Final Reflection

This multimedia course has taught me a plethora of new skills, ideas, and ways of thinking. I found all the learning content really interesting and I am glad I took this course. While it was an incredible challenge for me, it pushed me to grow creatively and critically. Some of the ways I have grown are through my ability to use design thinking to generate a strong project. Going through the planning, ideation, prototype, feedback, and revision phases of each project showed me how valuable it is to engage in an in-depth process to create the best result possible. Specifically, the prototype and peer review was a fairly new experience for me, but turned out to be incredibly helpful. To be able to create a version of the project that you are content with and could submit as a final version and then be given feedback to improve it by outside sources was really cool. I always found myself taking most of the advice given and incorporating it into the project in some way. It was helpful to understand how others were perceiving the work and I think my projects certainly ended up better because of these phases. 

One of the main things that drew me to this course was the creative aspect. I love incorporating creativity into anything I can, so I definitely think learning how to apply it effectively to learning was really valuable. Storytelling is one of my favorite ways to be creative so it was nice to be able to incorporate that into a class. The problem I had at the beginning was that I was being over creative without critically thinking about the effectiveness of the learning. This is evident in the comic project as well as the video project. I began with a very detailed story line, but through the process of prototyping I realized I would need to majorly simplify to make the content understandable. It is easy to focus on the wrong thing in media production; the things that are fun and exciting are not always the things that will benefit the learner most. 

I think this course really challenged me in my ability to create many types of multimedia projects. The comic, video, and website were all mediums I had never considered as attainable for me. While as I have mentioned I loved the creative idea of them, I could never effectively execute them. If given the opportunity to create our own project in any class, I always tended toward a powerpoint. This course allowed me to learn how to do other types of projects effectively and that I can do them well. I think the OER website was a big part in this realization. It was not incredibly complicated to make a website and as long as you consider the design principles, you can make an incredibly engaging and enriching academic tool. With the video project, even though it was certainly my weakest, I now have the understanding of how to create something like that and how to do it effectively. I will continue attempting to better my ability to use videos as an effective learning tool. 

Something that really excited me about this course and still is, is the idea of how to apply these skills in the future. I am hoping to be a secondary school educator later in life and I think these concepts will be incredibly important in that field. Older students are better versed in using technology and therefore it has become almost a required part of teaching them. Going through this course I realized just how many teachers are creating ineffective tools and I hope that my experience with those combined with my experience with this course will allow me to create great tools for my future students. Another thing that really stuck out to me about multimedia learning is that it feels very accessible. I think back to the first substantive post I made that referenced comics as a way for people struggling with their emotions to communicate them and help understand them. This is something that I think is really valuable about the accessibility of multimedia. It extends beyond a classroom setting and into very real and life changing scenarios. I think it has the potential to be an encouragement for people struggling to face it and a resource for them to work through it. 

Overall, this course was a really enriching experience for me. While some things frustrated me at times, such as the video project, all of it was very beneficial to me as a student as well as potential future educator. I will take the knowledge about learning styles, multimedia effectiveness, design principles, and accessibility forward with me in my academic pursuits and future career.