For my Senior Project, I assisted in the reevaluation and construction of a class course called Visual Media. Visual Media is a class given at Brigham Young University of Idaho that introduces different Adobe software and helps students understand design principles with various projects. This class is a great foundation for understanding programs that are used in the Communications Department, as well as in the workplace.

As technology has advanced, however, this has created a problem of having to update different elements of the class. A reevaluation of the class content was necessary in order to stay relevant and to help aid students effectively.

I have been a campus tutor for Visual Media for about three years and I’ve been given a lot of feedback from students and online teachers regarding this class. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to research and explore all the wonderful things I enjoy about teaching Adobe, as well as helping redefine the class with helping students understand design principles and the Adobe software better.

Project Process

My Mentor for this project was Eric Lybbert, who is also the course lead for Visual Media. His goal was to implement proposed changes to the class in real time, making the updates available for the students this semester. For each of the four main projects in this class, there was an order of operations that I followed: Research, Discussion, Implementing, and Feedback.

Research

The main focus and objective of this project was to help the students understand design principles and learn from the class. I spent a lot of time looking at past students’ work and gathering what problems they had with each program.

Discussion

After researching problems and examples of past work, I would discuss with the course lead about ways we could implement changes and steer students toward success. This usually meant altering worksheets and updating videos that helped assist the students with the software.

Implementing Changes

For the first few projects, I helped make video overlays for the instructional videos. These overlays were essential for PC users to understand shortcuts that were different from Mac users. As the class carried on throughout the semester, I was able to evaluate and modify worksheets that aimed to help the students with the software.

Feedback

Because I tutor for this class, I was able to receive feedback on what the students liked and didn’t like about changes each week. This insight really helped me understand the students’ perspective of the changes made.

Bridging the Gap between Tutoring and the Class –

Another aspect of my senior project was helping assist the Tutoring Center in creating tutoring resources that were beneficial to Visual Media students. Taking the notes and research that I used for this project, we were able to come up with a course of action to help students who were in need of tutoring and more understanding of the design principles.

Overall, this project was tremendous in helping me understand project management and effective teaching to students. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to participate in this evaluation of this class.