Anderson wins interactive award for his teaching site

Dr. Steve Anderson won a prestigious w3 gold award from the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts this week for his “Build this Portfolio” site that helps students learn how to incorporate different features as part of their online showcases.

The w3 awards, announced Oct. 5, featured entries from advertising agencies, design firms and other creative professionals as well as educators. Out of the more than 3,000 entries from across the world, less than 10% won gold awards.  

Anderson, who teaches in the interactive design concentration, began working on the site last fall to show students how to display animations, transitions and other interactive features — as well as to provide code and instructions so students can integrate them into their own online portfolios.

He used the “Build this Portfolio” site in his SMAD 307 “Interactive Design I” class starting in Spring 2021.

“They’re required to incorporate them in their assignment,” Anderson said. “I don’t give them the complete lesson.”

Anderson describes it as a "meta site." It shows students how they can create one like it using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and graphical elements — and how to integrate them all.

"It serves as my actual portfolio, but more importantly, it contains lessons to help students do something similar on their portfolios," he said.

It’s all part of helping students become self-directed learners, Anderson said. After all, media creators — especially in the areas of web and app design — must figure out how to teach themselves and adapt different features and code to specific projects.

And so far, he said, it has worked. Anderson said the projects students submitted last spring were strong.