way, the video being shown would have correlation to what was being said by the interviewee. I had also planned on taking several pictures that will be used supplementary as well – providing a good mixture of the two visual elements. 

My Test Recording & Equipment

A Video of my Recording Conditions with The Equipment I used! 

As far as capturing the visual elements of my project, I used my Iphone 12 to record the video, a Nikon D3500 to take pictures, as well as a hand-held tripod to attach to my phone for videos. I chose these specific tools because they were the most convenient items to carry around and easily capture videos and photos during a hectic event. Because my hands were rather full carrying around a camera, phone and tripod during the event – I unfortunately didn’t use much equipment in the way of lighting. However, for the majority of the event, natural sunlight that was captured in the recordings were perfect. To help make the recordings better quality, I manually switched some of the camera settings around on my Iphone as well as turning the exposure up or down on my phone during recordings to get the right kind of lighting I wanted.

This specific test video resembles the same conditions of the visual elements I captured – as they were all taken outside and (with the exception of two clips) during the day with natural sunlight. Additionally, this was taken with my handheld tripod that I used for the majority of my videos during the event as well.

Equipment

For the video’s that I have to take for this project, I plan to use my phone in order to capture the various videos. I chose this because my phone makes it easier to transfer any videos or audios that I need for the project to my MacBook. I will also use a tripod in order to take more stable videos and shots. With any graphics that I create, I will use Vectr to create the graphics in order to create a coherent atmosphere that goes along with the video. Lastly, any extra images or videos that I find online will be through Pixabay.com.

Visual Material

Throughout this project, I want to use the campus of University of Mary Washington as inspiration for the project. My project is about the benefits of green spots on campus, so I will find the most popular spots, or spots that I personally like, in order to emphasize the main idea of my project. Specifically, I will use shots of the Monroe Fountain, the bridge between the fountain and Seacobeck Hall, and the multiple sitting areas around campus. Additionally, I will use various shots of the trees around campus, which will be especially pretty since the leaves are falling and the colors are changing. All of these areas encourage students to spend more time outside, and it will go perfectly with the topic of my project.

The process for making my project

For my project to record my audio I used the voice memos app on my phone

Credit/Attribution

Transcript