Digital storytelling online: a case report exploring virtual design, implementation opportunities and challenges.

Background: Digital storytelling is an arts-informed approach that engages short, first-person videos, typically three to five minutes in length, to communicate a personal narrative. Prior to the pandemic, digital storytelling initiatives in health services research were often conducted during face-to-face workshops scheduled over multiple days. However, throughout the COVID-19 lockdowns where social distancing requirements needed to be maintained, many digital storytelling projects were adapted to online platforms. Methods: As part of a research project aiming to explore the day surgery treatment and recovery experiences of women with breast cancer in Peel region, we decided to pivot our digital storytelling process to an online format. During the process, we observed that the online digital storytelling format had multiple opportunities and challenges to implementation. Results: This paper outlines our promising practices and lessons learned when designing and implementing an online digital storytelling project including pre-production, production and post-production considerations. Conclusions: We provide lessons learned for future teams intending to conduct an online digital storytelling project. Plain English Summary: Digital storytelling uses pictures, video clips and audio to create a short, first-person video, to share a person's story. Before the pandemic, digital storytelling workshops were often held in-person over multiple days to help members of the community create their own digital stories. However, throughout COVID-19, many digital storytelling workshops were held online instead. This paper outlines our lessons learned when hosting an online digital storytelling workshop series to capture women's experiences with breast cancer in our local community. We hope our lessons learned are helpful for other teams who are considering using online digital storytelling workshops for their own research projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]