Guide to Writing a Case Story Synopsis
This guide is designed to assist ELIXR project teams in preparing a written synopsis of their case story. Creating a written synopsis helps focus the storytelling and ensure that team members share a common vision of the story as they proceed in their work together.
In addition, taking the time to express the story coherently in print, thinking through what the team is doing, how you’re doing it, and why, can save a lot of time and effort in the shooting and editing stages of making the story. It’s more efficient to find holes in logic or contradictions in the story on paper, than to find out about them in the editing room.
For most case stories, the synopsis should be between half a page to one page in length. It should aim to answer the following questions about what has been learned that would be of value to other faculty:
· What is the teaching approach?
· Why was the instructor motivated to adopt it? What challenges were they facing?
· What are the new teaching practices/activities the instructor is using (i.e. group discussion, debate, service learning)? What benefits are the students getting out of each new practice/activity?
· What was it like to adopt the new teaching practice?
· What are the results on student performance?
There maybe other story elements you want to address in your synopsis, but this list covers the basic story points (what is the teaching practice, why it was adopted, how it is being implemented and what are the impacts for the instructor and the students?).
The information for the synopsis is usually gathered from talking to the subject of the case (the instructor) prior to doing a videotaped interview. This really is a “pre-interview” that helps the case story team understand who the subject of the case is, what their story is, and what parts of their story would be most interesting to the audience (and faculty development professionals and faculty).