Today was the first tutorial for the course.

The goals of the four hours were to:

  • Meet out tutor and fellow students.
  • Understand the course structure
  • Review some of the basic ideas around design
  • Undertake some activities related to the above
  • Get an overview of our next assignment.

I have not been to an OU day school as a student for a long, long time. I think it was around 2001.

A few things that stood out for me were:

The introduction exercise: in pairs and in turns, draw your peer as they talk about themselves and background THEN create a visual that shows their name, where they live and what they do. Overall this was really tricky. The conversation led on to some good discussions around drawing and ensuring key features pop out.

Good & bad design – we were tasked to list 5 good and bad designs. This created a great discussion around facets of design.

Westminster college photos – we were tasked to take two photographs from around the campus, that could be used for marketing purposes. The activity brought up some great learning points around using photography to show design and we spent a while on feedback and critique.

Finally we got a great overview of the requirements for our first assignment which is due in a few weeks time.

My quick sketchnotes from the session:

Tony & Elouise, the Associate Lecturers (tutors) ran a great session.