The Eight Course Competencies
By the end of AVC 248 you will be able to:
- Evaluate the appropriateness of your personal goals and objectives to market needs.
- Develop a self-marketing plan, including a resume and business card.
- Develop a leave-behind.
- Use networking skills in the classroom.
- Identify the appropriate markets to target.
- Identify points of discussion for a standard operating contract with a client.
- Demonstrate the ability to interview and communicate with clients, including professional interview etiquette.
- Develop a portfolio for online and printed presentation purposes.
Competency → Module Map
Each competency is met by the modules and assignments below. Several competencies are reinforced across more than one module.
| # | Competency | Where it is covered |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Goals & objectives vs. market needs | M1 Personal Goals Statement · M2 market research for the resume · M4 marketing & development goals plan. Reinforced by M9 Dream Job + Gap Reflection and the Render goals work. |
| 2 | Self-marketing plan (resume + business card) | M2 Resume drafts 1–4 and AI resume experiment · M3 Business Card & Identity Design Brief · M8 Final Resume + Final Identity Package. |
| 3 | Develop a leave-behind | M3 Leave-Behind Concept · M8 Final Leave-Behind. |
| 4 | Networking in the classroom | M5 Finding a Mentor · M6 Learning LinkedIn, LinkedIn Content, Finding a Mentor · ongoing peer discussions and portfolio critique throughout the course. |
| 5 | Identify target markets | M2 market research and target-market work, paired with the Industry Job Posting discussions (M1, M3). |
| 6 | Contract discussion points | M5 Project Brief with a Contract and Spec Sheet (freelance business). Introduced in M3 Spec Sheet / Project Brief. |
| 7 | Interview & communicate with clients (incl. interview etiquette) | M7 Interview Research, Question Types, How to Practice, Virtual Interview Tips (interview etiquette), Mock Interview, Big Interview · M4 Midterm Portfolio Presentation · the weekly interview-practice through-line (IP1–IP12). |
| 8 | Portfolio, online & printed | M4 Midterm In-Process Portfolio Presentation & Portfolio / Reel Plan · M6 Portfolio Check-In · M8 Updated Portfolio + Final Portfolio Presentation. |
Time Budget
AVC 248 is a 3-credit online studio course: 120 student hours across 15 weeks, about 8 hours per week. Roughly 40 hours are direct instruction (lessons, videos, discussions, feedback) and about 80 hours are studio production (resume, portfolio, recordings, the career agent). No single week exceeds about 8 hours.
| Module | Weeks | Est. hrs | Direct | Studio | Competencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 Getting Started | Week 1 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 1, 4 |
| M2 Resume | Weeks 2–4 | 16 | 5 | 11 | 1, 2, 5 |
| M3 Cover Letter, Pitch & Identity | Weeks 5–7 | 16 | 5 | 11 | 2, 3, 6 |
| M4 Midterm Portfolio | Week 8 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 1, 7, 8 |
| M5 Freelance Business | Weeks 9–10 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 4, 6 |
| M6 Networking & LinkedIn | Weeks 11–12 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
| M7 Interview Skills | Week 13 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| M8 Final Package | Weeks 14–15 | 11 | 2 | 9 | 2, 3, 8 |
| M9 Build Your Career Agent | Weeks 14–15 | 5 | 2 | 3 | Enriches 1, 8 |
| Through-lines (distributed) | Weeks 1–15 | 24 | 8 | 16 | 7 + Render upkeep |
| Total | 15 weeks | 120 | 40 | 80 | 1–8 |
The “through-lines” row captures work that runs every week rather than living in one module: the weekly interview-practice ladder (IP1–IP12, written responses building to recorded OBS sessions) and ongoing upkeep of the Render career launchpad. Spread across 15 weeks this adds about 1.5 hours per week, which keeps even the busiest module weeks at or under the 8-hour target. M8 and M9 share Weeks 14–15, so their combined 16 hours land at about 8 hours per week.
AI, Render & the Career Agent: enrichment, not overload
The AI-literacy unit (Module 1), the Render career launchpad, and the Module 9 career agent are designed to enrich the eight competencies, not replace or pad them. They sharpen the existing work rather than adding a separate workload:
- Competency 1 (goals vs. market) is deepened by the Module 9 Dream Job + Gap Reflection and the Render goals work, which turn a one-time goals statement into an evolving, market-aligned plan.
- Competency 8 (portfolio & career readiness) is strengthened because Render gathers every deliverable in one place and the portable career-agent
.mdfile keeps working for the student after the course ends. - The AI work is embedded inside assignments students already do (resume, reflections, the capstone), so it stays within the 120-hour budget and the 8-hour weekly cap.
Additional Career-Readiness Skills (Modern Search)
The eight competencies above are unchanged. The modern job search asks for a few skills that were once implicit, so the course now teaches them explicitly. Each is mapped to where it is taught and to the matching Render feature that lets students practice it for real.
| Skill | Where it is taught | Matching Render feature |
|---|---|---|
| Follow-up & thank-you notes | M7 Interview Skills (post-interview etiquette) and the interview-practice through-line. Reinforces competency 7. | Thank-you / follow-up note generator: drafts a short, specific note in the student’s voice with timing guidance. No personal information enters AI. |
| References sheet | M8 Final Package, alongside the final resume and identity system. Reinforces competency 2. | References sheet builder: assembles a clean references sheet that matches the resume, kept free of contact details inside Render until it is sent. |
| ATS & keyword literacy | M2 Resume (drafts 1–4 and the AI resume experiment) and the tailoring work in M6. Reinforces competencies 2 and 5. | Tailor This Application flow + Critical AI Review (Accuracy, Voice, Proof, Format, Fit): tailors the base resume to each posting’s real keywords, students fact-check and format it themselves. |
| Salary research & stating expectations | M1 goals work (pay range) and M5 Marketing & Development Goals plan. Reinforces competency 1. | Salary research helper: AI guidance (no personal information) using BLS, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, and Built In, plus how to answer the salary-expectations question with a researched range. |
| Online-presence audit | M6 Networking & LinkedIn (profile, content, and what employers find when they search you). Reinforces competencies 4 and 8. | Online presence audit checklist: a guided audit of LinkedIn, portfolio, public social accounts, and Google results, with cleanup and privacy steps. |
These skills sit inside work students already do, so they stay within the 120-hour budget. They are practiced in the Render career launchpad and folded into the repeatable Job Search Loop students keep running after graduation. See also Tailoring With AI: The Iteration Loop.