The compositional practices of students have undergone numerous shifts- from the page to the screen and from the text to multimodal. Considering the technology rise, multimodal, and fast –paced personal lives of most students, it is not a surprise that many find university to be obsolete and uninterested. Many students have extensive experience in multimodal composing outside the classroom while engaging in a variety of modes including image, sound, movement, text, and gesture (Lutkewitte, C., 2013). Majority of students out of school time devote hours to creating multimodality rich products that are shared with a global audience. John Dewey in Experience and Education first published even back in 1938 envisioned education as an enterprise involving teachers and students in mutually intellectually satisfying relationships. In other words, a student experience outside the formal education setting should play a significant role in defining the purpose of the educational enrichment. Thus educators in the effort to catch up with the modern challenges started to incorporate multimodal literacies into the curriculum for a variety of reasons: to make schooling relevant, improve equality, prepare students to be critical and global citizens, and meet the needs of modern students.   Multi-modal assignments have started leading the way in higher education.
Multimodality theory in education particularly in linguistics implies implementation of different modes to create multilayered ensemble so called various points of entry into a text,  to communicate meaning beyond the written word alone. In general, a multimodal assignment representation is not only language but
communication and interaction   where the choice of mode is crucial. Multimodality in Writing investigates how writing functions within a multimodal landscape of representation and communication, how it interacts with other modes, and how writing is incorporated into a larger semiotic framework in a social setting. With "new requirements and access to information and knowledge; reconfiguration, changing roles, and possibilities for people's identity formation; and connection across local/national and global/international boundaries," today's global society makes these considerations crucial.(Vinogradova, P., & Shin, J. K, 2020)
According to the New London Group (1996), these are the five modes: linguistic/alphabetic ― written and spoken words, visual ― images (moving or still), aural ― sound, music, gestural ― movement, expression, body language, spatial ― position, physical arrangement, proximity.
In response to the challenges of the digital age, the New London Group proposed the multiliteracies framework in 1996. This framework provides a valuable approach to linking various pedagogical concepts, considering new social realities such as advancements in technology (Cope, Kalantzis, 2005, p. 7). ‘Multi’ refers to two key dimensions: the multipleways of being in a diverse, changing world; and the multiple methods of representation made possible with globalisation. Four components of multiliteracies pedagogy are the following:

• Situated practice involves using real-life experiences and interactions in daily life, public spaces, and workplaces as a foundation for understanding how meaning is created.
• Overt instruction provides students with direct teaching to help them develop a clear understanding of design terminology and concepts.
• Critical framing encourages students to examine and understand the social context and intended purpose behind different designs and meanings.
• Transformed practice empowers students to become active creators of meaning, allowing them to shape and influence future social contexts through their own designs.

These four aspects represent, in one sense, pedagogical universals, in other words lesson planning would need profound reconsideration taking to account these universals. Cope and Kalantzis described effective pedagogy as those which carefully calibrates the distance between the learner’s known life world and the transformational possibilities of the to-be-known” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2005). Adaptability and flexibility are considered to be the primary skill both for educators and students in the present reality. So writing assignment might look like:

Photo Essays

A photo essay is just an essay that expresses a point or tells a tale using pictures. An audience is intended to receive a specific message from the arrangement of photographs in a photo essay. While some photo essays feature words to explain the images or offer context, others don't have any writing at all and may even have spoken explanation.

Video essays convey a message or tell a story, much way photo essays and standard essays do. The principle difference is that information is conveyed using video in video essays. Students may integrate written content, photographs, music, video, narration, and/or other media to produce an appealing and successful video essay. Students are undoubtedly better informed about video essays than lecturers might believe. Additionally, many educators are assigning video essays as substitutes for regular essays because creating films for YouTube has become so popular..
Benefits of using multimodal writing are undeniable. Multimodal writing encourages dialoguing (when it comes for group projects), controlling, manipulating, searching, and navigating in technology-mediated environments for knowledge construction rather than mere information acquisition (Vinogradova & Shin, 2020, p 30). Multimodal project appears to be more time-consuming than writing papers, but certainly more exciting and modern.

References

1. Cope, B. and Kalantzis, M. (2003). ‘Digital meaning and the case for a pedagogy of multiliteracies’, in Ambigapathy Pandian, Gitu Chakravarthy, and Peter Kell (eds.), New Literacies, New Practices, New Times, Universiti Putra Malaysia Press, Serdang, Malaysia, 26–52.
2. Cope, B, Kalantzis, M, (2005). Language Education and Multiliteracies. Encyclopedia of Language and Education, pp. 195–211. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30424-3_15
3. Bezemer, J., & Kress, G. (2015, November 19). Multimodality, Learning and Communication. Routledge.
4. The New London Group “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing social futures” (1996). Harvard education review vol. 61., 1,  pp. 66-84.
5. Lutkewitte, C. (2013, March 8). Multimodal Composition. Bedford/St. Martin’s. 560 p.
6. Vinogradova, P., & Shin, J. K. (2020, October 29). Contemporary Foundations for Teaching English as an Additional Language. Routledge.