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Online design : UTC art department's Web Media course gives students flexibility
(Chattanooga Times (Free Press, TN) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Dec. 26--Using colors from bold reds to pale greens, and interactive images from robots to bubbles, 13 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga design students put another tool in their toolbox by creating a Web site as part of the art department's first Web Media course.
"It was tailored for people who would be going on to do design work, even possible design on the Web," said Adam Trowbridge, who, along with his wife, Jessica Westbrook, taught the course as adjunct faculty members.
The course, launched in the justcompleted semester, is one of three the Chattanooga artists offered or will be offering in the coming semester. The other two, Digital Video and Color Photography (emphasizing digi tal processes), will begin in January.
UTC already offers a course in Web design under its Communications major and many of the Web design mechanics are offered in some of its computer-science classes, but the Web Media course was a first for the art department.
"Introducing this new course presented a lot of interesting challenges, a lot of unknowns and a lot of planning," Ms. Westbrook said in a news release. "I didn't have a model. ... Web design and development are demanding, and there is a constant learning curve involving not just design concepts /execution but (also) technology and mechanics."
The course, according to Mr. Trowbridge, included computer programming, though intentionally not to the level of a computer-science major, and basic Web scripting.
"(The students) needed to understand the technology to be able to work with those people (who have broader computer knowledge)," he said. Daniel Skolfield, a junior, said he appreciated that tie-in.
"The usability (discussions) throughout the course have been probably more beneficial to me than anything else we covered," he said. "I came out of this course with by far a better understanding of how people operate on the Web and how to design based around those needs."
The instructors said class members not only studied, planned and learned Web design, but they also used the Web as an extension of the classroom. Announcements, assignments, discussion and grades all were disseminated on Blackboard, the online learning system that Mr. Trowbridge administrates for the university.
"It's where the world is moving," said Mr. Trowbridge. "It's good that somebody progressive (art department head Matt Greenwell) is thinking about that and where it fits in the overall plan."
The department head said he wanted to take the class because, as a graphic designer, he had a "barely passing knowledge" of Web design and because he felt it was a priority to build such courses into the curriculum.
"I wanted to make sure we were engaged in the discipline and medium," Mr. Greenwell said. "I wanted to see how (such a course) could run and think about how to make that content available the best way it could be."
In addition to interest from students and the department head, there also was interest from the Chattanooga business community, he said. Both Coptix, a design and Web application development studio, and Tubatomic Studio, a multimedia and design firm, hosted the class and expressed the need for more local design talent, he said. The class's final project was for students to build their own Web s i te.
All of the Web sites were to be built according to valid code set by an international standards organization. According to Ms. Westbrook, the students were to include one Adobe Flash animation module, demonstrate proper use of the style sheets and markup language used on the Web, complete a project to recall image from a database and exhibit their sketch work done in the class.
"It was an organizing site," she said. "It was a good way for them to manage themselves at the end and organize some criteria."
Ms. Westbrook said it was important for the students to use their final project as a reference point and keep working with what they've learned.
"They need to use it or lose it," she said.
Nick DuPey, who has a UTC degree in painting, returned to the school to learn graphic design.
"I knew that at some point I would have to design a Webbased portfolio, and I figured that this class would supply me with the skills to do that," he said. "I wanted to see what this particular field (of graphic design) offers both technologically and creatively."
Mr. Greenwell said it will be important to build the Web Media course into the department curriculum, which he said should happen if the department receives a continued level of support.
E-mail Clint Cooper at ccooper@timesfreepress.com
Copyright (c) 2006, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
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