Spring 2027

Visual Thinking - Form and Space

Visual Thinking: Form and Space covers manual and digital techniques for idea exploration, concept development, and design presentation using various media.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Brooke Godfrey3.9/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Brooke Godfrey

The course involved learning design software methods, with a difficulty rating of 2 out of 5 reported by students.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Practice studio habits that support a consistent, rigorous, reflective work ethic.

  • Practice fundamental skills for self-discovery and exploration in design.

  • Investigate current software and techniques for contemporary design.

  • Describe the elements that contribute to the visualization of design.

  • Apply the elements of art and the principles of design in drawing and digital exercises to express ideas, concepts, and moods.

  • Practice a variety of methods to structure, contextualize, and communicate the visual representation of ideas.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
DS 140 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

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.50/5 from 8 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 4.0/5 raw quality · 2.0/5 difficulty · 1 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Brooke Godfrey

Brooke Godfrey ran a well-organized class where she taught a lot about design software. However, most lectures were demonstrations without slides, making it easy to forget the material. The reviewer noted the class would be perfect if there were a way to look back at the methods learned in lecture.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.79 GPA, 87.7% A/AB (n=73 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.60 GPA, 81.9% A/AB (n=83 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.44 GPA, 72.1% A/AB (n=86 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

BROOKE GODFREY is recorded teaching in Fall 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. 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

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LAB 301Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 302Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 303Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 304Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LAB 305Classroom Instruction0 / 160
LEC 001Online Only0 / 960
LAB 306Classroom Instruction0 / 160

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

Past student reviews · Brooke Godfrey

Students found the class well-organized and taught by a knowledgeable instructor who provided substantial design software training.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.79 GPA, 87.7% A/AB (n=73 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.60 GPA, 81.9% A/AB (n=83 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.44 GPA, 72.1% A/AB (n=86 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Brooke Godfrey

The course involved learning design software methods, with a difficulty rating of 2 out of 5 reported by students.

Past student reviews · Brooke Godfrey

Lectures relied heavily on live demonstrations rather than slides, making it easy to forget material without a way to review methods later.

Topics

  • Visual communication, visual thinking, visual inspiration, and visual representation
  • Hand drawing techniques and professional design software
  • Relationship between two-dimensional drawings and three-dimensional objects

Skills

  • Manual and digital techniques for idea exploration, concept development, and design presentation
  • Understanding the relationship between 2D drawings and 3D objects, exploring visual design solutions, conveying technical information, and communicating design concepts
  • Investigating current software and techniques for contemporary design

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · 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

1280 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 140 · Spring 2027

Visual Thinking - Form and Space

Recorded 2026-10-29
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261029T213040-0fa85c20",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:359:025899",
    "course_id": "DS 140",
    "course_uid": "course_e0920a2301353e76bd2cc15a",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025899",
    "source_subject_id": "359",
    "title": "Visual Thinking - Form and Space",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
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 2026-10-29

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "6cfe4cf5bb465740022878b61639a9241c6d00303273a2591d061e8a3b1a86e5",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "c9cd06eaa45f9ddf7e69faa38b89ff3d3dd995dd",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00"
}