Abstract:

Professionals of any sector feel often the need to develop basic skills of graphic design although they haven’t had any kind of training in this field. Based on this reality this work focuses on the design and implementation of graphic design courses for those non-professional graphic designers.

The main objective of these courses is to bring the world of graphic design, its characteristics and possibilities closer to those people who are curious or need certain knowledge to perform their works, projects or creative activities. This does not mean that they will carry out the same tasks as professional graphic designers would do but they will be able to understand certain concepts better in order to avoid misuses of design and therefore to improve the results of their projects. Taking advantage of the possibilities offered by free software and distance learning technology we can bring the field of graphic design closer to these "non-professional designers".

The work begins with a study of some specific courses of design and entrepreneurship in online platforms. Based on the analysis of the information gathered a first video pilot course is produced then and is sent to a sample of users who subsequently respond to a satisfaction survey. These answers are analyzed and studied in order to detect failures and improve the content of the lessons, the material of discharge as well as the key aspects to be taken into account for the definition of the upcoming courses and for the development of the Platform.

All of this is concretized at the end along a list of conclusions that will make it possible to propose a methodology for structuring the lessons and for elaborating contents that bring graphic design closer to other professional fields.

Keywords:

e-learning, graphic design, ICT, free software.