Educator

Lori worked as an adjunct professor at Rider University in the Communication and Journalism department and the Film and Media Studies Program. As a creative director and visual storyteller she worked within every business segment with top Fortune 500 companies including: fashion retail, finance, pharmaceutical, real estate development and technology, as well as nonprofits and policy think-tanks. She often integrated the real business world into her coursework incorporating technical and cultural skills needed to ready students for the current business culture. Most students were not design students, but Rider University required all journalism majors to learn design skills and how to use Adobe Cloud.

Lori encouraged students to think critically, stimulating them to be their absolute best. Lori is passionate about sharing knowledge and experiences with students and enjoys seeing them develop their own media analysis and creative content skills, both independently and collaboratively. She taught in the traditional lecture/lab classroom, as well as Blackboard and Canvas online platforms.

Film and Media Audiences

At Rider University, the online "Canvas" environment was flexible and engaging, especially when students collaborated in teams. They discussed their favorite movies and television shows allowing complete freedom within the coursework to cover any media examples for comparison and contrast within the context of each week's texts. When covering fandom movie franchises like Batman, Harry Potter, Fast & Furious were discussed, as well a long-time media enterprises including Star Trek, Star Wars and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Students developed personal media journals where they analyzed their own media usage incorporating current television shows like American Idol, Scandal and the Walking Dead to consider whether they were passive or active consumers of media. Much of the course integrated concepts of the "public sphere" and "audience measurement" and students compared and contrasted historical media with current media examples while examining commercials, theater, news, gaming, movies, radio, Internet, and social media. Students enjoyed a Facebook observation assignment where they analyzed audiences for pages like Old Spice and Humans of New York to consider whether Facebook users truly have agency with their public engagement. Issues of net neutrally and privacy were also discussed with a "digital shadow" assignment.

“Professor Ersolmaz demonstrates respect and sensitivity when interacting with students and responded so very constructively and at length to all student assignments, clearly making effective use of the online environment. I believe Professor Ersolmaz is an excellent instructor who both encourages and challenges her students in ways entirely appropriate to the level and course material. I am so pleased she taught FMS 340 OL and have every hope she will continue to do so in the future.”

— Dr. Cindy Lucia, English Dept, Film and Media Studies Program Director, Rider University

Publication Design

Publication Design, COM 212 was a foundation level, graphic design course at Rider University in the Communication and Journalism department. Rider's reputation lies in the strength of its business school approach, and in teaching this course, Lori applied the same sensibility. The challenge—while some students were graphic design majors, many majored in journalism, digital media, broadcasting, public relations, event planning and communications studies. It made for tremendous differences in skill level and required the ability to teach a diverse student population, some who didn’t understand why they needed to learn design skills. However, after a few weeks they began to recognize what an asset communication design is in our visual society. By midterm, students learned how to research products and services, develop critical thinking and observation skills and utilized creative processes needed to generate new ideas through brainstorming and collaboration. These important skills should prove to be influential throughout their career.

Testimonials from Rider University Students

“I loved this class. As someone who’s never had a graphic design class, I felt like I caught on to the material in a timely matter and never felt like I was in a classroom, but actually working for a client.”

“Professor Ersolmaz is a great teacher who cares about what she is teaching. I learned a lot because the content was great. Very positive attitude. I enjoyed it because I learned new things and improved my artistic skills. She gives everyone a fair chance. Awesome class!”

ITrends Magazine

One of the projects that students enjoyed the most was editorial design. By the end of the semester, many found they had learned how to put together a solid multi-page design project in InDesign. Using mainly Lori’s original photography, they designed a new masthead, cover, table of contents and an editorial spread.

“Before starting this class I thought I would be lost and probably be behind other students. I was really surprised when I actually started to enjoy it! I learned how to create new ideas and enjoyed the organization of the course.”

“I learned the practical applications of InDesign and creating publications. I find myself now thinking about the elements that make a good design rather than simply putting things together randomly.”

“Overall I enjoyed the class. It actually helped me begin to decide a direction that I would like to head in after graduation. In my opinion the course has great structure and content. The material covered during the semester follows an organized and planned method and the textbook was a good support for the professor’s lectures. During the lectures the professor always opened the time to student’s questions and opinions which was great to stimulate speech practice using specific vocabulary words in InDesign.”

Typography and Identity

Understanding the principles of good typography is essential to the foundation of graphic design. Early in the semester typographic treatments were covered, but also considered the voice of typography and how it affects branding. Through this project, a 6"x6" block is created where the student must use a serif and a sans serif font. While trying to brand themselves through the use of different letterforms, students begin to understand how to convey a brand.

“The professor’s willingness to help and her feedback is incredible.”

Toll Brothers, 12 Page Brochure

This project was refined over the years, but it provided a 3-stage project beginning with understanding the creative process and ending in a final presentation where students explained how they developed their brochure and then provided feedback to each other. Toll Brothers is an award-winning real estate corporation with many projects in the tri-state metropolitan area. While the brochure project may be an ambitious entry-level endeavor, students rose to the occasion and developed strong examples. When first teaching the course every student had a Toll Brother's house on the front cover. It became obvious that in order for students to grasp the concept of "standing out from the crowd" they would need to better analyze the company's products and services to effectively show the message through conceptual visual storytelling. Students not only learned about designing a multi-page brochure but, also the core principles of idea generation, advertising concepts, image selection and strong headlines—all in one project. Through the creative process, students developed sophisticated cover visual stories with interior lifestyle spreads that illustrated how print can be successful sequential storytelling. Many students came away with a solid portfolio project that provided them with team collaboration, strategic concept development, the ability to speak articulately using design terminology and revealed what they learned throughout the course—making them more confident with their new found skills.

“Great Professor. Very educated and organized. I would love to have her again. This class is a lot of fun and makes me want to continue designing.”

Advertising

Teams collaborated on varied subjects, from the Grounds for Sculpture, to the World Wildlife Fund. Eventually the coursework was refined and conflated advertising pedagogy into a multi-page print project.

“This was one of the most informative and enjoyable courses I have taken at Rider. The projects were challenging and each was very different. I liked how each project built off of the material learned in the previous project.”

“Professor Ersolmaz was always extremely helpful when explaining the materials and guiding us throughout. Her grading system was very fair and she always left helpful comments on our projects to help us with future work. She was a great professor.”

Youth Media Literacy

Lori worked with youth through various New Jersey summer programs in Asbury Park, Matawan and Newark to help them collaborate in team projects including poster collages, photography and short videos to communicate about life in their communities. Lori was awarded a Media Literacy Education Award from the National Association of Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) for her efforts facilitating youth and adults in analyzing and making media. The NAMLE Media Literate Media Awards recognize people, programs, initiatives, or organizations that have raised the visibility of media literacy. Past award honorees have included Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, Bill Moyers and NOW, Howard Kurtz for his Washington Post columns and CNN show, NPR’s “On the Media”, Van Jones, Esq., Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law at Stanford, founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society, and Chair of the Creative Commons Project, and Linda Ellerbee, Nickelodeon and Lucky Duck Productions.

My syllabi is available upon request.