Professional Contexts | ARTD3071 | University of Southampton

Module overview

Professional Contexts is an exciting series of industry speaker events and conversations that act as a facilitator to connect you directly to the game Industry. Speakers will provide multiple angles from the current Games industry and discuss how your working practice could connect to the industry.

This module focusses on employability related themes, and will allow you to research key industry practitioners and their ways of working, offering you the opportunity to analyse and define an area of games practice. The Professional Contexts module will develop and encourage you to engage with the requirements and skills around employability within your chosen specialisms in Games Design & Art. The first semester of the final year is a critical juncture for thinking and planning your future career as you are about to undertake your final project on the programme. This module will enhance your ability to position yourself with your chosen field of work and equip you with a strategy for employment.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

select appropriate methods for a professional standard of research.
analyse your current practice for discipline direction and orientation;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

evaluate and apply a variety of academic approaches to contextualise your practice;
employ digital literacies to support your learning.
develop and manage your time effectively to set deadlines;

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

the current job market within games design and related creative industries.
the recruitment process, including specifics of the application process;

Syllabus

This module will run as a series of industry and professional body talks related to employment within the games and creative industries introducing you to a wide range of activities you could undertake after graduation. Talks will also cover basic careers advice and the journeys from graduation to employment. You will be asked to reflect upon these talks in a series of reflective blog posts and consider how you own working practice could be applicable in the field described and reflect upon the processes you wish to undertake to secure employment, freelance activities or stand a business on successful graduation. This reflective process should also help you to consider your work within Project Proposal and Major Project GDA.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

lectures;
seminars.

Learning activities include:

discussion;
blog writing;
independent research and reflection;
industry 1-1 discussions;
Academic Skills Hub;
Careers Service.

Study time
Type	Hours
Lecture	8
Wider reading or practice	45
Completion of assessment task	24
Preparation for scheduled sessions	10
Follow-up work	45
Seminar	16
Total study time	148

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Panopto Recordings (via Blackboard).

Lynda.com (via Blackboard).

Blackboard.

Academic Skills Hub.

Working Papers in Art and Design.

Textbooks

Cottrell, S. (2013). The Study Skills Handbook. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Cottrell, S. (2015). Skills for Success. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Polanyi, M. & Sen, A. (2009). The Tacit Dimension. University of Chicago Press.

Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2017). Research Methods in Education. Routledge.

McNiff, J. & Whitehead, J. (2009). Doing and Writing Action Research. SAGE.

Schön, D.A. (2017). The Reflective Practitioner. Routledge.

Gray, C. & Malins, J. (2016). Visualizing Research. Routledge.

McNiff, J. (2016). You and Your Action Research Project. Routledge.

Assessment

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Blog Post In-class activities

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Blog Post	100%

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Blog Post	100%

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Blog Post	100%

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External