2. The problem
Conventional essay format
• Favours those with strong aptitude for academic writing
• Perceived as dry, traditional
• A&D has high proportion of dyslexic students
• Limited scope for visual thinking
• Linear text
• Formal structure
• Focussed around response to central question
5. Alternatives to essay allow
(to a greater or lesser extent)
• Broader contextual research
• Visual thinking made explicit
• Intuitive responses and use of tacit knowledge
• Reflection on relevance of theory and history to practice
• Non-linear text
• Less formal structures
6. The risks of abandoning
conventional essay
• Loss of academic rigour
• Wooly thinking, less precision
• Unclear focus
• Lack of citations and references
• Losing the point of assignment
• Broad but shallow research
• Confusing or chaotic structure
8. Master of Fine Art
Practice Context
• Small group, only 15 students in total on the course.
• Part of a wider 'Context Mapping Project'.
• Blog was only one (optional) element.
• Brief quite open.
9. Master of Fine Art
Successes & Issues
• Most students who chose to blog engaged with critical
writing and analysis.
• Students were sometimes unsure which output to
choose.
• Sometimes a confusion over boundaries between
context mapping and studio sketchbook work.
• One student was much more visually driven, with little
commentary or analysis.
10. Master of Fine Art
Support & Feedback
• Workshop at start of course provided tools and
methods for gathering contextual information about
creative works
• Students were able to sign up for one-to-one tutorials
most weeks of the course.
• Continuing feedback helped guide and shape delivery of
the blog project.
• Students who successfully delivered the blog benefitted
from feedback.
14. Master of Fine Art
Questions arising
• Too many choices?
• Too open and broad a brief?
• Blurred boundaries with studio research processes?
15. Communication Design
Context
Undergraduate Level 2
• Larger number of students, 59 in total.
• Blog is a distinct, mandatory output for the module. A
second distinct output, a research poster, was produced.
• Brief mentions content of lectures as a starting point, but
also allows inclusion of other types of material.
• Still a fairly open brief, a bit more directed than
postgraduate level.
• Students were given a choice of three blog platforms:
Blogger, Tumblr or Wordpress.
16. Communication Design
Context
Why a blog?
• Allows incorporation of audiovisual elements, linking to external
sources.
• Less formal than an essay or review, more flexible than a paper
journal, with possibility to edit, revise or expand sections
retrospectively.
• Public exposition of thinking and writing on internet, sharing of
ideas rather than hiding them away.
• Still possible to be critical, rigorous and use academic referencing
conventions where appropriate.
• less daunting than task of writing an essay, writing appears in
chunks, gradually over time.
17. Communication Design
Context
Successes & Issues
• Most students engaged with the process of critical
reflection, using the lecture programme as a jumping off
point.
• A minority did not engage with the lectures in their
writing, and/or produced primarily image driven blogs,
using uncritical or re-blogged material.
• A particular problem with those using the Tumblr
platform.
18. Communication Design
Context
Support & Feedback
• Workshop at start of course helped students set up their
blog and create the first post.
• Seminars allowed discussion of context themes and peer
feedback.
• Individual written formative feedback to students half
way through the module.
39. Communication Design
Context
Questions arising
• Too many outputs for the module overall?
• Too open and broad a brief?
• Not aligned sufficiently with lectures?
• Blurred boundaries with studio research processes?
• An exercise in interface design?
40. Communication Design
Context
Goals going forward
• Reduce outputs of module to one: blog.
• Revisit the brief to clarify focus.
• Tie the activity into the lecture programme more closely.
• Complement studio research without duplicating it.
• Restrict blog platform choice to aid consistency.
• Emphasise simplicity and clarity of interface style.
• Ask students to identify (with tags) the most relevant
blog posts for feedback and assessment.
41. Sources consulted during the
project
• Atkinson, Terry and Claxton, Guy, eds. The intuitive practitioner: on the value of
not always knowing what one is doing. Buckingham: Open University Press,
2000
• Bolton, Gillie. Reflective practice :writing and professional development. Los
Angeles; London: Sage, 2010
• Mezirow, Jack. Fostering critical reflection in adulthood :a guide to transformative
and emancipatory learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990.
• Mason, John. Researching your own practice :the discipline of noticing. London:
Routledge Falmer, 2002.
