This presentation will outline a pilot study which is part of my ongoing doctoral research into the recognition of learning in Swedish higher education context. Looking at examples from three different university courses (English, business and media studies). The pilot study asks how can university students’ multimodal text making be understood and how is it recognised and assessed? I explore how four teachers recognize learning when students have worked in the formats of written text, PowerPoint presentations, and filmed presentations delivered online or on campus as part of their assessed work. Such multimodal texts are complex representations of knowledge and learning where students can use multiple modes in one material representation. A multimodal social semiotic framework (Kress, 2010, 2011; Kress & van Leeuwen 1996/2006) is used to provide tools for studying such multimodal texts (written, spoken, visual, gestural) with a focus on student representation and teacher recognition of learning. As universities increasingly look towards the potentials and challenges of online teaching, there is a pressing need for such research into multimodal assessment and the processes of recognition of knowledge and learning when expressed in multiple modes in digital landscapes.