The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic posed many challenges, yet it also presented an abundance of new, unrealized opportunities.

One such opportunity was to embrace the reflexive nature of stories and storytelling to understand one's own learning when conveying and translating complex actions personally undertaken to broad audiences. Digital storytelling is an opportunity that a Senior Year Design and Capstone class embraced in an end-of-semester Capstone Prototype Celebration Week. Rather than narrated PowerPoint presentations shared over Zoom, the class leveraged the institution's resources in video editing software (and our engineering ingenuity) to craft stories that showcased individual and team accomplishments in ongoing Capstone project work.

The approach inherently touched on the EML framework: 1) reflection of one's actions and learning over the course of the semester is innately a curious exploration of one's self; 2) conveying a coherent narrative of the actions one took to the engineering design process (e.g., embodiment design and prototyping) is an exercise in connection-making; and 3) the articulation of such a technical story to an outside, broad audience is the creation of value for both one's self (in having an artifact to showcase in a digital ePortfolio) and for others (in learning about a Capstone's effort approach toward solving a complex problem).

To successfully accomplish this task, five weeks of scaffolded Prototype Celebration Week assignments were scheduled for Capstone teams to make steady progress on its team-based digital story. Weekly due dates are associated to each task to help teams stay on track in advance of the Prototype Celebration Week.

In Week Zero, several resources were shared:

1. An overview of digital storytelling (specifically, resources from the institution's DigiComm unit were shared: https://www.jmu.edu/digicomm/resources/storytelling.shtml.
2. Tools for story development from the institution's Libraries (specifically from content tailored from a workshop: https://events.lib.jmu.edu/event/5367793). 
3. The value of ePortfolios as a means of marketing one's self to prospective employers, making sense of learning, and showcasing exemplar accomplishments (the ePortfolio link from DigiComm was included: https://www.jmu.edu/digicomm/resources/portfolios.shtml). 

In Week One, students were prompted to submit a draft story script. Six story templates were provided: 1) promote an idea; 2) tell what happened; 3) a hero's journey; 4) show and tell; 5) personal growth; and 6) teach a lesson. The prompt indicated that each story needed to minimally include:

• A synopsis of the entire thrust of the Capstone team's efforts.
• The background and context of the Capstone efforts.
• The Capstone team's specific approach to solving a problem.
• The Capstone team's goals (i.e., how it knows it will have solved the problem).
• The role each Capstone team member has contributed toward the Capstone effort.
• Specific, technical details about the team's approach and accomplishments toward solving the problem at hand, which likely includes concept development and concept selection.
• Specific, technical details about the embodiment of the team's selected concept, which likely includes analytical and/or physical prototyping.
• A clear articulation of the remaining steps toward the Madison XChange 2021 - a showcase of completed Capstone projects.

In Week Two, students were prompted to submit a no-good, ugly first draft video story. This first draft focused on the technical side of assembling clips, music, and graphics in any video editing package that the institution supports (e.g., Adobe Spark, Adobe Premiere Pro, etc.). Each clip needed to minimally showcase:

• A video shot of each team member's face and voice;
• A video or photo of an analytical and/or physical prototype (or stand-in) with audio narration; and
• Appropriate transitions between shots and clips (i.e., no abrupt scene changes).

In Week Three, students were prompted to submit a draft storyboard, which included both a sequence of script and supporting graphics to supporting the audible narration. In the first draft effort, the story board needed to minimally include:

• A 1-minute synopsis of the team's overall Capstone efforts.
• Clips relevant to the Capstone's background, context, or motivation.
• Clear depiction of when and how individual speakers will remark on technical concepts. All team members must have at least a 30 second speaking slot to share their specific accomplishments.
• Clear depiction of when and how shots of your analytical and/or physical prototype will be showcased.
• Any other audio-visual information that fully fleshes out the story.

In Week Four, an interlude of time prompted students to sign up for a presentation timeslot and finalize their video presentations. A Q&A session was held during class this week so that students could solicit instructor critique and feedback on specific video stories.

In Week Five, students were prompted to submit their MP4 video story files to Portfolium, which at our institution had been integrated into the Canvas LMS. Those files were accessed and played in a semi-live format during the final exam time block in finals week. Lastly, students were prompted to respond to a reflection post, which mimicked other reflection posts used throughout the semester. Specifically, students were asked to reflect on their learning over the entirety of the past semester and how their gained knowledge would fuel their direction the forthcoming final semester of their collegiate careers.