DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTIMEDIA COURSE FOR A BACHELOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEGREE

Currently many post-secondary polytechnic institutions offer information technology degree programs with emphasis on web application development. For students in these programs, a properly designed multimedia course is essential as multimedia content is widely employed in web application development. This paper shares the author's experience in the design and implementation of such a course. The paper discusses the course's learning objectives, content, essential skills, evaluation, and teaching methods, as well as how theory and practicum are balanced in course content. In addition, the paper discusses the identification and selection of free and open source software tools for the course. These tools serve as cost-effective alternatives for providing hands-on training to students. They are used by the students in the labs and in completing course assignments and the term project. Observations and student feedback comments indicate that the design of the course and the selection of the software tools are appropriate.