Online Design Education

[Guest taryn paper]

ive been taking designbooms classes for about a year now, I love them bc they give me things to work on while i'm bored, but they are more personal id exercises and less like something to use for skill-building. The homework briefs are very general and sometimes dont make sense. last quarter, the homework was to make a paper game. I felt it was more graphic design than industrial design, ultimately i was looking for something where I would have to build something like a business card holder that uses less than 2 oz of paper and works off of suspension, haha or something like that.

overall, i think they are fun, but not very CHALLENGING. best thing about them is that they give you TONS of background information and when you turn in your hw, you get tons of user and admin feedback.

I am currently taking ceramics and i have to design a piece of ceramic jewelry. so broad.

[Guest csven]

Thanks for that bit of information. Somewhat as I expected. A bit less ID than I'd hoped but good to hear there's plenty of feedback.

 

btw, I'm a big advocate of IDers taking ceramics. If you have the opportunity, spend time on the wheel. Nothing, imo, teaches subtlety of form like throwing the common pot.

[Guest Crit7171]

I'm interested but money is the only issue, it would really depend on how much I learn in the design class otherwise my money goes on much needed art supply's. I wouldn't mind spending my lunch money on this as long as I learn something.

How is this going to work exactly, an online class. Do we all gather up on a private forum or something?

Weird how this has been up for days, and I didn't know about it. I should search the forums more heh.

[Guest csven]

Money is an issue. Considering most professional designer rates are much higher per hour, I have to consider how much money I might lose in other income because I'm doing this instead. Consider that with a full class the total revenue would be $250. That's for ~16 hours of my time not including preparation (regardless of whether each individual believes they get their money's worth). That equates to my earning < $15/hr. I don't know any professional designers that would work for burger-flipping rates. And none of this takes into account my own expenses.

 

I've spoken with the company I thought might be interested in sponsoring: no go. Like most companies they're now laying off and aren't interested in spending right now. So breaking even is probably out of the question for me.

 

Like anything in life, you pays your money and you takes your chances. I've tried to strike a balance - including making it a pay-as-you-go kind of system. If someone is concerned about scrounging lunch money, I'd suggest they not opt in. Besides, this is really intended to be more for older applicants looking to get into a school, those who've gotten in who might need a little assistance to overcome some early hurdles, or those who graduated without enough skills/understanding to enter the profession.

 

But right now I don't see enough interest to make this worth my time, so don't worry about it.

[Guest csven]

Regardless of response - which has been relatively light - this is something I'd really just like to try (especially after reading a recent NYTimes essay on technology and education).

 

Consequently, I'm looking for 5 - 10 individuals who would be volunteer guinea pigs as I try to put this effort together. At this early stage, there wouldn't be any cost. My incentive is to keep you sufficiently engaged so that you provide usable feedback; thus helping me put together something worthwhile.

 

For those interested, please review the qualifications below:

 

- Must be at least 18 and no longer in high school (or foreign equivalent). If things work out I'll certainly consider opening it up to younger participants, but not now.

 

- All participants must be reasonably identifiable. No one will be anonymous.

 

- All participants must have or create an online portfolio. This can be as simple as posting designs to Flickr, or as elaborate as a Flash-based personal website. Whatever it is, you should be able to upload images with little effort.

 

- Participants must have access to a relatively capable computer*, broadband net access and either a scanner or (decent) digital camera by which you can upload sketches executed in a variety of media.

 

- Participants must have adequate English-speaking skills. I wish my foreign language skills were better, but unfortunately my own failing forces this requirement. For now.

 

If still interested and qualified drop me an email at csvenjohnson@yahoo.com .

 

* - I currently use an older PC which should serve as a decent baseline. Specs are: P4 2.4 Ghz with 1Gb RAM and an nVidia 7600GS videocard.

[Guest csven]

btw, don't send an email with the subject line "hi" (or anything similarly spam-suspicious).

 

A subject line with something like "Online ID class volunteer" or something else less suspicious will keep it out of the trash since I avoid spam like the plague.

[Guest csven]

I've received an email that, considering it's from an unnamed/unknown individual, I thought I'd share, since other people might be thinking the same thing:

 

So i'm interested about this but i have to say.. its a bit unclear to me what this thing holds within..

 

and i do meet the qualifications needed for this but id just like to know a little more about what this contains..

At this early stage it's difficult to provide a definitive answer. I have my own thoughts on how I'd run the sessions, but I don't know if they're valid; I need to get a sense of what works best for those involved. If circumstances allowed, it'd make sense to run several sessions with each one focusing on a particular area (e.g. sketching, design for manufacturability, aso). However, if I only have two or three people, then running multiple sessions isn't appealing to me. Right now there's very little real interest and so it'll have to be run like an old-time schoolhouse - all levels of ability in one "classroom". And that's why I'm asking for volunteers: to help me get a sense of how a balance might be achieved.

 

So basically I'm trying to set up real-time classes that allow people of varying ability to participate, but where all people get the kind of instruction they require to meet their personal needs. Most of the interaction would be synchronous, but some elements would likely be asynchronous.

 

Lastly, I suspect there will be some questions regarding when things will kick off. I did have a timeline for kicking things off, but given the lack of interest I had to scrap it. Until I get sufficient volunteers to at least get things started, I simply can't put one in place. And even after testing things, I'll still need a minimum number of people to start a proper session, since a big part of the idea is to have people not just learning from me but learning from each other (note that in the past I've stated my belief that school selection should place the quality of the student body at the top of any priority list).

[Guest csven]

Quick update: five individuals have volunteered to help me set this program up and I'm working toward organizing it now. If anyone else is interested, I'll take up to five more people. However, as I anticipate our first group orientation will happen within the next two weeks or so, and because there will be some Murphy's Law kinds of issues before that time, I'll not be accepting any more volunteers after 5 September. Consequently, if you've been thinking it might be worth your time to get involved, decide quickly.

[Guest BigJoe]

Sven, I think this is an excellent idea. I just sent you an email.

 

I'm not an IDer (yet) but I have a very strong background in product design engineering. If the community is interested I would love to put together some technical, manufacturing-oriented exercises that would help students understand what it takes to actually get their products built.

[Guest csven]

The call for volunteers ends today (decided to give it a couple more days in case anyone arrived late). I have three slots remaining. If interested please read through this thread. I'm sending out the first group email later today discussing some of the details as well as requesting some information (e.g. scheduling timeframes).

 

It'll be a relatively slow ramp up. There are people from very different timezones as well as those working full-time jobs and students heading back to university. I want to ensure participation is a priority so that everyone benefits. The volunteer group goal is to find time and tools which best facilitate online collaboration, but I have an initial design topic that we'll be tackling which is for individuals. Someone asked and here was my response:

My intention is to start off by helping people understand the role of sketching in the design process. It's not well-articulated in most design literature; it's not even well understood. I'll try to clarify things. There won't be expectations as to level of sketching ability because that won't matter. What will matter is connecting the act of drawing to the development of design solutions (irregardless of aesthetics). And by default, I'll try to help everyone improve their drawing skills, because they do matter.

With any luck, I'll be able to open things up a bit by the end of October.

[engio 1]

I'd be interested in quietly observing and following the progress. Not in terms of following the education plan without actively participating, but stuff like how engaged people are, how many "dropouts", interaction and feedback level etc. Will you be updating here, on a blog, or anywhere else how things are coming along? Best of luck.

[Guest csven]

I'd not intended on doing that. Documenting takes time. I prefer putting that time directly into the effort itself.

[Guest csven]

I'd be interested in quietly observing and following the progress. Not in terms of following the education plan without actively participating, but stuff like how engaged people are, how many "dropouts", interaction and feedback level etc. Will you be updating here, on a blog, or anywhere else how things are coming along? Best of luck.

Thought I'd provide a brief update for you.

 

We're testing some free software applications now, but bc of the wide geographic/time differences getting everyone online at the same time has proven difficult. The hope is to have software sorted out by next week.

 

"how engaged people are" - A little too early to qualify this, esp when volunteers are likely to be more assertive, but I'm happy with the dynamic.

 

"how many dropouts" - I had seven and dropped one (before anything had really begun)

 

"interaction and feedback level" - too early to discuss this really; however, VoIP, webcams, desktop sharing, and the rest should keep the level high.

 

I'll try to update how things are going again in a couple of weeks.

[krissy 0]

I think this would be a great idea, Just started a design course, really enjoying it so far.

I have never really studied online like this before and seem to have already completed things i wasn't meant to yet, just means i'm head in studies .

 

The reasoning for wanting somethings like this for a studying student, It would be good to be able to chat with someone in the industry to have a bit more of a idea what is detailed in the line of work for the design industry.

[Ana Mackay 0]

Online education is necessary because most of the time you never go to that place for education where you want to go for study so online education UK Dissertation Help is the best way to educate yourself without any problem and you can give time easily.