Still one size does not fit all: Even
using a multimodal approach to
teaching a core communications
course
Dr Michael Sankey
Eleanor Kiernan
Senior Lecturer
LTSU
Lecturer
Faculty of Arts
5 July 2007
Transmodal delivery
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26,000 students
70 nationalities
75% study off-campus
Part of USQ’s answer has been a move to what
it calls Transmodal Delivery
Designed to complement the University’s new
directions for teaching and learning and its
‘Leading Transnational University’ vision
Transmodal delivery
Videoconferencing
F2F Sessions
Laboratories &
Practicums
Field Work
Online Discussion
Forum
Teletutorials/
Telecords
Teaching Support
Toowoomba
USQConnect Study Desk
OS campuses
Wide Bay
Resource Package
Springfield
Intro materials, study guide, readings, audio files,
PowerPoint's, breeze, video, multimedia, software
and web links
Partners
Multimodal design
Learners use a variety of learning/cognitive
styles to process information
 Higher education has traditionally targeted
read/write learners (Sarasin 1999), this may
impede learning for some students (St Hill 2000),
particularly for our internationals
 Multimodal representations gives students a
greater level of control in terms of choice.
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Multimodal design
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Learners build mental representations by using
multiple sensory channels (Anderson, 2001), &
compensate for any weakness associated in
understanding one representation by switching to
another (Ainsworth, 1999)
Pitching the course
Constructivist
Cognitivist
High
School
1st
2nd
Year of study
3rd
4th &
Post-grad
CMS1000 – Communication &
Scholarship
CMS1000 is offered – externally, oncampus, internationally, 3 times a year
 Course covers initiatives to assist first
year students to engage with academic
and psychological dimensions of
communication
 Students often unfamiliar with disciplinespecific literacies
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Demonstration of design
The research
N = 113
 Survey qual/quant and Focus Groups
 80% female 20% male
 53% off-campus 46% on-campus
 84% first year students
 63% under 25
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Q18
Did you like the CD based materials?
86%
Q17
The study materials viewable on the CD, with links
to other aspects of the course are more useful
than printed materials
58%
29%
Q9
44%
43%
I preferred to use the CD materials rather
than the printed materials
Q22
Please choose your ideal combination of learning
materials
74%
8%
11%
7%
Do students like the ‘bells and whistles’?
72%
64%
12%
12%
The interactive multimedia features (such as diagrams with
explanations)…
 were more helpful to me than the static, print-based
representations (Q7)
 catered for my approach to learning (Q10)
Q12
The multimedia introductions (using PowerPoint and audio)
used for each module; assessment and course overview
really helped my understanding of the course content.
80%
7%
What CMS1000 students said
“As learning happens in many different ways I believe the
visual and auditory representations added an extra
dimension to learning, allowing access to learning styles
previously hard to obtain by external students.”
“Presenting material in a variety of formats and ways
facilitates and stimulated my learning.”
Audio
http://www.usq.edu.au/users/sankey/CMS1000S12006/
http://www.usq.edu.au/users/sankey/cms1000/ (2005)
The down side
Technology hitches
 On-campus students could use the
material and stop coming to classes.
 Some students, particularly ONC, don’t
use the technology much
 Lecturers need to encourage students to
engage with materials (the dripping tap)
 Not everyone liked it - even with all this
added stuff
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Conclusion
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External students (particularly 1st year) – felt a
much closer link to the lecturer – less isolated
On-campus students now get access and many
have found this extra resource valuable to
complement their classes
The multimedia elements help to demystify and
deconstruct the processes of study
Student response, particularly external, has
been extremely positive
Any questions?
CMS1000 VARK modalities