Transmodal meaning-making refers to the process by which learners construct understanding by shifting ideas across different modes—such as text, images, audio, gesture, and spatial design. Rather than simply combining modes, this process emphasizes redesign, where meaning is reshaped as it is re-expressed in another mode. As Cope and Kalantzis (2017) explain in e-Learning Ecologies, learning becomes deeper when learners actively design and redesign meaning across modes. Similarly, Kress (2010) argues that different modes foreground different aspects of meaning, requiring learners to make intentional semiotic choices.

An example of this is in a science lesson on climate change, students begin by reading a short explanatory text. They then create an infographic that visually represents cause-and-effect relationships and record a brief audio explanation justifying their design choices. Translating meaning from text to image to speech requires students to reinterpret content, prioritize key ideas, and adapt their understanding to the affordances of each mode, reflecting the multiliteracies approach described by the New London Group (1996).

Transmodal meaning-making supports deeper conceptual understanding, creativity, and learner agency. By encouraging students to redesign meaning, it aligns with contemporary views of learning as active, multimodal, and socially situated rather than purely text-based or transmissive.