Reflective_Essay_Aa100

AA100 The Arts Past and Present Assignment 07: Critical review The Arts Past and Present module, although a mandatory course for humanities degrees, covered a wide range of topics and helped me to acquire a broader understanding of a wide variety of subjects, thus giving me the opportunity to learn about unfamiliar and sometimes unusual areas of the Arts and History. With the requirement that assignments are to be completed every four weeks, in conjunction with engaging in independent study, I began to evolve as a learner and develop valuable skills. Due to the course consisting of distance learning, it was necessary that I self-motivated in order to complete the assignments on time. It was difficult for me to have the incentive to begin my first assignment, due to my anxiety of the unfamiliar and the fact that I had only ever completed learning in classrooms, with face to face interactions with both tutors and learners. I was unable to attend tutorials owing to episodes of disability due to my ill health and was apprehensive about completing the work with little contact with my tutor. However, after I started and finished my first assignment, I felt more confident in my ability to complete such work. I also advanced my organisational skills; managing my time effectively in order to allow myself enough to complete assignments before the deadline. The structure of the course was easy to follow with a diverse and manageable workload; with one week learning philosophy and the next classical music for example. In addition, I found that the TMA questions and guidance notes were well structured and comprehensible. On occasion, I did have difficulty with some aspects of my assignments, but was able to easily find help through the AA100 online forums and knew that I could email my tutor with any issues. However, I feel that my approach to study could be improved by visiting the online forums more. I appreciate that other AA100 learners may be as apprehensive as I at the start of a new assignment and that conversation with ‘like-minded’ people may have helped me feel less isolated as a learner unable to attend tutorials Although I have found the assignments interesting and appreciate that it was necessary to work within the perimeters of the set texts for tutor analysis and to improve the learners skills of analysis, I did feel restricted, in that there was never a full opportunity to expand away from these. In addition, the essays started short and become progressively longer, causing me to become anxious, based on the view, that although the course material remained within its limitations, there was still more information to find to complete an assignment. Nevertheless, a strength I have gained as a learner is reflecting on the feedback from my tutor. I have been able to use the information she has given me to improve my abilities. It has been imperative that I have not taken her criticisms personally and instead used them to my advantage in order to improve future work. My tutor stated on my first assignment that “a few of the points you make are not relevant to the question… and your phrasing could sometimes be more academic in style.” I now try to ensure that any points I make are significant and evidenced, which has helped me to advance my overall work. However, I recognise that there are still aspects that I need to improve, such as my writing skills. I am aware that I do not always use academic language in my written work but am confident that this will progress through completing more assignments and reflecting on feedback The course covers a number of diverse disciplines and I am surprised that I have now changed my mind regarding which aspects of humanities I would like to complete. I had originally started the course with the aim of completing a broad spectrum humanities degree, but found that literature, the Reformation, Pugin and Religion - namely the impact that religion has on architecture - was extremely interesting but I was less engrossed in the Benin Bronzes or Shostakovich music and other aspects regarding Art. As a result, I have identified that I would like to further study humanities, with either a specialism in literature or religious studies Over all, the course has equipped me with a tremendous amount of knowledge of different subjects from literature, philosophy, painting, history, and religion and art history. I have learnt a lot about my interests and skills whilst participating on the course in addition to what I need to improve on in order to increase my marks. I would recommend this course to anyone who is hoping to develop their personal and professional identity and gain an insight into the Arts Past and Present. References Hutchins, A,J (2012a) AA100 Assignment 01, unpublished work. || || || || || ||