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The next time you're sitting in your portfolio class and your professor's critiques don't seem to be making sense, consult his or her syllabus to figure out if you should take them with a grain of salt.

Incorporating slick presentation skills, Matthew Hoey, Instructor of the Materials 2 Course for the department of Product Design at Parsons School of Design, has just raised the bar of expectations for both student and teacher.

Using a combination of simple presentation software and an interactive learning system called Blackboard, Howey has structured the class to be an eco-friendly course on materials. With the goal of being paperless and interactive, students will receive and submit assignments via the electronic drop boxes, while compiling powerful learning content using a variety of Web-based tools.

To that effect, Hoey also designed the accompanying website Materialogical, which will eventually feature more than 100 examples of materials that the students will maintain and build upon during the semester, thus creating a package so tight, we want to fling it across the room like a rubber band.

The site's planned launch is on 9/16 for the start of the 'NATURALS' class.

Image: Matthew Hoey & Savannah Enright