Enhancing Student Experience: Two Case Studies for Integrating, Energizing and Challenging Students in Art and Design

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These two case studies were designed to integrate, energize and challenge a new cohort of Masters students studying Glass and Ceramics.

Case study 1 involved a drawing session, including the making of a 10m long collaborative work by ten students. This formed the basis for an intense project that included a workshop on glass printing and glass fabrication. Students were asked to make a sculpture in printed glass based on their drawings. The large scale collaborative drawing offers a range of potential benefits for learners at all levels even for subjects outside of art and design.

Case study 2 followed on from the project above and involved giving the students a novel and asking them to read it and identify some reference or relationship to glass or ceramics. We asked them to write 150 words on this in an on-line discussion in as broad and imaginative a fashion as possible. They were asked to think about: Symbolism, Metaphor, Simile, and Allegory – important terms in the creative arts. This project, which won the University of Sunderland’s ‘Innovation Award’ can also be adapted and extended for a range of subjects and levels.

These projects helped group integration, showed that inspiration can come from other areas, encouraged lateral thinking, helped international students gain an insight into English culture, encouraged writing early in the programme, set a strong pace for developing work and were enjoyable.

This visual presentation and paper will describe the projects in detail, set them in the broader context of current education debates and offer models that others might adapt and develop.

Stream: Creative Arts and Learning

Paper: , , , , , , , Enhancing Student Experience

Prof. Kevin Petrie (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy) is Programme Leader for the Master of Arts courses in Ceramics and Glass at The University of Sunderland. He studied Illustration at the University of Westminster, has an MA in Ceramics and Glass from the Royal College of Art, and a PhD in Ceramics and Printing, from the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England, Bristol. He is author of a book Glass and Print and has shown his drawings, prints, ceramics and glass in the UK and abroad. Kevin has also played a key role in the development of PhDs in Glass and Ceramics at Sunderland, which has world leading facilities in the field.