Multimedia Challenge 4
Multimedia Challenge is both an educational event and a competition. To participate, one has to sign up on the Multimedia Challenge official website (in Russian), for which they are automatically scored 300 points. All the tasks in the competition are split into five categories: information search, content creation, communication, storytelling, and presentation. Each category has several subdivisions; for example, in the storytelling category, there can be two tasks: to repackage a story or write a script. The tasks vary in difficulty and yield you a different number of points, from 100 to 1,200. In order to get a more complex task, a participant has to solve some simpler tasks first.
The marathon is very practice-oriented. You first get an envelope with tasks and only after that listen to lectures and read articles on your topic.
The main rule is to keep up with deadlines. If you fail to present your work on time, you don’t get any points for it, which is not very good, as this will affect your position in the overall ranking.
The main perk of participation in this competition is that you will get detailed feedback from an expert, which will help you understand and correct your mistakes.
Multimedia for everyone
Over 500 people participated in the Multimedia Challenge last year. Though they have different ages and backgrounds, they all found the competition useful in one way or another.
“We don’t divide people into techies and humanities scholars, and this division is even more subtle in the field of media. The specialists who create content have to both have certain technical skills and understand the principles of storytelling. High-quality multimedia content is made of two basic elements: matter and format. There are lots of very good stories that are poorly made and they rarely make it to the top, and it’s the same with a high-quality video without a good idea behind it. That’s why we welcome people with any background and teach them to find a balance between form and content,” shares Oksana Silantieva, developer and producer of Multimedia Challenge.
According to the organizers, there’ll be a new option in the fourth Challenge – skill tracker. This means that if you successfully complete three tasks in one skill set, you’ll get a certain note in your final certificate. The competition will end with an awards ceremony where the best participants will receive prizes and certificates, as well as will be able to communicate with talented people from different Russian cities and get invitations to various professional forums and courses.
“Multimedia Challenge is organized in a very interesting format, which ensures a high level of engagement of participants who want to improve their professional skills. Developing Master’s programs, we’re always looking for such additional opportunities for both our students and lecturers. In our Master’s program in science communication, we focus on both humanities disciplines like multimedia storytelling and science journalism, and the ones dedicated to modern educational technologies. Therefore, participation in this competition does not only gives you an opportunity to acquire practical skills but also see from the inside how a very successful educational system for a wide audience works,” says Daria Denisova, head of ITMO University’s Science Communication Center.
Participation in the competition will allow you not only to improve your multimedia work but also gain valuable experience in communication and presentation, the basic areas of soft skills.
“Each task set is accompanied by an educational module, and this is what makes Multimedia Challenge so special: it is both a competition and an educational course. You learn something new and compete in what you are mastering right now. Isn’t it exciting?” shares Oksana Silantieva.
