8.2 Plan It!

Planning Multimedia

Review the infographic below as you think about how you will plan your project. Review the steps identified in the infographic to serve as a guide for planning.

**Figure 8.2a:** Let’s Make Multimedia [Figure 8.2a Image Description]

Idea

The following questions can help you refine your idea:

What is my objective?
What do I want to express, explain, uncover, show or document?
Why is it important?
How will this resource be used?

Approach

The following questions can help you refine your approach:

Does a similar resource to the one I am envisioning already exist online somewhere? You may want to check Creative Commons licensed sources as well as resources in the Public Domain to start.
Can you curate content by building some activities or context around a video that already exists or do you need to create something new?
What is my timeframe?
Can I do this by myself or will I need a team?
What approach will best help me meet my goals? To get a sense of what approach might serve your needs, review this table:

Table 1: What approach might serve your needs?
Goal	Ingredients	Approach
Expose common misconception	Demonstrate a concept, interview students/others for predictions	Video
Demonstrate a process	Whiteboard or application on-screen to show actions	Screencast
Document experience	Go to a location if it is field experience you want to document, or conduct an individual interview if it is a personal story you want to document	Video interview
Set tone for the course/learning community	You and your TAs can use a web-cam to make a welcome or introductory video message	Web cam style video recording
Tell a story	Audio, video, images or some combination	Podcast, screencast, narrated slides, or video
Explain a complex concept or phenomenon	Expose details that are impossible to see, or highlight connections	animation, stop motion animation, screencast

Questions to consider:

What do I need to know about copyright? (if you are producing resources and publishing online)?
Plan Your Project Worksheets: Video, Audio, Screencast: Guides to help you work out the learning objectives, content and associated learning activities.

Further questions to consider:

Am I intending to publish to content? If so, how will I handle permissions?
What will I need to budget for?
Will I need to purchase equipment or can I borrow it?
Can I do what I want to do with the equipment I have?
What sort of permission(s) will I need to obtain (ie student permissions)?

Tools

The following questions can help you choose your tools:

Will I incur any costs related to the use or maintenance of the tool I select?
How much of an investment will I need to make to learn the tool or approach I have selected?
Is there a return on investment of my time in learning this tool?
Will I need to update the project ongoing? Will the tool or service I choose support that?
Have I tested it? (ie. the file formats it exports to, transferability of those files, etc.)
What training and skills are required?
What are the benefits to collaborating on, hosting or embedding my work in an open environment (ie YouTube, Blogs, Wiki, Wikipedia, etc)? What are the risks?

Resources Worksheets and Checklists

Planning Worksheets: to help you work out your goals, and associated learning activities. Disclaimer: These worksheets are geared for educators however, the steps related to planning a multimedia project are both helpful and valid.

Checklists

Image description

Figure 8.2a Image Description:

Let’s make multimedia. Multimedia includes content that uses a combination of text, audio, images, animation, video, or forms of interactivity.

Idea: What do I want to do and why?

Audience?

- Who am I addressing?
- Why should they care?
- How will your audience be changed after viewing?

Impact?

- What do I need to express, explain, uncover, or show?
- How does this support my objectives?
- What do I expect to be the impact on learning?

Approach: How do I want to do it?

Format?

- What is the most effective media for meeting my goals?
- What are the specific objectives for this resource?
- How does this align with objectives and assessment methods?

Presentation style

- Will I be explaining, demonstrating, documenting, interviewing, or animating my idea?
- Do I want to create or curate?

Resources: What do I need to help me?

Time & resources:

- What is my timeframe?
- Can I do this myself or do I need a team?

Content?

- Aside from the main content in my project, will I need additional forms of media (images, music, etc.)?
- Do I have to consider copyright?

Tools: What should I use?

Workflow:

- What do I need to learn?
- Which resources do I need in order to learn the tools?
- How will my project be maintained or updated over time?
- What will I do?
- What will I delegate?

Budget & Context?

- What costs are involved in acquiring equipment, software and assistance?
- Do I want to have full control over the technology?
- Is it important that the technology is maintained and supported by UBC (or another institution)? [Back to Fig 8.2a]