How this unit works 

This guide answers basic questions and show you how to get the most from the resources you’ll be using within this unit.

How sessions work

At University College Falmouth, each unit within a course of study is divided into a number of sessions. Each session covers a specific topic (for eaxample, 'Theme' or 'Dialogue').

For our distance learning course, each session is available to access for three weeks by our distance learning students. It's vital that students are aware of what's expected of them at any given time, so they can integrate study with other commitments. However, with openSpace, these sessions will always be available.  So you are free to arrange your study time to suit your schedule. 

Reading

Some of the sessions provided on openSpace require additional reading.  Some of this reading is suggested reading to expand you knowledge of a subject or provide additional viewpoints.  Some of the supplemental reading is required.  All additional reading is clearly marked as 'Suggested' or 'Required'.  Where possible, free online books and textbooks have been referenced. 

Session notes

These contain general notes to accompany a lecture (when appropriate) and details of the assignment for each session.

Session notes also contain links to any additional resources or background texts that your tutor would like you to read. When you open a link, use the back arrow in the top left corner of your browser to return to the session notes.

Lectures

You'll get most from the lectures if you see them as your chance to 'be in the classroom' whilst working from home. You might not have the chance to ask tutors questions, or discuss points that they raise immediately – but you can still use the lectures as an interactive resource.

• Make notes as you listen.

• If questions emerge from the lecture, take these to the relevant forum for discussion, sharing ideas and responses with your peers in the same way that you might initiate a ‘real time’ discussion in the classroom.

• If certain points need further clarification, keep notes to bring to the fortnightly seminar sessions.

The Forums

Each session of the course has its own Forum.  This is a space where students can easily read and comment on the work that their peers produce over the course of the unit. So, for instance, if you're working in the Scriptwriting 'Dialogue' session, you would post your work to the 'Dialogue' session's Forum. Access to the forums is limited to those who become members of openSpace.  Membership is free.

As you progress thorough the course unit, these sections will become a valuable resource to enable you and your fellow students to see how far your writing has progressed since starting out.

Studying at postgraduate level, it’s essential to develop a strong sense of critical awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of your own and others’ work. As writers, reading and commenting on each other’s work creates invaluable opportunities to help each other progress, to develop your critical skills and find your 'voice'.

It’s often easier to notice basic problems, see how character might be developed or pace improved, in other people’s work than in our own. We often read what we think we have written and fail to spot even simple errors on the page. Bear this in mind when you’re reading your peers’ work – you’ll be surprised how fast you’ll sharpen your editorial eye and how this will help strengthen your own writing skills.

Read the critiquing guidelines carefully – the more time you put into evaluating each other’s work in the anthologies, the more you’ll gain from the process in terms of your own writing.

Posting to the Session Forum

Usually you’ll need to post your assignment as a Microsoft Word document (or a document that can be read by Word). Occasionally you may be asked  to post in some other format. It’s a good idea to give your document an easily comprehensible title that identifies it immediately.

Posting to the session forum is pretty simple:

1) Go to the relevant Forum for a session.

2) Click on 'Post new Forum topic'.

3) Type a name for your posting in the 'Subject' box – typically the subject of the assignment in question.

4) Type any message to accompany your assignment. This doesn’t need to be anything more than 'Here's mine…'.

5) To attach the file containing your assignment, scroll down towards the bottom of the page and click on the 'File Attachment' link. Click the 'Browse' button and find the right file on your computer. Click on your file document and then click the 'Attach' button to attach your file to your Forum post.

6) Click on the 'Save' button at the bottom of the screen to post your assignment to the Forum.

Critiquing another student's work in the forums

In the relevant Forum, click on anlother student’s posting and then double click on their Word file to open it.

When you've read it, go back to the 'message' that accompanied the posting (this should still be open on your computer) and click on 'Reply'. Type your critique in the text box that opens, then click on 'Save'.

As with anything you write online, you may prefer to type your critique in a Word document first and then copy and post it into the Reply box. This will allow you to make use of Word features such as the spell-check, which are generally more effective than the features incorporated into the Learning Space text editor.

Café

This is a space to chat 'live' with your fellow students. Read the netiquette guide carefully to establish clear protocol for using these spaces. Our suggested solution for this is the free service Tokbox. Tokbox is a free video chat and video mail service that allows users to connect with anyone in the world.  This is an online application - so you don't have download any software. You can share content or chat - or even collaborate real-time on documents together, all directly from within the video chat. Everyone sees the same thing at the same time, so you can easily discuss, work and collaborate.

When an especially pertinent or lively discussion takes place, it might be useful to print out the relevant discussion thread. As time goes on, it could become time-consuming to backtrack through the forums to find such threads