ecampus blog

It’s that time of year again. No, not spring cleaning (although if you find yourself picking up pencil shavings from your bed before going to bed, by all means clean). It’s time to talk about SCAD eLearning’s 7^th annual Spring Social.

The eLearning Spring Social is a chance for eLearning students to get together with staff and faculty and touch base on a face-to-face basis. There are events sponsored by SCAD as well as opportunities to branch out and explore the beautiful city of Savannah. You won’t be left hanging dry.

This year’s Spring Social will take place on the weekend of April 27.  On that first day, we’ll take a gallery hop across three of SCAD’s finest galleries: Alexander Hall, Pinnacle Gallery, and Gutstein Gallery. A list of exhibitions currently showing at these galleries, as well as other SCAD galleries, can be found here.

In addition to the gallery hop, the new SCAD Museum of Art is available for your enjoyment. Admission is free for all SCAD students. Considering it features some of the best work from SCAD’s permanent collection, as well as installation pieces from new artists, we think it’s more than a great opportunity.

From artwork that hangs on walls, to artwork that decorates the ground. The day after the gallery hop, SCAD eLearning will have a tent at the 31^st annual Sidewalk Arts Festival. See prospective and current students, as well as alumni, take over the sidewalks of Savannah’s historic Forsyth Park with bright, colorful chalk drawings. As you enjoy the sights, stop by the eLearning tent for some fun, including a cupcake walk and special guests.

If you show up at the tent and participate in the cupcake walk you a have a good chance at winning a delicious cupcake. But the prizes don’t end there. Each person who wins draws the name of an eLearning student out of a hat. That student receives a special gift from either Ex Libris, the university bookstore, or ShopSCAD, the university’s art store. This way, even if you can’t make it to the tent, you still have a chance at winning. If you want to be eligible for the prize, just email ecampus@scad.edu using your SCAD email address.

Of course, we won’t have just cupcakes, although we’re sure not many people would complain if we did. We’ll also have special guest speakers who will join us through special filmed segments. There will be a TV available under the SCAD eLearning tent for those at the Sidewalk Arts Festival, as well as an online live stream for other students. It promises to be a great time for every student involved.

While not part of the Spring Social, one other very important event is coming up soon: graduation. With it comes SCAD eLearning’s traditional graduation celebration. Of the 143 graduating eLearning students, 96 have signed up to come to Savannah for commencement. We’d like to invite you, as well as anyone else who decides to come, to the party. It’ll be Friday June 1, from 4 to 6 p.m. EST. The party will be held at Pulaski Square, just outside of the eLearning offices and around the corner from the Savannah Civic Center, where graduation practice will take place.

Our advice is make a day out of it. With graduation practice so close by, it’ll be easy to come down for the party. Afterward, head down to Forsyth Park, where the annual senior concert will be held. Make friends, have fun, and enjoy nice day of relaxation before the big day.

We hope to see you at the Spring Social and/or the graduation celebration. We strive to make these events as fun as possible, and to make them great places to meet your fellow classmates as well as professors. So stop by and have a good time.

Here we go again, another beginning of the quarter, another (whopping 225!) class of eLearning students starting their SCAD career online from their hometowns. It’s always exciting and stressful and fun, I love talking to new students and hearing their anticipation and questions, fears and hopes. Hopefully we do pretty well getting everyone adjusted to learning online at SCAD, but I’m always open to ideas and suggestions!

One thing I like to spotlight is the SCAD eLearning Resource Guide, it’s a self-guided resource in Blackboard that we make available to every student taking an eLearning course. Students first get access to it the first term they are enrolled at SCAD eLearning, it’s a part of the eLearning Orientation. But since it’s updated each quarter and has a ton of information, we started making is available to all eLearning students.

Usually we send a couple of emails out, detailing what’s updated so current students can go right to the new information without wading through everything they already know. But new students are borderline-bombarded with messages about the Orientation and Resource Guide; I just hate for anyone to miss it and end up struggling in their course when there’s so much guidance readily available. And, it’s available two weeks before the quarter begins and throughout the quarter, so it’s always accessible.

If you’re enrolled in an eLearning course, you can read through it by logging into MySCAD, going to Student Workspace, then clicking My Blackboard Dashboard. On the next page you’ll see all your courses, plus the eLearning Resource Guide. The most active time for the Resource Guide is two weeks before and one week into the term, things slow down a bit after that as everyone dives deeper into their coursework. But we still use it to post information and reach out to students after week one.

Check it out if you haven’t already, and file it away for the future – one night, in the middle of the night, you might be desperate to learn about off-campus programs in Lacoste or Hong Kong. I’ll be sleeping and won’t be checking messages for another eight hours, but you can read more in the Resource Guide!

And welcome to all our new SCAD students, at Savannah, Atlanta and Hong Kong, but especially to our new SCAD eLearners (don’t tell anyone, but you’re my faves…).

Sara Pitts
Director of Online Student Success
SCAD eLearning

Game developers, mark your electronic calendars. Registration is open for the 2011 Game Developers eXchange, a major SCAD event that draws some of game design’s most talented artists and designers. Scheduled for May 13 in Savannah, GDX unites SCAD students with game development experts who have directed and programmed some of 2010′s best-selling games. GDX offers a variety of sessions on game art, design and production techniques. Find out more about the event and take advantage of early-bird registration prices at SCAD’s newly launched http://www.scad.edu/experience/events/gdx GDX Web site.

Tuesday, March 8, 7:30 p.m. EST

Tonight David Bram, photographer, editor, founder and curator of Fraction Magazine, will discuss opportunities for young photographers online and the importance of a professional online presence. Bram was the recipient of the Griffin Museum of Photography’s Rising Star Award. Learn more online at http://davidbram.com and http://fractionmagazine.com.

To attend, go to http://livestream.com/scadelearning or http://mobile.livestream.com/scadelearning.

Ellen Weinstein will lecture about her work and life as an illustrator on Tuesday, March 1 at 7 p.m. EST.

Ellen Weinstein was born and raised n New York City. She is a graduate of Pratt Institute and New York’s High School of Art and Design. Her awards include American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, Print Regional design Annual, Society of Publication Designers and The Art Directors Club.

Her exhibitions include “La Favalose Matite Colorate Nel Monodo” featuring the work of 40 women illustrators form around the world, including Rome, Naples and Venice 2006-2008; “Artists against the War”; Society of Illustrators “Favorite Flicks,” Society of Illustrators; and “Inxart,” a traveling Exhibition. Illustration anthologies include “Curvy,” “New York Based Creatives” (from Taiwan), and “Drawing Inspiration: Visual Artists at Work” by Michael Fleishman.

To attend the Ellen Weistein presentation, go to www.livestream.com/scadelearning.

For more about Ellen Weistein, go to www.ellenweinstein.com.

As spring approaches many students are thinking about summer internship or job opportunities. Career Services is on board to help by offering internship information sessions. Tomorrow’s session will be streaming live and features Wunderman/Y&R direct marketing agency.

Go to MySCAD > Resources > eLearning > Events > Internship Information Session for more event details.

SCAD Career Services also posts internships and job openings in its weekly e-mail newsletter, Job Wire. If you would like to subscribe to Job Wire, e-mail careers@scad.edu from your student e-mail account. Another resource offered by SCAD Career Services is College Central, a career service database that lists internships and jobs that want SCAD applicants. To locate College Central, go to MySCAD > Department Directory > Career Services > College Central. You can also visit the SCAD Career Services blog at http://blog.scad.edu/careers.

And last, if you haven’t already, book an appointment with your SCAD Career Services adviser to discuss your career goals and needs in the future. Advisers are sectioned by school; to locate your adviser, to to MySCAD > Resources > Department Directory > Career Services > “Contact us in Savannah” where you will find a list of advisers by school.

If you have a favorite job or internship hunting Web site, idea or hint, please list as a comment below or go to LinkedIn.com > SCAD eLearning group for discussion.

Professional Pursuit is a weekly eCampus blog column about career news and discussions. Please post questions or suggestions, and go to LinkedIn.com and search for SCAD eLearning to join its career-focused group.

A recording of the David Berman lecture is available online. David Berman is a renowned graphic designer and popular international keynote speaker. He presented his keynote speech “Making The Planet Your Client: Designing Sustainability” to SCAD students through SCAD Connect.

To view the recording of his presentation, go to http://scadconnect.scad.edu/p77017760/. Audio kicks in after a minute and a half of the session.

B&H Tools of the Trade Workshops
Friday, Feb. 18, 9 a.m. EST
The Tools of the Trade event offers students the choice of two concurrently running workshops. This event is focused on video and photography production. All students are welcome to attend. Students have the ability to access the workshops via SCAD Connect. Please log in using your SCAD student username and password.

Adobe Production Premium CS5 Workshops
Presenter: Sebastian Distefano
1. 9 a.m. EST- Native Tapeless Workflows in Production Premium CS5
2. 10:30 a.m. EST – From Stills to Motion, using DSLR cameras featuring the Canon 5D
3. 12 p.m. EST – Deep Dive into Photoshop CS5 Extended for Photographers, Designers and Video Professionals
To join the SCAD Connect meeting, go to MySCAD and look under Personal Announcements.

SCAD DSLR Video Production Workshops
Presenter: Paul Bear Brown (SCAD Faculty)
1. 9 a.m. EST – Building your DSLR Kit
2. 10:30 a.m. EST – DSLR Cinematography
3. 12 p.m. EST – Understanding your DSLR camera
To join the SCAD Connect meeting, go to MySCAD and look under Personal Announcements.

David Sherwin is a senior interaction designer at Frog Design, a global innovation firm, where he helps to guide the research, strategy, and design of novel products and services for some of today’s leading companies. He has worked at a wide range of creative agencies, from large marketing consultancies to smaller interactive agencies for clients such as AT&T, Cingular Wireless, Holland America Line, Onyx, Microsoft, Toshiba, and many others.

Watch the lecture and interact with other viewers online at http://livestream.com/scadelearning starting at 7 p.m. EST.

Join the conversation on Twitter using hashtag #scadef11.

The SCAD Career Fair is an annual event that gathers employers from all over the world to Savannah, Ga., to meet with students about jobs and internships. This is a chance for you to meet with recruiters who are looking to hire world-class designers and artists professionally trained by SCAD. SCAD students and alumni are optimal candidates for jobs and internships within the companies represented. The picturesque beauty of historic Savannah is yet another reason why the SCAD Career Fair is a great time to visit.

The 2011 SCAD Career Fair will be held April 8, 2011.

For more information, go to http://www.scad.edu/experience/events/career-fair/index.cfm.

Professional Pursuit is a weekly eCampus blog column about career news and discussions. Please post questions or suggestions, and go to LinkedIn.com and search for SCAD eLearning to join the career-focused group.