Insights from the Virtual Classroom: a Student Panel

[MUSIC PLAYING] - The first four modules are very intense, and you have a really close support in our photography class, from the academic team and from the supervisor, at the end. And I think that's what we're being told, and that's sometimes even the challenge. We're, of course, supposed to work independently in a major course, and the supervisor time is quite restricted.

So you really have to focus on those few minutes you get. It's six meetings within two modules. So you really have to focus on that, and that's sometimes things you really have to get along. And on the other way, Nick and I and others, we would meet in online groups and talk about our experience as well.

The second thing I would like to mention, I'm German. I'm not a native English speaker. What I really experienced very well and enjoyed was the support of the language team. They're really helping me, currently.

We are just one week away from submission of our final major project, and I took the opportunity. So it's getting warmer here, and I took the opportunity just to go through my paper, my text, with the language support team. And they were absolutely fantastic, how they support me.

- For me, I don't come from that creative background. Social science is my background, and so it was a new way of writing and a new way of learning. The network and the support that I had from all of my peers, we set up a WhatsApp group, and it's just been non-stop for two years, and absolutely brilliant. Without that supportive network of peers, I don't think I'd be sat here a week away from handing in an FMP (Final Major Project).

- Nobody will tell you how to use a camera or what aperture, or shutter speed, or ISO is. So that's something you shouldn't be expecting. Of course, if you are with your cohorts, members, with your peers, you might exchange knowledge about that. And sometimes it's about gear and cameras, and it can go wild, but that's more or less in our private WhatsApp groups.

- People's ability to write academically, and because if you are good at writing academically, then you can spend more time on your practical work and vice versa, depending on individual skill set.

- One example where we were doing a piece which was called a socially-driven narrative. So we all found our own individual issues that we were interested in and passionate about exploring and how we could communicate those issues through illustration. So at the time, obviously, I was working in education.

So mine was related to that field. And you're reading around those challenges, and you have a point of view that you want to express. And so that's feeding into what you're presenting practically as well.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

In January, just gone of this year, so I've already-- I was very lucky. I got commissions straight out of literally finish the course and have my first commission, which is working with a chefs and schools program in London. And then just at the end of last week, received my first commission for an illustration for a book. So that's what I'm working on at the moment.

And then I'll show you-- actually, when we look at our work later, I'll show that, during the course, we have a unit on the illustration course. It's called professional practice, which is brilliant, because it really teaches you how to focus yourself as an illustrator. You tend to often be self-employed. So some have agents, many don't, and so it really teaches you about what to think about when you're setting yourself up to be successful-- your website, your branding, all that kind of thing.

I was lucky enough with the work I produced during that module was then picked up by a company in Dubai who then like commissioned it and licensed it for use on their products over there. So yeah, it's already helped me. It's fantastic. Yeah. I can't complain.

[MUSIC PLAYING]