I participated in an office-wide mentorship program and was mentored in education. I gained insight on creating an introductory curriculum for a Beginner's Design Course, including syllabus and lesson plans.
It culminated in hosting a free online design course for beginners.
Mentor: Kellie Pierce
Design education
Instructor
Spring 2020
Designing the curriculum
I focused on designing an introductory, college-level design course. The material would be general enough to be applied to a variety of design disciplines. The full semester-long course includes different units for designing for the web, for print, and for manufacturing.
To test out the curriculum on a smaller scale, I created a mini-course, meant to last for one month. The short timeframe helped keep it simple and focused.
Week 1
The seven basic design principles
Creating basic graphics in Adobe Illustrator
Design exercise: Make an abstract graphic using 2 or more basic design principles
Week 2
The design process
Kickoff of the final project
Design exercise: Design a quote
Week 3
Branding and logo design
Typography
Design exercise: Decide on final project and start work on it
Week 4
Final extra tools
Final project inspirations
Design exercise: Final project submission
Class demographics
66 people signed up to take the class with most mainly watching the lectures and about 10-15 people submitting assignments.
More than 80% had little to no experience in design or Adobe Illustrator.
What do you hope to get out of the class?
I hope to obtain fair knowledge just to have and possibly help to save time and money for future business ventures.
How to design engaging and creative graphics for science presentations, infographics, and posters.
I would love to learn about design in general. I think it would be neat to hear about the way you work on a project from start to finish.
I want to be able to draw figures that I can use in my research articles.
I’m open to learning something new and maybe this might spark some new interests.
To learn the basics. Its something that i wanted to get into but never really knew where to start.
Class materials
View one of the lecture videos on the design process to the left. The rest of the playlist is found here.
The class also has a blog for more information not covered in the lecture videos. View it here.
I curated a Pinterest board for the students' use for more information and inspirations.
Student work
Displayed work by Preetham, Adam, Priyanka G, Priyanka K, Megan, Arpitha, Chanelle-Lize, Stephanie, and Sophia.
I'd be happy to talk more about this course if you have questions. Thanks for reviewing!