Spring 2027

Visual Thinking - Pixels and Pencils

Explores visual media for describing reality, generating ideas, and communicating design concepts using hand drawing and professional design software.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.83 GPA, 96.7% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.27 GPA, 64.5% A/AB (n=31 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.73 GPA, 93.5% A/AB (n=31 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Develop heightened attention to detail, light and form through observational drawing while developing coordination between hand and eye.

  • Use hand drawing and digital tools to visually explore multiple design solutions.

  • Create professional visuals to communicate a complex design idea, mood and concept.

  • Increase fluency of commonly used design software

  • Critically analyze individual work and the work of classmates using appropriate terminology related to the design field.

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

Source: UW Guide

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 150

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

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 001Classroom Instruction0 / 300
LAB 002Classroom Instruction0 / 300

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

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.83 GPA, 96.7% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.27 GPA, 64.5% A/AB (n=31 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.73 GPA, 93.5% A/AB (n=31 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Visual media for description, ideation, and professional communication
  • Hand drawing techniques and professional design software
  • Cross-platform visual exploration and refinement of design plans

Skills

  • Observational drawing with attention to detail, light, form, and hand-eye coordination
  • Visual exploration of design solutions using hand drawing and digital tools
  • Creating professional visuals to communicate complex design ideas, moods, and concepts
  • Fluency in commonly used professional design software
  • Critical analysis of design work using field-specific terminology
  • Studio habits supporting a consistent, rigorous, and reflective work ethic

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 150 · Spring 2027

Visual Thinking - Pixels and Pencils

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:359:025984",
    "course_id": "DS 150",
    "course_uid": "course_5df3db0078d8a87997c6803c",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025984",
    "source_subject_id": "359",
    "title": "Visual Thinking - Pixels and Pencils",
    "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

No records available.

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

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": "98e4355705574a7b306c8ebd47405658e916f02f71e48ab76f186fbd6532902d",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}