Assessing Visual Literacy: A Review and An Attempt

This dissertation was driven by a lack of evidence substantiating the current state of visual literacy knowledge and skills of instructional design professionals and the continuing call for visual literacy assessment research. The project has contributed two manuscripts that examine the existing visual literacy assessment research and document an attempt at designing and developing an evidence-based visual literacy assessment product. The first manuscript, a comprehensive literature review, offers insights into how visual literacy has been assessed over the years and the challenges associated with establishing a research agenda for visual literacy assessment as revealed by current research and practice. The second manuscript, adopting the design and development research methodology, aims to design and develop a product that instructional designers can use to assess or diagnose the strengths and weaknesses in their knowledge regarding a fundamental vocabulary of visual literacy.