SME - “PHOA232: PORTRAITURE 1” - 2017-2018
In August of 2017, I was asked to be the Subject Matter Expert for “Portraiture I”, which at the time was known as PH222. During this process, the course would transition to “PHOA223”. This class was initially flagged as a “Tier 3” revision, which would only require changes to the assignments. Similar to other Pinnacle courses, PHOA232 required a “real world” concept for the students to work towards, which would be added into the new assignments. As the review of the course progressed, it was agreed upon that the older content - both the still photographs and video tutorials - needed to be updated to produce a successful class. The course also needed new tasks (assignments), milestones, lectures, and an updated required equipment list. Last but not least, the course required a general overview. The first step was to create a Topical Outline, which provided an outline of the course, a proposed submissions flow chart, course project descriptions with submission details, and an outline of the tasks and milestones.
At this time, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh - Online Division (AIPOD) had moved forward with the “Pinnacle Project”, which was an online method of teaching that allowed faculty members more interaction with the students vs. classroom management and offering students engaging projects that simulate the real workforce to justify their learning skills. With this in mind, PH222: Portraiture I was going to be transformed into PHOA232 and would appear under the new and improved online classroom platform called “Brightspace (D2L)”. Below is a screenshot from the home page within the new BrightSpace platform; use the arrow to swipe to the older version of the course’s home page:
To help ensure the students were engaging with the course on a visual level, new stock imagery was added to each lecture page. New video tutorials were also created to assist students with using their handheld light meters and overall lighting techniques. The video work required writing scripts for videos and managing a production team to ensure the videos were well created. Below are a few examples of the stock imagery that was selected for the course material:
In terms of video content, AIPOD had a fantastic video tutorial from the previous version of Portraiture I that focused on setting up a light for different lighting schemes. Click “here” to access this video, which remained in the new version. With our video production team, we created a video tutorial to show students how to use their light meter to meter for different light ratios. Our videos are displayed below:
We also utilized different tutorials found on Lynda.com within the class; the most popular video being “Portraiture Photography: Ten Styles with One Light” by Levi Sim.
An additional change we made to this classroom involved integrating the required reading directly into the BrightSpace Platform. In the past, students would refer to their e-book through Vital Source, although with this method, it was not clear if students were actually completing and understanding the readings. With putting the required reading directly into the classroom, we could track the students reading and time spent on each page.
Click on the button below to download the files involved with this course revision:
We launched the new PHOA232 in August of 2018. Being an SME for this course allowed me to see my hard work “come to life” in the classroom and to see the vast improvements made by the students. On several occasions, students noted that they found the new content and video tutorials helpful in understanding the material. The new content provided the course with a “fresh look” and was up-to-date with industry standards. The simulation of “photographer and curator” also allowed students to think about each assignment in a new way; as an approach towards working in the real photography world.