Best Practices for Creating Multimedia

Part of deciding whether and how to use multimedia technologies in an online course depends on knowing when they are appropriate. From a pedagogical perspective, the answer is limitless and depends on the instructional objective. Consider what you’ve learned about the qualities of a high-quality, effective online course. What will best help your students meet your goals for learning? From a technological perspective, choosing a tech tool depends on your answers to questions such as these:

• Does Boise State support the software?
• Will students have ready access?
• Do I (as the instructor) think the potential impact on the students’ and/or my workload will be worthwhile in terms of helping students meet objectives?

You may find it helpful to keep in mind that the technology is a tool to help you get somewhere, not the somewhere itself.

Consider working with your Instructional Design Consultant to:

• Guide you on the selection of multimedia tools you might use to create content.
• Identify multimedia tools that are supported by the Boise State Help Desk.
• Review or suggest multimedia tools that meet accessibility requirements for student projects.
• Recommend efficient processes to develop closed captioning for your videos.
• Provide guidance or feedback on the delivery of a sample recorded video lecture from the student perspective.
• Propose activity directions or suggest changes to your directions that might increase the efficiency, effectiveness or appeal associated with the delivery of your multimedia materials, or the ability of students to complete a multimedia project.
• Review multimedia content for accessibility requirements.

Media Selection Guidelines and Resources

Please consider using this checklist when reviewing material for use in your course.

Content

• The instructional materials support active learning and help the students meet the course and module learning objectives.
• The purpose of the materials and how they should be used are clearly explained.
• The lectures are broken into 10-minute segments.
• The ‘big picture’ lecture plan is explained at the beginning.
• Each 10-minute segment covers a single core concept.
• Each segment has ‘hooks’ to keep the audience engaged.

Multimedia

• The materials are appropriately cited and follow copyrighted laws.
• Students can readily access the materials (easy to find, easy to use, instructions provided).
• The materials are fully accessible to persons with disabilities.
  • Equivalent alternatives are available for all auditory and visual content (e.g., descriptive text, captions, and transcripts).
  • The materials are legible (text and graphics are clear and large enough to see easily).
  • The materials minimize extraneous distractions (student attention remains focused on the learning objective, not on the ‘bells and whistles’).

Multimedia Software

Boise State has a suite of tools that can be used to create an instructional video – you can find out more about them on the Video Services at Boise State page. If you have any questions about how to save and upload your video file, please contact The Zone (208-426-4357) or your Instructional Design Consultant.

Meeting Quality Matters Standards Related to Multimedia

If you have read the section on accessibility in addition to these readings on multimedia, attention to the Quality Matters standards should now make some sense. General Standards 4, 6, and 8 are especially relevant to your efforts to build accessible multimedia materials. Please review those standards now and consider how you would use them to guide the selection or development of instructional materials for your course. Before you access the document below with these standards, please read the following notice in order to comply with our agreement with the Quality Matters program to use their copyrighted materials.

Notice of Confidentiality of the Quality Matters Rubric Standards

The Quality Matters Rubric is a proprietary document and contains information that is treated as confidential. You agree that you will not copy, duplicate, distribute or disclose this QM material to others. Further, you agree that you will not remove copyright information from QM Rubric documents. The printed Quality Matters Rubric Workbook is available for those who prefer working with a physical copy of the QM Rubric.

If you agree with the terms of this notice of confidentiality, please read this PDF of the Quality MattersTM Rubric Standards (5th edition, 2014)

If you do not agree, please contact your instructional design consultant and discuss your concerns.

As you read the Quality Matters Rubric Standards, take notice of the 3-point Essential standards that must be met in order for a course to be certified by the national Quality Matters Program. You should strive to meet ALL of the standards in the design of your multimedia resources, but these standards are particularly important. If you have any questions regarding how to meet them, please discuss your questions with your instructional design consultant.