Sample design document for the development of a series of training modules targeted

toward college art students. Includes background information, sample student personas,
learning objectives, and assessment and evaluation strategies. A partial storyboard is
included in a separate document (please see below).

SPC Instructional Design Certificate

Design and Development, Final Project
Instructional Design Project – Photographing Artwork: A Practical Guide

Background/Rationale for Instruction:

Students in the Department of Art and Design at XYZ University are required to turn in a

photographic record of their portfolios when they graduate. After reviewing the

submissions from recent graduates, the faculty noticed that many students are not

creating high quality imagery. Considering that these images are the same ones

students will likely use for job and graduate school applications or museum and gallery

submissions, the lack of quality could have a lasting effect on students’ careers. The

faculty decided that instruction should be designed to aid art students in creating high

quality reproductions of their artwork.

The target audience for the instruction is college level art students. These students have

varied backgrounds; most have at least some experience with photography and post-

production software, but a few may not. Included below are three sample student

persona cards from three students in the department to demonstrate the varied

experiences the students will have.

Sample Student Personas:

1
Name: Haley C.

Gender: Female

Age: 22
Education and art Haley is an art student and college senior. She is preparing to
background graduate with a BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in ceramics.
Haley’s artwork is three dimensional and consists of both small
functional vessels and medium sized figurative sculptures.

Prior photography Haley has never taken a photography course has very limited
experience experience with photography. She mainly takes photographs with her
camera phone to post on social media.

Computer skills Haley has limited computer skills beyond the basics of web browsing
and word processing. She has almost no prior experience with photo
editing software, though she did use Adobe Illustrator in her Design I
course freshman year.

Camera owned Haley’s main camera for day to day use is the camera phone in her
iPhone 6s. She also has access to her brother’s Canon T5i with an
18-55mm lens.

Motivation Haley is planning to apply to graduate school and needs to present a

portfolio of artwork to the application committee. Acceptance rates at
several of the programs she is applying to are very competitive and
she needs to be sure that her portfolio is of the highest possible
quality.

Obstacles to Haley isn’t very comfortable with technology and tends to think of
success herself as someone who isn’t good at computers. She gets frustrated
easily when dealing with new technology. She may need to go over
camera and software tutorials multiple times to feel comfortable.

Unique Assets Though Haley is not the most technically savvy student, she is not
afraid to ask questions and is a hard worker. She will put in the work
required to make up for her lack of computer and software skills.
2
Name: Devin J.

Gender: Male

Age: 21
Education Devin is a college senior and graphic design student. He is preparing
to graduate with a BA in Studio Art with a concentration in graphic
design. His design work is mostly computer generated, and as such
exists in digital form. However, this past semester he took a course in
package and environmental design and now has several three-
dimensional objects he needs to photograph for his portfolio. The
objects Devin needs to photograph are mainly small package design
mock ups, though he also has three large point of sale displays that
need photographing as well.

Prior photography Devin is a moderately experienced photographer. He has taken two

experience college level photography courses, and considers photography to be
one of his main hobbies. He follows several online blogs about
contemporary fine art photography and subscribes to several
YouTube channels that feature photographic techniques and tips. One
thing he doesn’t have much experience with is photographic lighting
set ups, which he will need to master in order to photograph three-
dimensional works for his portfolio.

Computer skills Devin is very computer savvy. He has extensive experience with
Adobe Photoshop, which he uses in his design work. He doesn’t have
as much experience with Adobe Lightroom, which may provide him
with more flexible workflow options while developing his portfolio.

Camera owned Devin owns a Nikon D800 and 24-105mm lens.

Motivation Devin is preparing to apply for jobs at several top design firms upon
graduation. He knows that the positions will be competitive, but he
also knows that his three-dimensional design work is one of the things
that would set him apart from the competition. While the digital print
design examples in his portfolio are all top quality he worries that his
lack of knowledge on how to light and photograph three dimensional
objects will result in lower quality examples for his 3D pieces.

Obstacles to Devin’s prior experience may lead him to believe that he knows more
success than he does. He may have a tendency to want to skip over some of
the introductory material.

Unique Assets Devin picks up new skills quickly. He is also a perfectionist and a hard
worker and pushes himself to be the best at everything he does.
3
Name: Georgia P.

Gender: Female

Age: 22
Education Georgia is a college senior and art student. She is preparing to
graduate with a BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in painting.
Georgia has many smaller pieces that are a combination of watercolor
and printmaking techniques. Some are small enough to be scanned
on a flatbed scanner but a few are too large. She also has several
large-scale oil paintings that would need to be photographed.

Prior photography Georgia took Photo I her freshman year in college. She has a basic
experience understanding of camera controls, but its been a few years and she
could definitely use a refresher. She has no experience in
photographic lighting.

Computer skills Georgia has intermediate level computer skills. Her Photo I course,
unfortunately, was taught in an analog format so she doesn’t have a
lot of experience using photo editing software, but she was a lab
assistant in the graphic design lab for two semesters so she picked up
some knowledge via her job. She has also used Adobe Illustrator in
her Design I and Digital Printmaking courses, so she is familiar with
the basic Adobe workspace, keyboard shortcuts, etc.

Camera owned Georgia owns a Canon Powershot ELPH 180.

Motivation Georgia is planning to take a gap year prior to applying for graduate
school, and hopes to be accepted into an artist colony residency for
part of the year. Most of the residencies Georgia is applying for offer
scholarships to help defray the cost of living expenses. Scholarships
are competitive and merit based and are judged on the quality of the
applicant’s portfolio submissions. Having high quality images of her
artwork will help Georgia compete for a scholarship.

Obstacles to Georgia doesn’t really enjoy working with technology.

success

Unique assets Though Georgia doesn't enjoy working with technology, she does pick
up new skills quickly.
Subject Content and Learning Objectives:
Subjects covered will include basic camera operation, lighting setups for both 2D and 3D works

of art, and post production software techniques. Photography faculty in the Department of Art

and Design at XYZ University will serve as the subject matter experts. Several upper level

students have also volunteered to assist in providing feedback as the design project is ongoing.

Learning objectives can be broken down into three sections: camera operation, lighting

techniques, and post production software techniques.

Camera Operation
• Students will demonstrate the ability to correctly expose imagery using a digital point and
shoot or DSLR camera
• Student will describe the visual effect of different white balance and ISO settings on the
photographic image
• Students will describe the differences between a variety of common shooting modes
• Students demonstrate how to override exposure settings on a camera in Program or Full
Auto exposure modes

Lighting Techniques
• Students will identify basic lighting vocabulary
• Students will identify the difference between continuous lighting and electronic flash and
describe the advantages and disadvantages of each
• Students will describe the proper lighting set up for photographic two-dimensional
artwork
• Students will describe the proper way to meter a two-dimensional artwork to ensure
even lighting
• Students will describe the proper lighting set up for a three-dimensional artwork
Post-production Software Techniques:
• Students will identify various post production software applications and the advantages
and disadvantages of each
• Students will demonstrate how to properly edit images for density and contrast
• Students will demonstrate how to properly edit images for color balance
• Students will identify the various file formats that digital images can be saved in and the
advantages and disadvantages of each
• Students will describe how to properly save a file for printing, screen viewing, and
uploading to the web

Instructional Theory and Strategies

This instruction would draw heavily on cognitivist and constructivist learning theories. Because

many students have some prior knowledge about photography and post processing, instruction

should be designed to make connections between existing schema and new information. In

addition, students will have different needs based on the scale and materials in which they work,

the camera they have available, and the intent of their portfolio (gallery proposal, grad school

application, etc.). In light of these differences, some control over the final project may need to be

determined by the students themselves in response to their own unique circumstances.

Students will be guided through three modules. Module one will cover basic camera operations.

Content will include a video describing how a digital camera works as well as several interactive

text-based slides with illustrations of basic camera controls and settings. Interactive drag and

drop game-style content will also be created to help students practice recalling terms and

definitions.

Module two will cover basic lighting techniques for photographing artwork. Content will include

text based slides with illustrations to explain basic lighting terminology and set ups. Video

content will be provided to demonstrate how to set lights up in a variety of scenarios.

Module three will cover post production techniques. Content will include text based slides with

illustrations explaining the variety of software applications available and the advantages and

disadvantages of each. Links will be provided to video tutorials describing basic techniques in

several popular software applications.

Instructional Design Model

Instruction will be designed using a traditional ADDIE approach. This is relatively short

instructional project that is easily mapped out in advance and the instructional design team will

have ample user feedback from faculty and students as the project is being designed.

Assessment Strategy
Student’s work will be assessed via three multiple choice quizzes, one at the end of each

module, and a final project, which consists of portfolio of twenty pieces of artwork, photographed

by the student.

The instruction will be evaluated in a number of ways. Formative evaluation will take place

throughout the design process through consultation with photography SMEs, as well as a focus

group of upper level art students and faculty in other art media.

Summative evaluation will take place in two ways. First, student’s final portfolios will be

assessed by a committee of 4-5 art faculty to determine if students are creating high quality

imagery. Portfolios will be assessed according to a standardized rubric and scores will be

averaged. Second, students will also complete an end of course survey, which will ask for the

learners’ response to the course.

Confirmative evaluation of instruction will take place via a continued monitoring of student

portfolio scores at the end of instruction. In addition, as students move on in the program, they

will be required to turn in 3-5 representative slides of their artwork in each upper level (300 and

above) art studio course, as well as 20 slides of their portfolio at graduation. These subsequent

slides will periodically be evaluated by faculty to determine if students are retaining the

knowledge learned in the training module.