Writing-Intensive Multimedia Projects in the Instrumental Methods Course

Abstract

A writing-intensive, team-based multimedia project has been incorporated into the instrumental methods course. The project serves two student populations: students in the course gain an enhanced understanding of an instrumental technique through extensive, focused writing, while first-time instrument users outside of the course gain useful documentation and high-quality point-of-use training. In producing the projects, each three-student team selects an instrument available within the department and writes five short, concise documents: an introduction to the instrumental technique; an overview of its theory of operation; sampling considerations; step-by-step instructions for use (called the “quick-start” document); and a bibliography of printed and electronic resources. Next, the team produces story boards illustrating proper instrument startup, use, and shut down. These story boards form the basis for short (less than 90 seconds) films, shot with a digital video camcorder. Apple Computer’s iMovie is used to edit the footage and produce QuickTime movies. The finished documents, including a PDF version of the quick-start document and the QuickTime movies are pasted into a Web page template provided by the instructor. These multimedia pages are provided to potential users via the campus network.