Student Perspective

Graphic Design Students Utilize Dominican iPads During Remote Learning

Double major Emma Hartvickson ’24 came to Dominican as a student-athlete with two advantages that have helped her manage during the COVID-19 pandemic: an opportunity to compete on the University’s volleyball team, and the iPad provided by Dominican’s graphic design program. “I feel like my experience has been better than expected, and that is because it is the Dominican experience,” Emma said. “I have a lot of friends back home going to state colleges with 400-plus people in one Zoom call and professors who don't really know their name,” said Emma, who is majoring in graphic design and business. “I feel thankful to be here at Dominican with coaches and professors who value my education and success. With smaller class sizes, it's easier to stay engaged and interact with your classmates in this new world of Zoom.” Staying engaged has been even easier thanks to the dedication of Steven Polacco, chair and director of the graphic design program in the School of Liberal Arts and Education. Last summer, faced with the prospect that the pandemic would extend into the 2021 academic year and keep students out of his laboratory, Polacco decided to purchase and distribute new iPads to his faculty and 46 students for the fall semester. To help facilitate the project, Dominican refunded students’ graphic design lab fees, so they could use the money to sign up for monthly access to Adobe software. “This represents one of those great efforts where everybody puts in a little, and you end up with a really good outcome,” said Polacco, who earned a BA and MFA from Cal-Berkeley. “Our students have been incredibly happy. We had almost 100 percent retention.”

Because each iPad includes an Apple pencil that allows the user to draw on the tablet, the devices have opened up new avenues of learning for Polacco’s students. “It completely changed the game in terms of how they create their graphic designs, graphics illustrations and photography,” he said. Some of Polacco’s students are majoring or minoring in graphic design, while many are enrolled in graphic illustration, graphic design, or photography classes for general education or core credit. During the fall semester, Emma and her classmates used the tablets to create Election Day posters in Polacco’s Art 1085: Graphic Design 1 and Art 3351 Research Applications class.

This represents one of those great efforts where everybody puts in a little, and you end up with a really good outcome.

— Steven Polacco, chair and director, graphic design program

Election Day image (above) created by Emma Hartvickson '24

“The iPads are the key to it all,” she said. “Having them makes it easy to follow along with Professor Polacco in class when he is doing a demo. He has been super supportive of our work since day one and has helped me organize my class schedule, so I get the most out of my semesters.” Emma brought her Dominican iPad with her from her home in Kent, Washington when she returned to campus for volleyball practice and kept it to use for spring classes. Others returned their iPads for redistribution to other students for the spring semester. Polacco credits the smooth transition to tablet learning to the resiliency of his students and faculty. He also cites Peter Mentzer, head of Information technology services; Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of The Dominican Experience Mojgan Behmand; and Gigi Gokcek, dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Education, for their support. “We didn’t skip a beat,” he said. “In fact, I think we picked up even more value. It was an eye-opener for me.” Polacco has even noticed an uptick in students seeking graphic design as a minor. “It’s turning into a perfectly viable way of delivering graphic design to our students. That’s a major transformation,” he said. “This year with COVID, it’s one of those things where you either get crushed and succumb to the pressure, or you can innovate and thrive.”