Pi-Sui Hsu
Associate Professor
Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment
College of Education
Course(s) Targeted by this Innovation
ETT 231: Digital Visual Literacy in Learning
Purpose and Impact
The purpose of this proposal is to improve an existing course, ETT 231, Digital Visual Literacy in Learning, by incorporating an innovative teaching approach, Flipped Instruction, into both online and face-to-face modalities. The objectives of the course are to explore the historical background and practices involved in digital visual literacy, review the use and design of various digital media communications, develop strategies for interpreting and analyzing digital visual materials, utilize digital visual literacy methods to create effective digital informational materials for diverse audiences and integrate digital visual literacy into professional practices. ETT 231 is one of the General Education courses in NIU’s Social Justice and Diversity Pathway and addresses the Knowledge Domain of Creativity and Critical Analysis. It serves 180 undergraduate students in online sections and 30 students in a face-to-face section in the Fall and Spring semesters.
Flipped Instruction (Newman et al., 2016) is a methodology that helps instructors prioritize active learning during class time by assigning students lecture materials and presentations to be viewed at home or outside of class. Research indicates that with opportunities for active engagement, Flipped Instruction has great potential to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness (DEI), increase completion rates, and reduce DFUW rates (Bancraft et al., 2019).
Description of Innovation
The revision of ETT 231 will be grounded in the principles of FLIP (Flexible Environment, Learning Culture, Intentional Content, and Professional Educators) (Network, 2014). Grounded in Flexible Environment, Learning Culture and Professional Educator, this project proposes to develop weekly modules in which instructors will establish spaces and time frames that permit students to interact and reflect on their learning. Students will apply design principles of visual literacy concepts learned from readings and multimedia presentations to complete projects that involve hands-on activities. In-class time will become a workshop in which I create rich learning opportunities by exploring the principles in greater depth and providing guidance to students as they create and refine their projects. Bringing Flexible Environment, Learning Culture, and Professional Educator to ETT 231 will help to engage underprepared students and further help them persist in this class (Gregorius, 2017), which creates an Inclusive and Supporting learning environment.
With the goal of cultivating an equitable and inclusive learning environment, the purpose of the course revision is to develop multimodal, accessible and relevant content that can engage students with diverse backgrounds and thus promote all students’ active engagement.