About The Seminar
What if small changes to your slides and course visuals could significantly reduce student confusion and improve understanding, without requiring graphic design expertise?
Poorly designed slides and materials can overload students’ working memory, distract from key ideas, and undermine learning. Clear, intentional visual design, by contrast, helps students focus on what matters, make connections across concepts, and retain information more effectively.
In this online seminar, you’ll explore how thoughtful visual design can support learning in online, face-to-face, and hybrid courses. We’ll examine common pitfalls and share practical strategies to make your visuals clear, accessible, and impactful for your students.
During this session, we will explore:
- How does visual design influence cognitive load, attention, and comprehension?
- What distinguishes effective visual design from ineffective?
- What are simple layout and alignment techniques to present information clearly?
- How can you choose colors, fonts, and images that are both appealing and accessible?
- What are practical ways to develop and refine your visual design skills?
Whether you are creating lecture slides, online modules, infographics or course content, this session will provide actionable tips and design principles to help you communicate ideas visually and effectively.
Meet the Speakers
Connie Malamed helps people learn and grow instructional design skills that make them stand out through her courses and community, Mastering Instructional Design and her coaching program, Visibility Coaching for Learning Professionals. She’s a consultant, author, and international speaker specializing in learning design, visual communication, and professional visibility. Connie is the author of Visual Design Solutions and Visual Language for Designers, and she shares practical insights through her long-running site and podcast, The eLearning Coach. She was recognized as a Guild Master from the eLearning Guild for her contributions to the learning technologies industry.
Tim Slade is a speaker, author, award-winning instructional designer and eLearning developer, and the creator of The eLearning Designer’s Academy—the #1 online community for new instructional designers and eLearning developers. With over a decade of experience helping others elevate their instructional design work, Tim has been recognized multiple times within the eLearning industry for his creative and innovative solutions. He is an international speaker, a recognized Articulate Super Hero, a LinkedIn Learning instructor, and the author of The eLearning Designer’s Handbook.
Taekyeom Lee is an award-winning interdisciplinary graphic designer and design educator whose work explores emerging technologies, digital fabrication, and accessible visual communication. He is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Indiana University Bloomington and received his MFA. from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. His research investigates tangible typography, tactile graphics, and material-based design through 3D printing and experimental processes, with a focus on accessibility and inclusive design. Lee has presented and exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including AIGA, ATypI, CAA, ISEA, IEEE VIS, and TypeCon, and regularly offers workshops and lectures worldwide.
Kevin has a decade of experience in teaching, tutoring, and fostering classroom innovation across Western Massachusetts.
Throughout his career, Kevin has used educational technology to cultivate classrooms built on equity and accessibility. However, he strongly believes these tools are most effective in the hands of a quality teacher—someone who not only understands their students’ digital literacy but also recognizes how technology can better facilitate a curriculum grounded in rigor, authenticity, and purpose.
Kevin holds a Graduate Certificate in the Teaching of Writing from UMass Amherst, an MA in English with Initial Teaching Licensure from Westfield State University, and a BA in Philosophy and English from UMass Amherst.
Moderator
