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Beyond the Text: Promoting Digital and Visual Literacy through Multimodal Projects

Project Overview

This instructional design project was developed as part of UBC’s Beyond the Text initiative, aimed at promoting digital and visual literacy through multimodal assignments in undergraduate classrooms. I contributed extensively to the research, design, evaluation, and curricular development of this project. My work supported both faculty and students in engaging with multimodal forms of academic expression—bridging traditional literacies with digital fluency.

Learning Objectives

General Objective

To equip students and instructors with the pedagogical tools, strategies, and critical understanding needed to design, implement, and assess multimodal projects in undergraduate classrooms.
 

Learning Objectives

By the end of the lesson/unit, learners (students and faculty) will be able to:

  • Define what constitutes multimodal academic work and its relevance in higher education

  • Design projects that integrate textual, visual, and digital components

  • Apply grading rubrics aligned with multimodal outcomes

  • Reflect critically on the communicative affordances and challenges of multimodal production

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Target Audience

  • Undergraduate students across Arts and Humanities

  • Faculty and instructors interested in implementing multimodal pedagogies

  • Teaching assistants supporting digital assignments

Instructional Design Approach

The curriculum follows a constructivist and inquiry-based learning model, grounded in:

  • Bloom’s Taxonomy: guiding learners from Understand → Apply → Analyze → Create

  • Multiliteracies Pedagogy: emphasizing design, critical framing, and transformative practice

  • Universal Design for Learning (UDL): ensuring multiple means of representation and expression

I designed materials with adaptability in mind, allowing instructors to modify content for both in-person and online formats.

Project Flow

  • Introduction to multimodality: key concepts and examples

  • Group analysis of existing digital projects

  • Interactive discussion: what makes a multimodal project “academic”?

  • Rubric unpacking: how are multimodal projects graded?

  • Final reflection and peer feedback protocols

Assessment Strategy

  • Formative: Reflection prompts, scaffolded project milestones

  • Summative: Rubric-based evaluation of multimodal project drafts

  • Qualitative Evaluation: I conducted post-course interviews to assess student engagement and learning outcomes

Special Instructional Design Notes

This project was developed as part of a three-year research initiative at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Arts. All instructional contributions listed here reflect independent design, research, and analysis conducted by me as part of a collaborative team.

Project Links

Reflection as an Instructional Designer

This project gave me the opportunity to work across the full lifecycle of instructional design: from research and curriculum development to implementation, evaluation, and iteration. I led literature reviews, designed class materials, co-developed assessment tools, and facilitated student feedback loops. This experience reinforced my commitment to accessible, learner-centered design and deepened my expertise in multimodal pedagogy and digital literacies.
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