It’s true that this class will be hands-on in every session, and will often have something of a workshop feel. We will have weekly lectures, and those lectures will sometimes spread from the Monday class to Wednesday, but we will spend a good deal of time during our 240 weekly minutes in a creative pursuit. Nevertheless, it is important that we agree upon and maintain certain classroom policies, which I have listed below.
Attendance: Every class is important to your learning and mastering skills and your development as a designer. Your attendance is mandatory. You are here to learn, and I trust you will find a way to join every class session — and hope that you will enjoy the experience.
You may miss three class sessions this semester without penalty. Thereafter, each unexcused absence will lower your final average by one point. If you miss both sessions during a week, you may still submit Participation work, but only for half credit.
Please be aware, however, that excused absences will not count against your attendance record. If you are absent because of any of the following reasons, I will excuse your attendance — as long as you provide documented evidence:
- Religious holidays
- Personal illness
- A death in your immediate family
- Attendance at an extracurricular event sanctioned by IU. That is, if you are competing on an IU sports team, attending an academic conference or covering an event for student media, your absence will be excused.
Typically, documentation would include a note from a physician, an instructor or coach, or an obituary of the deceased family member. For religious observance-related absences, please use the Request for Accommodation for Religious Observances.
Food and drink: You can’t have them. Well, not while class is in session. Eating and drinking during class is disruptive, and can get messy.
Deadlines: Deadlines are critical in this business, and blowing deadlines in the professional world is simply not tolerated. I am, however, aware that university life sometimes places additional pressures on students, and that it is not inconceivable that, once in a great while, a project may have to be handed in late. If this should happen to you, and I hope it doesn’t, I will accept late submissions for the first five calendar days after a deadline. I will take off 10 percent per calendar day, though, so it’s in your interest to be on time. (The final projects, however, due during Finals Week, cannot be turned in late.) If you are having problems meeting a deadline, please let me know ahead of time.
Weekly exercises and tips, which make up a quarter of your final grade, also have deadlines. But if necessary, you can submit up to three exercises late without penalty (as long as you attended lecture that week) all the way until Finals Week. After you exhaust your three “late” allowances, any additional Participation work can be submitted for half credit. I don’t recommend that you are late with your work on a regular basis, though, as A) it is a bad habit in any workplace, and B) you will find it difficult to stay on pace in the class without completing this work when it is assigned. And turning in work late only adds to what you will find to be an accelerating pace of activity in J465. These assignments are important in building skills and getting practice in advance of our project work, and many of the exercises will find their way into your class portfolio. A number of them will be created in small teams, so make sure you are a contributing member of all your teams!
Integrity: Almost every piece of graphic design is to some extent a collaborative process, and I encourage you to seek the advice and input of others — classmates, friends, etc. — along the way. You will several times be working in a small team to produce creative work (as exercises) in J465. But whether you are in a team or working alone, all the graphic design material — anything drawn or rendered, any piece of design work — must be 100 percent your own work. You can use photographic images as resources, and I hope you will find influence in many areas, but please understand that stealing is wrong, it will get you fired in the real world and will not be accepted in this class.
This absolutely includes the use of AI to create your work — either through art generator apps or in the newer, generative functions in Illustrator and Photoshop. Please know that relying on such means to create work to which you will put your name constitutes a serious breach of ethics, as well as academic fraud. Put simply: Do not do it. If you have any questions on this, please see me.
This syllabus: I have mapped out what I believe to be an achievable schedule for this course that will keep everybody working at a steady pace. It’s possible that I may have to amend this syllabus to reflect any shifting realities we may encounter along the way. I ask for your help in this endeavor, and I will be certain to let you know in advance if and when there will be any changes to deadlines or schedule. (And I promise not to move any deadlines up, only back.)
Values + competencies
IU’s Department of Journalism is accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. ACEJMC has articulated a list of core values and competencies which it expects all journalism majors to learn by the time they graduate. Although some of you are not journalism majors, this class does carry a “J” at the front of it, and our learning outcomes are mapped to some of the integral values of journalistic rigor.
In this class, we will particularly emphasize the following:
- demonstrate an understanding of the multicultural history and role of professionals and institutions in shaping communications;
- present images and information effectively and creatively, using appropriate tools and technologies;
- demonstrate an understanding of professional ethical principles and work ethically in pursuit of truth, accuracy, fairness and diversity;
- apply critical thinking skills in conducting research and evaluating information by methods appropriate to the communications professions in which they work;
- critically evaluate their own work and that of others for accuracy and fairness, clarity, appropriate style and grammatical correctness;
- apply tools and technologies appropriate for the communications professions in which they work.
For a complete list, click here and scroll down to “Professional Values and Competencies”.