What am I doing?

Or to put it another way, what am I trying to do? After a day of redrafting my dissertation research proposal it's become clear that I'm still unclear exactly what I'm trying to do. For clarity (or perhaps that should be, in search of clarity), I'm going to note below the different things I've been thinking of doing within my latest version of the dissertation.

• Exploring how advances in digital technology have prompted a shift towards a multimodal classroom.
  
• How within this multimodal classroom students are able to exploit a range of modes and digital tools in the expression of ideas.
  
• Exploring how tutors respond when confronted with work presented in an alternative format.
  

As I've tried to work up the dissertation proposal however, I encountered a number of problems:

• The advances in digital technology have not only provided opportunities for students, but equally for tutors (in fact arguably more so, if they are also programme or course designers)
  
• By focusing on 'how tutors respond' I've giving the impression that tutors are coming from a passive, reactive position rather than setting the agenda. This would surely be a major flaw in my project. In reality - and particularly considering my focus is intended to be on the MSc in E-Learning - tutors are in fact proactive in sharing ideas in non-traditional ways and they set the agenda by designing assessment practices that require work to be presented in an alternative format.
  

I also need to make clear (in my own head) the relationship between multimodality and alternative format assessment. 

Whereas I was recently intending to consider how tutors respond to the challenges posed by alternative format assignments (whether on a strategic or case-by-case basis) I wonder instead whether I should be looking assessment practices in more general terms. But then maybe that's too broad (or probably already covered). Maybe instead I should focus on how to measure quality of an alternative format assignment whilst making it clear that this shouldn't necessarily be seen as problematic - from the programme design perspective it can be advantageous. It's really important then that I frame this project in a way that doesn't present tutor/programme designers as being reactive or coming from a deficit position.