Premiere Pro, Lightroom, and InDesign are the three newest one-credit courses added to the Spring 2024 semester schedule. Taught by AUBG alumna Yenlik O’Neill (’22) and part of the AUBG’s Office of Communications and Marketing, and now an adjunct professor at the JMC Department, these one-credit courses offer practical knowledge of the Adobe software.
This article was originally published on the AUBG Daily website, it is written by Tsvetina Georgieva and edited by Radina Shtereva and Niya Manditsch.
“All of the three classes are purely practical. They last only two weeks with three block lectures,” O’Neill said.
During these block lectures, students are mainly involved in fulfilling practical tasks, in-class assignments, and preparation for their homework. The theoretical part is held to a minimum in order to give students room to acquire new skills and understand how to work with the software.
“We practice in class. They [the students] have an in-class assignment, which they have to submit by the end of each block lecture. The idea here is that all of them edit. I kind of force them to edit so that when they leave the room, they have something they have already made. And then the homework is essentially a build-up of what they did in class because, again, as they said, it is muscle memory,” O’Neill said.
Practical skills and valuable knowledge are what students aim for and the reason why they enrolled in these classes.
“I hope the class will give me some professional knowledge about graphic design guidelines that I did not know about before. I’ve already learned a lot so far and we are only halfway through,” Daniela Georgieva, a third-year student enrolled in the InDesign class, said.
The classes do not require previous experience with the software or any other prerequisite courses. “All are introductory courses, so anyone can enroll,” O’Neill said.
The lack of prerequisites also allows non-JMC students to enroll.
“I am not a JMC student but the topic has always been interesting to me and I wanted to learn the practical applications of it, it seemed like the perfect chance,” Mohamad Hachem, a fourth-year student from the Premiere Pro class, said.
The only skill students need is patience.
“You need lots of patience for this because things never work out from the first attempt. If they do, it’s a miracle. If they don’t, you just have to try again.”
“Sometimes you will try so many times that you want to give up on it. But the more patient you are, the more you revisit these things, the more likely it is that you make things work in the end,” O’Neill said.
Patience is crucial for completing these courses since many things are new to the students. Those unfamiliar things surprise students, which in turn makes O’Neill feel appreciated.
“In the Premiere Pro class, during the first block lecture, I was explaining how to color grade, the moment people saw histograms and vectorscopes, and waveform, they were like ‘Wow!.’ That is the moment when you tell yourself: ‘It is worth it,’” O’Neill said. “For me, such things are regular; they happen all the time, but for people, who have never worked with the program, those are like mind-blowing.”
Along with the appreciation that she receives from students, O’Neill also faces some difficulties.
“There are 24 people in the room while I am alone, and everyone has questions,” O’Neill said. “I think the capacity for these classes is too big. It should have been probably half of it because it is very difficult to give attention to everyone.”
Students consider the introductory level of the courses, rather than the lack of attention, to be a minor drawback.
“I feel like we are only touching the tip of the iceberg,” Daniela said. “Maybe the course should be longer and offer more information.”
At the same time, O’Neill finds such courses beneficial, considering that there were no such classes while she was a student at AUBG.
“I feel like I wasted a lot of time just trying to figure it out on my own,” O’Neill said. “We did not have a class in which the professor explained how to, say, export the file or use typography. For me, it was like I sit, watch YouTube videos, and figure out whether it works or not.”
Students would also like to see those and other such courses in future semesters.
“I think such courses should be offered more at AUBG,” Mohamad said. “It would be better to space it out over a month, though.”
To help current students and prevent them from making the mistakes she did back in her student years, O’Neill is considering teaching the courses again next semester.
“I would want to teach, but a part of it is a decision of the JMC Department. So, if they vote that such classes are necessary, I’d be happy to give them,” O’Neill said.
