WSU Faculty to Explore Multimodal Assignments, Assessments in Spring 2013 Series

PULLMAN, Wash.—Teaching with effective communications tools, and ascertaining what students have learned, is the focus of a unique eight-part spring seminar series created for faculty members at Washington State University. It begins Jan. 16, 2013 and concludes with a guest expert workshop and lecture May 8.

The series is titled “Composing the New Classroom: The Teaching and Learning Remix.” The series is sponsored by the University College at WSU, hosted by its Writing Program. Faculty from all disciplines are invited to attend, says Diane Kelly-Riley, director of writing assessment and co-director of the Writing Program.

“Higher education is experiencing a national trend toward what is termed ‘multimodal teaching and learning,’ and there are innovators here at WSU who have already implemented it with success in their courses,” says Kelly-Riley. “We have asked several of them to lead the seminars in the series and share their expertise. They represent diverse fields university wide, such as English composition, digital technology and culture, engineering, and sciences.

“Because my area is involved with Writing-in-Major courses, and because multimodal teaching and learning is a hot topic, we initiated this series as a faculty development opportunity. Each session will be valuable for anyone who assigns and grades writing in classes, and also for anyone who seeks to use some very modern methods of cross-communication between teachers and learners at WSU. In naming the series, we used the word ‘remix’ very intentionally.”

“Multimodal” and what’s in a word

A web search for “multimodal” turns up millions of hits and reveals that the word is applied to much more than education, appearing in references to music, transportation, grammar, philosophy, logic, statistics, and medicine, for example.

In higher education, multimodal has many meanings, but typically refers to using methods to communicate that “go beyond the alphabetic” written text. Research shows that learning, comprehension, and retention of knowledge—cognition—is boosted, even dramatically, by expanding the toolbox to include visual, verbal, and auditory stimuli through multimodal teaching tools.

Classrooms, Assignments, and Assessments

Teaching a lesson in a multimodal fashion might include a lecture and readings plus such things as moving images, animations, color, music, sound, interactive illustrations, narration, and video.

Beyond how information is delivered in the classroom, multimodality can also involve how students respond to assignments. In addition to, or in place of, a written text they might want to express their answer to a question by preparing a poster, composing a song, developing an app, creating a webpage, cooking a pudding, or filming and editing a short video. Some, but not all, methods use modern technology.

It follows that multimodality also requires that faculty members be prepared to assess what the students submit. In civil engineering, for example, the senior capstone course requires that students incorporate multimodal communications in presenting their final design project.

Multimodality in engineering and English

“Both our mission statement and our engineering accrediting agency ABET require new engineers be able to effectively interact with other engineers, diverse groups of clients, and the public in a professional manner,” says David McLean, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “When the students are out of college and working as engineers, employers demand they must be effective communicators in multimodal ways in addition to having technical knowledge.

“We make sure they do. For their senior project they work in teams of three-to-four people on a real-world project. They prepare a written report on their design. They also deliver an oral presentation using PowerPoint, develop technical drawings, and prepare a poster summarizing their design. The audience is made up of faculty, students, and their clients, who are firms and practicing engineers outside of WSU.”

The engineering students are evaluated according to rubrics incorporating 12 required outcomes, including use of new technologies and knowledge of current issues relating to the project. “Students have the rubric from the start of the semester so they know they must demonstrate proficiency communicating their project using several different modes.”

Faculty in the Department of English frequently use multimodality in their classes. Its Composition Program offers a professional development series for instructors called “Minimally Multimodal—At Least!” Nationally prominent multimodal experts deliver presentations to its faculty via Skype, says Patricia Freitag Ericsson, associate professor and director of composition. With a background in multimodal education, she previously directed the WSU Digital Technology and Culture Program in Pullman. [http://libarts.wsu.edu/English/composition/pdc.html]

In December 2011, Ericsson and Crag Hill, assistant professor in English education, polled state K-12 teachers, and college teachers, about their interest in multimodality. In a WSU survey, with 131 respondents from over 50 disciplines, there was “very strong interest,” says Ericsson. “Faculty said they would do more to use multimodality with their students if they knew how.”

Spring faculty series on implementing multimodal strategies

Kelly-Riley notes that McLean and Ericsson are among select WSU experts leading seminars in the upcoming series. It concludes May 8 with an all-day workshop and lecture led by a guest expert from Michigan State University (MSU), William Hart-Davidson, co-director and senior researcher at its Writing in Digital Environments (WIDE) Research Center, and associate professor and director of MSU’s graduate program in rhetoric and writing. He serves as president of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing.

More information on the series is online at http://multimodal.wsu.edu . For the first session, RSVPs to jennifer.obrien@wsu.edu from those planning to attend would be appreciated; space is limited to 50 participants at this session.

Dec. 6, 2012

CONTACT: Diane Kelly-Riley, Director of Writing Assessment, Writing Program, University College at WSU, 509-335-1323, dokelly@wsu.edu

Beverly Makhani, Director of Communications, University College at WSU, 509-335-6679, Makhani@wsu.edu