Assessment Report:
ARTS 121 2D Design sections H1A&D4, Fall 2015
Instructor: A. Coffey, Substitute Assistant Professor
The following is an addendum to an original full, scored and tallied assessment for ARTS121 Spring
2015. Course Description, SLO's and GEO's remain the same. Analysis and Summary pertains to outcomes from Fall 2015, how they were impacted by past observations and continued experience and by proposed changes put forth in the Spring 2015 Summary.
Course description:
ARTS 121 is an entry-level studio course providing instruction in two dimensional design elements; line, shape, form, colour, texture, space and value and an understanding of design principles; balance, scale, contrast, emphasis, movement and rhythm. Emphasis is placed on methods of organization to create aesthetically pleasing or successful design as well as expression of specific ideas to particular audiences. Breaking down the elements and principles of successful design intends to provide students with foundational knowledge and skills that can be put to use in subsequent fine art courses including, drawing, painting, photography and graphic design. Recognition and execution of successful design are the objective of the course assignments. Instruction is given through lectures and demonstrations and with the aid of examples.
Student Learning Outcomes:
1.
Students will compose a work acknowledging the underlying "grid structure" of successful design using vertical, horizontal, oblique and/or curved lines. Shapes defined by intersecting lines will be filled in to create a sense of depth and movement.
2.
Students are able to transform a given set of shapes into a cohesive composition, applying the design principles of symmetrical and asymmetrical balance and figure-ground relationships, emphasized using scale, form, colour, texture and/or repetition
3.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the application of design inspired by theories and examples present in historical movements in art and/or graphic design.
4.
Students will demonstrate practical skills in executing formal compositions; measuring, drafting clean consistent lines and clean consistent cuts using a straight edge and blade.
5.
Students will demonstrate their recognition and understanding of successful design through participation in individual and group critiques.
Student Learning Outcomes are measured through specific observable skills. Instructor will evaluate student performance based on evidence of these skills. Objectives and criteria of evaluation are provided for students in the written assignments. (sample assignment attached)
1.
Students will compose a work acknowledging the underlying "grid structure" of successful design using vertical, horizontal, oblique and/or curved lines. Shapes defined by intersecting lines will be filled in to create a sense of depth and movement.

a) acknowledges the underlying grid thru successful overall placement within the framed space
b) uses line to distribute value and balance and create movement
c) uses shapes to create depth and increase movement
2.
Students will transform a given set of forms into a cohesive composition, applying the design principles of symmetrical and asymmetrical balance and figure-ground relationships. a) understands and applies balance, either symmetrical or asymmetrical b) understands and demonstrates definition of figure and ground c) understands and activates figure-ground relationship using form, value, colour and/or texture
3.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the application of design inspired by theories and examples present in historical movements in art and/or graphic design. a) understands and demonstrates use of flattened geometrical shapes derived from nature in
Arts and Craft movement / Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements
b) understands and demonstrates "all-over" composition and flattened perspective in Cubism
4.
Students will demonstrate practical skills in executing formal compositions; measuring, drafting clean consistent lines and clean consistent cuts using a straight edge and blade. a) drafts with the use of a straight edge, ruler, stencil and pen or pencil lines that are consistent and accurately parallel, perpendicular and/or curved b) able to accurately measure and place using a ruler and/or gridded template c) able to make precise consistent cuts using a straight edge and x-acto knife or retractable blade
5.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of formal and subjective colour relationships in compostions using colour a) understands and demonstrates successful use of complementary, analogous and triadic colour relationships b) understands and demonstrates subjective impact of colour
6. Students will demonstrate their recognition and understanding of successful design through participation in individual and group critiques a) understands and demonstrates, through verbalizing, what specific elements make the composition successful b) understands and uses appropriate design vocabulary in a written context
General Education Outcomes:
1. Students will communicate effectively through reading, writing, listening and speaking
2. Students will use information management and technology skills effectively for research and lifelong learning
- Students will recognize and apply rules of 2 dimensional design in successive art courses including drawing, painting, photography and / or graphic design
- Students will gain confidence in self and their aesthetic choices and achieve comfort and agility in execution for future projects related or unrelated to fine arts
3. Students will differentiate and make informed decisions about issues based on multiple value systmes

4 . Students will use historical or social sciences perspectives (learned values) to examine formation of ideas, human behavior, social institutions or social processes (learned conditions of visual literacy in Western vs
Eastern cultures, deconstruct mass media ).
5.
Students will apply aesthetic and intellectual criteria in the evaluation or creation of works in the arts
Tools:
Rubric
Written assignment
Anonymous questionairre: results discussed
Analysis:
Student learning outcomes were scored and tallied on a rubric using evidence from individual assignments, midterm and final critiques and quizzes. In some cases, scores come from successive assignments rather than a single assignment. Scores are from 2 sections totaling up to 38 students taught by A. Coffey.
The first student learning outcome: Students will compose a work acknowledging the underlying "grid structure" of successful design using vertical, horizontal, oblique and/or curved lines. Shapes defined by intersecting lines will be filled in to create a sense of depth and movement. Three criteria were in place: acknowledgment of gridded all-over space with balanced distribution, using lines to create value and movement, and shapes to suggest depth and increase movement.
Students scored high in acknowledgment of the grid and entirety of framed space and in their ability to utilize line to create value and movement. The majority of students did well in utilizing shapes to create depth and increase movement though fewer students were exceptionally innovative or attentive with shapes. The concept of the grid when pointed out or made visible is fairly straight forward and elementary in concept, high performance is expected. Innovative use of shapes, found shapes within the lines or shapes produced with stencils represents a secondary step and more likely to occur when students are shown examples. Inherently creative students require fewer (and in some cases no) visual prompts.
The second learning outcome: Students will arrange a given set of forms into a cohesive composition, anticipates understanding and demonstration of symmetrical/asymmetrical balance, a defintion and activation of a figure-ground relationship and finessed definition using more than one color, texture and/or repetition of form. Both symmetrical and asymmetrical balance were achieved consistently and accurately by the majority of the students. Again, balance, when pointed out, is an elementary concept and successful execution is expected particularly when students are working with a given and equal number of shapes.
Students were slightly less successful in activating a figure-ground relationship. Problems arose in distinguishing a unified, singular "figure" in a space rather than simply imposing a pleasing pattern onto a ground. The challenge was getting the students to understand the difference between the aesthetic
(abstract) figure or object and recognizable figure, i.e. human/face/heart/flower etc. Students were specifically instructed to avoid recognizable figures and objects but to instead create an abstract figure.
Rules for forming compositions, e.g. all shapes should touch, and providing successful examples proved helpful. An additional challenge was breaking students out of their comfort zone or taking risks. Allowing students to use their phones to document compositions they liked or were attached to encouraged them to make additional compositions knowing they could return to the one they liked. Use of more than one color and specific instruction to imagine the two colors represent the same color in light and shadow lead to good

results in achieving depth. Introducing depth gets the student closer to distinguishing figure and ground. A successive assignment using texture to distinguish figure and ground was successful with a sizable number
(though still a minority) of students performing extremely well. Success relied on the use of a template with a distinct architectural structure and landscape relationship in place. Providing previous successful executions of this exercise is helpful; students otherwise have trouble visualizing the outcome. Additionally helpful is to break down the composition in terms of foreground, middle ground and far ground; this aids in particular with texture choices by means of simple or complex pattern and amount of white/gray/black which responds to value.
The third learning outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the application of design inspired by theories and examples present in historical movements in art/graphic design involved the specific movements of Art Nouveau/Deco and Cubism. Flattening or abstracting of natural and 3 dimensional form as well as breaking from traditional Western perspective to create an "all-over" composition was the primary objective and theme or subject was derived from Nature or machine aesthetic with the Art Nouveau/Deco assignment and an actual still-life in the Cubism assignment. Compositions were strong overall, this is based on requiring a minimum of three "thumbnail" sketches before design can be executed. Generally good to excellent results were achieved in flattening and simplifiying or abstracting form and three dimesnional space. In the Art Nouveau exercise students were to create a motif with a theme inspired by nature then execute it formally using colored and patterned paper. Overall results were good, fair results are based in a student's inability to detach themself from their original drawn design either losing complexity or depth with poor color or pattern choice. An additional but less prevalent problem in both the Art Nouveau and Cubist exercise was forgetting to give design aesthetic preference over realism.
Collaged elements and drafted lines, as opposed to freehand line work is helpful in breaking from realism and imposed perspective. The desire to adhere to realism comes from what the student recognizes as successful in Western art. To be able to draw or paint what you see are traditional markers of talent and students are loathe to give that up. Examples from Japanese wood-block prints, former students and Picasso are helpful in pushing towards design over realism. Ironically it is the students who don't draw well that achieve good results in Cubism. An ability to create volume and depth with chiaroscuro and linear perspective is not part of the "bad drawers" natural vocabulary.
The fourth learning outcome: Students will demonstrate practical skills in executing formal compositions assesses the students' abilities to make use of a pen/pencil, ruler, straight-edge and/or blade to draft clean consistent lines and cuts. The majority of students showed improvement with repeated use of necessary tools. Drafting lines developed more quickly and consistently, cuts were more challenging and rounded cuts remained a challenge to around 25% of the students. More experience improves cutting as well as use of proper tools. It did not always occur to students to use a fresh blade or to cut directly on the surface of the provided cutting mats using a straight edge when cutting a straight line. Specific instruction and demonstration cannot be discounted in a foundational course, particularly with the computer generation.
Measuring was the greatest challenge, simple math involved in centering any given sized compositon within the 14" x 17" bristol was difficult at first. Most students eventually caught onto the logic behind the math but still had trouble reading the measurements on a ruler. The ruler was often arbitrarily placed down without acknowledgement of a starting or ending point. Again, practice and repeated experience helped but in some cases students were unable to successfully center a box within the set dimensions of the bristol without the math being done for them and then unable to read the ruler without individualized instruction.
This I chalk up to a lack of real use of a ruler prior to this course. Students were tested on both the midterm and final quizzes on the correct margins for centering a given size composition, e.g. 6" x 10" within the frame of a 14" x 17" sheet of bristol paper. Just over half of the students were able to give accurate measurements. What is surprising is how many did not adhere the longest side of the composition to the

longest side of the bristol, leaving disproportionatley wide margins on the left and right or top and bottom.
The placement of the image in the space was arbitrary. Students were reminded to match "longside" to
"longside" when placing images on formal exercises.
The fifth learning outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of colour relationships in compositions. Using colour measures students' abilities to comprehend and execute successful colour relationships including triadic, complementary and analogous. Almost all students demonstrated a good sense of colour even without any specific instruction in colour theory and even my lowest performing student showed good colour sense though his palette was limited to primary and secondary colours.
Students also demostrated an understanding of a single colour represented in light and shadow. Given definitions for primary and secondary colour and triadic, complementary and analogous colour relationships most students intentionally engaged specific and successful colour choices although on quizzes and in critiques there were inconsistencies in stating the proper terms (as opposed to executing and recognizing appropriate colour compositions.) Subjective impact of colour was recognized by most with only a small minority not showing any discretion in colour choice as it adhered to themes or targeted audience.
The sixth and final student learning outcome: Students will demonstrate their recognition and understanding of successful design through participation in individual and group critiques. This outcome is scored on the students' ability to assess the success of his/her own work as well as others' work in spoken form using appropriate vocabulary and then to provide in written form accurate definitions of design terminology and short descriptions of successful technique. Group critiques and a midterm and final exam were used as tools of measurement. As in previous semesters, few consistent verbal responses occurred; most students were hesitant to respond verbally in critiques. Spoken responses while accurate did not use appropriate vocabulary with ease or confidence, though if prompted the right word could be coaxed out.
Written responses showed a significant bump in accuracy to generally good use by just over half of the students. The difference in spoken vs written responses may be explained by a student's lack of confidence because of English being a second language or simply the lack of familiarity with the vocabulary or performance anxiety among their peers. Written reponses are private and mistakes are not registered/penalized in a public fashion. Overall quality of spoken and written performance can be improved with more impromptu and less formal critques increasing experience and decreasing anxiety. Also an effort on the instructor's part to repeat specific vocabularly and to encourage note-taking will improve comprehension. Using vocabulary in context and short lectures and discussions (in addition to instruction and demonstration) with each assignment will also aid understanding and use. This semester, (Fall 2015) more detailed and specific powerpoints accompanied the exercises tied in with Art Historical Movements.
Students were encouraged to take notes during the critique which they were allowed to use when taking their quizzes, this had a minimal but positive result. Ideas and themes were discussed in the critique and verbally responses were good. However, when tested in a format of matching themes to movements students performed only fairly. Singular multiple choice questions had better results.
Summary:
Overall, Student Learning Outcomes are (still) being met at realistic expectations with most students hovering around "good" spilling over into "excellent" and falling into "fair" performance levels. Outside of those students with specific physical, mental or social impairments, the lowest performance is still in the area of verbalizing and writing about those tasks they can otherwise successfully perform. Fall 2015 sections of ARTS 121 incorporated more impromptu critiques utilizing appropriate vocabulary to a. define, b. enhance and spot correct/incorrect use and c. increase confidence and ease in speaking accurately about work. It occurs to me that while students are able to comprehend correct vocabulary, accurate use of it is

tied in to how it impacts their final grade, i.e. the assignments (with midterm/final quiz = 1 assignment out of 9) still account for 85% of the final grade. Rather than allow for a higher percentage being given to accurate use of vocabulary I prefer to continue to emphasize accurate use of vocabulary specific to the art field, particularly for "real world" experience and make a judgment call by individual student. I am satisfied most of my students are able to apprehend the vocabulary and prefer to directly reward growth and development of the work.
All of my studio courses in Fall 2015 had 1-2 out of 20 (an increased average of .5 from past terms) students that was markedly challenged physically or socially in his/her course participation. Typically what the student lacks in ability is made-up for in an eagerness to learn and so with added individualized instruction ends in positive results. Having gained a rapport with these students I've found that many intend to pursue work with computers or outside fine-arts. Despite a long-term interest outside of fine-arts I believe the direct experience they have in constructing and spatial tasking will be an enormous help, it activates cognition in a different, specific and necessary fashion, never mind that they have trouble cutting rounded edges. And, on that note, I think important to recognize the foundational hands-on work activates the brain of the artist cum computer graphics designer in a necessary way.
I was especially blessed with my Monday class this semster, easily 7 or 8 of them never failed to amaze me with intelligent innovative designs and I was equally pleased to see an additional group of students turn corners and produce brilliant compositions in the final three assignments. Thursday's students were decidedly less serious but not without some standouts. Work from both classes have been selected for the
Annual QCC Juried Student Exhibition.
An anonymous survey, presented at the beginning and end of semester, where the student evaluates his/her skill (as an artist/designer) was brought up as a tool of measurement during the Spring 2015
Workshop. In Fall 2015 for the benefit of tracking students' self-perception and confidence as well as measuring real and perceived results I implemented an anonymous, short, written, four question survey.
Students were prompted to answer on a scale of 1-5
1.)How much experience do you have with design?
1. none 2. a little 3. some experience 4. have taken more than one class 5. have taken multiple design classes / work as a designer
2.)How much knowledge do have of design?
1. none 2. a little etc .
3.)How would you rate yourself artistically?
1. poor 2. random 3. decent 4. above average 5. awesome
4.)How would you rate youself as a designer?
1. poor 2. competent 3.good 4. above average 5. the bomb
The results were pleasing in that they appear to represent in the students a rise in experience, knowledge, confidence and self-perception as a designer and artist.
Both classes overall gave themselves higher marks on all four questions.
Monday students showed a greater overall improvement, were more consistent in their responses and answers are consistent with real performances in the classroom.
On the first day of class in answer to How would you rate yourself artistically?
, 5 out of 17 students rated themselves at a 2, 1 rated as a 1, and the remaining 11 rated themselves 3 or 4 (none gave a 5)
Here's the cool part: on the last day of class, only 2 students still rated themselves at a 2, the remaining number rated themselves 3 or higher with one rating at a five (awesome)
This demonstrates a raised perception in value and confidence, a reason for celebration in my book!
In answer to How would you rate youself as a designer?
On day one, 4 out of 17 students rated themselves

at a 2, 1 rated as a 1, and the remaining 12 rated themselves 3 or 4 (none gave a 5)
On the last day of class, again, only 2 students still rated themselves at a 2, the remaining number rated themselves 3 or higher with one rating at a five. (the bomb)
Students also significantly upped themselves in experience and knowledge which is consistent with performance as indicated by final course grades.
Thursday students are a bit of a head scratcher, the underlying humor present with a small group of students may have impacted results.
Overall, rating of self as artist and designer spiked but when asked how much experience do you have as a designer? 3 out of 14 said none on the first day and 5 out of 15 said none on the last day. When asked how much knowledge they had, 6 out of 14 said a little on the first day and 7 out of 15 said a little on the last day.
Whether or not intended as a joke it represents at best a compromise in the objectives of the classroom and at worst a gross failing of student expectations. It is not a response I take lightly and will work to insure greater engagement and a clearer understanding of what one should be taking away from the course.
Having been exposed to the Assessment Workshop and active assessment of a particular course in spring
2015 I continue to gain from the experience. Making course objectives and student learning objectives more visible and making conscious the deliberate choices and criteria for meeting stated objectives for ARTS
121 has found its way into the other courses I teach, including ARTS122 &221 and ARTH100. There is a renewed confidence in discussion of pedagogy, real life examples and performance records to draw from in department meetings. That is (still) to say, those steps a good instructor naturally (and often unconsciously) goes through are brought to the surface for the purposes of being placed in a more tangible and universal context to the benefit of student, instructor and institution.
Thank you for your continued kind attention.
Annemarie Coffey