In graphic design education, with its focus on the creation of visual artefacts, the traditional blooms taxonomy often felt somewhat restrictive in its hierarchal framework with only the highest tier focusing on creation. However, the inverted pyramid structure of Bloom’s revised taxonomy seems to offer a partial remedy to this. In conjunction with the UDL guidelines, we can offer a more appropriate solution.
As outlined before one of the learning knots I am faced with is the learner engagement with the learning material. This can be chalked up to learner experience being unresponsive to the learners' needs. In general (but to no means exclusively) graphic design learners tend to be more visually and physically orientated and as such traditional textual content might not be the best way to engage learners. To address this, I will be looking at a graphic design brief in which the students have to design a logo.
As the content access point of this brief, the learning outcomes would be (A) to design a Logo. One aspect to successfully accomplish this requires learners to apply (B) different colour schemes and use different colours to create meaning. This, in turn, requires students to (C) understand colour theory and remember the colour wheel.
To address this in a scaffolded approach, I would first provide an explanation of the colour wheel and how different colours interact, such as complementary colours, analogous colours, triadic colours etc. with a visualisation of the colour wheel and relevant examples. This could then be accessed online and be downloaded as a PDF. Both these options provide verbal learners with the text to engage with regardless of connectivity. Furthermore, both PDFs and web browsers, such as Microsoft edge, have native text to speech functionality which could facilitate Auditory learners as well. For more visual learners I would provide a video describing colour theory.
However, something as dynamic as the colour wheel can be difficult to fully appreciate through text and video alone. So, to differentiate the learning material further, I would also include an interactive colour wheel where students get to pick a colour and specify their desired colour scheme and see the effects in real-time, providing them with a more tactile experience.
Moving on to the product access point, and to the third level of the inverted pyramid, the learners will need to apply what they understand and remember about colour theory and the colour wheel. For this, and to facilitate social learning, I would set up a group task where each group would receive a key phrase and their task would be to choose a colour and colour scheme to represent this phrase and present it in a way that clearly communicates the meaning and interpretation of the colour scheme in relation to the phrase. The means of the presentation will be the groups prerogative and will present the students with a personalised and differentiated way to showcase what they have learned.
Colour, as only one aspect of designing a logo, the learners would then progress to analysing and evaluating what they have learned about colour in conjunction with other principles of design and create a logo according to the brief specifications. Analyses, evaluation, and creation presented as a ho
rizontal plateau through the inverted pyramid structure of Bloom’s revised taxonomy is a more apt structure for graphic design learning as learners continuously move between these three levels.
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