Learner Voice 2015

Learner Voice – Art and Design 2015 

 

Every year in the Art and Design department we ask our students to give us feedback on their experiences.  We usually do this on the day they hand in their coursework as everyone has had chance to work and progress within the department for a good amount of time and hopefully will give us relevant and constructive feedback.

This year the coursework hand it took place on 29^th and 30^th January and we asked Fine Art, Graphics and photography students to ‘Tell us what they love…’ and ‘Tell us what you wish for…’ and here are the results:

 

Tell us what you love about Fine Art, Graphic Communication and photography at Thomas Rotherham College:

We had an 81% (a 1% increase from last year) response rate across all endorsements and levels, individually 82% of Art students, 85% of Graphics students and 73% of Photography students told us about the things they love about our department.  All endorsements identified common ‘loves’ and here is a breakdown:

The Art Department Staff, Support available and a Positive Working Atmosphere:

 

The hands down most popular thing about our department was the staff and support given.  44% of Fine Art, 45% of Photography and 52% of Graphics students stated the ‘Positive Teacher Support’ was the best thing about our department.  9.6% (Art), 8.5% (Graphics and 18% (photography) valued the positive working atmosphere. In Fine Art students said ‘Help is always available. Staff in Art are always wanting the best from students’ and ‘positive constructive feedback’ is ‘frequent, so we know what to do’.  Graphics students commented on the ‘The amount of support and extra help/time given by staff’ and there were ‘clear instructions for work’ given.’   Similarly in Photography students said they ‘love one to ones to get feedback, reassurance and suggestions’.  Staff were described as ‘Dedicated and helpful’, ‘supportive’ and ‘friendly’, and even ‘Love the teachers!’ Luckily, we love our students too and are grateful that you recognise our hard work, as we very much appreciate yours.

Students across all endorsements valued getting ‘regular feedback’, ‘constructive feedback’ and being ‘pushed’.   We are obviously very pleased with this feedback as not only do we like to know we are helping, but this year we have overhauled the way in which we conduct one to ones as the increase in student numbers and group sizes has meant we have had to change our way of working.  On the whole these changes seem to be receiving good feedback.

Materials, Techniques, Creative Freedom and the Open Door policy

 

13.5% of Fine art and 8.5% of Graphics students said the materials and techniques available were the best thing about our department.  7.7% (Fine Art), 5.7% (Graphics) and 13.6% (Photography) valued the ever popular open door policy.  Students commented on the ‘Good materials and facilities’ and the ‘freedom to experiment and the huge variety of materials and media’ used.   All endorsements appreciated being able to ‘come in and work at any time’. Creative freedom again this year is highly valued – ‘Freedom to choose different ideas’ and ‘I like how you can express and experiment with your own work’. We are very proud to have such creative students and love to see the wide variety of exciting, interesting and sometimes downright spectacular things you come up with.

11% of Graphics students in particular loved the ‘good printmaking facilities’ the most! ‘Lino printing is the best!’

Students across all endorsements mentioned the sketchbooks – ‘I really enjoy working in sketchbooks’

Fine Art students especially loved ‘the space to work in the studio’– ‘Enough space to explore techniques and ideas’ and ‘Space J ‘.  This is much improved from last year as the rooms upstairs have been opened up to create one large studio which not only means there is more space to work, but also contributes to the positive working atmosphere.  We have AS and A2 classes running simultaneously in the same room, as well as students working independently outside lessons all in one large room.  This new physical space seems to be allowing students to create a positive working atmosphere by filling the room constantly with a buzz of creative activity and discussion.  Interestingly this was not listed as a strength by any of the Graphics or Photography students who work downstairs.  Hopefully this will be resolved by next year, watch this space…..literally……..

14% of Graphics and 13.6% of photography students stated the ‘digital opportunities’ and ‘computers available’ were something they loved.  They also commented on ‘how there is a mixture of practical and digital aspects’.  We are extremely pleased with this as last year ‘faster computers’ was raised as a ‘wish’ in the learner voice activity,  this resulted in new and more machines being installed in R018.

Tell us what you wish for in Fine Art, Graphic Communication and Photography at Thomas Rotherham College

We had an 81% response rate across all endorsements and levels, individually 82% of Art students, 85% of Graphics students and 73% of Photography students told us what they wish for in the department .  All endorsements identified common ‘wishes’ and here is the breakdown:

Storage space and Working Space:

 

Despite The space upstairs featuring heavily in the ‘loves’ for Fine Art, the storage space across the whole department and working space downstairs was commented on across all endorsements.  17% (Art) 31% (Graphics) and 36% (Photography) of students stated space and many specified drawers in particular as an issue.  Graphics asked for ‘MORE DRAWERS!!!!’ and said there ‘was not enough space to work’.  Photography and Fine Art asked for ‘bigger/deeper drawers to hold more 3D objects’.  All said we needed ‘more drying space for prints’.

Our Response:

Working Space downstairs: The working space downstairs is going to be rearranged and there are some top secret plans afoot to improve the rooms in general, you will have to just wait and see! But this is definitely being looked at. 

Drawers – this year we have had much increased student numbers and therefore storage space is at a premium.  One 8 drawer plan chest cost (at the cheapest!) £414, we do need to consider how we can give students individual storage space further and will get back to you on this.

Drying racks for prints: This is something we always struggle with as if we provide more drying racks, this takes up working space which then will cause problems.  The biggest problem we find is prints being left on the drying racks uncollected.  Students need to take responsibility for collecting their work to ensure the work on there is actually ‘drying’!  We will create some ‘work from drying rack’ areas and signs reminding students to collect their work.

Printing Work and Reprographics

 

This is an ongoing issue and comes up every year, we are constantly developing how we deal with this issue.  11.5% (Art, 28.5% (Graphics and 31.8%(photography) of students mentioned this.  The wishes came in two main forms this year:

1.    ‘A printer in the computer room’

Our Response: Every year this is requested and every year the response is the same, we used to have a printer in the graphics room, however the cost and logistics of this was unworkable.  The teacher would spend most of lesson time sorting out print outs and collecting money, wasting valuable teaching time.  Also the quality of print outs was far inferior to that available at reprographics.  We do have a special deal (£5 photocopying card with 70 credits) with reprographics who have far more facilities than we could ever offer in the department e.g. printing up to A1, laminating, different papers, A3 scanning etc so we feel it would be better to continue with our current way of working.

2.     ‘easier access to reprographics’, ‘bigger reprographics department’

Our Response: Obviously this year our student numbers have almost trebled, which has meant an increased pressure on reprographics. Jane and Janet have already put in place 2 things to make using reprographics easier.

 

Progress made:

A Reprographics Collection Area – This is located next to the Art office downstairs, Jane and Janet will bring your print outs through when they are ready an put them in the racking, this will save you walking all the way round to reprographics.  Unfortunately you cannot use the door between repro and the Art department for health and safety reasons.

Printer credits transfer – To help with the cost of printing, reprographics can now transfer credits allocated to you for use in the LRC to a reprographics art card.  This can only be done in £5 increments but will help with the cost of printing.

Materials: Guillotines and Paper Towels

 

This was quite a big wish from students across all endorsements, however there were some subject specific responses too.  25% (Art) 11% (Graphics) and 31.8%(Photography) of students mentioned this.  All areas wanted ‘more guillotines’ despite us buying 4 more smaller guillotines earlier in the year. 

Our Response: We will cost up buying more and also creating specific ‘cutting areas’ in the rooms.

All endorsements mentioned ‘more basic supplies available in rooms e.g. gluesticks, scissors, tape, brushes etc’. 

Our Response: We do not provide gluesticks, tape or brushes to students as we have done in the past and have found students do not look after them and this simply costs too much money to maintain.  If students are responsible for their own materials they tend to look after them more.  For example, there are ‘Basic Materials’ trays in every room which should contain rulers, scissors, rubbers, sharpeners and any spare pencils/brushes etc we find laying about.  However, materials are not returned, lost and not looked after.  We will look at rearranging this, putting the basic materials in the ‘cutting areas’ with a signing sheet to say when they were last checked.

Every year lowering the cost of materials raised as a wish - ‘Cheaper Art Materials/more free supplies’ (Art), ‘Prices of things’ (Photography) ‘too expensive – sketchbooks’ (graphics). However this year this was mentioned significantly less this year, even with the increased student numbers.

Our Response: We only sell materials at the price it costs us to buy and as we order from an educational supplier this is much cheaper than you would pay in the shops.  We charge for basics such as paper, brushes and glue sticks as in the past when we haven’t these things in particular have been wasted on a big enough scale to affect our budget for the year.  We supply printing materials and basic acrylic paints, however we need to charge for things such as plaster, intaglio plates and lino.  These are expensive to buy for whole classes and as we have a very small departmental budget, unfortunately we would not be able to offer these materials and techniques if we didn’t charge for them.  We think it is important, and also students think it is important, to have access to a wide range of materials and techniques.  However we will discuss how we can make the costs less prohibitive and more clear at the start of the course.

The introduction of the student levy this year seems to have had a positive impact on how students feel about paying for materials.  Being able to pay upfront an amount, then deduct the price of any materials needed as and when seems to make the cost feel like it has less of an impact.  We will continue to use the levy system.

Sketchbooks have been introduced this year mainly as we have so many students we thought this would make it easier and safer to keep all work together and well presented.  In the past students have made their own larger A2 journals for which they had to buy the paper which in the end, cost roughly the same as a sketch book.

One student has requested a ‘Vending machine full of art stuff’ which I think is an absolute genius idea! However, I am not sure it is possible, but we will investigate!!

Fine Art Specific:

Fine Art in particular mentioned the following: ‘More paper towels, soap dispenser upstairs’, there has been difficulty actually locating an area for a soap dispenser as the sinks are under the window, however we will resolve this issue. 

Our Response: We will implement daily sink checks to check the tidiness of the sinks and the paper towels.

‘Coat pegs’ again were mentioned upstairs, this has been an ongoing issue locating a suitable spot which will be clean, unused and away from any messy materials. 

Our Response: We will liaise with site to locate a suitable space.

19% of Fine Art wanted the printmaking facilities extending; ‘a bigger printing table’ and ‘another press’.  One student also requested the ‘opportunity to do screen printing’

Our Response: We bought the second press two years ago and as our student number rise we hope to be able to purchase another one.  However a small basic model at its cheapest is upwards of £1000.  The printing table has already had a revamp and inking areas have been extended to a second table.  Screen printing is in the graphics scheme of work, however not the fine art, we will look into this for next year.  We are over the moon you enjoy printmaking so much!

Graphics Specific:

 

‘More scanners’ were raised as something students would like more of in the graphics room, also a request for an ‘A3 Scanner’ was put forward. 

Our Response:  Currently there are 5 A4 scanners in R018 and reprographics kindly allow us to use their A3 scanner, however this is not ideal.  More scanners and an A3 scanner will be priced up and considered for next year, watch this space!

Photography Specific:

 

‘MORE MEMORY CARD READERS’ was underlined rather emphatically by one photography student, and reinforced by others. 

Our Response: We will price these up and order more.

Points individual to endorsement:

Both Fine Art and Graphics mentioned the teaching in their wish list; some want ‘longer one to ones’ whereas others said ‘the one to ones take too long so we have less time to do work’. 

Our Response: We have already implemented a new system for the ESA where each student has a scheduled one to one every week so the time spent with each student and regularity that they are seen is evenly distributed (as much as possible).

Fine Art wanted both ‘more direction with my work’ as well as ‘listen to student opinions’ about work.  One student said that although it was understood it was ‘unavoidable’ having split teaching was ‘confusing’ with ‘conflicting orders’.  They also wanted ‘more physical examples’ and ‘more time for evaluation’.

Our Response: It is always a balancing act teaching a creative subject, as some students require lots of support and advice, other students have the confidence to tackle tasks more independently.  Our job is to provide a structured approach for you to work within which will enable you to meet the criteria laid out in the assessment objectives.  In a creative subject this can lead to confusion as you will get different ideas from different teachers, as you would if you asked different members of your class and that is a good thing.  The course requires you to develop your own ideas, by listening to different ideas and opinions you can then develop your own.

We will endeavour to provide more physical examples of work, and have recently started putting up ‘weekly work logs’ which are displayed on the wall in the classrooms as well as on Moodle with examples of what work is required that particular week.  We also photograph work regularly and upload this to pinterest.  Unfortunately the time is tight for the course and we too agree more time for evaluation would be fantastic, however, this is just not possible at the moment.

One Graphics student thought ‘explanation of homework needs to be clearer’.

 

Our Response: Each week the homework is explained in class in each lesson.  There is also a written explanation provided on moodle and most often (especially in the first term) a powerpoint explaining things like ‘what is a working brief’ etc.  There is unfortunately only a finite amount of time in lesson which can be devoted to homework in class, however we totally appreciate that homework tasks can sometimes be complicated and difficult to understand.  Teachers are always available during subject workshop for further explanation or via email.  We have also started displaying ‘weekly work logs’ on the wall and on moodle, hopefully this will help.

And there we have it! Thank you to everyone who took part in our Learner Voice activities, your feedback is invaluable to us to make sure we keep doing the good things and continue developing as a department to give you the best student experience possible.  Keep your eyes open for further updates of actions and changes which have come about as a direct result of your feedback, we will be very busy over the coming months!!