Multimedia Learning Design Project Paper

ISTC 655
By Tracy Smith
Audience

The audience for my multimedia learning design project consists of 7 th grade World History middle

school students that attend the middle school where I currently teach. My school has a large ELL and

special needs population, and has a minority enrollment of 71%, with the majority being African

American and Hispanic students. The school has a diversity score of .76, placing it in the top 5% of

diverse schools in the state of Maryland. The reading proficiency of students at my school is 10%, well

below the state average of 41% (CAST, n.d.). My project was designed with my school’s student

population in mind.

Learning Goals

The mini lesson I selected for this project was on primary and secondary sources. The learning goals for

this lesson include the following:

● Know what a primary and secondary source is.

● Differentiate between primary and secondary sources.

● Understand how historians use sources to gain information.

● Understand why it is important to critically analyze a source.

Project Overview

For this project, I chose a mini lesson on primary and secondary sources that I usually teach at the very

beginning of the school year to my students. The lesson and tasks for this project are presented in the

Schoology LMS platform utilized by BCPS and utilize the lesson format required by my school for

consistency across content areas to assist students with executive functioning. The lesson begins with an

overview of the objectives and then is followed with a prompt on a discussion board that students are to

respond to, then respond to at least two other classmates’ responses. Student will then progress to the next

section by clicking on a link that will take them to a webpage to explore resources and information,

including a VoiceThread video activity that requires collaborative responses, and viewing a video then
completing a Gimkit interactive review game to test their knowledge. Students will then return to the

Schoology platform to complete an assessment created using the Schoology assessment tool.

Design Principles and Strategies

One of the first principles I implemented in the design of this project was to use one tool, the Schoology

LMS platform, to launch the other tools that would be utilized to try to minimize the lack of coherence

from using multiple tools (Peters, p.230). I provided links to the other digital tools that students would be

utilizing by embedding them within the Schoology platform. Peters’ strategies for shaping the path and

introducing features gradually were also implemented in the design of this project (Peters, p. 236). The

Schoology platform I utilized has a “completion” option that can be chosen that requires students to

complete one activity before the next activity can be viewed or completed that I enabled. This feature

gradually introduces the activities as they are completing and shapes the path students take during the

lesson by disabling the next activity until the previous one has been completed. Students are still able to

go back to previous activities if needed but cannot move forward until the current activity has been

completed. There is no time limit on any of these activities so learners can still move through them at

their own pace, which is an example of giving learners control of their pace through a learning experience

(Peters, p. 242). This learner control is also incorporated in my project in the video controls provided to

my learners, and by my elimination of a time limit on the lesson assessment. The pop-up feedback

strategy was utilized in the Gimkit review game I created and embedded in the Spark Adobe Learn About

It page, with students receiving immediate pop-up feedback about their answer choices in the game. This

pop-up feedback strategy can also be seen in the assessment portion of my project by providing pop-up

feedback on the multiple-choice questions when using the Schoology assessment tool (Peters, p. 234).

Aside from the pop-up feedback on these questions, the assessment was also designed to accommodate

my ability to provide rich feedback to learners directly next to their short answer responses. This rich

feedback strategy was also incorporated into this project by my choice to utilize VoiceThread as one of

the activities, allowing for rich feedback on students’ posts not only from me, but from other learners as
well (Peters, p.235). Another strategy that I incorporated into my project was designing it to provide

various forms of assessment (Peters, pp. 239-240). I personalized the summative assessment for this

activity by enabling several features, including text to speech, eliminate answer choice, flag a question for

review, no time limit, and in the modified version I offered an audio response option for the short answer

questions instead of a written response. The formative assessments for this project included a

VoiceThread activity that gave learners the option of providing written, audio or video responses to

question prompts. The last strategy I implemented in this project was to try to set the learning in a real-

world context by asking students in the VoiceThread activity to generate ideas about possible primary and

secondary sources about the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic and offer this discussion using an

asynchronous communication tool that would allow this interaction to occur over time but still simulate

an interactive discussion activity (Peters, p. 241).

UDL Guidelines

As explained in my audience description, only 10% of the students at my school currently read at a

proficient level, and I have a large ELL and special needs population as well. With these factors in mind,

I implemented several of the UDL guidelines into this project.

For Multiple Means of Representation, I customized the display of information using contrasts between

backgrounds and text and images and allowed for the rate of speech or sound to be adjusted in videos. I

provided spoken and textual descriptions for visuals and enabled text to speech wherever possible and

accompanied digital text with a human voice recording when I was able to. I also utilized closed captions

for my YouTube video that also featured a translation option for ELL learners. I highlighted and

emphasized key elements in text and graphics and used cues and prompts to draw learners’ attention to

critical features, including using bolded text, captions, topic headings and cues such as buttons to indicate

action. I also progressively released information to learners by utilizing the completion feature in the

Schoology platform.
To provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression I incorporated several strategies into my project

design. I utilized the Schoology platform, which has the assistive technology Kurzweil, (text to speech)

embedded in it, and provided audio narrations by myself wherever possible for learners, including in the

directions, videos and the Gimkit review game. I also utilized multimedia for communication through

discussion forums and the VoiceThread activity, and communicated information to learners utilizing

multiple media, including text, speech, visuals, and video. Learners were also provided multiple tools for

construction and composition through the use of audio response in the assessment activity, as well as the

VoiceThread activity by allowing learners to submit written, audio or video responses. Learners were also

permitted to provide audio and images as part of the discussion board activity.

I provided Multiple Means of Engagement by the selection of the colors, graphics and design of my

project and incorporating gamification with rewards through my use of the Gimkit review game. The

Gimkit game, as well as the VoiceThread activity I incorporated, also provided learners with tasks that

allowed for active participation and personal response, evaluation and self-reflection to the content and

the activities.

Links for Final Project

Final Project Overview

Primary and Secondary Sources Adobe Spark Page and Activities

 References

CAST. (n.d.). The UDL Guidelines. The UDL Guidelines. Retrieved June 12, 2021, from
https://udlguidelines.cast.org/

Lansdowne Middle School Profile (2019-20) | Halethorpe, MD. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.publicschoolreview.com/lansdowne-middle-school-profile

Peters, D. (2014). Interface design for learning: Design strategies for learning experiences. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: New Riders Press.