Adobe Illustrator is a design software used extensively not only in the creative industry but in many other industries. The author uses the software to teach both the Year 1 students from the Communication (BCO) and Advertising & Branding (BAB) programmes. So how does one teach designing software online? Well, to answer this question, one needs to know how it all started.

Ever since the pandemic began, many have had to move the way they teach from the traditional method to online. This move was a must to keep up with the ever-changing times and the slot of the pandemic. This was also the case for us lecturers at Sunway University. Thus, the author had no choice but to switch from the traditional method of teaching students Illustrator in the computer labs to teaching students online. Tools to teach the software online were needed and the Department of Communication (DOC) hence decided to go with “ZOOM”.

So, what is ZOOM and how does it work? ZOOM is an online platform that makes reliable communication easier. By using ZOOM, students can experience a classroom-like environment right from the comfort of their homes. All a lecturer needed to do was set up a ZOOM Meeting ID and get the students to join the session. A session can be both a lecture and a tutorial. 

So, what was needed to run the online class? First, a computer with ZOOM and Adobe Illustrator installed. The students, on the other hand, needed to have ZOOM installed on their computers, and smart devices such as their handphones or tablets. For those who used a computer, they will need the Illustrator software installed. Having Illustrator installed on their computers, students can follow the lecture online. Adobe Illustrator is taught by demonstrating how the software functions.

To show how a tool work, a demonstration of how a tool will be used to illustrate on the Artboard is shown. Think of an artboard as an empty piece of paper that one will draw on with a pencil. So, by using the tools the lecturer will demonstrate how to draw in Illustrator. Besides drawing, demos on how to use the tools to select, scale, rotate and zoom in and out are shown. The lecturer starts by introducing the various tools on the toolbar and then goes on to introduce the Illustrator workspace. Once that is completed, a demonstration of how to use the “Rectangle” tool is shown. The rectangle tool is used to draw the rectangle shape in Illustrator.

To assist in getting the students to focus on the tools being used, ZOOM has an “Annotate” bar that allows the lecturer to draw lines, circles, and arrows to focus on the task at hand. The colours and stroke weight of these annotation shapes provided by ZOOM can be changed. This allows for any point on the screen to be highlighted thus making it more attractive. This pulls the student’s attention to the point being demonstrated on the screen.

Besides being able to demonstrate in real-time to students on how to use Adobe Illustrator, the entire session can be recorded and then uploaded to eLearn for students to re-watch the demonstration again. Recorded videos of the past session can be reused by students who need more coaching and assistance. 

It has been two years since COVID and the way lectures are conducted these days have certainly changed a lot. The author moved on from the traditional way of conducting lectures to fully going online and it was proven that by using the right online platform, anyone can conduct a lesson without dropping the quality. ZOOM has done that job flawlessly and the author knows the students who do COM1094 have benefited from the class. 
 

Lyon Laxman
School of Arts
Email: @email