---
# System prepended metadata

title: mdf-orientation-assignments
tags: [mdf]

---

---
tags: mdf
---
# mdf-orientation-assignments

## final projects

### forms
* lookbook or menu of options for your department

### tools
* InDesign
* Canva
* Illustrator
* Ps


## micro-projects

### forms

* project proposal 
    * prompt: As graduate students, you're likely familiar with project proposals, which aim to convince a committee of experts or an instructor that a project is viable (and worthwhile) given time, resources, planning, and the project's objectives. When developing a project that uses new media (whether that media is emergent or new to your specific field), developing a project proposal can help you articulate the learning objectives that a multimedia project  assesses, ensuring that this project aligns with your department's goals and priorities. Using emptyDocs/designLab docs, create a prompt for your multimedia assignment, defining the project's goals and what students and/or faculty might need to know to complete this project.
    * rationale: To help MDF prepare materials they can share with their departments, to develop concrete plans for the academic year that MDFs can refer to as they develop these projects

* project reporting
    * prompt: Documenting our work as we go allows us to share our progress with our LL collective. It's an important way to make the learning process visible and to flag challenges and strategies for navigating those challenges as one goes. This documentation culminates in the reports that we ultimately share with your departments, our clients, and the university. The more we document our work--and the more regularly we reflect on what we're making/learning/doing--the better our projects, and the stories we tell about them, will be. As you prepare your lookbook or "menu" for your department, document your work:
        * Take screenshots and/or screen recordings and post these in show-your-work on Slack
        * Reflect in one or two sentences each time you post in show-your-work, providing some context for what we're seeing
    * rationale: To foreground the practice of documentation, to prepare MDFs to create materials to share with their departments

* video introduction
    * prompt: introduce yourself, telling us a bit about your interests and excitements as a scholar, teacher, and media-user/creator.
    * rationale: to build community, introduce MDFs to a/v tools, emphasize media capture as regular/everyday activity that is central to event/instructional design at the LL


* video 'what is an mdf'
    * prompt: Reflecting on video, answer the following questions in 60 seconds: Based on what you know right now, how would you describe what an MDF is? What multimedia/new media/etc. interventions are needed in your field and why? 
    * rationale: help MDFs develop their own language and understanding of the MDF program, prepare MDFs for discussions with faculty and key departmental members (and future MDFs), prepare MDFs to develop rationales for multimedia projects that can be integrated into assignments

* find an example of multimedia research in your field/in the world
    * prompt: What does multimedia research in your field look like today? Who are the scholars producing research that requires the use of media beyond text? Find 1-2 examples of multimedia research, which might take a range of forms (e.g., video essays, podcasts, visual essays and images, data visualizations). If there aren't examples yet of this in your field, try to find a couple of examples from the world beyond the university. We're excited to learn about your inspirations, in whatever form!
    * rationale: to build community by sharing our interests with each other, to develop a shared set of resources/models, to begin to curate field-specific examples of multimedia research, to get ideas for possible assignments, prototypes, etc.

* develop a multimedia assignment prompt + rationales
    * prompt: You're an MDF, in part, because you've identified a need in your discipline for media beyond text. Your disciplinary expertise enables you to identify this need. Given what you know about your field, your department, and the types of courses your department offers, can you imagine a multimedia assignment that students might complete as a final project? (Alternativey: Can you develop a set of activities that use media as a way to deepen students' understanding of course content?) As you develop your prompt, try to develop simultaneously a list of rationales that would help you convince students of the legitimacy of this type of an assignment/activity. What would you say to a student who hasn't ever done a multimedia assignment before? How would you convince them to learn a new tool?
    * rationale: To consider rationales as a key aspect of course/assignment/instructional design, to address students in the development of course materials, to develop resources/possible assignments for the final lookbook project, to prepare MDFs to talk with faculty who might be interested in multimedia assignments but aren't sure where to begin

* design an activity using art-making supplies
    * prompt: One of the first ways we tend to introduce students to multimedia design is to engage their creative energies in art-making in our studio. Using supplies like pens, markers, and paper, students can be encouraged to explore, plan, take some risks in a low-stakes environment. Can you develop an activity that uses these supplies that might help students take the initial steps toward a multimedia project? What might you encourage them to do with arts supplies that helps them envision their final projects (whether presenations, a multimedia form like video essays, or some other form)?
    * rationale: To develop scaffolding activities in low-tech/low-touch forms because they're integral to any multimedia project, to encourage use of our LL supplies and capacities, to introduce key principles of graphic design/composition that can inform aesthetic/compositional choices in a range of forms, to develop activities that students can do in a range of courses


### tools
FCPX
Premiere
Resolve
HackMD

