ecampus blog

SCAD students have access to the weekly career services newsletter Job Wire. The newsletter features job and internship opportunities from companies interested in SCAD students and alumni joining their workforce.

Also, the newsletter features SCAD students who have recently obtained jobs or produce entrepreneurship-type products. This can be an excellent networking tool. Learn where your fellow SCAD students are working, or what they are creating. Or, send in your own accomplishments.

These are a few benefits to subscribing to the SCAD newsletter. If you are a member of the SCAD community and would like to sign up for weekly e-mail updates, e-mail careers@scad.edu from your student e-mail address and request to be added to Job Wire.

Have you received special recognition, won an award or accomplished something exemplary recently? If so, please share by sending your name, course of study and the details to gmarshal@scad.edu.

You are invited to submit papers to the 2010 Designs on eLearning conference hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA on September 15-17, 2010.

Designs on eLearning is an international conference about the use of technology for teaching and learning in art, design and communication. The conference aims to cast light on established practice in the field, on innovations in teaching and learning with technology, on the challenges and successes presented by the visual nature of our discipline, and on the benefits of online and blended learning. It provides a forum for disseminating and promoting good practice in art, design and communication.

Please visit http://www.designsonelearning.net/conferences/face_to_face/sept2010/del_sept2010.htm.

From student media source The District:

Whether it is a birthday, graduation or true love, Disneyland and Walt Disney World have a history of promoting their parks through the idea of celebration. For 2010, Disney will be celebrating the spirit of giving through their “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” program. Disney’s goal is to inspire 1 million people to volunteer a day of service in their communities.

The program is offered to residents of the United States, Puerto Rico or Canada. These residents can volunteer at a preapproved location provided by the HandsOn Network, but must sign up for these volunteer opportunities through the Disney “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” Web site.

The HandsOn Network is the volunteer branch of the Points of Light institute that focuses on inspiring, equipping and mobilizing people to take action.

After a participant signs up and completes the chosen volunteer service, they will receive a voucher for a free one-day ticket to a Disneyland or Walt Disney World Resort theme park.

For more information and to read the rest of the article, click here.

SCAD eLearning’s foundations professor LeRoy Lottmann demonstrates a commitment to teach online students by using the course materials coupled with other means of technology provided through SCAD eLearning. Lottmann prepares his courses with the students in mind, and he understands his students’ collegiate and professional success is based on the knowledge received in their foundations classes. He is a dedicated and effective professor, intent on providing sound institutional instruction in an online environment.

The four courses Lottmann teaches – Drawing I, Drawing II, 2-D Design and Color Theory – lay a foundation of knowledge for art and design students and teach them to create an artistic dialogue. He asks students to question the why and how of their artwork, reassess for additions or subtractions to the piece of art, then consider what could be done to make the piece stronger. This action-reaction relationship builds the dialogue that evolves between the artist and the work, between the artist and classmate or coworker, and between the artist and instructor or client.

Involvement is Lottmann’s classroom technique to achieve this dialogue. He knows that the level that students participate in a class is determined by the instructor’s involvement, and he achieves success in the classroom by involving himself. According to Lottmann, he finds this even truer in the online environment. He knows and demonstrates that if the student sees the instructor taking part in the class daily and responding to questions quickly, then students understand they must also be active. One of the challenges with online teaching is creating a virtual classroom for the student who typically sits alone in his or her own part of the world. Lottmann is a great example of how, when in an online environment, the more active the students are, the more they become part of a group and thus strive to do better both individually and as a class. This involvement contributes to the kind of dialogue needed for successful development.

The most important involvement is reliance on the use of technology is to preserve the action and reaction of the learning environment. Lottmann participates daily in discussion board postings via Blackboard and holds weekly office hours and meetings through Adobe Connect. Sometimes Lottmann finds a simple phone call to students helpful, checking on their progress or to share an insight that he discovered about their work. From every vantage point possible, Lottmann ensures that he maintains in steady contact with his students.

But for Lottmann the technology remains secondary, simply a vehicle, to the classroom learning experience he delivers. He sees his students are not wishing for a degree in instructional design. Art foundations students use classes in the online environment as a tool to learn how to get their hands dirty using traditional drawing and painting tools. Lottmann makes certain his students focus on the basics of drawing and design, and remembers that like him, they only use the online classroom as a vehicle to succeed in their collegiate and professional careers.

All students are strongly encouraged to complete the end-of-course survey and the course evaluation for their eLearning course(s) by the end of the quarter on Thursday, March 11, 2010. Information from end-of-course surveys provides feedback to the eLearning department, and information from course evaluations provides valuable feedback for academic departments in preparing future course offerings.

Access the eLearning end-of-course survey:
1. Enter your eLearning course.
2. Click the Assessment link in the left navigation.

3. Scroll down to the end-of-course survey link.

Access the SCAD course evaluation
Winter course evaluations will be available until Thursday, March 11, 2010.

1. Log in to MySCAD.

2. Click the Student Workspace tab.

3. Winter course evaluations are available on the “My Courses” channel

All evaluation responses are anonymous. When an evaluation is submitted, any identifying information is stripped away from the responses. When the evaluation period is completed, the results are compiled into reports for the faculty and administration in academic services.

If you have any questions, contact technology support at 912.525.4567, or the office of institutional effectiveness at 912.525.4033.

SCAD offers a wide array of scholarships, ranging from academic honors, artistic honors, combined honors and need-based. This is the time of year to prepare applications for next year’s scholarship awards.

For more information about individual scholarship opportunities, click here.

SCAD eLearning, in conjunction with counseling and student support services, hosts creativity-coaching sessions via Adobe Connect for student support throughout the quarter.

Creativity coaching is intended to support students in maximizing creative potential. Participants may be dealing with creative blocks, procrastination, philosophical predicaments, career issues, performance anxiety or other factors that get in the way of completing creative tasks. These sessions help students discover strategies to identify and transform obstacles.

A microphone and headphones are recommended for participants using the audio feature in Adobe Connect, and a webcam is recommended for the video feature.

E-mail SCAD eLearning at ecampus@scad.edu from your student e-mail address to reserve a place in the session.

Thursday, February 25, 6 p.m. EST 7:30 p.m. EST

Check Personal Announcements in MySCAD to join the lecture live in the online meeting room.

DJ Stout is a sixth generation Texan who studied graphic design at Texas Tech University, where he was honored as a distinguished alumnus. He began his graphic design career in 1981 working for Robert A. Wilson Associates in Dallas. In 1987 he moved to Austin, where he was the award-winning art director of the nationally respected and critically acclaimed Texas Monthly magazine. In January 2000 Stout joined Pentagram as a partner in the Austin office. He was nominated for 10 and received three National Magazine Awards, and in a special 1998 issue, American Photo magazine selected Stout as one of the “100 most important people in photography.” In 2004 I.D. magazine profiled Stout as one of its “Fifty American Designers.” This lecture is part of the Creative Seed Initiative sponsored by the SCAD School of Communication Arts and BFG Communications.

SCAD is pleased to announce My Payment Plan, a new automated payment plan that helps students and families manage their educational expenses. Beginning February 2010 and effective spring quarter, participants may enroll in a quarterly plan to make regularly scheduled payments of tuition, housing, meal plan and other student fees. Payments may be made by credit card or e-check. Advance payments are accepted at any time and there are no finance charges. Sign up by the March 1 due date to avoid a late payment fee.

To learn more or to enroll, log into MySCAD and select the Enroll in a Payment Plan link.