Due to popular workshop demand, I have added a copy of the Photoshop assignments that I gave my students last semester. I’ve linked to a pdf version of my Photoshop assignments here.
Note the following ideas:
- A great way to start a web design class is to start with Photoshop – that way you wait to introduce the core knowledge of HTML until after the drop-date, and you minimize having 1 or 2 students arriving for the first time when the rest of the class has moved on to images and tables
- The sooner you get your students learning independently, the better – my favorite moments in my web design class happen that by the time I get around to answering a student’s question, they tell me, “never mind; I figured it out.” – I could give my students a web page, or I could teach them how to code.
- Encourage students to teach themselves (and each other) – this is pretty much the same as the previous note. I regularly assign tutorials to my students. You’ll note that I have one assignment where everyone does the same tutorial, and the rest of the tutorials, I encourage students to find one on their own (one that interests them). Note the following:
- Make them follow the tutorial, but make them change the shape, color, text – to prove that they followed the tutorial and didn’t just copy an image of the final result
- You might want them to write a review of the tutorial – not all tutorials are well-written, and not all tutorials are complete
5 comments »