Formal learning: 2D Foundations – Foothill College

2D Foundations is a foundational design course offered almost universally at California community colleges that earns California State University credit. For me, it's an affordable course I took to explore public education as a potential educator for K-12 art/art history. I think the class was successful because it was comprehensive and sourced from a good textbook, Design Basics, which I had used in a previous life for another graphic design course in continuing education, a non-formal form of education.

I've been informally learning these principles on the job and have had this textbook on hand and in the back of my awareness through the practice of being a graphic designer.

It’s motivating because it counts towards acquiring a degree or rudimentary knowledge that every designer knows. The book is arranged according to 7 design principles, much like these adult learning principles. Each week covered one of these principles with a bare bones written lecture, a set of slides that were an abridged version of the textbook, a related YouTube video, and a quiz. The assignments were doable within the timeframe.

I have taught for 14 years at a private art college, Academy of Art University, which has open enrollment. Similar to the community college system, the school lets everyone in. They just have to pay private college tuition. Because I have always wanted to major in studio art, I have been taking some courses with tuition remission at the private school. I guess as a former instructor and writer of an online class, I am meet Knowles’ 5 assumptions about adult learners: I do view myself as having:

1. Self-direction: Since I do have an occupational goal, I am somewhat extrinsically motivated in terms of drawing an income but also I can say intrinsically, since I would be teaching a topic I have an innate interest in. 
   

2. Adult learner experience: I also get a lot of pleasure working collaboratively with people and groups. I think my past social working contexts provide motivation, as well as my previous working experience as a corporate graphic designer and ESL teacher.
   

3. Readiness to learn: I am anticipating a new social role that’s somewhat related to what I did before.
   

4. Orientation to learning: Interestingly, this general knowledge had immediate applicability as content that I could potentially teach in the near future. 
   

5. Motivation: My intrinsic motivation has increased due to the enjoyment I’ve been lucky to experience working as an instructor.
   

1. Need to Know

As barebones as it felt, I knew the textbook was a credible source and comprehensive. The 2D Foundations course provided reasons to take the course and learning objectives from the very beginning.

2. Experience

It is an art class and by nature, art classes tend to be self-exploratory. Each module had an artwork that illustrated the design principle and element with question prompts on how the artist applied these concepts. Art analysis is a skill, which was quite variable amongst the students. We responded to 1-2 peers. I believe my experience helped broaden my design solutions but we were all equal opportunity in our approaches. 

3. Self-concept

The foundation course was based on a revised edition of Design Basics, a textbook I had used over twenty years ago for a continuing education graphic design course. They really adhered to the content and translated it to a slide format, which was a handy shortcut of the textbook. I found, compared to the online courses at AAU, it felt more transparent. Videos shown were all sourced from YouTube, whereas, at AAU, we made our own videos.

4. Readiness

The immediate, real-life problem was learning what standardized design education was. So it was the circumstance that this particular class fulfilled.

5. Problem orientation

Some of the design assignments were more problem oriented than others. This might be creating a pattern design that might become a textile. Others were exercises in using 5-value gradients. I really didn't mind this knowing there was a specific design principle being practiced, so it was applicable as a learning tool.

6. Intrinsic Motivation

Finding my internal motivation was easy because I was curious about what the end product would look like with the design choices I made.

Designing future learning experiences

Because the first principle is also a part of ARCS Model of Motivation, I do think that the Need to Know Principle will be foremost in my design consideration for learning experiences. I do believe that it is universal for kids to even know why they need to know. Providing objectives or great examples of what's achievable expands their imagination as to the possibilities. Personal benefits are intrinsic motivators so providing these aspects will be key to furthering student engagement from the outset.