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College of Fine Arts – Learning Objectives Samples

Architecture
Design
Drama
Music
Art

48-200 Architectural Composition (excerpt)

Analytical Design Skills. Students should be able to...
- Gather, organize, and summarize information necessary to appropriately study a problem
- Distinguish and construct relationships defined by fact, preference, and judgment.
- Articulate a clear and comprehensive architectural concept which is verified during design development.
- Discern, and to appropriately use, narratives in the consideration of architectural meaning.
- Comprehend the characteristics, uses and significance of architectural elements and principles of their composition.
- Analyze order, intention and program in historical design examples, as well in one’s own proposals, with clarity and precision.
Synthetical Design Skills. Students should be able to...
- Invent and construct alternative formal and spatial organizations in response to evolving priorities.
- Resolve form, space, structure, material, color, and texture in the articulation and composition of parts.
- Anticipate patterns of human occupancy in the definition of form.
- Make formal synthesis consistent with architectural intention and desired image.
- Resolve composition at various levels of detail.

48-240, 79-227 History of World Architecture (excerpt)

In addition to establishing the basic chronological and stylistic evolution of architecture, the class will also be examining the variety of factors that influenced the design of key buildings. Throughout the class we should keep asking ourselves, "why did this building look the way it did?" and keep discovering that there are a multitude of factors that explain the creation and evolution to the built environment.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

Identify the hallmarks of and rationales behind a variety of world architectures.
Make educated deductions why, when or how buildings or sites were designed that way.
Identify and explain different types of urban plans and relationship to buildings.

48-312/317 Site Engineering and Foundations (excerpt)

This course is intended to give a base level of knowledge regarding issues of site design and construction. Students learn the basic concepts that will inform observation and decisions on a project. Student should also be able to manipulate the concepts of work with a specialist when necessary. The objectives include:

The student should be able to make judgments and recommendations regarding proposals and designs.
The student should be able to estimate the behavior of materials and components and the means to satisfy predictions related thereto.

48-330 Architecture Design Studio: Site (complete set)

This course is intended to allow students to synthesize technical knowledge and design intention regarding issues of site design and construction. Students should be able to:

Identify multiple ways of relating to site in precedents and their colleagues' work, generate their own alternatives, and synthesize them into a cohesive project.
Demonstrate building construction, structural design, and architectural composition gained in prior semesters’ courses.
Demonstrate an ongoing exploration of the details of occupancy.
Collaborate in a team to generate, evaluate and document design decisions.
Show evidence of a consistent exploration of alternatives.

51-301 Advanced Typography (Stacie Rohrbach & Kristin Hughes) (complete set)

To recognize, articulate, and illustrate the value and wise use of typography - informative and expressive - across mediums;
To use typography as a form of poetic visual rhetoric that includes denotative and connotative voices;
To discover, manipulate, and create concrete examples of type used as image;
To analyze existing typographic systems and apply lessons learned to the creation of your own system;
To use, and seamlessly move between, various media as a means of quickly generating and expressing appropriate ideas;
To research a topic, develop a position, and communicate your view using subjective and objective voice;
To articulate your ideas well both visually and verbally;
To articulate the difference between designing for an experience and designing for interaction, and create examples of each;
To illustrate, through your work, an understanding of your role and influence as a communicator; and
To employ a systematic process of applying acquired knowledge to a range of visual problems over time.

54-108 Movement I (Catherine Moore) (complete set)

By the end of this term, you should be able to:

Verbally describe and physically demonstrate the six Bartenieff Fundamentals, the four Laban Effort Qualities, and the eight Effort Actions of Laban Movement Analysis.
Utilize the Laban Effort Actions and Vocal Viewpoints in the preparation and performance of the heightened language text.
Practically apply the Laban and Viewpoints vocabulary in the creation of physically specific characters.
Work with professional discipline and behavior as described in this syllabus.

54-378/874 Technical Design 2 (Kevin Hines) (complete set)

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

Develop a design specification for discrete scenic elements
Generate concept designs for these elements using various approaches
Adapt existing solutions to address new challenges
Evaluate unique solutions by comparative analysis
Generate schematic and fabrication drawings

54-769 Grad Computer Applications (David Boevers) (excerpt)

Upon completion of this course, student should be able to:

Manipulate existing CAD files to extract needed information.
Create presentation quality 2-D CAD drawings from scratch.
Work quickly and accurately in a 2-D CAD environment.
Create and manipulate basic 3-D models.

57-149 Basic Harmony I (Mark Domencic) (complete set)

The student should…

describe and discuss musical concepts using the standard terminology of the Western art music tradition.
demonstrate complete facility in the major and minor system of keys used in the common-practice style of the Western art music tradition.
visually identify and write intervals, triads and seventh chords.
harmonize melodies by composing four-part textures that are consistent with the conventions of four-part chorale-style writing.
compose four-part chorales from figured bass examples.
harmonize unfigured bass lines by composing four-part textures that are consistent with the conventions of four-part chorale-style writing.
employ Roman numeral analysis techniques to analyze music from the common-practice period.
demonstrate a basic working knowledge of jazz/pop harmonic notations.

57-347/847 Electronic and Computer Music (Ben Opie) (excerpt)

By the end of the course, students should be able :

to create original compositions using computer technology;
to achieve a technical mastery necessary to create those compositions;
to be able to place those original works within an historical context;
to understand the functions and purpose of the software applications available;
to identify trends and several major works in electronic music history.

57-408 Form and Analysis (Marilyn Taft Thomas) (complete set)

Students taking this course should be able to:

Analyze any piece of music from the 17th through the early 19th centuries using appropriate theoretical approaches;
Observe and identify the essence of a composition in terms of its formal structure and its melodic and harmonic language;
Describe the details of a composition in technical terms through written and verbal means of communication.

57-441 Analysis of 19th-Century Music (John Paul Ito) (complete set)

At the end of the course, the optimally-successful student should be able to:

analyze music using a core vocabulary of 19th-century harmonic techniques, identifying them and explaining their use in context,
recognize these techniques by ear,
use a range of analytical approaches to 19th-century music, examining harmony, rhythm, meter and form,
draw on the analytical literature as a resource
develop a coherent analytical viewpoint on a piece of music
communicate a musical analysis in writing

60-150C 2D Studio I: Drawing or the Draughtsman Cometh (Andrew Johnson and the Drawing, Painting, Print Media & Photography Faculty) (excerpt)

Demonstrate development of line, tone, texture, mark and composition in a wide range of media (charcoal, conte crayon, graphite, pastel, gouache, pen and ink, ink wash, silver point).
Record, translate and transform externally perceived three-dimensional subject matter onto the two-dimensional page.
Present a drawing journal or sketchbook that includes explorations, ideas and plans for bodies of new drawings and larger-scale works.
Create self-generated aesthetically interesting works that convey personal expression and imagined structures and forms.

60-201 Concept Studio III: Systems and Processes (Ayanah Moor) (complete set)

On satisfactory completion of the Concept Studio III, through practice and critique, the student will be able to:

Identify and apply methods and strategies to aid the development and execution of work
Communicate information, ideas and proposals in visual, written, and oral forms effectively
Integrate form and content in work via questioning, experiment, problem solving and invention

60-440 The Phantom Limb, Transformational identity and the art of sculptural prosthesis (Josh Reiman) (excerpt)

On successful completion of this course you should be able to:

Explain the history of prosthetics and related artworks with the understanding of the content and materials.
Critically analyze technical applications and theoretical issues within the production of prosthetic related contemporary works of art.
Exhibit professionalism in our field by meeting deadlines, for projects and participating in a rigorous articulate dialog within meetings.

60-453A Advanced Painting (Susanne Slavik) (excerpt)

Generate ideas and develop productive work habits independently of course structures and assignments
Produce a coherently evolving body of work that advances a personal vocabulary and vision
Analyze the quality and significance of paintings through a variety of critical measures and approaches
Describe their painting practice in relation to historical and contemporary contexts
Implement practices for documenting and exhibiting paintings