What have you learned in the course about designing instruction from a multimedia perspective?

When designing instruction with a multimedia perspective, taking time to plan your instructional design and mapping out the steps or processes of your lesson are key to creating a successful lesson. The more time that you spend planning and organizing in the beginning; the easier it will be to create the multimedia instruction. To begin with, you will want to present your information in a logical order so that the information flows fluently from one segment to the next. Also, providing specific visual examples or demonstrations of the desired outcomes in your lesson will help guide the learner. There were several projects in this class, that I personally wish I understood the outcome better prior to creating the project. Once you start constructing your resources and materials, be careful not to repeat information with multiple types of media formats. Ensure that supporting text is only used to clarify the activities and not repeat the same information. Repetition can be distracting for the learner. To draw attention to important content or key concepts, place them where the eye goes first. And create multimedia instruction that holds the learners attention, but be careful not to add distractors from the lesson. Too much interaction and color can be distracting.

Designing multimedia instruction naturally supports the characteristics of the constructivist learning theory. Providing interactive multimedia resources allows the teacher to create problem-based learning activities in which students are given a project or problem to solve and resources to research and to complete the project. Teachers act as facilitators to help students think and improve problem-solving skills. In this situation, students have control of their own learning and are expected to construct new information.  Also, the lesson can be dynamic in nature. The Internet provides links to many resources allowing the students to explore into areas that they have an interest. In addition, the constructivist approach requires students to find documents or information that is relevant to their learning. The use of hyperlinks and Boolean search strategies can help accomplish this task. The use of e-mail, list serves, and library resources can help the student acquire information. Students can request information through online surveys, chat rooms, or the use of social media.  And students themselves can utilize the multimedia tools to design and present their findings and research to others. The teacher can then provide a rubric, so students can evaluate and assess their finished project.  All of these media strategies can be easily utilized and naturally support the constructivist learning theory.