Economics – Innovation Grant
Video Production for Student Engagement
Faculty Leads: Nir Eilam and Anne Royalty
UNCG’s Department of Economics is currently developing a number of short videos for their website and social media. With the help of a professional production company, they aim to create content that will speak to a wide range of UNCG students and represent the diversity of the School of Economics and will showcase the complex and socially significant questions that economics can be used to engage with. Specifically, there is an interest in finding ways to connect with those who are underrepresented in the field of economics – notably, minority, female, and first-generation college students.
These videos include a three-to-four-minute video which highlights the program, and a thirty-second clip designed for social media. The longer video centers on interviews with faculty, alumni, and current students. They speak to the career viability of economics, the complex issues – such as scarcity and inequality – that economics can be used to interrogate, the importance of growing diversity within the field, and their own positive experiences at UNCG. These interviews will also be used to create additional content in the future, which can be posted on the Economics website or social media. The thirty-second clip is a distillation of the full-length video and is aimed at catching the attention of potential students in the current fast-paced social media environment. As a whole, these videos are being developed with role models in mind. This project is based in part on research which shows that seeing a role model who they feel represents them can lead to students having higher scores and increased motivation in their coursework. This is particularly important for minority students within the program, who may not otherwise see themselves represented within the field of economics. By demonstrating the wide variety of individuals who make up the faculty and cohort of UNCG’s economics program, the project team hopes to inspire motivation and excitement within and about the program, in order to encourage new enrollment and increase student retention.
As a whole, this video-based project is being crafted to create direct engagement between the Department of Economics and current and future UNCG students. UNCG as a campus is home to many diverse individuals, and more first-generation college students than any other UNC system school. The Economics program is reaching out to these students in hopes of creating a cohort that reflects the UNCG student body as a whole, by showing students that they can succeed within the field of economics, and that they will be welcomed and supported by the Bryan School of Business and Economics at UNCG.