Journey Cuba is a study abroad program offered through the University of Central Florida’s (UCF) Department of Modern Languages and Literatures in the College of Arts & Humanities. The program promotes awareness and appreciation of Cuban history, society, and culture. The trip is currently on hold due to federal and state legislation, complicating travel to Cuba and university exchanges. Consequently, instructors used digital media from the 2019 and 2020 trips to transition the affiliated course, LAS 3026 Cuba: A Collective Portrait, to a fully online modality.
In Cuba student participants and a documentarian captured photo and video content that may be repurposed for educational use. Digital content—especially videos—captured while in Cuba immerse students in the course and its content. These digital assets are housed in the STARS, Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship, an institution-wide digital repository managed by the UCF Libraries. By sharing intellectual and creative outputs in a central site in the cloud, STARS allows faculty and students to showcase their work and make outputs available to expand and enhance research, teaching, and learning.
The videos and still photos in the repository are Open Educational Resources (OER), available for anyone sourcing content from the web for educational purposes, and citations are attached for attribution purposes.
The presenters will discuss the program and course, and the digital repository, sharing sample digital assets, course assignments, and student work. Ideas for how to adopt these practices, which can be implemented in any course that promotes cultural awareness, will also be shared.
