Introduction to Teaching (ED 204)

Multimodal projects are projects that communicate a message or messages in a variety of modes or mediums. In essence, it is a project that shares a message in a medium that is not fully text-based. For example, turning an academic essay (which is one, text-based mode) into a phone interview (audio and text-based) or a creative writing piece  (text-based) into a dramatic performance (images, motion, audio) or art piece (image-based) or even taking a research project (text-based) and turning it into a virtual museum (text, audio, and image-based).

The library has a variety of resources available to help you craft effective and engaging multimodal assignments into your curriculum.

Types of Assignments:

• Infographics
  • Bookmarks, flyers, and other mixes of visual and textual elements are excellent multimodal assignments. Programs like Adobe Express, Illustrator, and Canva have templates that can be used for such assignments.

The example below is an infographic flyer the library has used to promote library services:

• Podcasts and Audio Recordings
• Videos and Live Performances
  • Adapting a creative work into a live show for stage or classroom performance
• Slideshows and Presentations
  • Adobe Creative Cloud, Prezi, Canva, Google Slides, PowerPoint, Sway, and other programs offer free templates and a variety of customization options.
• Virtual Museums/Virtual Realities
  • Many programs have museum templates available for download. PowerPoint and Canva are currently the most popular programs to use, though some students have had luck in programs like Minecraft, Sims, and Unreal Engine.
• Dioramas and Art 
  • Transforming an essay - an event, a character, a concept, etc. - into an art piece, physical or virtual diorama.
• Photo and Video Essays
  • Photo essays can simply integrating photographs into a text-based essay. Video essays could be recordings of the student reading or performing the essay, and tend to be more narrative and dramatic in nature.
• Comics, Children's Books, and Graphic Narratives
  • Canva and Adobe both have templates available for creating comics, children's books, and graphic narratives.
• Interviews
  • Interviews can be recorded and can be done with a classmate, family member, college staff or faculty, or members of the community.
• Oral Histories
  • Oral histories are great for history, social work, anthropology, and sociology projects! Similar to interviews, oral histories typically interview a member of the community with the intent to record and document their experiences.
• Games and Game Boards
  • Many students have had fun creating games for final projects. Programs like Twine provide interactivity, and many templates for other programs like Google Slides are available. Additionally, students who would prefer a more narrative approach can write out the adventure in Word rather than using a program or template. A step further would be having classmates participate in the game!