Online learning at the Open College of the Arts provides a significant degree of flexibility in how and when you study the arts. Instead of being tied to a physical campus or rigid timetables, your learning happens where you are – whether that’s your home, studio, or any comfortable space – and you can access your course materials whenever best suits your personal schedule, allowing you to create a study plan that integrates with your existing commitments. Each 40-credit unit has a 12-month timeframe for completion (including an initial induction period) to ensure a focused and progressive learning experience. You’ll also join a diverse and inspiring global community of students, and gain access to a dedicated department space where you can engage with webinars and workshops in addition to your core learning materials.

Our online student platform, OCA Learn, becomes your central hub after registration, providing all your course materials and a space to connect with others. Through OCA Learn, you’ll conveniently submit your completed assignments online. Throughout your studies, you’ll receive expert guidance from a dedicated tutor, a practicing artist, who will offer constructive feedback on your submitted work. This feedback is designed to help you grow, highlighting what you’re doing well and  areas for improvement, often delivered through a mix of detailed written notes directly on your digital submissions within OCA Learn, and the chance to connect with tutors via video.

Stage 1 comprises three 40-credit units that must be studied in order.

Stage 1 develops students’ technical, creative and analytical skills enabling choices to suit diverse student backgrounds and needs. 

Unit 1.1 Approaching Photography introduces techniques and ideas for creating and making sense of photographic images. You will explore how experiments, techniques and decisions impact photographic outcomes, and ways to reflect on these. You will take inspiration from a range of subjects, genres, visual research and histories of photography to develop your awareness of contemporary photographic practice.

To move on to Unit 1.2, you’ll first need to successfully pass the assessment for Unit 1.1. Please be aware that this initial progression step might involve a slightly longer gap between unit enrolments compared to the transition between subsequent units. 

Unit 1.2 Practice and Process emphasises experimentation. The unit aims to develop your appreciation of different creative processes possible in photography (and wider moving image, hybrid and interdisciplinary practices). You will experiment with different ways of working, reflecting as you move forward through a series of projects, so you can try out new ways of thinking and making and ways to reflect critically on this. 

Unit 1.3 Narrative and Context supports your developing knowledge of photography as a visual language, with its own structures and vocabularies. You will explore how visual narratives are formed, image and text, sequencing and editing. As with any form of communication, understanding these aspects helps us  to become more ‘fluent’ as practitioners. The more fluent we are, the more playful and experimental we can be in our creative self-expression.

Stage 2 comprises three 40-credit units that must be studied in order.

Stage 2 supports students to begin to develop their personal voice.

Unit 2.1 Challenging Genres will explore key genres within photography and ways to be creative with them, whilst you continue to produce and revise on-going personal work. You’ll reflect on your understanding of genres, such as landscape, documentary, portraiture and still life to create a personal project and critical reflection that communicates a chosen topic. 

Unit 2.2 Ethics and Representation looks at photography ethics and why they are important, supporting your developing knowledge and awareness of the principles that guide how we create and share photographs of individuals, groups, communities and events. Helping you develop autonomy and confidence in pursuing self directed projects with others

Unit 2.3 Digital Image and Visual Culture develops your understanding, innovation, research and practice focussed on developments in technology. The unit prepares you for a more flexible framework at stage three, in which you undertake the kinds of creative and critical projects you are interested in. You will explore the boundaries and parameters of the digital image, testing preconceptions and embracing innovation.

Stage 3 comprises three 40-credit units that must be studied in order.

Stage 3 is primarily a negotiated programme driven by you and your chosen direction.

Unit 3.1 Practice and Research creates flexibility for you, and offers opportunities to study alongside students from other disciplines as you synthesise your creative practice and research interests. You’ll scope out, create a project plan and begin to test – a proposal for the types of work you aim to do – for a self-directed body of work and critical thinking assignment,  with choices of  a critical review, dissertation, video or other format to present your research. 

Unit 3.2 Context and Audience builds on the previous unit, helping you move towards being an independent practitioner. The key theme of this unit is an outward-facing or external project based on your interests, scoped and developed as a project plan in your previous unit. This could involve (but is not limited to) collaborations, exhibitions, publications, client briefs, community projects and/or competitions, to consider and explore engagements of your work with other people, practices and debates.

Unit 3.3 Major Project provides the opportunity to demonstrate all that you have learned by undertaking a self-directed project, focusing on a specialist area of inquiry, and reflecting on your experiences through the presentation of your work as a substantial and sustained body of work. You will devise a project that allows you to explore a field of interest and to further develop your emerging practice, considering outward facing aspects of your practice, preparing you to sustain this beyond the course.

When you complete a unit, you are invited to submit a portfolio of work and critical essays to the next available assessment event. There are three undergraduate assessment events held each year, and when you complete your unit decides which assessment event you submit to. In some instances, you will require your assessment results before progressing onto your next unit.

You have a total of 12 months to complete each 40-credit unit, starting with a two-week induction.

You will arrange your assignment submission dates with your tutor directly so you can study at your own pace within the unit timeframe (although it’s important to note that full-time study is not available). This means that the course completion time varies depending on the study hours dedicated, and when you submit to assessment.

After successfully finishing a unit, you have a six-month window to enrol for your subsequent unit of study. This six-month period begins from the date you receive your assessment results.

Programme Specifications

Programme Specification

The BA (Hons) Photography course was updated in 2021. Students who enrolled before the update will continue with the previous version (the “Teach Out” programme) until they progress to a new stage of their studies. At that point, they will switch to the updated course.

Teaching Out Programme Specification

New students cannot enrol to the Teach Out programme.

Accessibility Guides

Accessibility guides give an indication of the type and format of content, teaching, and learning activities on the course, and how these are ordinarily delivered.

Review Accessibility Guides Here

Curriculum changes

We regularly review our curriculum; therefore, the qualification described on this page – including its availability, its structure, and available units – may change over time. If we make changes to this qualification, we’ll update this page as soon as possible. Once you’ve registered or are studying this qualification, where practicable, we’ll inform you in good time of any upcoming changes. If you’d like to know more about the circumstances in which OCA might make changes to the curriculum, see our Academic Regulations or contact us. This description was last updated on 14 December 2022.

The Academic Regulations for Subsidiary Institutions of The Open University are applicable to all taught courses offered by the Open College of the Arts (OCA).

Academic Regulatory Framework

The Academic Regulatory Framework (ARF) regulations are applicable to all taught courses offered by the Open College of the Arts (OCA). As of January 2024, this will lead to an undergraduate award of The Open University (OU).

You can review the ARF through the link below:

Academic Framework