Graphic Arts Professional and Critical Contexts

Module overview

This module focusses on employability and will allow you to research key industry practitioners, their ways of working and offer the opportunity to analyse and define an area of the creative industry which you feel will become relatable to your future career pathway. It will offer the opportunity to engage with key concepts and skills around employability with your chosen area within your programme. 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 to aim at employment.

Aims and Objectives

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

analyse your current practice for discipline direction and orientation;
select appropriate methods for a professional standard of research;
evaluate and apply a variety of academic approaches to contextualise your practice.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

develop and manage your time effectively to set deadlines;
solve problems independently in a creative and innovative way.

Knowledge and Understanding

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

the current job market of your subject specific industry sector;
the recruitment process, including specifics of the application process.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include: •lectures; •academic study skills sessions; •tutor-led seminars; •tutorials; •visiting lecturers. Learning activities include: •Independent learning, including reflection and evaluation of feedback; •independent research; •online reference material and tutorial notes; •peer group learning; •class discussions; •Study Skills Hub.

Study time
Type	Hours
Completion of assessment task	60
Lecture	14
Follow-up work	16
Preparation for scheduled sessions	10
Wider reading or practice	40
Seminar	3
Tutorial	7
Total study time	150

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Blackboard.

Panopto via Blackboard.

Journal Articles

Working Papers in Art and Design (This journal can be accessed through the TDNet Journals Gateway on the WSA Library Webcat)..

Textbooks

Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead (2009). You and Your Action Research Project. Routledge.

Gray, C, & Malins, J. (2004). Visualizing Research. A Guide To The Research Process In Art And Design. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Michael Polanyi (2009). The Tacit Dimension. Chicago University Press.

Cottrell, S. (2015). Skills For Success: Personal Development And Employability. London: Macmillan Education.

Louis Cohen, Lawrence Manion and Keith Morrison (2007). Research Methods in Education. Routledge.

Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead (2009). Doing and Writing Action Research. Sage Publications Ltd.

Donald A Schon (1991). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (Arena). Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Cottrell, S. (2013). The Study Skills Handbook. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Assessment

Formative

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

Essay

Assessment Type: Formative
Feedback: Feedback on your essay. You will experience formative feedback in different learning situations, for example: •individual tutorials •group seminars
Final Assessment: No
Group Work: No

Summative

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

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	100%

Referral

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

Breakdown
Method	Percentage contribution
Essay	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
Essay	100%