Inspired by DS106 at the University of Mary Washington, we’ve created a place to aggregate student’s blog posts throughout the semester for PR Publications (JMC3433 at the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication). You can follow along here with my students as they learn (for the first time–mind you) design technique and execution. Students are required to create a WordPress website that they will use to 1.) document their progression throughout the class through blog posts on assigned book reads and design assignments and 2.) create a portfolio website that can live on for them well beyond the 16 weeks they’ll spend in 3433.

For the Spring 2014 semester, students are reading a short book titled “Designing for Emotion” by Aarron Walter, from A Book Apart, a series of short books for web designers. While it’s focus is primarily web design, we’ll be using the principles to thinking broadly about design. I picked this book in particular because it has some great modern examples of design application and it’s available in both ebook and paperback form. Students even get a decent discount if they wish to have both to fit multiple learning styles. At our college, several students have been given an iPad mini as part of a small scale tablet initiative, so I’m hopeful the ebook will be a viable option.