Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths and weaknesses of the first half of SA 104

Strengths:

1    .Printing

a.       It was quite good that we dealt with as much printing as we did. Aloes those more conferrable with traditional manipulation a chance to practice it also.

2    .Resolution

a.       Resolution requirements of the assignments were well explained (why we are doing it at that size)

3    .Web Sourcing

a.       Allowing people to source thing’s from the web allowed them to get creative in their final products

4    .Composition choices

a.       Using the still life as the base for doing digital composition was clever and a good way of bridging the gap between Traditional and Digital production

5    .Compression

a.       I thank you greatly for letting me try to explain the importance of compression when working with digital images. Back when I took this class everything was requested in TIFF files without explanation of why.

6    .Video Homework

a.       Using videos as a part of the homework seems to get a good ratio of people actually taking the time to watch it. Seems moving images are more enticing than text.

7    .Help Forum

a.       Having a section where people can ask and reply to questions is handy.

Weaknesses:

1    .Basics

a.       From the feedback I got, I suspect we needed to cover at an even more basic level how to use Photoshop and OSX. (copy, paste, how to open images in Photoshop correctly)

b.      Standardizing Layout of Photoshop across all of the computers would have saved some headaches of alternative layouts confusing students.

2    .Printing

a.       Need to spend more time on printing or get some standardized document of checks for them to reference at will

3    .Compression

a.       Compression document needs revising along with perhaps a new mode of presentation that isn’t as intimidating to those less technically savvy. (something for me to work on)

b.      Demonstration of application of compression in class. Demo why compression can be important.

4    .No Illustrator / vectors

a.       I feel that we should have covered this at some level. It’s a completely different way of working digitally and some people are more conferrable working in them than working in raster imagers (my self included)

5    .Web Sourcing

a.       Allowing people to source thing’s from the web lead to low image fidelity commonly and confusion over resolution. Solution is to cover Google’s resolution filter and explain that you cannot resize an image up without losing fidelity.

6    .Subject

a.       Apparently showing examples and giving a definition for Still Life was not enough for some students to understand what a still life was. No idea how to improve this though.

7    .Pen Tablet

a.       The short, low fidelity, demonstration of the pen tablet should either be cut or extended. It was not convincing at all to try it.

8    .Art Server

a.       Cover it on Day One.

9    .Still Life Demos

a.       Should include some that are created using the same or similar method as the assignment. Helps students visualize what is expected.

10    .Help forum

a.       People that were confused or unsure did not use it.

b.      Most questions were beyond what I can address remotely threw text without confusing students.