Adobe Photoshop II Home Page

Kathlynn E. Spencer, Section Instructor

Adobe Photoshop   is the number one application used to create images for the web.  Bar none.  In this second semester of Photoshop, we will build on the techniques learned in Adobe Photoshop I.    One of the things I want to encourage is for you to use the tools in Photoshop to explore your own interests and to develop a “Style” that fits what you want to achieve with Photoshop

Software: To get the most from this class you will need the Adobe Photoshop CS5 software. You can use earlier versions (NO earlier than Photoshop CS and that, to be honest, would be pushing the edge of the envelope a bit.)

The Community Colleges of California have an agreement with http://www.uscollegebuy.com/s.htm for students to purchase software at some pretty amazing discounts.  So far, that's the best pricing students for my classes have been able to find.  Be aware that if you do buy from them there you'll have to verify your student status-- which process will be explained on their site.

You will also have to be able to log into the Desire2Learn website for our class. Instructions on how to do so are in another section of the syllabus.

Class Participation

Participating will be 40% of your grade. Why? Online courses have the same requirement for participation in classes as traditional courses do. The major difference is that the participation happens within an online environment. This means you can access and do your work at any time of the day. However, there are contact requirements that you will have to meet. Every week a discussion topic (or two) will be posted to the discussion section of the class. You are required to post on the discussion threads at least 3 times each week (18-post minimum for the six week term). Please make sure to post as early in the week as you can. What I've found to be true is that we have some really interesting threads develop where students learn as much from "talking" to one another that way as we would if we were in a face-to-face class

I recommend that you set up a regular time to log into the class (it can be at lunch or at 2 am --whatever fits your schedule). Why? Because it is very easy to get behind ("oh, I can catch up."). Believe me, it is not.

For the spring session, you will spend three to five hours a week between reading, posting to the discussion threads and working on your own photoshop projects. Again, the advantage is that you can do this when your schedule allows but make sure that you give yourself that block of time to work with the program and the tools you can pick up here

Grading

There will be three images due for the semester.  Each image will be 20% of your grade for a total of 30% in projects.

Add the 40% from discussions and the 60% in projects and that's the grade total.

Required Textbook:  (looking for new text: 3/8/11)

Recommended Text:    (looking for new text: 3/8/11)

How to log in to the class:

To log in you will need: your student id number and your pin 

Go to:  http://my.vcccd.edu/cp/home/loginf    Go ahead and mark this page as a Favorite and/or Bookmark depending on which browser you are using and log into the sytstem.

On the right hand side you should see a link that says "My Courses" -- click that

This will take you to the Desire2Learn listing of your online courses.  Click on Photoshop 2 for Spring 2010 and you're in.

 Let me know ASAP if you have trouble logging in so we can troubleshoot the problem before class actually starts.

I would greatly appreciate an email from each of you to make sure you got this information.

Once class starts, you will have an inclass email to send/receive messages and submit assignments.