greetings and welcome!

My name is Jeff Prentice - I'm an artist/designer currently living in California, teaching here at the Art Institute. I look forward to working with you here as your facilitator.

Everything goes smoothly if you go by the guidelines I post below and in the threads as we progress.

Here is a summary of important points :

Late work not accepted unless I have been notified previously.
Improperly formatted work receives no credit after week 1
The weekly word count should be around 600, with minimum 2 or 3 responses per assignment. The "A" student will be an active participant.

Log on to our course as soon as it opens and carefully read the course syllabus, objectives, and technology requirements, and make sure you meet them. For example, if you do not have Photoshop or an equivalent image prep program you will need to get one before the class starts or you will lose points in image quality and image formatting.

Post your bio assignment under the bio thread by the due date as it will be a big help to me and the other students in getting to know everyone. Also, please go into your profile and check that your current e-mail address is correct and that it shows up on the roster. E-mail will be an important mode of communication in the class. You can contact me on my cell phone for emergencies, other important matters, or even help on assignments. Email me and we can set up a time for a call.

My website www.jeffprentice.net has a lot of resource material (I will be requesting release forms from some of you so I can show your work online)

Sometimes I will be directing you to http://www.jeffprentice.net/teachf/onlinesupport.htm or to a page specific to your course.

Finally - the ecollege platform is large, complex, and parts of it are not editable by me, such as points per project and due dates. Always go by my point spread and due dates posted in the announcements. I make each week add up to 100 points. It is easier to average. And keep in mind that 30 of those points are participation.

You are responsible for understanding the info in these announcements - your grade depends upon it! Please take a few minutes to read it.

thanks! (:

classroom etiquette and thread and general course management

There are a lot of threads to read, a lot of posts to make, so a clean and easy-to-navigate online environment is extremely important:

Please hit "respond" under the topic thread. It can be easy to accidentally respond under someone elses post if you don't hit this button.

Use spell check. Grammar and spelling count!

Post all text directly to the threads (no .docs or pdfs) and all images as jpg or gif attachments when you respond. And please group multiple images onto one canvas in photoshop and then post. That way we keep the numer of posts down. To group multiple images just create a canvas in pshop that is 800 pixels wide and 3000 tall, 72 dpi - drag your images and scans onto this canvas, resize, adjust, and then crop unused canvas and "save for web". See the formatting announcement for more...

ensuring a good grade

Attendance is 4 out of 7. And I have nothing to do with attendance anymore - AIO handles your attendance now - Remember that 4 absences generates an attendance probation - and 7 is an F. If you have personal problems, tech issues, natural disasters, etc, that keep you from logging in 4 out of 7 - you need to let your advisor know ASAP. Let me know as well because it will affect your participation, but your advisor is the point person for attendance.

Assignments are due on the dates specified - If an assignment is due on day 2, then you need to post it on the course's day 2 - for example, if day 2 is tuesday you need to post it on tuesday, not on the second day you decide to log in. Some people get confused by this because you can take 3 days off each week. Just make sure your assignments are posted on the due date, regardless of the day you take off.

If you know you are going to be late posting work let me know so I can make a note. I often won't take off points. However, if I don't hear from you late work receives 0 points. Treat the course requirements as you would any workplace deadline.

Participation:

Participation will be graded on the following factors (These are established criteria for online courses in general):

Quality: relating to questions, readings, lecture, critique of visual drafts/submissions, relates new ideas, relates to real world examples, asks questions of others, constructive and helpful to peers. A discussion question response tends to be about 100-200 words, observing proper grammar and spelling. A Critique response is a little shorter, around 100 words. What is a quality/meaningful response? This type of response should demonstrate analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of course concepts. This would incorporate references to course readings. You are encouraged to use your own experience to illustrate key points, such as analyzing your own experiences as you would in a case study. This would also include comparing and contrasting your experience with other examples or by drawing a conclusion that could be applies to other situations. Comments such as ‘Good job!’ or ‘neat’ do not constitute a meaningful contribution and are not considered.

Quantity: Engages with class discussion often, helping to encourage class community. How much is enough? You should be responding to at least 2 students per assignment/project. This means about 6 quality participation posts in a week. However, 6 posts that essentially state “good job” are still below average quality and do not constitute meaningful contributions.

Posting of assignments is not enough to be considered as active involvement. The student must also offer follow up participation dialogue to demonstrate they have an understanding of course competencies and are an active member in the learning community. Responses that relate to lecture content, reference other assignment posts (ex: critique response to peer’s work), which bring insights and/or new ideas to discussion would be examples of participation posts.

Quality is essential and linked to both quantity and duration. Simply posting a message or assignment does not guarantee a meaningful contribution, nor does it mean a mark at or above average.

It is very important to respond to people who post to you - it is just common courtesy. I spend time marking up drawings, posting links, etc. I expect my feedback to be acknowledged.

Recommendations:

Responses on day 7 - no one is going to read or respond to you that late in the week. Respond the day following an assignment and check the day after that as well for responses to your posts.

Don't wait until the last minute, for example, 4:59 AM the following day of the due date. Post early for feedback.

Be an active participant in the threads. It's more fun. And you will learn to give feedback, and you will get more feedback. If you are struggling with drawing this is especially important.

Finally, concerning attendance, participation, posting - my experience is that the students who are struggling are the ones who benefit from spending more time analyzing examples and looking at other students work, along with the examples that I post.

Students who already have the basic skills can help other students with their work.

Be sure to cite your sources when quoting someone in a response. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

posting and image, document format.

Images have to be GIFs or JPGs. No PDFs, BMPs.

DQs and other text posts have to be posted directly to the threads. Use html to format line breaks, paragraphs.

Filenames: No apostrophes, spaces, dashes, or long names. Keep it short and simple. Apostrophes will not post.

Please post some test posts in the lounge to see whether you are doing this correctly. You have to get up to speed in scanning and prepping images in Photoshop immediately.

Discussion questions have to be posted directly to the board. No .docs or PDFs. You can write your response in Word and then paste it into the response area. The only exception to this is when you have a project such as an artist profile, or other lengthy report.

The reasoning behind this? If your image is too big, we have to scroll to view it. If your image is too small, we can’t view it properly. PDFs and BMPs have to opened by another program such as Acrobat or Photoshop – this is time consuming. GIFs and JPGs are the established protocol for viewing images on the web.

If your response is in a third party format such as Word, we have to download the file, and then open your response in the program. This takes time, and clutters up the desktop.

There is a week grace period to work out posting kinks. After that, it seriously affects your grade.

------------

I put together a video tutorial on how to format at http://www.jeffprentice.net/tutorials/format.htm

This is a streaming flash movie - it may stutter or jump until it loads completely - just let it load in the bg (background) and it will play. Have your volume turned up.

In your professional lives you will be communicating through email and send and receiving information, often with accompanying images. If your images are poorly prepped and sized, it will reflect badly on you. This isn't a Photoshop course, HOWEVER, learning just a few simple commands will give you some very powerful tools. I will post more on this in the threads.

Single images should be around 600 high x 800 wide. For an image with more information the rule is that the user should only have to scroll one way. If you are posting more than one image in one post, stack images so we only have to scroll up an down to view them. It is acceptable to have, for example, an 800 x 2500 pixel image for posting stacks of images, thumbs, etc. With an image that size we only scroll one way.

IMPORTANT: For projects with multiple images, for example, a group of thumbs and 3 roughs, please post as one image in a group - rather than multiple postings. Let's keep the thread/post overhead to a minimum. This also helps us see images in one viewing, which allows us to compare them more efficiently.

Following are Photoshop steps that you can follow to post a perfect single image assignment:

Scan/format tips ( see my vid tutorial):

scan at 150 dpi - or 72 if the image is big enough - I like 150 dpi because it gives me more pixels to resize. For example, if I scan at 72, and then crop out unwanted binder rings or blank paper areas, I could end up with a tiny image.

open the image in photoshop

use the crop tool to crop unwanted scanner edges, spiral rings.

use command "image/adjust/levels" to adjust the lights , midtones, and darks.

command "Image/image size"

uncheck the resample box

change the dpi to 72

recheck the resample box

change the pixel dimensions - making sure constrain proportions box i s checked . The highest dimension should be no more than 600 pixels. The widest, 800 pixels.

command = "save for web" as a jpg (check quality settings and compare quality and file size)

When grouping thumbs and roughs, putting images together for one post:

create a canvas that is 800 wide, 3000 pixels high, 72 dpi.

open your scans and images you want to group

using the move tool, drag them from their canvas onto the new canvas

use the transform tool (holding down the shift key to maintain proportions) to resize.

Note: each image you have dragged onto the canvas will be on its own layer. And make sure the layers are flattened on the image you want to drag, or you may end up selecting only one part of the image.

For work photographed with a digital camera - it has to be evenly lit with no shadows or darker areas, no hot spots. There should be no parallax as well - all vertical and horizontal lines should be straight. After photographing, adjust contrast and levels, crop unwanted elements like tacks and walls, resize, and save for web as a jpg.

Disability info: post separately or in the welcome

The Art Institute of Pittsburgh/The Art Institute Online is committed to providing qualified
students with a disability an equal opportunity to access the benefits, rights and privileges of college
services, programs and activities in compliance with The Americans with Disabilities Act and Section
504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The Art Institute provides accommodations to qualified students with disabilities. The Disability
Services Office assists qualified students with disabilities in acquiring reasonable and appropriate
accommodations and in supporting their success at The Art Institute.

Students who believe they are in need of accommodations should contact the Disability
Services Office. Contact information is available from the Student Support Center
(studentsupport@aii.edu or 1-877-872-8869).

misc for emails etc

Materials

This depends on the course. My goal is to have you produce portfolio quality work. Do whatever it takes, use whatever materials you feel comfortable with. You will be brainstorming, montaging, doing layouts. Materials may include color pencils, paint, collage, and digital media.

For drawing, I like a medium soft pencil, such as a 4b for darker lines and shading. A harder lead, such as a 2b, is good for guidelines and rough, preliminary sketches. You can draw lightly with any pencil for light lines, and press down harder for darks. Sharpening is best done with a good sharpener - the small silver ones are good. Don't use a cheap plastic sharpener, like the ones your little brother or sister has in their knapsack - It will just break off the lead. Also - if you drop an art pencil with soft lead it will shatter inside and you will never get it to sharpen

I use a drawing board - that way I can tape down my drawing and have plenty of drawing surface.

Get a good ruler.

A compass comes in handy for circles. I also use an ellipse template and a circle template.

You will need paper - unfortunately we need to work small enough to scan - it's nice to spread out sometimes. However, a medium sized sketchpad will work. Minimum size is 8.5 x 11.

You need to be able to scan and resize, crop, adjust, save for web in Photoshop.

I use a digital camera frequently for everything from brainstorming to archiving.

That's it!

There will be course specific info coming your way soon. There is a lot of material to cover, and something to do daily. It's not hard if you do the reading, participate with the class, and work on your submissions - making them professional in content and form so that you have something for your portfolio by the final.

Welcome to the class. Let’s do good work (:

Jeff Prentice