The Report
Needs Assessment
As a result of progressively declining enrollment in the graphic design program at Nashville State Community College in Nashville, TN, feedback from the Graphic Design Advisory Committee, local industry, faculty research, and the student body indicated that a demand for a concentration in Multimedia design exists and should be pursued. Given the constraints of a 2-year program and the multidisciplinary nature of the multimedia discipline, the challenge has been to determine what courses and resources are critical to fulfill this mission. An analysis of existing industry practices, the lack of an established professional credentialing body and the primary technologies prevalent in the field of multimedia design and production revealed the technology courses needed for this discipline. Industry demand, as reflected in job descriptions of on-line recruitment portals, and the results of on-line survey data, indicate that Macromedia Flash has the greatest market penetration of all of the multimedia players and that content developers using this platform have marketable and sought after skills. Based on investigations by key personnel, it was determined that the multimedia program should concentrate its efforts on providing a curriculum rich in design fundamentals, broad exposure to a cross section of media types, and be centered on the Macromedia Flash multimedia delivery platform. COM 1305 is the course which proposes to address the introduction to Macromedia Flash, and was the focus of this capstone project. The entire assessment plan can be found at the following link: http://www.edrawingboard.com/jiu/edu669/pdf/assessment_plan.pdf, and was the final project for the course EDU653: Assessing Learning.