OCA preloader logo
Study tips Blog Posts - Page 9 of 10 - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

#WeAreOCA

The Open College of the Arts' blog

Browsing Category:

Study tips


The forum live hangout thumb

The forum live hangout

This hangout is open to all students at all levels who wish to actively engage with their peers in the discussion of various topics/ questions and a place to seek feedback on work in progress whether in its infancy or almost complete. The experience adds an additional layer of learning, feedback and reflective practice, a valuable opportunity to gain insight into other students thoughts, ideas and working practice.

Read More
Study tips 1: Community thumb

Study tips 1: Community

Knowing that distance learning can be difficult we recently reached out to you, our students, to ask the people who know best what it’s like to study with OCA and what you have found has helped you to study effectively. So many of you came back to us with great hints and tips that we’ll run a mini-series to cover all the suggestions, plus a few of our own from the staff here at OCA HQ.

Read More
Textiles: presenting work at assessment thumb

Textiles: presenting work at assessment

The basic aim is that your work looks coherent and that the assessors can effortlessly navigate it. It may take you a couple of assessment events to get this right but as you progress through the degree programme, repeatedly sending work for assessment you will develop and perfect ways of organising your work.

Read More
Textiles: Presentation for assessment thumb

Textiles: Presentation for assessment

This simple presentation meant the samples were easy for assessors to go through; the logic of the development was clear and any collections of samples were grouped together, either on one sheet or on a series of sheets.

Read More
Textiles: organising your work for assessment thumb

Textiles: organising your work for assessment

Thinking about assessment and sending work to the OCA head office is an anxious time for students. You have worked so hard over a long period of time, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and taking knock backs from your tutor. So it can feel very much like crunch time when you are thinking about […]

Read More
Reflection and the edit: Part 2 thumb

Reflection and the edit: Part 2

You may be familiar with the idea of writing a first draft of an essay, and then editing it down to get to the final version? In my view, to edit a body of work is something that needs to be done continuously and not done just at the end, through reflecting on what ideas/techniques are working and what isn’t and making the decision to either take them forwards or ‘edit’ them out and leave them behind. Editing your work ensures that ideas are always pushed forwards and projects aren’t left to become stagnant and uninspire.

Read More
Reflection and the edit: Part 1 thumb

Reflection and the edit: Part 1

Reflecting on your work underpins your entire practice; it is essential to be able to look objectively at your work and really review things such as- why you have done something, how does it work, is it a success or does it require more development/thought, how would it be improved, and the specifics of why it has worked/not worked.

Read More