At the beginning of this course, I described myself as a teacher with a strong background in pedagogy who was beginning to see myself as a developing multimedia designer. My main goal in this course was to become more confident and intentional when designing interactive multimedia learning experiences instead of relying on pre-made templates or tools. Looking back at my initial flight path, I feel like I did meet many of the goals I set for myself, although the process involved more experimentation than I expected. At first, I assumed the course would mostly focus on learning new tools or technical skills. While those were certainly part of the experience, I quickly realized that the deeper learning was about understanding how multimedia design connects to how people learn. Over time, I began to see multimedia less as something that simply makes lessons look engaging and more as a way to structure information, guide attention and support student understanding.
One of the most valuable things I learned in this course was how learning theory informs interactive and multimedia design decisions. Concepts like cognitive load, accessibility and the organization of information helped me think more carefully about how learners interact with digital materials. Instead of adding visuals or interactive elements just because they looked interesting, I started asking whether they actually supported the learning goal. This shift helped me better understand the course objectives around applying multimedia design principles and thinking more intentionally about design choices. Creating prototypes such as blogs and comics gave me the opportunity to experiment with visual hierarchy, pacing, and the relationship between text and images. I found that storytelling elements were particularly effective when thinking about how learners move through information. Structuring content through narrative or visual sequences helped make ideas feel more engaging and easier to follow.
At the same time, the comic assignment was probably the most challenging part of the course for me. Creativity and visual creation are not areas where I naturally feel very confident, so translating an idea into a comic format pushed me outside my comfort zone. I found it difficult to think about how to communicate ideas visually and how to structure the panels so that the story and learning message were clear. Even though it was challenging, working through that assignment helped me better understand the role of storytelling and visual communication in multimedia design. In contrast, one of my favourite parts of the course was the engagement on Mattermost and the opportunity to collaborate with my group during the OER multimedia challenge. Those conversations made the course feel more interactive and gave me the chance to see how other people approached similar design problems. Working with my group helped generate new ideas and made the learning experience feel more collaborative and supportive.
Another important aspect of the course was learning to approach multimedia projects through a design thinking process. Brainstorming, prototyping, testing and reflecting helped me see design as something that develops over time rather than something that needs to be perfect on the first attempt. This way of thinking made it easier to experiment and learn from mistakes. Instead of feeling stuck when something did not work, I started to see those moments as part of the design process. Feedback from classmates also helped me refine my ideas and notice aspects of my designs that I might have overlooked. Overtime, I became more comfortable trying new approaches and making adjustments as my projects developed.
Overall, my perspective on multimedia in education has grown quite a bit over the semester. At the beginning of the course, I mostly thought about multimedia as a way to present information visually. Now I see it more as a way to design learning experiences that are interactive, purposeful and accessible for a wide range of learners. Looking ahead, I can imagine using the skills from this course to create visual explanations, storytelling-based lessons or simple interactive resources that support student engagement. I am also interested in giving students opportunities to create their own multimedia artifacts, such as comics or other visual projects, as a way to demonstrate their understanding and share their ideas. While I still feel like I am continuing to develop my technical and creative skills, I leave this course feeling more confident experimenting with multimedia and more aware of how thoughtful design can support meaningful learning experiences.