EDCI 337 Portfolio

The following is my final portfolio for EDCI 337, where I will discuss my learning outcomes throughout the class and how they relate to the course materials. Below I will address how I met each of the course learning outcomes, providing evidence by linking to previous submissions such as the Daily Creates and the Multimedia Story. This evidence will be arranged in a manner such that each heading addresses each individual course outcome.

How Learning Informs Interactive and Multimedia Experiences

In order for interactive and multimedia experiences to be created, the author must be aware of how these tools can be leveraged to benefit readers. By learning about these concepts, authors are able to design their media in various ways depending on their target audience. In turn, this allows the content to be as understandable and engaging as possible.

I developed these skills through my daily creates, where I gained insight into how others may perceive media that I am developing. This was an ongoing learning process, as each week I was able to think about how the different types of media affect a reader’s perception of the content itself. For example, in the week of Daily Creates for images, I learned more about how images can be used to emphasize points of content while simultaneously addressing the risk of extraneous cognitive load (Multimedia Learning). In this week’s daily creates, I used images to emphasize the brightness of the sun and the growth of a plant, both of which are difficult to contextualize without the use of images (Images DC). These images provide instantaneous meaning for a reader and are quickly processed, allowing the reader to focus on the overarching concept that is being discussed (Text and Image).

Multimedia Design Principles Applied to Planning Educational Resources

When planning educational resources, the application of multimedia design principles can be a difficult topic to think about. When I was creating my educational resources, I found that I was often referring to the course notes to ensure that I was properly applying the multimedia design principles (Multimedia Learning). An example of this can be seen in my Multimedia Story Draft, where I took the time to plan out the contents of my multimedia story, and which design principles would be included (Multimedia Draft). In this, I had to be sure that I applied design principles that I believed were feasible, but also would provide effective storytelling for the assignment. In this draft, an example is when I planned to apply the Contiguity Principle by ensuring that my text was placed near images to provide context to readers. Furthermore, I planned to utilize the Segmenting Principle by separating sections of my story to make it more readable (DC Multimedia). By implementing both of these features, I made sure that I was managing a reader’s cognitive load. Overall, I had to be sure that I made the correct decisions in which multimedia design principles I should focus on to provide optimal content for readers.

Design Thinking in Multimedia Learning Projects

Throughout the course, while interacting with the various media types, I learned that the design thinking process involves a shift in mindset and introspection to ensure that the design of the media went smoothly (Design Process). This can be seen during my Multimedia Story Draft as well as the Multimedia Story itself. Within the draft, I effectively demonstrated the understanding and planning phases of the design process. This was accomplished when I described what my multimedia story would be and planned how I would go about recording it (Multimedia Draft). From there, for the final story I was able to explain what happened during the “try” stage, where the rain forced my friends and me into making changes to our trip, and thus my story. In the moment, rather than continuing with our initial plan, I reflected on what would be the most feasible plan for the following day (Multimedia Story). This pivot forced me to iterate on my initial plan, changing the overall story and the types of media that I was going to capture. At first I found this pivot to be difficult, as I had a set idea on how my story would flow, but after embracing the change it became much easier to manage.

Application of Storytelling Principles in Creating Effective Learning Opportunities

The application of storytelling principles allows writers to use various techniques to immerse a reader in their story, allowing them to create meaning. In this class, I learned that digital storytelling is used to create additional meaning that simple summaries containing text and images could not.

For my multimedia story, I used a few of these techniques with the goal of immersing the reader and eliciting an emotional connection. Firstly, I chose to follow the seven storytelling techniques as mentioned in the notes to provide the best story possible (Chibana, 2015). Rather than summarizing them all, the main aspect I focused on was immersing my audience in the story. I believe that most people have been camping in their lives, so I found it easy to pull on a nostalgic or peaceful feeling, from the perfectly toasted marshmallow to the low-burning fire crackling before bed (Multimedia Story). I found this to be the best way to ensure that readers understood the purpose of the story and the main themes I wanted them to remember.

Besides ensuring that my story followed a proper structure, I had difficulty ensuring that my story’s tone and overall mood were used properly (Mometrix Academy, 2022). One of these instances was my decision to omit our stop in the local museum. While it was interesting, I found that being inside reading about ships did not fit with the feeling of the story, as most of it took place outside exploring and enjoying nature.

Principles in Effective Interactive Multimedia Design

Effective interactive multimedia design is something that is noticeable in every piece of media, as it directly corresponds to how others consume it. Through Mayer’s Theory of Multimedia Learning, I learned that being cognizant of these rules allows me to format my media in such a way that I can be confident in its effectiveness for readers. For example, in my daily creates I continuously improved at reducing cognitive load for readers by intentionally removing unnecessary elements. Applying the Coherence Principle helped me ensure that only relevant information was used, which helps keep me on track (Multimedia Learning).

At first, I found the daily creates to be difficult to complete, as I had trouble relating my tasks to the different learning principles. For example, in the first week of daily creates the content relations are there, but not very strong (DC Text). As the course continued, however, I found that my understanding of these principles became easier, and I could more effectively understand how to apply them to benefit from the cognitive load theory using active processing (Cognitive Load Theory). Once I reached my completed multimedia story, I was able to effectively relate my content to various multimedia learning principles (Multimedia Story).

Prototype Artifacts Demonstration

Throughout the course there have been multiple instances where I have created or worked with videos as well as web pages. For both of these types of artifacts I have been able to effectively apply the multimedia design principles that have been studied in this class. For my multimedia story web page I correctly applied multiple theories of multimedia learning, including: Redundancy Principle, Coherence Principle, Signaling Principle, Segmenting Principle and Contiguity Principle (Multimedia Story). Examples of my understanding of videos can be seen in some of my daily creates (DC Video) as well as the aforementioned multimedia story. In both these instances I related the videos to learning principles, whether that may be dual-channel processing or a video’s effects on extraneous cognitive load (both positive and negative).

The most difficult aspect of creating these artifacts was definitely the change in mentality required. As a student in Health Informatics and Computer Science I found that it has been quite some time where I have been challenged to make things creatively, so this was difficult for me at first. Rather than comics, I was able to apply the learning principles from the class to my own field, allowing me to create and analyze data visualization more easily (DC Data).

Appropriate Use of AI to Support Creative Activities

Throughout the course I made sure that I was responsible in my AI use, ensuring that it was only used as a tool to support creative activities rather than having it write content for me. For the most part I tended to avoid using AI during my writing process, and would write the entirety of my work myself. Personally, I have a tendency to make sentences too long, or repeat the use of a word multiple times in a single phrase/paragraph. If there were sections of text that I wrote where I was not satisfied, I would consult AI to help restructure my ideas so I could reduce run-on sentences and find synonyms for repeated words. An example of this is for this portfolio, where I used AI as a screening tool to check for grammatical errors and sentence structure flow to ensure that readers were not distracted, which is an integration of the Coherence Principle.

Course Learnings

I think that this course provided me with a lot of valuable takeaways that can be applied in both my personal and professional life. In my future career, I believe that the understanding developed in this class on how to present media to others to improve their interactions will be extremely useful. There may be scenarios in which I need to present information to staff, or pitch an idea to stakeholders, and I believe that this course will have prepared me for these exact scenarios. From a personal perspective, this course has helped me think more critically about how and why types of media are created, which is very useful when dealing with digital content. Furthermore, this course will help me communicate concepts more clearly to others, as I understand how to better organize information to increase its readability and overall appeal.

Reference List:

Chibana, N. (2015, July 8). 7 storytelling techniques used by the best Ted Presenters. Visme. https://visme.co/blog/7-storytelling-techniques-used-by-the-most-inspiring-ted-presenters/

Hendricks, D. (2016, April 17). Cognitive load theory, how do I apply it? – youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stJ-MkTgRFs

Madland, C. (2025, October 6). Design process. EDCI 337: Interactive & Multimedia Learning. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/10/06/design-process/

Madland, C. (2025, September 11). Text and image: The sum is greater than its parts. EDCI 337: Interactive & Multimedia Learning. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/11/text-and-image-the-sum-is-greater-than-its-parts/

Madland, C. (2025, September 5). Theories of multimedia learning. EDCI 337: Interactive & Multimedia Learning. https://edtechuvic.ca/edci337/2025/09/05/theories-of-multimedia-learning/

Mometrix Academy. (2022). Style, tone, and mood – youtube. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxgmKh00WfY