Imagine walking into class on the first day of a new school term and learning that, in addition to the standard complement of reading assignments and exams, the professor expects you to produce a video program. While the idea sounds exciting—a welcomed departure from the usual course assignments—students are likely to have serious questions about the task ahead. What equipment do I need to fulfill this lofty course requirement? What topic will I tackle in my video? And most important, how in the world can I pull off this assignment in ten weeks?

These are normal reactions among the forty students who routinely face the realities of video production in the junior-level course Natural Resource Communications, part of the undergraduate curriculum in Oregon State University’s Department of Forest Resources. Yet, in the eight years this project has been a class requirement, every student has successfully teamed with another classmate to produce a five-minute narrated video on a natural resource issue they find important. Designed to provide students with the concepts and techniques for successful communication in natural resource organizations, the class draws students from a variety of disciplines across campus—Forest Management, Natural Resources, Forest Recreation Resources, Fisheries and Wildlife, and Environmental Sciences.

Article published in the January/February 2005 issue of the Journal of Forestry (Volume 103, Number 1).