Over the week, I have been making some steady progress on the first module of visual learning assets:
I still need to get these checked for feedback and approval from Sagarika, but they have been so far very encouraging about having the creative freedom to design the assets. I decided to continue the illustrative style of the original timeline, but using my own style and experience with Illustrator. I also reorganised a few things with the chronology of the timeline to make it a bit easier to read.
Current reflections
Previously working as a visual designer at Ochre Education and being a high school English tutor myself has helped my approach with this current task, because my mental model is closely aligned with what I believe are the needs of the student as well as the teacher. Both perspectives are crucial in understanding how educational information may be conveyed in the most effective way possible. And as a student at RMIT, I am constantly thinking about which aspects of visual aids I feel are helpful in my own learning experiences.
Task progress
Having a flexible brief has been quite beneficial because I feel like I have been given the opportunity to make independent decisions on the educational resources. It also feels nice to be trusted with my design skills and ideas! That being said, Sagarika and I had a conversation about some of the kind of images that the teachers wanted to be incorporated in the microcredentials to ensure I was ticking the right boxes. I spent some time this week going through every module of the first microcredential (there are 16 modules in total, each with about 5-6 visual assets that need to be designed) and found that I had some questions about them, like:
What kind of style would be best to represent the visual aid? My skills and personal style is mostly flat-design and illustrative, but this might not be most appropriate choice to represent more detailed and technical images.
What about visual aid that includes photography, like a specific satellite image from NASA?
Are there some images that we can use with an educational license?
Sagarika and I came to the conclusion that each image would need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. She advised me to make a compilation of the assets that I was unsure about, so that she could escalate them and get more information from Bruce. I've followed her advice and set up a word document with a table of these images. I will hopefully get some feedback and get some answers to these questions.
Mentorship opportunity
Sagarika also presented the opportunity to build a mentor-mentee relationship with another member of the Starmaster team, Olga, who is the marketing head freelancer of the company. She has her own boutique marketing agency that specialises in startups and companies in tech.
I jumped at the opportunity to connect with Olga because I don't know too much about marketing, but I know that it is a very important aspect of business, especially for a company that is aiming to launch their product very soon. I will definitely have a lot to learn from her and am grateful that my supervisors at Starmaster are invested in my own career journey and experience. I'm looking forward to our meeting next week!
Hours completed: 20 hours
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