Detailed Instructions
Each assignment is listed clearly within the online classroom, although the directions for these assignments can sometimes seem confusing to students, particularly in a learning environment where the students cannot speak to the instructors face to face. In order to help students better understand what the assignment is asking for and more importantly, what I as their professor am looking for, I provide students with additional help noted in green within the body of the assignment.
In a Pinnacle Course, there is a lot of information within the Overview, the Task Description, and the Steps for Success sections. To help ensure that the student understands the directions and to provide “tips” for the task or milestone, I will include an “Additional Help” section where students can click on a Google Drive link to download a PDF. This same PDF is also shared in the “Post Here” Discussion Thread to help ensure the students do not miss it. Below is a video tutorial to show an example of the Additional Help offered for M1T2 of PHOA209:
To the left you will see an example of additional help that I have created for one of the Classic Courses: PH323: Portraiture II – W4A1: Using the Weather Outside, Regardless of the Conditions:
In this assignment, students are faced with the challenge of working on location and considering the time of day. The goal is to allow for the sun to act as a back-light (or a hair light) while the students use their strobe as a fill light. To help explain the lighting concepts to my students, I created a short video tutorial where I discuss lighting schemes and go over a few examples. I mentioned a few different articles I thought related to the material and shared the links with the students. I have found this method of teaching to be very successful and the students appreciate the additional efforts that go into the assignment. Below you can watch the actual video: