Instructional Considerations for Multimodal Courses
Brief Overview
Multimodal course design is an instructional approach that integrates multiple delivery methods—such as in-person, synchronous online, and/or asynchronous components—within a single course structure. Similar to HyFlex courses, this approach is built on core principles of equity, accessibility, learner choice, and reusability, ensuring that all students can engage meaningfully regardless of their participation mode. Creating a multimodal course requires many considerations across all aspects of the course to ensure that it is equitable, accessible, reusable, and incorporates learner choice. The following considerations are by no means an exhaustive list but are intended to provide practical guidance for designing key components of a multimodal course.
Instructional Considerations
Synchronous Sessions
- Consider “flipping” the class – learners view pre-recorded lectures and readings before class, so that synchronous class time can be used for application, active learning and feedback.
- Access Designing Flipped Classes to review strategies for setting up a flipped classroom for your students. Reach out to the WMU Instructional Design team for additional support.
- Monitor online learners and regularly stop to check for questions/comprehension.
- Consider asking questions to specific people both online and in-person to ensure equal opportunity for engagement.
- Break lectures into 10-20 min chunks with chances for participation and review.
- Use live polling apps like Slido to allow online and in-person collaborative responses.
- Consider assigning a daily “chat monitor” role who can raise their hand in class when an online learner asks a question during a lecture (only if students agree).
- Record and post short review videos to highlight key points covered in class.
- Review Tips for Success in Asynchronous Courses for additional design strategies that leverage the online learning environment to support student success.
Content
- Use Elearning templates to organize content consistently in every module. Add descriptions for how, when, and why the content should be used.
- There are templates available to assist with course building at WMU. Contact the ITC if you are interested in adding an Elearning template to your course.
- Share class content, slides, and visuals in advance on Elearning (this can also serve as a backup if technology issues arise).
- Provide options for accessing content in multiple formats like text, video, and audio whenever possible, and use accessibility services for captioning videos.
- Double-check links ahead of time to ensure they are accurate and unbroken.
- Write class activity instructions on slides so they are easily viewable for online learners.
Discussions
- Include multiple discussion formats, e.g., small group breakouts, whole class discussions, and discussion boards to allow for multiple ways to participate.
- Set expectations and etiquette norms to ensure equal opportunity for engagement and to manage technical components like microphones, digital hand-raising, shared documents, etc.
- Monitor and interact with discussions to provide feedback and engagement in all formats.
- Consider having learners rotate discussion roles (leader, note taker, summarizer, etc.) to help facilitate discussions and maintain engagement.
- Review Discussions: Protocols and Strategies for more ideas on how to plan and facilitate group discussion.
Pair/group work
- Use breakout rooms for remote learners and check in periodically to monitor progress, answer questions, and keep groups on track.
- Create opportunities for in-person and online learners to collaborate through shared documents or asynchronous collaborative tools.
- Use collaborative spaces, like Google Docs or collaborative whiteboard tools, for collective pair/group work.
- Monitor and interact regularly with learners as they work together to provide feedback and troubleshoot technical problems.
- Provide group norms and accountability up front as an agreement between learners. Offer a group survey to collect work preferences before assigning groups.
- Access Facilitating Group Work to review ideas on how to incorporate group work that is intentionally designed to support and facilitate cooperative learning, including norm setting and strategies for managing and supporting groups..
Feedback & Assessment
- Use Elearning dropboxes for assignment and assessment submissions for all learners.
- Use Elearning and/or collaborative tools, like Google Docs, to provide feedback for all learners.
- Offer multiple options for assessments (writing, presenting, recording, etc.) whenever possible to allow for learner choice.
- Create assessments that do not need to be strictly monitored.
- Break larger assignments down into smaller pieces to offer more frequent feedback and help keep learners on track.