Ongoing Assessment
PORTFOLIO REVIEW / STUDENT SURVEY/
EMPLOYMENT TRACKING FOR ASSESSMENT
SENIOR REVIEWS:
Portfolio Reviews are held at the end of each semester with graduating seniors.
A faculty meeting is held after the reviews to discuss the work in relation to our goals.
A Student Survey is conducted during the student's senior year in the Media Portfolio Course.
Example of the Student Survey can be found here:
• Student Survey Summary Graphed Student Survey Summary
SOPHOMORE ADVISING:
Starting Spring 2013 Digital Media conducted Sophomore Advising which includes a portfolio review with a faculty group.
A Sophomore Advising Survey was sent out.
A summary of the responses is available.
• Detailed Sophomore Review Advice From Faculty - Spring 2013
This includes the advise for the student to maintain the present course or to change direction within the Digital Media Program. It includes indicators of career goals and progression toward those goals.
FUTURE SOPHOMORE ADVISING:
We can make the Sophomore Review better in the future by requiring students to bring their program plans so that we can do advising at that time also.
2012 STUDENT SURVEY
– 5/2012 by Susan Bonner
We reviewed the summary of student responses to the survey and student written feedback, which was administered in the Media Portfolio Course.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Summary of Student Responses – Exit Interview
ONGOING EMPLOYMENT TRACKING
How are students doing in terms of getting jobs?
Review the alumni job placement on the Kendall Weblab:
ACTION PLAN:
- We need to consistently track jobs using Facebook, LinkedIn and Email. Each focus faculty champion needs to take responsibility to track the students from their focus or those who they have developed relationships with. We need to capture freelancing as well as full-time employment.
Employment numbers are proof of who is employed where.
ONGOING ASSESSMENT:
NOTES FOR WORKING IN THIS DOCUMENT:
Follow the format example for Media Portfolio and Thesis by Bill.
1. Post in December and May
2.You can post 2 ways:
New post:
• bulleted Issues •Action Plans •Completed Actions
• date and name
Add to a post:
• You may update and add to any areas which you are affected or responsible for, not just your focus areas.
• Add your bullet item, then add your name to the 'posted by'.
MEDIA PORTFOLIO - Bill Fischer
Posted December 2012 by Bill Fischer:
Issues:
• students not including all of their good work in their portfolios
• students are not getting all of their group project work integrated
Action Plans:
• Work more with students to ensure all of their coursework is being considered for their sites. Have them look at work from every course they have taken. Then review the work on their site against the list at semester's end.
• Start with a list of buttons with standardized categories for the portfolios. This will help in their organization..
Completed Actions:
• Most May 2012 action plan items were not implemented because I was on sabbatical.
• We did get all of the group projects in the student portfolios however.
Posted May 2012 by Bill Fischer:
Issues:
• students not including all of their good work in their portfolios
• Get group projects into the senior portfolios better - Identifying what their part of a group project was theirs is important for a student
Action Plans:
• Work more with students to ensure all of their coursework is being considered for their sites. Have them look at work from every course they have taken. Then review the work on their site against the list at semester's end.
• Start with a list of buttons with standardized categories for the portfolios. This will help in their organization.
Completed Actions:
• none
THESIS - Bill, Brad, Susan
Posted May 2012 by Susan Bonner and Bill Fischer:
Issues:
• Work ethic seems to be the primary cause of less successful projects
Action Plans:
• We have been and will continue to give low grades to low performing students. That is our primary tool for managing this.
• Consider failing students that completed all work, but not to a minimum quality standard, as opposed to giving a low grade. This will force low performing students to take the class over. This would be a threshold type of approach. The student can either create work that can get them started in the professional world... or not. If not... they have to try again.
Completed Actions:
•We created a cross-platform and linear app project deliverables list for Imaging focused students.
Posted May 2012 by Susan Bonner:
Issues:
• Is there too much freedom for the Thesis Student?
•There needs to be a list of possible imaging projects in the Thesis requirements
(as there are for other focuses)
Action Plans:
Susan and Bill and Brad to work on this list which will be placed on course site.
Completed Actions:
• none
INTERACTIVE DESIGN : Bill Fischer
Posted December 2012 by Bill Fischer:
Issues:
• enrollment continues to be low
• Finishing projects in Design Professional Studio continues to be challenging.
Action Plans:
• Create a blog that informs high school and community college teachers and counselors about Digital media.
• Work with Dom to create a more structured schedule for Design Professional Studio.
Completed Actions:
• All Interactive course revisions completed and approved with changes suggested in May 2012 post
• Framework used in Interactive I, Thesis and Concept/Production
Posted May 2012 by Bill Fischer:
Issues:
• Need to integrate mobile media into the series of courses: for details see the 2011 Assessment• Need to make Interactive II more user friendly to non-interactive focused students.
Action Plans:• Create a Flash framework for creating story Apps in Interactive I
• Integrate Wordpress in Into Interactive II
• Intgrate Adobe Edge into interactive III
• create and use Flash Framework in other classes when appropriate (Thesis, Pro. Studio, Concept/Production)
Completed Actions:
• none
DIGITAL IMAGING : Susan Bonner
New Courses, Concept and Production Design and Imaging for Game, Animation Film are now being seen in the seniors portfolios. They are a strong component of the portfolios as they show work in teams and for a particular purpose. Students tend to not place group projects in portfolios on their own. There is a need for increased figure drawing from digital reference. There is an extensive Assessment on the Digital Imaging Focus available on this link: 2012 ASSESSMENT - DIGITAL IMAGING
Action Plan:
Get group projects into the senior portfolios
Identifying what their part of a group project was theirs is important for a student
Deliverables in class - mini portfolio of what they did
More figure drawing and animal drawing
Figure drawing and animals need to go in the portfolio
Using digital reference - We will be using Daz 3d Animal references.
Retail focused students can look at cross platform work to address the cross platform need.
Create Digital animation in Photoshop loops and panning matte paintings- will be done in Digital Imaging II and Imaging for Game, Animation and Film.
Will look at ways to incorporate Kasey and Motion Graphics/Video into the Group courses.
Will create a section on the Weblab with Digital Painting tips, brushes, etc - it will act as a tutorial home.
Susan will also do more digital painting hands on workshops in courses
June 24, 2013 - Continued Action Plan
Have students create a statement log of what they did in a group project class.
Have students create mini reels out of Digital Imaging II and Imaging for Game, Animation and Film of animations.
2D ANIMATION: Brad Yarhouse
Posted December 2012 by Brad Yarhouse:
This assessment is in regard to our Fall 2012 graduating students exit portfolio review. Several students showed work with animation components. We reviewed one student with a goal of working in 2D animation and a range of students who had animated elements in their portfolios. The strongest features of the animation work we saw focused on their design and layout skills with limited movement. A combination that is used for primarily for cartoon games, television, web and interactive learning.
Issues:
- Incomplete work. brought on by overreaching.
- The dreamer versus reality. Vague understanding of entry level jobs in our area and how to transition themselves for our market.
- Stiff movement. Even within our symbol/limited animation focus, students don't seem to be making use of basic animation principles.
Action Plans:
- Shorter length individual animations with longer pieces being reserved for group work in thesis and imaging and animation production class.
- Job market fair? with animation employers from the area reviewing portfolios.
- Students pitch thesis projects around advising time the semester before thesis. Projects are approved by the D.M. department. Students working on anything longer then 30 seconds need to create a thesis group that works together for animation. Students provide a project "bible" during the first week of Thesis for approval. Unapproved thesis plans could lead to asking the students to drop thesis the first week of class to better prepare themselves for thesis the following semester.
- Develop a criteria for reviewing animation portfolios. For example the student should be able to: create a walk cycle, show weight, overlap action, provide anticipation, settle. etc.
Completed Actions:
- none
Posted May 2012 by Brad Yarhouse:
Action Plan:
Storyboard class:
giving more time to animatic in class
improve sound design
More After Effects animatics- some in Flash
Add more tutorials for comic book production TBD
Imaging and Animation Production Class (IAPC):
Complete the animation and imaging for the group live action short "Super" this year along with the group animated short "Don and Charlie" for sound development by Mike Dollar's Sound II class.
Create Mini Portfolios of work from with a description of what they did.
Some long projects: work on shorter projects stay under 30 seconds
Completed Actions:
- Storyboarding ended up including the same amount of time as in previous classes for the animatic, but with stronger emphasis on sound and more after effects/video editing in conjunction with Flash.
- IAPC completed first draft of edit, animation and effects on Super! along with a 30 second animated commercial P.S.A. for the Grand Rapids Film Festival.
- IAPC I provided opportunity for students to have pieces of the completed segments for their portfolios. Work needs to be done on making sure they understand how to credit the work in their portfolios.
- Sound design in Animation 1. Mike Dollar gave an instruction to my students on sound use and importance. Several deadlines for sound were incorporated into the project. Emphasis was placed on quality sound.
SOUND DESIGN: Mike Dollar
Have students create a portfolio of mastered sound
not compressed to give to Bill for media portfolio course
We need a worksheet for mastering sound in Garage Band from Mike Dollar
What is the volume standard for industry?
We need parameters written down and public
Sound is going very well as it incorporates in the curriculum.
ISSUE:
Sound is too inconsistent on projects
Maximizing the sound on the portfolio reels needs to happen.
How can we maximize the sound for the user experience of the portfolio?
The user experience is Computers and laptops with headphones or speakers
Is there a $30 dollar option for students to maximize sound?
Like Audacity or a Brick Wall Limiter that is a reality for students to use upon graduation.
Action Plan:
Dollar does a Workshop and a Worksheet
Train faculty on mastering
Schedule animation classes into the sound booth to do mastering which will be 10 minutes each
Booth to be reserved schedule and make a big deal out of the availability
look up some cheaper solutions for Maximization of sound after graduation
Sound Design Portfolios:
from 2D animation II they come out with a 2D animation reel it just plugs into reels
create a deliverable of reel that is mastered
audio projects need to be seconds instead of minutes
Create 4 15 second environment sounds
limit their environments to 30 seconds
30 second to a minute sound reel with
5 categories: environment, special effects, voice over, foley, score
MOTION GRAPHICS: Kasey McCargar
Action Plan:
Will incorporate audio maximizing in projects
Will make them rework a project
Incorporate video/motion graphics into group projects from the focuses
Create a group of tutorials for the video courses
What about an advanced Motion Graphics course?
Now they can take Video as a special problems and do After Effects
2012-2013 completed acton:
More students are incorporating audio,
3D ANIMATION: Gary Williams
3D Animation II work on 30 second duration
do a public service focus on that project
3D Animation I
Lots of imaging students work on bringing 2d environments into the background of the 3d model
What do they learn in that class?
⁃ glass
⁃ product - retail
⁃ interior or exterior
⁃ organic- (toy design)
Action Plan:
Create a list of ideas and how imaging students can integrate 2d and 3d
Susan and Gary to collaborate with the list to get imaging students more integrated into 3d
Gary is learning MudBox
Thesis students may work as a group