Timothy Blog 2

The need in this case is to provide useful information in the form of guides and checklists  to help students intending to transfer as they navigate the process of transitioning from a junior college to a 4-year university. 

Once again, I called upon Shawn and Jenn on April 10th to give me some feedback on the products I have created based on their initial suggestions. I was also able to send materials to Carolyn, the music undergraduate advisor I had contacted to receive her feedback as well. 

They both felt that the checklist was in pretty good shape overall, although they both thought it could be a little more eye catching. They both agreed that although it does a good job of covering all the important steps they outlined, they thought it might be better divided into blocks for each checklist task that have embedded instructions or resources in each. They felt that the current form of the checklist, while being useful, feels a bit clinical and might not be appealing or engaging for the current generation. 

I am not quite sure how where to start with this aspect of the project since I am not really a graphic designer. I will make some time though to experiment with a different version of the checklist to see what I can come up with once the curriculum guide is completed. 

Carolyn, who I contacted on April 12th also felt that the checklist overall contained useful information but lacked something to appeal to college students. She actually suggested besides the checklist making the entire thing into a Canva presentation or possibly a tutorial video. While being a good and interesting notion, that seems to be a bit beyond the scope of this tiny project. This might be something to consider down the road however to wrap this package all up into to one resource.

I guess at this point the biggest thing holding me back is my limited experience with designing things such as these products in this project. Of course, I can create Word docs and PowerPoint presentations all day. This is something I do every day for the classes I teach. Using something like Canva, or Google Sites as I am currently for this blog, I am reminded that I am not young anymore and although technology doesn’t baffle me or make me uncomfortable, it’s just something for which I have a bit of a learning curve at times. I will be taking a stab at making a more catchy, or colorful at least, version of these materials after I complete the originals so that I can have at least finished products as well as a guide to me in that process.