Exploring Digital Multimodal Approaches to Teaching, Learning, and Assessment through the Perspectives of English Lecturers in Higher Education

This project explores the use of digital multimodal composition (composing using images, audio, written text, etc.) in English Studies. Written essays are the dominant mode of assessment used in Higher Education English Studies modules in the UK. However, multimodal projects (e.g., films, podcasts, etc.) provide alternative ways to engage with and respond to texts as students use combinations of modes to explore meaning and construct arguments. Using a multi-method qualitative design, I interviewed and collected documents from fifteen English Studies lecturers at six UK universities to investigate their practices and perspectives using multimodal approaches to learning and assessment. For example, some participants had their students make video essays, instead of written essays, to engage with the content of their modules. My research questions focus on why my participants innovate (RQ1), what their multimodal projects look like (RQ2), and their experiences, interpretations, and evaluations of the multimodal innovations they use (RQ3). First, I found that participants innovate because of their institutional contexts and their ideological and pedagogical beliefs related to alternative assessment, risk-taking, and inclusivity. Second, the wide variety of multimodal projects my participants use – from video essays to films to interactive websites – suggest the diversity of digital approaches that can be used to multimodally respond to a text. Third, participants used a variety of strategies to introduce the projects and guide students. Fourth, participants believe that multimodal approaches have both benefits to learning in general (e.g., engagement, digital skills) and subject-specific benefits related to English Studies (e.g., understanding theory). Fifth, participants describe obstacles involved with incorporating multimodal projects, but also solutions to overcome these. The implications of this research are theoretical and practical: I contribute to a greater understanding of how multimodality can be used to engage with and respond to texts, and I provide recommendations for implementing multimodal methods.