Fall 2026

Design: Fundamentals I

DS 120 covers the elements and principles of design relevant to the visual environment.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 Ely Rendon BetancurLucy BurtonMelody Pak +1 more

Summary

1 / 7

Historical reviews of Brooke Godfrey, Elizabeth Anne Hooper-Lane, Esther Kang: Students report that the class is very time-consuming, with projects requiring extensive digital art knowledge and effort. Weekly quizzes on lecture content and studio sessions add to the burden, and TAs are frequently described as tough graders who deduct points without clear explanation.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
DS 120 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.84 GPA, 92.7% A/AB (n=123 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.81 GPA, 93.5% A/AB (n=124 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2025: 3.81 GPA, 93.5% A/AB (n=124 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.84 GPA, 92.7% A/AB (n=123 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.81 GPA, 93.5% A/AB (n=124 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews for Brooke Godfrey describe her as helpful and engaging outside class, though some found her lectures boring due to reading slides verbatim. Other reviewers praised her as a phenomenal teacher who engages students easily and supports the design program backbone.

BROOKE GODFREY is recorded teaching in Fall 2009, Spring 2010. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ELIZABETH HOOPER-LANE is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ELY RENDON BETANCUR is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ESTHER KANG is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JUNG-HYE SHIN is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MELODY PAK is recorded teaching in Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ROYA NAAMIPOURAN is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction124 / 1280
LAB 301Classroom Instruction16 / 160
LAB 302Classroom Instruction16 / 160
LAB 303Classroom Instruction16 / 160
LAB 304Classroom Instruction16 / 160
LAB 306Classroom Instruction15 / 160
LAB 307Classroom Instruction14 / 160
LAB 305Classroom Instruction15 / 160
LAB 308Classroom Instruction16 / 150

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Historical reviews of Brooke Godfrey, Elizabeth Anne Hooper-Lane: DS 120 is a rigorous, time-consuming course that demands significant effort, particularly on projects and studio work. While essential for design majors, non-majors often find the workload heavy and the grading harsh, making it a challenging experience for those without prior art or design background.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.84 GPA, 95.5% A/AB (n=132 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.84 GPA, 92.7% A/AB (n=123 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.81 GPA, 93.5% A/AB (n=124 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Brooke Godfrey, Elizabeth Anne Hooper-Lane, Esther Kang: Students report that the class is very time-consuming, with projects requiring extensive digital art knowledge and effort. Weekly quizzes on lecture content and studio sessions add to the burden, and TAs are frequently described as tough graders who deduct points without clear explanation.

Historical reviews of Elizabeth Anne Hooper-Lane, Esther Kang: Non-design students often feel intimidated by the design-major cohort and struggle with the technical requirements. The experience is frequently marred by frustrating TA grading practices and boring, mandatory lectures, though some find the studio environment supportive for skill development.

Topics

  • Visual environment design

Skills

  • Understanding elements and principles of design

Grades

Historical instructor

Fall 2026 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.14 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Fall 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1320 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
DS 120 · Fall 2026

Design: Fundamentals I

Recorded 2026-09-07
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20260907T155543-ce3781c4",
    "semester": "1272",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1272:359:007161",
    "course_id": "DS 120",
    "course_uid": "course_3e9352ebac5f44810b182d3c",
    "term_id": "1272",
    "source_course_id": "007161",
    "source_subject_id": "359",
    "title": "Design: Fundamentals I",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "30ab7c74330321df40b8c52cc3a16170145caa7b0ec3d34a8584e17e502ca088",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}