Jon McKenzie is Professor of Practice and Director of StudioLab, a critical design and media lab at Cornell University that connects researchers, designers, and organizations working in human rights, public health, and social and environmental justice. StudioLab teams collaborate on strategic storytelling through transmedia knowledge, using performance design thinking as a human-centered, iterative process of stakeholder alignment and shared dreaming. Jon is the author of Transmedia Knowledge for Liberal Arts and Community Engagement: A StudioLab Manifesto (2019) and Perform or Else: From Discipline to Performance (2001), and he holds degrees in Fine Arts, English, and Performance Studies and has also worked as a writer and UX designer in NYC. He is founder and former director of DesignLab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and co-founder of the performance group McKenzie Stojnić. In addition to workshops and consulting, Jon produces experimental videos, lecture performances, and other media. His work and that of StudioLab can be found at labster8.net.
Strategic
StorytellingCornell Certificate Program
Overview and Courses
Being a great storyteller allows you to engage with your audience in a meaningful way, building their trust as you communicate your message. In this certificate program, you will apply transmedia practices, or techniques that leverage various forms of media, to communicate your message to various stakeholder groups.
By using any variety of media formats — videos, ad buttons, posters, social media, presentations, websites, or even comic books and graphic novels — you will discover how to choose the appropriate media form to engage specific stakeholders and create a campaign that targets and engages them.
Using real-world examples, you’ll break down different campaigns and explain how the elements work together to address your stakeholders. This certificate program will provide you with the opportunity to practice strategic storytelling through rapid prototyping using an innovative UX design frame, creation of information-based comics, and the design of TEDx-style and PechaKucha-based presentations using your own content. You will also analyze real-world advertising and information campaigns to assess which storytelling elements could be leveraged to make the communications more effective. By the end of the certificate program, you will be able to apply strategic frameworks to improve your storytelling ability and reach new audiences wherever your work takes you.
The courses in this certificate program are required to be completed in the order that they appear.
Course list
How can you convey one message but to different stakeholders? The challenge is that what appeals to a lawyer, for example, might not be relevant to a nurse. The key to this often-perplexing roadblock is strategic storytelling through transmedia. This practice uses strategic storytelling to convey your message to stakeholders across various forms of media, both print and digital.
In this course, you will gain a clear definition and examples of both strategic storytelling and transmedia knowledge. You will walk through various professional campaigns to explore the process and identify each piece of strategic storytelling. Throughout the course, you will put into practice the techniques and principles of both of these modalities in order to help you better reach your stakeholders, whomever they may be. By the end of this course, you will have a solid foundation to move forward with transmediating your knowledge to reach new stakeholders and make an impact.
For your campaign to reach everyone who can support your cause or benefit from what your product or skills offer, it is important to take the time to establish who your stakeholders are and what they need. By using a tool called the Strategic Sparkline, you can do just that.
In this course, you will use the Strategic Sparkline to analyze content. You will then identify stakeholders and determine the context and goal of your story for each stakeholder. Finally, you will reconfigure your story to generate different forms of your message for various stakeholders. In addition, you will use different media forms to share these insights with the stakeholders you need to address. By the end of this course, you will have actionable insights on your audience to help set your campaigns up for success.
You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:
- Strategic Storytelling Across Media
Engaging your audience is arguably more difficult than ever before, and every organization is looking for insights to set them apart. In this course, you will explore the power of user experience (UX) as a method of impacting your stakeholders. You will discover how images, words, and sound grab attention, inform decisions, and trigger action. You will explore the three components of the UX design frame: experience design, information architecture, and information design. Once you are familiar with the framework, you will design the experience as you create user scenarios, user journey maps, and mood boards with S.T.A.R. moments. By the end of this course, you will have a broader perspective on the importance of UX design for storytelling and engaging your audience.
You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:
- Strategic Storytelling Across Media
- Engaging Specific Stakeholders
When contemplating the different forms of media you can use to reach your customers, it's important not to forget about information-based comics. Yes, comics! Often thought of as a format for children or teens, comics can be an effective way to reach new stakeholders. Information comics situate knowledge within concrete scenarios. The characters and plots bring the knowledge to life through dialogue, illustration, and narration. To create an information comic for your campaign, you will create characters, storyboards, dialogues, and imagery to help relay the knowledge to your stakeholders. Once you have established these elements, you will use a web-based website/software tool to bring your vision to reality.
In this course, you're going to be making an information comic. You will discover how to write dialogue, create storyboards, and pull together all of the elements into a story about your strategic storytelling campaign. You will also identify how you plan to reach your different stakeholders. In addition, you will explore a tool that you can use to create an info comic.
You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:
- Strategic Storytelling Across Media
- Engaging Specific Stakeholders
When it comes to creating presentations, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed while trying to strike the perfect balance of engagement, information, and simplicity. Using industry-standard techniques employed on platforms such as TEDx Talks and in styles such as PechaKucha, you have the ability to create a transformative presentation that moves your audience through images and narration. These styles challenge you to focus on your message, which enables you to transform your presentation and empower and motivate your stakeholders through user experience and information design.
Throughout the course, you will explore the functions and forms of presentations; develop a presentation using important components drawn from TEDx and PechaKucha; and practice, present, and refine your presentation, allowing you to experience the process from start to finish. By the end of this course, you will have your own presentation, highlighting the best practices you acquired during the strategic creation process.
You are required to have completed the following courses or have equivalent experience before taking this course:
- Strategic Storytelling Across Media
- Engaging Specific Stakeholders
How It Works
- View slide #1
- View slide #2
- View slide #3
- View slide #4
- View slide #5
- View slide #6
- View slide #7
- View slide #8
Faculty Author
Key Course Takeaways
- Apply strategic storytelling methods to an existing communication campaign
- Develop a roadmap to tailor your content to different stakeholders and achieve the desired outcome
- Create a set of simple prototypes using rapid development for a variety of audiences
- Produce a transformative presentation that empowers your audience
Download a Brochure
Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the certificate brochure to review program details.
What You'll Earn
- Strategic Storytelling Certificate from Cornell University’s College of Arts and Science
- 50 Professional Development Hours (5 CEUs)
Watch the Video
Who Should Enroll
- Marketers and brand managers
- Community-based educators
- Grant writers
- Communication leaders in fields such as healthcare, environment, and public policy
- Executives
- Communications consultants
- Individuals seeking to better communicate their ideas and build a professional identity
Explore Related Programs
“Completing this writing certificate program was an incredible experience for me. I am a storyteller and marketer, and I was able to apply each of my projects directly to the tasks I was working on in my role. The things that I learned, the tips, the tools, the information, and the leave-behinds will continue to make me a stronger content creator. Thank you, eCornell, for this exceptional program!”
Request Information Now by completing the form below.
Strategic Storytelling
| Select Payment Method | Cost |
|---|---|
| $3,750 | |