El Camino High School's Digital Media Pathway is a series of career technical education (CTE) classes that focus on digital media arts. The program features graphic design (marketing and advertising through images that have been digitally produced and enhanced), and web design (production of online content aimed at selling or promoting products or services).

The sequence of courses forms what's called a "pathway" which, when completed, shows you how to become a freelance designer capable of starting your own business or working at a professional design agency. Either way, it has the potential to start you on a very successful and lucrative career.

Grading Policy

Each assignment has clear expectations and a defined due date. If the student does not turn in the assignment by that date, the highest possible grade that you could get on that assignment goes down one letter grade each business day. If a student has excused absences for days that we worked on the project in class, they have that many days to make up the assignment with no penalty.

For example: If something is due on a Thursday and you turn it in on a Monday, the best you can get on it is a "C" because it is two business days late (weekends don't count).

If you are missing an assignment and believe that you already completed it, it is your responsibility to contact me via email ([email protected]) to get that fixed.

Google classroom is a useful tool for organizing your classes, viewing your assignments, interacting with each other and the teacher and turning in your work digitally. The district gives you unlimited space on their Google Drive but that goes away after your senior year. At that time, you'll need to find a way to migrate your information to your own Google Drive if you want to keep it.

This is the process for working with Google Classroom:

  1. Make sure you're logged in to your school Google Drive.
  2. Click on the green Google Classroom to the left or click here
  3. Sign in, using your school email (your student ID plus "@oside.us")
  4. Your password is your eight-digit birthdate (for example, January 1st, 2022 would be 01012022)
  5. Sign up for classes using the codes I give you in class.
  6. Use this portal to view, complete and turn in assignments

Success tip: go to your student calendar (while logged in as a student) by clicking here and you'll see all your due dates for all your Classroom classes!

Note: If you don't plan on checking your district email ([email protected]), you should set it up so those emails forward to your personal account.

If your password is not working and you'd like me to reset it, please click on the button to the right and fill out the form. I'll get notified and I'll reset it to a default that you can then change. If it's not reset in 24 hours, send me a reminder email.

Schedule for Graphic Design:

(year-to-date schedule here, district schedule here, bell schedule here)

Portfolio: addresses here, form to submit your address here.

Links to your files: 1st, 5th, 6th

Short for this week: A Single Life

4/21: You will only have 1st and 5th periods today for two hours each. During class, finish the About page and publish it. After finishing the About page, start the Services page by choosing three design specialties (such as retouching, compositing, typography) and outlining what you offer for each one.

4/22: You will only have 6th period today for two hours. During class, finish the About page and publish it. After finishing the About page, start the Services page by choosing three design specialties and outlining what you offer for each one.

4/23: This is a regular schedule day. You will see all classes for the normal amount of time (about one hour). Today you will upload sample images for each of the three services you picked and write a short description for each one.

4/24: You will only have 1st and 5th periods today for two hours each. During class, review and revise your Services page. Once finished, start uploading projects for your Gallery page — aim for 6–10 high-quality Photoshop projects. Add a short title and caption for each piece.

4/25: You will only have 6th period today for two hours. During class, review and revise your Services page. Once finished, start uploading projects for your Gallery page — aim for 6–10 high-quality Photoshop projects. Add a short title and caption for each piece.

The schedule for how we're going to get our portfolio done is here.

Testing schedule for 4/17-4/25 here.

Schedule for the rest of the year:

4/28: start fair project. Art history timeline here
5/2: portfolio done, turned in. MCC Field Trip
5/9: portfolio revisions due, if needed. Also, fair project done, entered, uploaded
5/12: Surreal composite (more info to come) done by Friday
5/15: CTE Expo, El Corazón, 5pm (not required but FUN)
5/19-5/30: end of year brochure
6/3-6/5: mock interviews
6/7: projects physically delivered to fair (need to be mounted)
6/9-6/12: finals week (tutorials for extra credit)

Please note: anyone who finishes their assignment is required to continue working on something (a) productive and (b) relevant to web or graphic design. You will lose one point for every class period that you don't.

Resources:

  • Assignment folder here
  • Portfolio address/progress reports here
  • Graphic Design syllabus and outline
  • Elements of Design and Composition here
  • Slides templates for presentation
  • Pen tool learning resource here

Schedule for Web Design:

(year-to-date schedule here, district schedule here, bell schedule here)

Portfolio: addresses here, form to submit your address here.

Links to your files: 3rd, 4th

Link to Business Contact Tracker HERE

Short for this week: A Single Life

4/21: You will only have 3rd period today for two hours. During class, review and polish your Home and About pages. When those are complete, start outlining your Services page by choosing three areas of expertise (such as hand coding, responsive design, or WordPress builds). We'll talk about toolkits and see who's interested in making some money.

4/22: You will only have 4th period today for two hours. During class, review and polish your Home and About pages. When those are complete, start outlining your Services page by choosing three areas of expertise and adding a brief description of each. We'll talk about toolkits and see who's interested in making some money.

4/23: This is a regular schedule day. You will see all classes for the normal amount of time (about one hour). During class, continue working on the Services page by adding visuals and short explanations of the tools you used.

4/24: You will only have 3rd period today for two hours. During class, finalize the Services page and begin uploading screenshots for your Gallery page. Make sure you add captions for each project that explain what tools you used and the goals or design notes for the project.

4/25: You will only have 4th period today for two hours. During class, finalize the Services page and begin uploading screenshots for your Gallery page. Add captions to describe each project clearly.

The schedule for how we're going to get our portfolio done is here.

Testing schedule for 4/17-4/25 here.

Schedule for the rest of the year:

4/28: Should have client for final website figured out
5/2: portfolio done, turned in. MCC Field Trip
5/9: portfolio revisions due, if needed. Start on final website for client. Also, fair project done, entered, uploaded
5/15: CTE Expo, El Corazón, 5pm (show up at your assigned time)
5/19: present final website to class and client (extra credit
6/3-6/5: mock interviews
6/9-6/12: finals week (tutorials for extra credit)

Please note: anyone who finishes their assignment is required to continue working on something (a) productive and (b) relevant to web or graphic design. You will lose one point for every class period that you don't.

Resources:

  • Assignment folder here
  • Business contact tracker here
  • Portfolio address/progress reports here
  • Web Design syllabus and outline
  • Click here if you need your work from previous years
  • Link to ECHS vector here

Revise your work:

In an actual studio, your work is not final until the customer is satisfied with its quality. When I grade items, my thinking is the same: if you produce work that is below the quality that I feel you're capable of, you have a chance to revise it and resubmit. Though the resubmitted work won't be worth the full amount of the original assignment, it will increase your grade significantly.

If you received a four, this is superior work. No need for revision. You've shown you understand the concept we're practicing and have even put some extra effort into making it perfect. You should be proud to show this off.

If you received a three, this work is adequate. You completed the assignment and though you didn't put obvious, extra effort into it, the finished product is "good".

If you received a two, this work is not as good as I know you're capable of. You may have misunderstood the assignment, chosen not to complete it, or rushed through it. The finished product is not something I would feel comfortable showing to others.

If you received a one, you have the option to re-do the assignment, incorporating my suggestions, one time. Though the resubmitted work will not get a perfect score (that would be unfair to those that turned it in on time), it will be rescored and the higher score will be put in the gradebook.

If you received a zero, you either didn't hand the assignment in or it was so far off the mark that it didn't function (in the case of a website) or it makes absolutely no sense (in the case of a print design). This is a complete do-over. Return to the instructions and re-do the assignment for a better score.

Web Design score weighting:

Graphic Design score weighting: