Art 475 Independent Study

Tentative Semester Outline

Tentative Semester Outline: You propose it  

What will I do during the semester?

Thats one of the first things that you (yes, you) have to propose.

You describe to me what you'd like to accomplish and how you'll go about it.
Then I'll give you feedback until you describe a semester that we can both agree to.
Until we have that a plan, we don't have a course.

 

Questions that your semester plan needs to answer:
— A — What do you want to understand better? What do you actually want more experience with? What do you want to learn about?
— B — What do I want in my portfolio at the end of the semester that is not there now?
— C — How might you go about preparing yourself to learn that? What might you have to learn first before you can learn what you really want to learn? What skill might you need to develop before you can tackle the skills you really want to have? What are the steps between here and there?
— D — What resources might you use to learn what's needed? (books, articles, web sites, tutorials, professionals)
— E — What kinds of projects will you do? What projects will give you experience with the skills/knowledge that you want to have?
— F — When will each stage of the semester be completed. (project deadlines and partial deadlines, milestones)

Until you've described these things and related them to a semester schedule/outline, we don't have a plan — just some lovely vague ideas.

 

A Typical Independent Study Semester Outline
Below is a rough outline of how an Independent Study semester might go. You might consider it a first draft of your plan. Feel free to adjust it liberally. But also be prepared to explain your rationale — why is it best to do this Independent Study in the way you propose?
(note that most of these items, below, are linked to more detailed project descriptions that might be helpful.)

— A — Portfolio of works completed prior to this course. (Your job is to demonstrate your existing skills in the medium that you are studying.
— B — Portfolio of professional works that you admire or respect. 
— C — Critique of professional works. (see notes)
— D — Discussion of Influences (may be part of the crit, above.)
— E — Tentative description of goals, topics, techniques to explore during this course.
NOTE: all of the above needs to be completed by the end of the 2nd week. This is our planning, goal-setting, mission-statement stage.

Make a Semester Plan — Schedule your project deadlines
— Tentative outline of preparatory projects, completed projects, presentations/exhibitions and papers to be completed in the course.   Include deadlines describing when works are to be completed.

Present your proposed Semester Outline to your professor for discussion, review and revisions.
Keep revising until you've got a plan we both agree to.

 

What is an Indep. Study course? | Who can take 475? | How do I sign up? | Sample assignments | Outline of a semester | SEMESTER PLAN TEMPLATE