Continuing Education Instructor, Figma for Graphic Design
About The Position
RISD Continuing Education instructors plan, organize, teach, and provide feedback to promote and direct student learning in keeping with the institutional learning-centered values and in a manner that meets the essential competencies of an artist and designer. Our instructors respond to students in a timely manner and communicate with the discipline and division via college-provided tools and resources. We welcome instructors whose teaching experience addresses historically underrepresented communities. The successful candidate should be prepared to teach asynchronous online courses to a diverse group of students from a range of disciplines, through online content development, including recorded video demonstrations and/or lectures provided weekly for the course duration. Candidates should be prepared to develop culturally diverse syllabi for studio and seminar courses, and weekly feedback to student work that models constructive criticism that encourages students to grow creatively and intellectually. We are looking for instructors whose specialty is in Figma for graphic design. Figma is a sophisticated digital tool that can be used in graphic design to create digital assets such as social media graphics and branding. Figma’s user-friendly interface offers powerful vector tools in a collaborative workspace, positioning it as a competitor to industry-standard tools such as the Adobe Creative Suite. The successful candidate for this role will need to teach adults how to learn and utilize Figma and its tools to produce visually compelling graphics and polished, functional prototypes through a series of Figma-based projects involving brainstorming, sketching, layouts, and iteration. In this course, the instructor will show students how to discover the use of critical thinking and formal aesthetics employing Figma’s robust features that can make engaging digital graphics, design systems, and presentations that are both accessible and effective.
Requirements
- Bachelor's Degree required
- A track record of professional experience at companies successfully doing related work, and/or a robust, creative, intellectually and critically engaged design or studio practice, as evidenced by recognition in publications, commissions, exhibitions, awards and/or collaborative projects
- Teaching experience, including the ability to create syllabi and lesson plans, and how to tie those to learning outcomes
- Ability to accept and act upon constructive feedback from course evaluations by students and staff
- Strong interpersonal, communication and organizational skills
- Ability to meet RISD’s technology requirements
- Experience leading classes and critiques that model inclusivity in an environment of diverse learners
- Ability to tailor instruction to meet the needs students with a wide range of pre-existing skills
- In-depth knowledge of graphic design, specifically Figma
Nice To Haves
- Teaching experience in a collegiate or adult education setting that addresses underrepresented communities
- Online teaching experience, or experience utilizing an LMS
- MFA preferred or equivalent in established professional practice in area of study
- Lifelong learning orientation with demonstrated interest in learning about new developments in their area of study
- Ability to empathically relate to a wide range of student perspectives and maturely handle interpersonal issues that may arise
- Experience in course content development, including video creation of demonstrations and lectures
