more about this project
-Dr. Lisa Ottum
the logistics
Students worked on this project for about 2 months, during which time they selected and researched their artist, prepared a 10-minute presentation on their artist, and constructed their artist profile here on Scalar. They were supplied with this set of assignment instructions:Before students embarked on their profile pages, I constructed an anthology “skeleton” that included the book’s splash page, the Introduction, a placeholder “title page” for each panel presentation group (click here for an example), and a placeholder page for each student. I also set up the book’s navigation: this involved making each panel into a “path” and creating the book’s table of contents.
Every student created a Scalar account. I then invited each one to join this book as an editor. As the “owner” of the anthology, I retained the ability to access students’ pages, which allowed me to offer virtual assistance on weekends and other times outside of office hours.
None of the students in this class had worked with Scalar before, so we spent some time in class learning to use the platform together. I also constructed this help page for students to consult outside of class: this page not only walks students through Scalar’s basic functionalities, but also displays some of the design strategies they could use to make their profile engaging and accessible.
On the whole, Scalar is fairly intuitive and easy for students to learn; for many, the most challenging aspect of Scalar is the logic behind its Media Library (discussed here in the Scalar User’s Guide).
Students retain the ability to access and edit their artist profiles indefinitely, which will allow them to use their profiles for other purposes, such as a professional portfolio.