Digital Content

1.1 Welcome

Welcome to Art80T: Digital Tools for Contemporary Art Practices. I am your instructor, Kristen Gillette, and am very excited to teach this course for the first time. For this first week, I will just be introducing the weekly format and the online learning system, called Canvas, that we will be using to do everything for this course. The 4 “assignments” due for this week are short practice exercises to get everyone comfortable with using Canvas and a few basic operations on your computers. None of these Week 1 assignments will be graded, but they do need to be successfully completed and submitted to “unlock” week 2.

1.2 Course TA's

This quarter we will also be joined by 3 great TA's, Ann Altstatt, Simon Boas and Kelly Skye. These folks will be moderating your section discussion boards, hosting “studio-hours” via chat, compiling content for lectures and tutorials and evaluating assignments and projects. Each of them are a wealth of their own knowledge with digital tools and programs (a lot of which is differently focused than mine) and use these tools extensively in their own art and design practices.

1.3 Using Canvas

Canvas, through UC Online, is the “Learning Management System” we will be using to host this course. Think of Canvas as the door to your classroom or lecture hall - every time you are doing any work for this course, you want to first log into Canvas, which will then link you to our course site. You will be using this site to do everything for this class - including access videos, tutorials and content, submit assignments, post discussion questions, take quizzes, view the course schedule, attend instructor office hours and view any course updates and announcements. Before you go any farther, if you are not logged in and viewing this through Canvas already, follow the link below to do so. You will also need to be using your UC email exclusively for this course, so make sure you have that info and are checking it frequently.

1.4 Weekly Module Format

This online course will use weekly “modules” to organize lectures, assignments, discussion board participation and other course components by week. Access modules via the “Module” menu option on the left, or by linking through to it on the course Home Page.

Most weeks will feature a “Lecture Page”, a “Discussion Video”, 4 “Studio - Tutorial Videos” and 4 corresponding “Studio Exercises” (which are like mini-projects), a weekly discussion board that you will contribute to, and an “Attendance Quiz”. All weeks will be available on the 1st Monday at 12:01 am, (unless otherwise stated) and all assignments and required discussion posts will be due by the following Sunday at 11:30pm. Each of these different weekly module components will be described more below. Week 1, Week 6 and Week 10 will follow different formats.

1.5 Lecture Pages + Content

Lecture content covers things like different course topics, themes, artists, artworks + movements, as well as art + design principles, techniques and processes that correspond with ideas we are exploring in the studio portion of this course. It does not cover any technical information that is not fully discussed in these Studio Tutorial videos. When I was first developing this course, I had planned to present this content via video as well, however, I quickly realized it would be incredibly frustrating for students to access specific information from these lectures if they were all videos. This content is instead presented as a web page with text, slideshows and links to other resources and videos (that I did not produce). While this format does require you to read a bit more, it allows you to flip through slideshows, locate specific content easily and “attend” lectures and access course content in a noisy place.

1.6 Studio Exercise Assignments

Most weeks there will by 4 studio exercises due by 11:30 pm Sundays. Each of these exercises correspond directly to a studio tutorial video - they are listed next to each other in the weekly module lists on Canvas. These tutorial videos walk you more than half way through completing each exercise, and explain all of the processes and tools you will need to know in order to complete them. Each completed exercise will then be submitted through Canvas, where the assignment is listed in detail - you will have practice using this turn-in method this week.

1.7 A note on Grading Studio Exercises

I want to emphasize that these exercises are intended to be creative ways to explore and learn the technical aspects of these digital tools, and to better understand ways these tools could be used for different types of art-making. For those of you who have taken art courses before, we are not grading these based on your concepts or ideas. We are only evaluating these exercises based on your exploration and application of the technical steps presented in each video tutorial, as well as your problem-solving efforts.

Each exercise is worth 2pts of your final grade. They will be evaluated on a very simple rubric.

An on-time project that completes all of the listed steps will earn 2 pts.
A partially completed project, submitted on-time, accompanied by a paragraph describing the technical issue(s) encountered and 2 ways you tried to solve or work around these issues will also earn 2 pts.  
A partially completed project submitted on-time will earn 1pt.
No submission will earn 0pts.
Late submissions are not accepted.

1.8 Asking for Help + Troubleshooting

For this course, I am requiring that everyone follow a strict series of steps when it comes to asking technical questions. I am defining “technical questions” as any question about any program or tool presented in the studio exercise tutorial videos, or any process (including starting or saving) required by a studio exercise assignment. Don’t worry, you will actually be earning points by following these simple steps.

1. Read through your weekly section discussion board to see if someone has already asked this question, and if its been answered. If not, post your question(s).
2. While you are waiting for replies or solutions, use the internet as possibly the most powerful digital tool available - Google your question.
3. Log into one of our online “Studio Chat Hours” throughout the week. These schedules will be posted at the start of every week. Make sure to check the chat conversation history before asking your question if you log-in part way through - we will not be answering duplicate questions (in order to accommodate the most number of students).
4. Check past chat conversations if you couldn’t attend.
5. Continue to check your discussion board.
6. If your question still remains unanswered, it will most likely be discussed in the following weeks “Discussion Video” (which is required content). These will be posted midway through the week, and will essentially focus on answering the questions that were not addressed or answered on the discussion boards.

Reminder - this is for technical questions only, and does not include things like health emergencies, issues accessing your course portal, DRC accommodations or other course concerns. Please contact me during Week 1, and then afterwards your assigned TA (based on your last name, which will be assigned during Week 2) via email with any non-technical questions, with “Art80T” in the subject line.

1.9 Discussion Boards

During Week 2, you will be broken up into discussion board sections of 25 or so. Most weeks, you will be required to post at least 1 technical question and 1 answer to this discussion board by the following Sunday at 11:30pm. This will be listed in your weekly module requirements, when it is required. You will receive 1 point for each post, up to 2 points, however, you can always post more questions and answers if you want (and I would encourage it). The more that you use these discussion boards as resources, the more beneficial they will be to everyone. You can answer your own question, as well, if you ask and then find a solution.

These posts will not be graded for spelling or grammar, but its in your best interest to be clear because you want your question to be understood. When answering your peer’s questions, please remember that everyone is coming into this class with different levels of experience with (not to mention access to) these tools, processes and programs.

Any disrespectful communication, bullying, and hate speech will be immediately deleted and will subtract 1 pt from the student’s 100 point final grade. Each repeat issue will compound that subtraction. If anyone is feeling bullied or uncomfortable with a discussion board communication, please do not continue to engage, or post any kind of reply, and instead email me immediately.

1.10 Weekly Practice / Attendance Quizzes

Most weeks, there will be 1-2 short “Attendance” quizzes required for each module. These will cover mostly content from that week’s “Lecture Page” and “Discussion Video”. Think of these as practice quizzes - they are timed, multiple choice and “open book”, but they don’t affect your final grade, and you can also take them as many times as you need to “pass”, by answering a set amount of questions correctly (this will change a bit based on the week, but it will usually be around 70% or 80%). Once you pass, you can continue to take them without losing that passing score.

These quizzes aren’t worth any points, but you need to pass them in order to “unlock” the midterm and final exam (so that you can take them). Most of these quizzes (except for Week 1) are not “due” on the Sunday at the end of the week with the rest of your assignments. You can take them as late as you want, up to Week 6, and then again up to Week 10.

The questions on the quizzes will be similar to some of the midterm and final exam questions. Probably very similar. For example, if the quiz for Week 2 asks you multiple questions about a specific artist or a technique, you will want to make note of that specific artist or technique for the midterm. This does not mean that ONLY questions from the quizzes will appear on the exams. But they are an excellent starting point for review.

1.11 Midterm and Final Exams

Week 6 and Week 10 there will be a midterm and final exam due to be completed by Sunday at 11:30pm. Unlike the quizzes, these can only be taken once. They WILL, however, be the same multiple choice, open-book and timed format.

1.12 Time Management, Computer Issues + Internet Access

As a professional who works with digital tech constantly, I know that some of you are going to encounter equipment issues - like internet outages, or crashed or stolen computers - at probably the worst times. It happens to all of us, however, these types of issues do not excuse late assignment submissions or late midterm or final exam submissions. If something DOES come up, you need to first have submitted your “Back-Up Plan” (Exercise 1.5), and then complete the following steps:

1. Take screenshots of any error messages or issues, or photos of any equipment malfunctions.
2. Email me with the issue and any of the above documentation ASAP.
3. Proceed with your back-up plan.

Each issue will be considered on a case-by-case basis - communication and pro-activeness is very important with these kinds of problems, in both the academic world and in the professional world, and will weigh heavily on our decisions to grant resubmissions. For example, don’t wait until Sunday night at 8pm to take a midterm, especially if your internet has been acting up all week, or, if you notice your computer crashing a few days before an assignment is due, check the computer lab hours and figure out a repair plan as soon as possible.

1.13 And now, on to the fun stuff…

This week is all about getting this logistical stuff figured out and on the record. I promise, this will be the most textual, non-visual lecture page of the whole quarter. The TA's and I are excited to be teaching this course for the first time, and are really amazed at the amount of interest we’ve gotten so far. Since this is the first offering, you all will be a part of shaping this course for future quarters and students - so please feel free to send any feedback, suggestions or ideas our way. Make sure to check out the posted syllabus (subject to change, with plenty of heads up) and work through the intro exercises for this week. Next week we will be diving into pixel-based image editors - like Photoshop - first thing.