Design History Timeline Case Study

Barbara Martinson, an associate professor in the Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel at the University of Minnesota, wanted to help students in her History of Visual Communication course see the connections between art objects and events across time periods. We worked with her over the 2003-04 academic year to create a Design History Timeline learning object and related class assignments.

Instructional Goals

In the past, many of Martinson's students had difficulty with test questions asking them to compare and contrast art objects. She wanted to develop a group assignment that would help them develop such skills. Specifically, she wanted each group to

conduct research about and compare the content and physical form of a specific type of art object during different historical periods;
identify significant art objects or events from disparate time periods or geographic locations;
write a comparative analysis of the effects of culture, technology, and location on the art objects or events;
develop educational objectives stating what viewers can learn from the comparision; and
identify and define essential terms.

Technology Strategies

To help students meet these goals and share their work, she wanted to develop a learning object that would grow with each new session of the course. She took our Designing Learning Objects: Producing Media-Rich Learning Activities short course (see the technology enhanced learning section of the Computer Short Courses by Category page for information about upcoming sessions) and developed a project proposal (PDF) that included:

a list of goals and objectives,
a development timeline,
a draft student assignment handout,
concept sketches, and
a list of possible evaluation methods.

During the fall 2003 term, Martinson designed the timeline/analysis layout and related student assignments, and our consultant Kurtis Scaletta used Macromedia Flash MX® and extensible markup language (XML) to develop the tool. Students in the fall 2003 session of Martinson's course developed the initial analyses first by brainstorming ideas and creating mind maps and then by using word-processing and Adobe® Photoshop® software to create the text and images of the objects. Martinson then assembled the texts and images into HTML pages and linked them from the timeline by modifying an XML file. She also evaluated the analyses using her own assessment criteria along with criteria the student groups submitted and she and the students determined in class.

Learning Outcomes

During the spring 2004 term, Martinson and Scaletta evaluated and fine-tuned the assignment and tool. Martinson plans to have students in future sessions of her course use the timeline as a reference tool for the assignment and course content, develop additional analyses, and assess their own work and that of at least three other groups based on collaboratively determined criteria. She expects that over time, the tool will become, according to her project proposal, "an organic learning object that would grow with each new session of the course."

In the spring of 2004, Martinson was awarded an E-Teaching Award by the College of Human Ecology for "contributions to the use of technology in education that are creative, innovative, and effective." Scaletta says that her timeline assignments in particular are pedagogically effective "examples of constructivist theory in practice" because the students create original presentations and make thematic connections among images from different historical eras. In addition, the timeline object also serves as a motivational tool because it enables students to publish their work in a meaningful, real-world context. "Such connections to the outside world are highly motivating and represent a good use of authentic assessment," Scaletta says.

Related Resources

See the related resources on the Design History Timeline page.
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