Welcome

Undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at Plymouth College of Art are delivered and supported through a diverse range of learning and teaching experiences. Programmes are made up of modules, and these units of study are taught and assessed separately. Each module carries clearly identified credit value - the accumulation of which will allow students to progress onto the next level of their programme.

You will experience a variety of learning opportunities which will be delivered as taught or supported sessions, and directed study. You will also have access to college-wide resources which include workshops, project spaces, and the Learning Lab including the Library. A variety of learning and teaching methodologies are used to support the development of practice in the context of subject and/or cross-subject requirements and the specific module learning outcomes.

Module Elements

Each module has a set of Module Elements that will be introduced to you at the beginning of the semester by the module leader. The Module Leader will introduce learning opportunities, college-wide resources, reference material for research, and will clearly identify the learning outcomes throughout your learning in the module. You will be supported through the process of formative review, feedback, and summative assessment.

Assignment Briefs will introduce the aims and objectives of study within each module, and set out the content of learning. This includes information on the deliverable components required for assessment submission. The assignment briefs also contain other useful information such as indicative reading lists, and formative and summative assessment points.

Learning Hours

Your learning will consist of a combination of timetabled contact sessions and self-study (including personal use of College resources). During your timetabled programme hours, you will have contact with academic lecturers and technical demonstrators. This may consist of taught studio time, workshops in the College Labs, practical demonstrations, individual and group tutorials, study visits, study zone workshops, lectures (including visiting artists) and group seminars. Owing to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions regarding access and space these campus sessions will be mixed with online / remote learning.

The ratio of contact hours varies depending on your year of study. An “indicative guide” per week is: year 1 (up to 14 hours); year 2 (up to 12 hours); and year 3 (up to 12 hours). The teaching day starts at 10am and finishes at 5pm. Wednesdays will be an extracurricular day where exciting opportunities are offered on a voluntary basis, such as niche technical workshops, etc. These activities are for enhancement and fun, and will not be explicitly connected to academic and assessed learning.

Learning Resource Environment

Alongside specific skills taught and supported within your programme, College resources are open access for all students using our Connect 2 booking system. We encourage mobility across subject areas and the development of interdisciplinary practice. A diverse range of workshops will support the development of your practice. We also provide a base room for every programme in the College, providing a space for learning & teaching, alongside social interaction with your peers. As this is a collective environment, students are asked to share responsibility in looking after the space and ensure that health and safety requirements are adhered to.

Directed Learning

Directed learning is an extremely important part of Art & Design graduate and postgraduate education and you will be strongly encouraged to develop the ability to take responsibility for setting aims for your work. Directed learning will sometimes also be referred to as Directed Study on timetables or other Programme information. Directed Study is mapped against taught delivery, providing students with the opportunity to engage in individual self-directed study in support of learning outcomes. This will be in discussion with, and supported by, your lecturers. The organisation of studios and workshop spaces is designed to encourage the exchange of ideas and promote peer group learning outside timetabled sessions.

Tutorials

At tutorials you will work with one tutor either individually or in a small group of students. Tutorials are used to discuss goals in relation to work in progress or your longer term progression to further study or employment. Individual tutorials will be undertaken in accordance with the Tutorial Practice Guidelines - minimum of six scheduled tutorial opportunities throughout each academic year with the addition of a feedback and exit tutorial for final year students. Tutorials will be recorded on your online tutorial system (SoMIS).

Individual tutorials are also used to give formative feedback on progress to assignments for modules. Group tutorials can be used to discuss work in relation to a project.

OTHER COMMUNICATIONs

Email

Student emails received during college working hours will normally be replied to no later than one working week from receipt.

• If a member of college staff is away, an ‘out of office reply’ will be used to direct the sender to an alternative contact source;

• College staff will only send student emails during the working day (Mon- Fri; 08:00 to 18:00 / library staff during library opening hours). Emails received outside of this time will be responded to at the next available opportunity as detailed above.

• College emails should be checked regularly to support your studies and to ensure you receive important information.

Google Classroom:

This technology sends automatic updates whenever a change is made. Guidance on how to manage notifications can be accessed Guidance on how to manage notifications can be accessed here.

• College staff will normally only update Google Classroom during their working day (Mon-Fri 08:00 to 18:00) to prevent untimely notifications;

• Google Classroom should be checked regularly to support your studies.