Hi Everyone, I am Margaret Helthaler, an assistant online program director with the Graphic Design Program. This presentation was compiled by Ashley Fessler, one of our SFTF members who frequently teaches our Intro to Design Applications class. Thank you for joining me while I walk you through the software training and support options available to our students, inside and outside of the classroom.
As a student, and even into your professional career as a designer, it is important to remember that learning software is a career long pursuit. It never ends- as the software changes, trends in design evolve and you grow as a designer, you will constantly be learning new techniques and tools. While it is often easier to let your software limitations drive your design it is important not to limit yourself in this way. Instead, you should strive to let your concept/design or vision be the driving force and use the training and support available to you to acquire the necessary skills to make your concepts a reality. In other words, come up with your idea, then figure out how to execute it. We have two basic objectives when it comes to offering our student software training and support. The first is to introduce you to the industry standard software used by professionals. We achieve this objective in a classroom setting – including required for-credit classes such as the Intro to Design Applications course as well as a few other courses that focus on technical skills. We also offer some optional non-credit short courses that provide a more in-depth study of each application.
The second objective is to provide you with on-going training and support options for continued independent learning outside of the classroom. These options include Lynda.com, our Student Help Forum, and Live On-demand Tutoring. We will take a quick tour of each of these resources in just a few minutes.
But first, we need to be sure you have the right equipment. Review the Hardware and Software requirements listed in the Welcome Package if you haven’t already and reach out to your academic counselor with questions. Having the right equipment is vital to your success in our programs. It is also an investment in your future as a designer.
That said, let’s take a look at the information covered in the G150 Intro to Design Applications course – typically the first graphic or digital design course you take for your program of study. This exciting class introduces you to the software currently used by professional designers. In 5.5 weeks you explore the basic skills and techniques for electronic production of visual communication. The three areas of concentration include digital illustration, image/photographic manipulation, and page layout. You will be amazed by the work you will produce in this class. Many of our students enjoy learning software in a classroom setting and wish to delve into the design applications more thoroughly after completing G150. If you find this to be the case, you can ask your academic counselor to enroll you in a short course in Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign. The short courses begin on the first Monday of each month and run for three weeks. They are non-credit courses – so there is no fee for attending or grades associated with the class, but you can earn a certificate of completion if you complete all of the assignments. A short course is an addition to your regular course schedule – so you’ll want to be sure you have the extra time – but the good news is there is no penalty if you find you cannot complete the assignments and you are welcome to repeat a short course.
I find students sometimes have trouble finding a short course they are enrolled in because the short courses do not appear in the campus common dashboard. Note you will need to click on the online classroom home link to see your course list. This is where you will find the short course.
Now let’s take a look at some of the software training and support resources available for independent learning. We’ll begin with Lynda.com. Lynda.com is an excellent resource that many professional designers (including myself) use to remain current with industry tools and techniques. As an Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division student you are fortunate to have access to their amazing tutorial library. Let’s take a look at how to access and navigate the content.

There are two ways to access Lynda.com and both are listed in the New Student Guide on the helpful resources page under software support One way is through the Online Library. Another way is through the classroom. The classroom takes you there a little bit more directly, so that’s the way I’ll show you. But again, both pathways are listed here for your reference in the New Student Guide. You will note that at the top of every assignment page in your Graphic Design classes is a button for tutoring services and when you click on this button it brings you to a page that looks like this and you will see there are Lynda.com tutorials listed. If you click on a topic, it will bring you to Lynda.com and it will show you the list of tutorials that are available for that topic, but notice this little lock sign here. If you click on the topic you are going to be told that you need to log in or join in order to view the content. So let’s just back track a little bit and take a look at the information that’s provided here on the right hand side for first time users. You must create a profile on Lynda.com prior to being able to access the content. So the very first time you come in here you will want to click here and it’s going bring very first time you come in here you will want to click here and it’s going bring you to a page that enables you to set up an account. Now, I’ve already set up my account so I’m just ready to login here and you do need to login each time you enter. And you must enter via either the Library or the Classroom in order to reach this EDMC login page. you can’t simply copy the URL and expect to bookmark it and login outside of the library or classroom interface. So, just be aware of that. Once you are logged into Lynda.com there are a number of different ways to search for tutorials. The easiest way is to probably just go ahead and type the topic, such as Illustrator, into the subject search line and search for it. And you can see here I typed in “Illustrator” and there are numerous tutorials available specific to Illustrator. Now you can get even more detailed than that. For example, let’s say I wanted to know more about working with Master Pages in InDesign. You could type that into the search area and you can see that now it’s listed the tutorials that deal with Master Pages and give the actual recordings that deal specifically with Master Pages. So I can go ahead and click on that and it brings me directly to that specific training, because all of the training modules are set up in chapters and you can kind of go from one chapter to the next, but you can skip and jump around if there is a specific task that you are looking to get some additional instruction on. So that’s the beauty of Lynda.com is that it’s as broad or as specific as you would like it to go. The other great thing is with the Lynda.com membership is not only do you have access to these video tutorials, you also have access to the exercise files that go along with the video tutorials. So you can download these exercise files and work along in conjunction with watching the actual videos. Again, you have an abundance of subjects and topics to choose from. This is a wonderful resource. I really encourage you to take advantage of it. Another great resource is our Student Help Forum. Let’s take a look at all it has to offer. You can access the Student Help Forum the same way you access Lynda.com - with that Tutoring Services button at the top of each assignment thread. When you click on that button it’s going to bring you to this page, should look familiar. But here you scroll down and you select “Click Here to Access The Graphic Design Help Forum.” “Click Here to Access The Graphic Design Help Forum.” And this will bring you to the Student Help Forum. Now the difference here is you an bookmark this URL and access it directly once you arrive here. You do not have to be in a classroom in order to login to the Help Forum. Now you do want to register and login so that you are able to access some of the content. If you are not registered, you are not able to see attached files and download them. So let’s take a quick look at the resources that are available to you in the Help Forum. It’s divided into section. The first section is the Directory of Support. You’ll see that it goes through the software support, so you can check back here if there is anything you missed in this presentation you can see what kind of support is available. It talks about Stock Photography resources as well as our social networking site, Ai Connections that’s unique to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division and you can find out more about that here as well. Now this next section will really come in handy. This is our Student Workshop Recordings, so these are student workshops, live student webinars we have done in the past that we have recorded and you have access to all of these recordings divided by subject so again, if you are looking for something to do with Illustrator you can look and see what kind of topics we covered concerning Illustrator. You’ll see that there is also Photoshop and InDesign as well as a number of other topics for you to explore in this area. We also have a Portfolio Center housed in this area, we’ll talk more about this in the Portfolio presentation video, as well as some information about Student Assessment. So again, the Student Help Forum is a really great resource. And we do have a full time faculty member who monitors this Help Forum, so if you have a question in response to something that you have seen or viewed here you can go ahead and post the question right within the Forum and expect a response. Again, you do have to register and login in order to have that kind of option. Lastly, let’s take a quick tour of the live tutoring service. The tutoring service enables you to connect with tutors in real time one on one. It’s available from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. eastern time and there is no limit on the session length. You can work with a tutor until you feel comfortable you understand the solution. There is a twelve hour per quarter limit and if you need additional time you should contact your academic counselor. Let’s just take a quick look at how this works. You access the Live Tutoring through the Campus Common. Go under “My Academics” and select the “Tutoring Center” Under “Online Tutoring” click “Start Now” This opens the On Demand Tutoring window. You choose your category - Adobe Software - choose your subjects - let’s say we are having some trouble with Illustrator and then click “Get Help Now”. Answer a brief questionnaire and then connect to a tutor. It’s as easy as that. Real time help when you need it. So when do you use which resource? Well the Tutoring Center is ideal for live assistance with a specific problem. Lynda.com is ideal for extended in-depth self-directed training. The Student Help Forum is ideal for topic specific self-directed training with some Q&A support. And the Short Courses are ideal for focused training on Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign in a classroom setting. You an decide which options works best for you, but you’ll probably find that you’ll use a combination of these services throughout the course of your program. We hope you found this presentation helpful. We hold a live Q&A session at the end of each month. Look for an invitation via email or in a course home announcement. If you have any questions about the resources or training options you’ve seen here today they can be directed to our Email alias. We’ve listed it here, it’s also available in the Welcome Packet. Remember, we’re here to help. We wish you much success.

Software Training & Support New Student Orientation Series Hi Everyone, I am Margaret Helthaler, an assistant online program director with the Graphic Design Program. This presentation was compiled by Ashley Fessler, one of our SFTF members who frequently teaches our Intro to Design Applications class. Thank you for joining me while I walk you through the software training and support options available to our students, inside and outside of the classroom. 1 Welcome! Learning software is acareer long pursuit. Let your concept/design/vision be the driving force. 2 As a student, and even into your professional career as a designer, it is important to remember that learning software is a career long pursuit. It never ends- as the software changes, trends in design evolve and you grow as a designer, you will constantly be learning new techniques and tools. While it is often easier to let your software limitations drive your design it is important not to limit yourself in this way. Instead, you should strive to let your concept/design/vision be the driving force and use the training and support (available to you) to acquire the necessary skills to make your concepts a reality. In other words, come up with your idea, then figure out how to execute it. 2 Refer to the Welcome Package for hardware and software requirements: Remember, the hardware specs list the minimum requirements.Working with the most current hardware and software is an investment in your future. 4 But first, we need to be sure you have the right equipment. Review the Hardware and Software requirements listed in the Welcome Package if you haven’t already and reach out to your academic counselor with questions. Having the right equipment is vital to your success in our program. It is also an investment in your future as a designer. 4 G150 Intro To Design Applications Software Applications:Adobe BridgeAdobe IllustratorAdobe PhotoshopAdobe InDesignMicrosoft WordAcrobat (PDF) Basic Skills and Processes:Scanning ImagesDigital PhotographyDigital TabletsManaging Files & WorkflowDigital IllustrationImage ManipulationPage LayoutStock Imagery 5 The three areas of concentration are digital illustration, image/photographic manipulation, and page layout. That said, let’s take a look at the information covered in the G150 Intro to Design Applications course – typically the first graphic or digital design course you take for your program of study. This exciting class introduces you to the software currently used by professional designers. In 5.5 weeks you explore the basic skills and techniques for electronic production of visual communication. The three areas of concentration include digital illustration, image/photographic manipulation, and page layout. You will be amazed by the work you will produce in this class. 5 Short Courses Ask your Academic Counselorto enroll you.Courses begin on the first Monday of each month and run for 3 weeks.Cover the basic tools and techniques - Photoshop- Illustrator- InDesignThere is no fee for attending a short course and there is no penalty if you are unable to complete all of the assignments (typically 1-2 assignments a week). Certificates of Completion are given to students who do complete all of the assignments. 6 Many of our students enjoy learning software in a classroom setting and wish to delve into the design applications more thoroughly after completing G150. If you find this to be the case, you can ask your academic counselor to enroll you in a short course in Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign. The short courses begin on the first Monday of each month and run for three weeks. They are non-credit courses – so there is no fee for attending or grades associated with the class, but you can earn a certificate of completion if you complete all of the assignments. A short course is an addition to your regular course schedule – so you’ll want to be sure you have the extra time – but the good news is there is no penalty if you find you cannot complete the assignments and you are welcome to repeat a short course.I find students sometimes have trouble finding a short course they are enrolled in because the short courses do not appear in the campus common dashboard. Note you will need to click on the online classroom home link to see your course list. This is where you will find the short course. 6 Lynda.com 7 Now let’s take a look at some of the software training and support resources available for independent learning. We’ll begin with Lynda.comLynda.com is an excellent resource that many professional designers (including myself) use to remain current with industry tools and techniques. As an AiPOD student you are fortunate to have access to their amazing tutorial library. Let’s take a look at how to access and navigate the content.ONCE IN LYNDA.COM SEARCH FOR ILLUSTRATOR TUTORIAL AND SHOW HOW TO ACCESS AND RUN VIDEOS. You can filter by program, search for specific tutorials and techniques, browse or work from skill level. 7 Student Help Forum 8 Another great resource is our Student Help Forum. Let’s take a look at all it has to offer.Within the classroom you also have access to the Ai graphic design help forum. This is also a great resource where you will find tutorials, software support, links to resources for stock photography, etc. Several of your online professors have created recorded presentations on software, portfolios and ways to be successful as an online student. Let’s take a look….ONCE IN HELP FORUM NAVIGATE AROUND A BIT TO SHOW RESOURCES 8 On-demand Tutoring 9 Lastly, Let’s take a quick tour of the Live Tutoring Service. SHOW SLIDE AND THEN NAVIGATE TO ON-DEMAND TUTORING WITHIN CLASSROOM AND REVIEW PDF OF HOW TO ACCESS THROUGH CAMPUS COMMONTOUCHPOINTS:Connect with tutors in real-time, one-on-one- Available 10 AM- 4 AM ESTThere is no limit on the session length and you can work with the tutor until you feel comfortable you understand the solution. (There is a 12 hour/per quarter limit. If you need additional time you can contact your Academic Counselor). 9 Look for invitations to our LIVE Q&A sessions: 11 We hope you found this presentation helpful. We hold a Live Q&A session at the end of each month and I encourage you to attend. Look for an invitation via email or in a course home announcement. 11 Send us your questions: AIPODGDStudentMentoring@edmc.edu 12 If you have any questions about the resources or training options you have seen here today they can be directed to our email alias. 12