Not Your Traditional Essay...

While university courses often entail writing research papers and doing other traditional assignments, I was surprised to find that there are also many opportunities to engage in creative coursework that pushes you to think outside the box and produce work that you’ll never forget. Here are two examples from both of my Majors – Communication, Culture, Information & Technology (CCIT) and History:

CCT210 – “Signs, Referents, and Meaning”

In this CCIT course, we explored how written expressions, gestures, and visual representations come to have meaning and how this meaning is interpreted. Our final assignment was a group project where we had to create a visual text – like an ad or a music video – in which we used concepts we learned in class. My group decided to create an Instagram influencer akin to the "gym bro" type, but instead of being a real person, they were 3D-rendered.

In our presentation, we talked about how "Jake" gives the impression of authenticity, but in reality, everything about him has been designed for the purpose of advertising. Since companies are increasingly turning to influencers to advertise their products, is it possible that virtual influencers will start replacing real ones since they are more controllable?

HIS213 - “A History of the Present”

This History course takes on a different focus every time it is thought, and in Fall 2022 it centered on the history of conspiracy theories and the effect they have in today’s society. Our final assignment was to choose a conspiracy theory, explain it, and then debunk it – but we had to represent this on a poster instead of a traditional essay. We talked about how academic history is often filled with complicated language and often isn’t accessible to the public; we had the task to make our poster visual and easy to understand. We then did a conference-like presentation, where we all stood by our posters and answered questions from any faculty, students, and guests walking by.

I chose to do the mole children conspiracy theory: "Were 35,000 caged children really rescued out of New York City’s underground tunnels and treated in COVID-19 field hospitals?"

This was a challenging assignment because I really had to scour the Library database and the wider internet to find the deeper roots of this theory and the psychology behind why people believe in it. In the end, it was very rewarding – applying the historical method to debunk a modern conspiracy and using visual methods to communicate it effectively was really interesting, and it combined skills from both of my majors that I’m very passionate about!

Overall, these assignments pushed me out of my comfort zone and taught me many skills, like how to present confidently in front of an audience and how to work better in a team. If you’re thinking of coming to UTM, prepare to push the boundaries of learning and be in an environment that pushes towards for innovation and creativity 😊

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