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 29th and 30th
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!!
