Design Interactive: A Nonlinear, Multimedia Approacl to Teaching Introduction to Visual Communication and Principles of Design

摘要

As online teaching techniques continue to evolve, new opportunities surface for research and insight regarding best practices for the development and implementation of interactive, multimedia teaching and learning tools. These tools are particularly attractive for courses that lend themselves to a rich media approach. Such is the case for visual communication curricula due to the visual nature of course content and the fact that students in visual communication courses tend to be very open to tactile visually oriented learning tools. To test these notions, a team of multimedia developers at a Midwest university created a media interface for educational multimedia. Then, a text titled "Design Interactive" was developed within this framework and administered in several sections of a 100-level visual communication course for journalism students. Students' attitudes about the text were solicited, and test scores were compared to previous iterations of the course in which "Design Interactive" was not used.