sabrina@Sabrinanseaman.com
Metro Atlanta
Digital Fabrication Lab Orientation Course
LMS: D2L | Instructional Design | Video Production
The Problem
First-year students in the College of Architecture and Construction Management at Kennesaw State University were not receiving a consistent introduction to the Digital Fabrication Lab before being expected to use it for coursework. This gap was most visible in Design Communication 1, where a disconnect between faculty expectations and staff protocols left students unsure how to access the space or use its equipment properly. The result was confusion for students and unnecessary strain on lab staff, who were repeatedly fielding basic orientation questions that a structed onboarding could have addressed.
The Solution
To close this gap, I designed and produced a four-video onboarding series delivered through D2L, Kennesaw State's LMS, specifically for first-year students. The series introduces the Digital Fabrication Lab, walks students through its most-used equipment, and covered requires safety training, giving students a consistent foundation before setting foot in the space.
Each video is paired with a short knowledge-check quiz that reinforces key content immediately after viewing. To ensure full completion and comprehension, the course is sequentially gated: students cannot advance to the next video until they've completed both the current video and quiz.
DFL Introduction
Fire Safety
Laser Cutting
3D Printing
My Role/Process
As the instructional designer on this project, I owned the process end to end, from initial research through final implementation in the LMS.
DFL Orientation
As the Digital Fabrication Lab Manager, I served as my own subject matter expert, drawing on observational data from day-to-day operations in the space. To build a fuller picture, I supplemented this with interviews with students about current understanding of lab processes, conversations with first-year faculty about their expectations, and administrative input from the Chair of Architecture.
The goal was to identify the gap between what faculty assumed students already knew and what staff were actually encountering in the lab. This research surfaced the core issue: students lacked a shared understanding of equipment access policies, safety expectations, and basic lab etiquette before starting coursework.
Using these findings, I storyboarded and scripted a four-part video series structured around the most common points of confusion: an overview of the lab, the most-used equipment, and safety protocols. Scripts were written to be concise and procedural, prioritizing clarity over comprehensiveness so first-year students could retain the essentials without being overwhelmed.
Each video combines motions graphics, callouts, limited animation, screen casting, and live action footage to demonstrate equipment use and showcase the Digital Fabrication Lab from multiple angles. Workflows are present in sequential order, paired with narration and captions to help students process each step and follow along in real time.
This intentional use of mixed media, combined with chunking information into digestible segments, was designed to reduce cognitive overload while keeping the videos visually engaging, an important balance for first-year students encountering unfamiliar equipment and terminology at the same time.
All images will link to videos
Fire Safety
DFL Orientation
Laser Cutting
3D Printing
Finally, I built the course out in D2L, sequencing the videos with embedded quizzes and configuring completion gating so students couldn't progress until each video and quiz were finished, ensuring consistent onboarding across the entire first-year cohort.
Outcomes/Reflection
While formal metrics weren't collected for this project, the impact has been clear through direct observation. Students now arrive at the Digital Fabrication Lab noticeably better informed, resulting in fewer repeat questions about basic access and safety procedures, freeing staff to focus on higher-level support rather than repeated onboarding conversations.
Faculty, particularly those less familiar with the lab's equipment and protocols, have appreciated having a reliable resource they can point students to with confidence. Perhaps most significantly, equipment misuse and damage have decreased, suggesting the safety training is translating into safer, more informed behavior in the space itself.
Looking back, this project reinforced the value of designing training around real, observed gaps rather than assumptions, and demonstrated how a relatively lightweight intervention (four short videos) can meaningfully shift both students readiness and staff workload.