Listening to Puerto Rico is a free online global learning opportunity developed jointly by the University of Michigan and University of Notre Dame, giving voice to the people of Puerto Rico as they tell their stories of the island’s devastation and recovery from Hurricane Maria.
Staff from Notre Dame Studios assisted in the coordination, engineering, production and live streaming of two unique academic events, as part of the Listening to Puerto Rico Teach-Out. Both events, intended to foster dialogues on the aftermath and recovery from Hurricane Maria, were a first in many ways for the Notre Dame Studios team.
Coinciding with the ND vs Michigan Football game, Notre Dame hosted an roundtable discussion in the Eck Visitor’s Center on Friday August 31. The panel was recorded and streamed live on the University of Michigan Coursera site. Using the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Platform Coursera for live stream delivery was a first for Notre Dame Studios, requiring close coordination with Notre Dame Office of Digital Learning and the University of Michigan. Later that evening, the Notre Dame Studios team also recorded the participants’ testimonial stories of Puerto Rico in the Martin Media Center Teaching Studio, adding these to an archive of filmed experiences of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
The second event was a Web Show, where Notre Dame students from Puerto Rico took part in a live-streamed discussion on the impact of Hurricane Maria on them and their families. Utilizing another Martin Media Center space, Studio One, the Team accommodated a live audience in the studio, while streaming the event in real time to viewers around the world, who were able to interact and chat live online.
ND Studios serves the academic mission of the university. Using technologies available in the Rex and Alice A. Martin Media Center, ND Studios helped bring Notre Dame education to learners around the world and bring learners from around the world to Notre Dame.