It has been a little over three quarters of a year and I am making amazing progress on my masters in web design and new media from The Academy of Arts University (AAU). I wanted to give an update to my progress and my feelings of the online learning experience so far. I will plan on keeping updated progress and posts of any thoughts I have, at least once a semester from here until I complete my education.

To begin my post I will first talk about my experience of the collegiate system before attending AAU. In 1998 I attended classes at the Art Institute of Phoenix, local. For this I attended four hour classes, five classes a week. These classes ranged from animation, life drawing, digital editing of video, audio and photo, among many other multimedia related fields/skills. I received AAS degrees in computer animation, and one in web design and a BA in multimedia design (3 total). The interaction with the students, and faculty was amazing. I remember gaining as much inspiration from the students as I did from the instructors.

I received my final undergrad degree from The Art Institute in 2003 and began my life as a professional designer. I have had the chance to work for “small” local companies, and large international corporations over the years. Doing design work in web, print and video, working as a designer, a project lead, and an art director. My resume can be found here, but I don’t want to get off track. I always try to keep up to date by reading magazines and blogs, but as a student I hadn’t gotten any further than my bachelors degree. So the next step to help further my education was to work towards my masters degree.

I looked at a number of schools and programs but decided the best fit for my schedule and needs was the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco, Ca. They have a Masters in Fine Arts that is available to take online in the field of Web Design and New Media. This program fit nicely with my previous education and work experience. To apply for school I had to write up an essay about why I wanted to attend their university and what I wanted to accomplish. I also had to create a portfolio, which I had already been doing a good job of keeping up to date, but I did refine it a little for the application process. For this I was able to modify my current website to fit their deliverables for the portfolio. Once I was accepted I was happy to learn that I was able to skip past a few of the classes due to my portfolio quality. I didn’t have to take a photography, typography, and some other design course. Woot!

My first semester I had a web tech I class, motion graphics and a usability (UI/UX) course. The first two courses the web tech and motion graphics were just recaps of information I already knew. Actually the motion graphics class just had me going over the classroom in a book for after effects so it was pretty disappointing. Luckily I already know after effects so I had some fun with the projects and was happy with my work. The usability class on the other hand was very interesting, it was a lot of group work. I took the lead and organized many of the teams communication functions/tools and helped get the group working together. We ended up with a detailed report and site architecture for a mock product.

My second semester was a summer semester. This semester is compressed in to half of the time frame of the normal semester. I didn’t know how much work it was truly going to be and I signed up for two classes. My first class was art history in the 21st century, my other class was advanced image manipulation (Photoshop). Let me say wow, this was a lot of work. I had to complete “two classes” a week, and provide input to the discussion board twice as often. Luckily I already knew Photoshop! I have been using it since 1998 so this class was also a refresher, and a chance for me to make some awesome pieces. The general education class was also a great chance to create a couple of interesting art pieces. This class helped use some philosophers and philosophies of the 21st century to inspire some new artwork. Overall I was happy with what I created in this semester although, next summer I will probably only take one course.

This, my third semester at AAU. I have been able to keep my grades and my motivation high. My classes are crossing borders (art & culture in a global society), web tech II, and sound specific (sound editing and creation). The courses are going great, the crossing borders has made one great photo manipulation, and lots of reading. The web tech class, I am working on a Drupal site, that features micro-blogging and user registration and in my sound class I have worked on editing, refining and mastering audio for multimedia. I have one month until the end of this semester and I am gearing up for the hard work as my finals come.

My thoughts so far of the online learning experience. Number one I would say, that it’s a lot of work. With the accountability being 100% online I think the course writers give out a lot of busy work, also with the mandatory participation in discussions you are left with much more work than when attending an actual course. That being said the work load is doable so I am not complaining, just noting. What does bother me is the lack of updated and worthwhile content. I have noticed much of the content in the courses is a year, if not more out of date. Which when working with programs that have a version number can make a huge difference. I also have noticed or I should say, I am glad of, that the Art Institute and working in the field for the last few years has really readied me for these courses. I know many of the people in my classes have undergrad degrees in almost completely unrelated fields, such as education, and communication, when I have a degree, much less actual real world experience in the field. This has definitely benefited me as I am able to work on making quality projects through these courses while many others are learning the basics. As of today I am still happy I am working towards my masters degree. I look forward to seeing what is next for my career, professional and as a student.

Update: semester is over, and winter break has begun. I started the break off by beginning the revamp of my website. Finished off the semester strong. 49 out of 50 on my last final. Woot!

Dustin Day | pastedTOAST

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