Student Advise (Week 7)

Week seven was a break within the semester for all students to meet with a lecture adviser and have a discussion, to follow up on how they may be handling the work and enjoying the course. This allowed for a time to express any questions we may have or things we would like to learn about being a student within Ulster University.

I thought this was a really great idea to include within our timetabled lesson especially within the first year of finding our feet within university and our course. A lot of components can seem quite overwhelming in the university and would become a lot more simple and easier to manage if we had a talk with a lecture who understood and was willing to help. My student advise appointment was with Yuan who is our lecture on a Wednesday morning for the ‘World of Animation’, I was looking forward to my appointment as though I didn’t really have any questions or immediate worries about the course or about my previous lectures. I was looking forward to getting feedback on my work and whether to not I was doing good and up to date within my studies. Yuan first began in telling me what the student adviser week was about and how the tutors are there to help you in getting help or advise on all aspects of university life. She informed me that if there was anything to do with her class she would have more than enough ability to help me out with any difficulties or concerns I may be having and if it was to do with the other lessons within my animation course or personal aspects about dealing with life in university she would try her best in directing me to wherever would provide me with the best help.

Once we had discussed the general components of what my animation course included and how I am enjoying my time, which so far within the course I genuinely think it is once of the best decisions within my life. Animation, more specifically stop motion animation has always been a passion of mine and something I have always been interested about and looked to for times I am stressed or need a distraction from everyday life. I have been within school my entire life and studied art but would also find the odd lesson tedious or boring or even a chore, but so far within this animation course it has been even a joy to study and learn about all the different aspect of animation. I really enjoy doing all the different tasks and so far the ‘Design a World’ assignment, also learning about the world of animation and how different countries include their own arts within the history. I am genuinely happy to be studying within this course and losing myself with the art.

The questions I was curious to ask Yuan were about the upcoming essay she had given us for our December assignment and I was wondering if the topic I had chosen was acceptable for the type of essay she was looking for us to write up. I had decided upon the topic of stop motion and Yuan thought I would be better and make my essay easier and more concise if I narrowed the topic down to a more specific subject category and I had decided upon claymation. This was really helpful advice as if I hadn’t of asked or got the opportunity I would be leaving myself up to have a difficult time when writing out my essay and would have probably found it difficult to structure my essay accordingly and to successfully complete it. Another question I had asked Yuan was about the third year placement for some students, when I was applying to university I had chosen to not do a placement year within my course. However after learning a little bit more about what could happen during your placement year, how it could benefit your job prospects and helping you gain experience. I was wondering if the opportunity to choose the placement year was still available, she advised me that it might be better the ask the head tutor Alec about this topic, but that within the third year of animation, that more information should be available to me and that I will have a better understanding if it will be the right path for me and my future.

I thought the student advise week was a really helpful idea for me as a student and was a great way to gather any information which I needed, in order to successfully and happily continue my course.