The course will explore the stages in the development of multimedia products from client brief to delivery. Multimedia developers from industry will contribute to the face-to-face training session, which will include workshops focusing on the stages of development of a range of products including audio and video.Participants will have opportunities to develop ideas for multimedia projects to use with learners and will see learning resources that have been developed to support delivery of multimedia product development in the classroom.
At the completion of this course, you should be able to demonstrate the following outcomes:
Professional and reflective practitioner skills
Practical skills
Knowledge and understanding
Cognitive skills
Vital Courses are based on the Practitioner Research Cycle as shown in the diagram below.
You will no doubt already be familiar with the notion of reflective practice, which typically has four stages:
The Practitioner Research Cycle extends that by adding in two further stages:
‘Find out’ involves investigating what the wider education community knows about how to address identified needs (in order to help learn from other people’s prior experience and avoid re-inventing the wheel).
In the ‘Share’ stage you pass on what you have learnt to the wider community so that they in turn can benefit from your experiences and expertise. (This is then mediated by a process of peer review before becoming an established part of the education communities’ shared knowledge base.)
This cycle draws on, and develops, personal and professional knowledge bases (Pers KB and Prof KB in the diagram). The latter is the knowledge that underlies professional practice in education, and is reflected in the literature, resources, policies and other materials that are used to inform practice. Throughout the course icons will indicate the stage of the cycle being addressed.
You will need access to:
You should have the following skills and qualifications:
Online hours | Collaborative (timetabled) | 0 hours |
Collaborative (flexible) | 3 hours | |
Independent study online | 0 hour | |
Sub-total | 3 hours | |
Offline hours | Facilitated face-to-face | 5 hours |
Workplace: working with learners on project ideas emerging from the face-to-face session | 2 hours | |
Independent study offline | 0 hours | |
Sub-total | 7 hours | |
TOTAL | 10 hours |
Week | Activities | Stage* | Type | Approx time needed |
1 | Face-to-face event: Opening event and workshops 1–3 | Find out | Face-to-face | 3 hours, 30 minutes |
1 | Activity 1 Workshop 4 – Planning a project for learners | Find out | Face-to-face | 1 hour |
1 | Activity 2 Final Plenary with facilitators and developers | Find out | Face-to-face | 30 minutes |
2 | Activity 3 Contacting participants in the forum | Share | Online | 30 minutes |
2–5 | Activity 4 Working with learners on multimedia development | Do | Workplace | 2 hours |
6 | Activity 5 Reporting back to the forum | Share | Online | 1 hour |
6 | Activity 6 Negotiating our shared learning | Share | Online | 1 hour |
6 | Activity 7 Course evaluation | Online | 30 minutes | |
Total | 10 hours |
The main focus of this course is a face-to-face training event. A facilitator, together with IT industry multimedia developers, will be explaining the processes of development from the client brief, through generation of a project plan, to the production and delivery of a product to the client. You will also be working in small groups to generate ideas for projects with associated client briefs with course participants and employers. These ideas will be of value in the classroom.
Activities 1–2 are completed as part of the face-to-face event. Activities 3–7 are online and classroom activities following the face-to-face event.
Opening keynote address from IT industry developer A multimedia developer from the IT industry will start the day by reflecting on the changes in multimedia development over recent years and how important the user experience is to a product’s success. |
Workshop 1 – From client brief to project plan The first workshop will focus on working with clients and will examine the steps from receiving a client brief through to generating a requirements specification and a project plan for a multimedia product. The session will include a developer discussing how this process is carried out in the industry and its importance in delivering a product that meets the original client brief. |
Workshop 2 – Effective use of multimedia in website development This workshop will look at the different use of multimedia in website development, including production and integration of audio, video and animation. Examples of software that can be used in the classroom to support creation of multimedia content will be demonstrated. |
Workshop 3 – Supporting learners in the evaluation process One of the most difficult tasks for learners is to evaluate a final product, whether this is a written piece of work or a multimedia product. This workshop will look at strategies for evaluation, including organisation of user testing and evaluating a product against the original brief. Industry developers will talk about the importance of this part of the development process and how they manage the user testing and delivery phase. |
Participants will break into smaller groups to work with facilitators and developers to come up with ideas and client briefs for multimedia projects. These ideas will be useful in the classroom and can be used with learners in the post-course activities.
To finish off the day, a question and answer session will be held for participants to ask any questions of those who have been involved in delivering the day’s sessions. The Vital Community will also be demonstrated at this final session, where a forum will be available for five weeks after the event. Participants will be able to meet up again online and discuss and reflect on their progress using the learning resources created from Activity 1 (Workshop 4).
These activities are designed to build on the contacts made at the face-to-face training event and to reflect on the use of the learning resources provided by the session with groups of learners.
The objective of this course activity is to make contact with other course participants by posting a message in the forum which reflects on the face-to-face training event.Go to the course forum. Post a message that reflects on your experience of the face-to-face event. Indicate how you intend to work with learners using the project ideas and insight into industry multimedia product development gained at the session. Respond to any messages posted by the facilitator or other participants, including discussion threads relating to the employer-led workshops.
In these activities, you will use the project resources, tools and skills from the face-to-face session with a group of learners and then report back on this in the course forum.
The objective of this course activity is to work with a group of learners on a multimedia product development activity that makes use of the resources, project ideas and skills gained from the face-to-face event.
During Workshop 4 of the face-to-face session, you will have worked with employers and other participants to generate ideas for projects that can be shared with learners. You will have also seen examples of the multimedia resources created by e-skills UK, which give you two project ideas for web development with associated multimedia products for integration. You may also have picked up skills and techniques in multimedia development that you would like to share with learners.
You need to work with learners using something that emerged from the face-to-face event. This may be the project idea from which you can create a client brief and use it to start to create a project plan for a multimedia product with learners.
You may wish to work with a group on specific skills, such as video creation and editing, or you may wish to share information about the industry developers who contributed to the face-to-face session and what their roles are in real life multimedia development for clients.
The objective of this course activity is to share your experiences of working with learners on multimedia development activities with other course participants and your facilitator.When you have worked with your group of learners, go back to the forum and respond to the ‘Reporting back’ discussion thread created by your facilitator. Post a message to the other participants reflecting on your work with learners and including your thoughts on using the materials, ideas and skills gained from the face-to-face session, and subsequently.
The practitioner research cycle is based on sharing your experiences and expertise in order to develop the professional knowledge base.
Having reflected individually upon your own learning within this course the next stage is to share these reflections within the course group and see what commonalities there are in what each of you has learnt. You may then want to share these insights more widely within the community.
The objectives of this course activity are:
Go to the course forum and, in the Discussion called ‘Shared Learning’, post a message in which you summarise the key learning points that have emerged for you during the course.
Then read through the key learning points that other members of the course have posted.
In your group decide on ONE combined set of key learning points which you are all agreed upon.
This final section allows for evaluation.
The objectives of this course activity are to complete an evaluation form and rate and review the course.
Your task is to complete the evaluation questionnaire, which can be found on the course page.