The Cagli Workshop is actually a pair of two 3-credit courses: Digital Storytelling in Italy, and Intercultural Communication in Italy, which can be taken for undergraduate or graduate credit. Daily lessons in Italian are part of the workshop as well.

Classes generally begin at 8 am and conclude about 4 pm with an hour break for lunch. Open lab hours are extended into the evening during the final weeks of the workshop.

By the end of the Workshop, each student will complete a feature story, a slide show and a video which they then publish on the web. Students work in teams of four and help teammates by serving as crew and editor on their individual stories. In addition, each team has a faculty mentor.

All sets of student stories are posted on the Cagli website during the final week of the workshop.

The Digital Storytelling course has two major components, a set of short instructional modules, and a set of open labs.

The modules, which dominate the first two weeks, are lecture courses with exercises designed to prepare students to create their stories. The open labs, which dominate the third and fourth weeks, give students time to obtain interviews, photos, and video footage for their stories, and to meet with the team mentor or another faculty member.

The modules include: digital storytelling, feature writing, interviewing techniques, video scriptwriting, photography, videography, video editing and web design.

Intercultural Communication combines traditional lectures with assignments related to their stories, journaling, and specific observational exercises.