The Four-Panel Narrative: A Slice of Life from an Adapted and Evolving Assignment

Abstract

This design case chronicles a photography assignment starting with its origins in the master’s level lab of a communications design program in Taiwan’s National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, directed by Jalin Huang. We follow this assignment through its adaptation for a basic media development course taught by Professor Elizabeth Boling in the instructional design master’s program at Indiana University, and on to its evolution as a learning exercise and communication device in the instructional design studio sequence of that same program. Along the way, Yichuan Yan, a student from the development course, discusses the experience of receiving and carrying out this assignment in the context of the media development course. Revisions to the assignment for the communications students in Taiwan are also discussed.