Today, there is an interesting read in the Chronicle of Higher Education: Multimedia Assignments: Not Just for Film Majors Anymore. As the title suggests, many in higher ed are advocating for a fresh approach to student work; rather than assigning our typical 4 analytical papers/semester, take a step back and consider allowing students to showcase your course material through a multimedia project.
The article highlights 3 reasons to adopt a multimedia project in your classroom:
- Cater to multiple learning styles
- Promote student engagement and exploration of your topic
- Allow students to create a meaningful learning object they will be proud to share with others
This semester in my third semester Spanish hybrid course, I made the difficult decision to leave behind the analytical papers that were previously on my syllabi. Instead, I opted for more open-ended explorations of themes via multimedia tools that supported the content we covered during the semester. I deemed these projects "obritas" or "little works of art" and I treated them as such. I gave students the guiding themes (identity, dreams, the future) and I allowed the students to choose the direction they went from there. For the first two obritas, the students selected their technology from a series of options (PowerPoint with audio narration, VoiceThread, Knovio) and they also had the freedom to create their own images (Doodle.ly or Wordle) or find images online. The most grueling part of the process for the students was authoring the script they would use to narrate their obritas. The scripts had to incorporate required grammar and vocabulary, then the students submitted a draft to me that I revised before they recorded their final versions.
I'm looking forward to uploading a few examples of my students' work here (I need their permissions first), and I also am waiting for their detailed feedback on the obritas in my end-of-semester survey. My initial conclusions on the syllabus change are very positive. The students are actually writing much more in this format than they had before, and they seem excited by their work. One of my students said the obritas have been his favorite thing about the class. The obritas are more shareable amongst the class and I have actually been able to use them as platforms for follow-up activities. For my purposes, it took a lot of time to create the assignments, the rubrics, and then determine how to provide feedback, but it was worth it! When I sit down to review their work, I am excited and engaged and proud of what they have accomplished. With a little direction, these students are capable of incredible creativity with our course content!
