My Dear Friends of Figma in I’m Christie Shin. I teach at FIT State University of New York. I’m also a design director at Sinda Media. It’s a disciplinary design studio. I specialize in user experience design. User interface design and branding and graphic design. I’m super excited about today’s presentation. I will start with my teaching principles in methodologies and how I set up the classroom environment. You will see how students work together collaboratively in Figma during the presentation.
I may use Figma as a design tool, but you can also see how I use this program to create a learning management system, set up schedules, and prepare presentation. You will hear many practical tips I’ve learned and used in the past few years. Even if you are not teaching design courses, I believe the basic principles remain the same. So you can see Figma — you can use Figma for your needs and purposes. I hope what I’m sharing today is helpful to everyone in developing a more effective and engaging classroom experience. I’ll introduce four principles and methodologies and how I implement them in the classroom. These four pillars are my core teaching methodology. And I will just — what I do a little bit, depending on the courses and projects. Streamlined learning hub. I establish in mg so I can manage my course materials and student work in one place.
There are so many different learning management systems that have overwhelming functions with a limited capacity. I like to keep it in this learning hub. Course framework. I like to have students easily follow along. Sometimes giving too much freedom confuses these students. With my professional experience, I can give clear processes and guidelines. That’s why I set up the online course file. Active learning, active teaching. In Figma, students and I frequently interact using comments and voice memos.
I also love the conversation feature in Figma. It’s quick and very effective. It’s not always necessary to schedule a Zoom meeting for a short discussion. Collaboration. I set up projects as a combination of group and solo. It helps run the class more efficiently. And this format benefits students. After the group project phase, the team remains as a study group. So they can continuously discuss and share feedback.
Gives more ownership of the project and responsibility. And this is a great way for students to learn how to work together collaboratively. These are my main core principles in teaching. In the next slides, I will walk you through how I implement them in the classroom with examples. First,ly explain how I set up the streamlined learning hub with Figma’s educational plan. I prepare the learning hub before the semester starts. Usually a week before the first day of class, of school. I start by sending a welcoming email with the signup links and instructions. Besides making them feel welcomed, I also want to ensure they are ready for the first class.
So some of the basic things they need to do, done ahead of time. I give students the link to quickly sign up for Figma’s educational account by verifying their student status. After I create a class team in Figma, I invite all the students to join. This way I can confirm they’re in Figma and are in claz. The first day of class can be very chaotic without these pre-semester preparations. Just the sign up process and projects can take up most of the class time if I ask them to do it in class. More so, technical issues ad to the frustrations. I spend more time before the first class to avoid many of these issues. This is how I set up the Figma teams and projects.
I can create multiple teams with the Figma education plan for free. For my class, I want to work — I want — I want them to work in the team space I created. So I can guide them and teach them the proper work flow. It is a little more work, but it makes a huge difference. The students truly understand the work environment. In general, I create three teams for each semester. The teaching team is where I prepare class materials including lectures and demos. Only I can access this team. In the past, I shared everything with the student.
S. A few times students changed my lectures and deleted some files by mistake because they were not familiar with the cloud-based collaboration environment. Sharing restrictions are essential in terms of protecting content and confidentiality. The resources team is the collection of my study materials. It’s a research and development space for me. The semester team is where my students and I work together on their projects. I name it with a respective semester. For example, small 2022. I provide class materials and examples in this space.
And students create the class projects here based on my outlined Figma file. I believe organizing a work space and naming conventions are key for work flow. I use a color-coding system on the team label so I can easily recognize the team’s purpose and type of members. . The pink label here is the team for me. And the blue label is for students and me. I create projects by course number. I also add section numbers for the semester team, because I sometimes teach more than one section. I teach four to six classes per semester, making it much easier to manage.
These are the teaching materials I prepared for the class. And organize by topic. In addition, I color coded the covers. Especially when you’re teaching multiple subjects, this color coding system helps to sort and find the files quickly. The file name and the information on the cover are also important to organize my teaching materials. I include the course number, topic, course name, and semester on the cover. For the file name, I start with the course number and add a numeric digit and topic. These are a student group project files from last semester. As you can see, they designed the cover clearly with the necessary information to communicate.
Students use a similar format for your cover design and file naming convention. The cover includes the group number, working name, topic, course name, and semester. For the file name, they start with the course number, section, group number, and topic. To run the class more efficiently, I devise more of a smart schedule. With a color coded labels. This is how I plan a semester and prepare weekly agendas. The syllabus is excellent for seeing the overall course objectives and learning outcomes. This weekly schedule can give more specific agendas for each class and can be adjustable depending on the situation. So here is the first takeaway.
Create a streamlined learning hub. This platform drives students toward more focused learning. And these are actionable items. Set up the class environment in one place. And organize the tiers with a convention. Structure the weekly agendas with the itemized activities. Second, I will explain how I structure assignments and activities for a group and individual tests. This is one of the outlined course frameworks for students. The project fwins as a group project.
So several students will work on the same file. Students research, brainstorm, and develop ideas and strategies together as a group. The group effort in this phase is essential, because it helps them get better research result. Then they continue to work on their project for visual design and complete it as a solo project with their creative vision. I arrange it this way because students can access their technical design and skills. This also prevents any students from getting a free ride. This is how I set up the course framework. I created pages followed by the entire process with the proper page titles. I added the short description on each page.
So students know they have a clear guideline. I also included necessary design kits and examples so students could dive into the project immediately. Reminding them what they need to focus on each step helps them achieve their goal. And here is the second takeaway. Developing a course framework helps students understand the process and work flow. And these are actionable items. Prepare a guided class file and provide a clearly defined example. And balance the group and individual test. Third, I will explain how I facilitate a more productive and engaging classroom environment.
The classroom experience is not just gaining technical craftsmanship. Students’ learning outcomes increase when they understand the fundamental theories and principles in a subject. And can practice by applying them to a project. Therefore, I emphasize my lecture with the basic principles. This is an example of how I prepared my lecture in Figma. While students learn the fundamentals of a subject, they also should be able to execute their ideas. Therefore, mastering technical skills is essential. In my class, I demonstrate necessary skills starting with the basics and advancing with more specific techniques. This is one of the first drawing exercises to learn the basic tools.
I start with an icon design, explain how to use the drawing tool, and set up the grades. Knowing how to use the tool gives more confidence to students. Even though they don’t know all the nitty-gritty things about the tools, students feel less intimidated by new tools and gain confidence if they can express and communicate their thoughts. The final stage of a learning experience is to enable students to solve a problem in a project. While students learn the theory and are familiar with the necessary skills, they apply what they’ve learned to a project. Project-based assignments are a great way to practice and achieve students’ learning outcomes. This is a student groups working file. Students work together to come up with ideas and solutions. As you can see here, there were active discussions and they made a lot of iterations.
Students can define problems, develop solutions, and execute their concepts throughout the project. So here is the third takeaway. Balance the classroom experience. Active teaching and learning environments accelerate students’ learning outcomes. And these are actionable items. Give lectures that students understand. The fundamental principles. Introduce and demonstrate the skills in that students can execute their ideas. Assign projects that students can apply their learning.
Last but not least I will explain how to foster soft skills such as collaboration and professionalism in the classroom. Nobody works alone in today’s design industry. Getting together in real time is a must. Understanding a cloud-based work environment and collaborating with classmates have become the standard. Students practice and improve their communication skills while working together. Students work together on a project while they divide their tasks. And their feedback for improvement. Students work together in real time, but also they work asynchronously. Figma has voice and text communication features.
Students use Figma’s conversation feature or quick discussion and clear communication. They also leave comments in the file, so other classmates can see the written comments later. The creative process can be messy. There are many interactions and discussions among teammates while working on a project. Students utilize the system to finalize a lot of their design choices. When students collaborate, the result amplifies. After everyone practiced their creative explorations to add more cohesive design solution. So here is the fourth takeaway. Not just the hard skill but also in soft skill in the classroom.
Collaboration, professionalism, communication are also critical soft skills for students. And these are actionable items. Set up a flexible peer-to-peer working environment. Facilitate active discussion and communication. And collaborate with the classmates and grow together. I have a post-class survey to get some insight. The post-class survey helps to find out challenges in the classroom and students’ needs. So I can create a better learning environment for students. This is one of the quotes from a student.
This helps me to better understand what they learned from my class, how they improved their skills, and most importantly their educational needs. Education is interactive, not just what I teach one way. Or how students learn another way. Understanding their needs and assessing what worked and didn’t work is valuable. So this is how I set up my classroom using Figma. Figma is a wonderful design tool for sure. But also you can use it to create a learning management system, plan your course, and even prepare presentations. Thank you so much for your time. I hope what I shared today is helpful.
And my social handles are on the slide. So let’s get connected.
If you’re new to Figma, this is a great place to start. Christie Shin shares her tips and key principles for effectively organizing your …
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