Semester Reflection

I must say I was very suprised with the subject. At the beginning of the semester I thought that this was going to be a boring theory based unit that bored the hell out of me but what has unravelled is probably my favourite subject that I have undertaken.

I must commend Mirko on the way he has organised Architecture in the City. His format and way he has delevired the information was exceptional. He definately has the right balance between workload, informative lectures, fun and has set standards for high production of quality work outputs. I like that his lectures were very informative. He was able to get across large amounts of information whilst at the same time keep everyone engaged.

I also like the structure of the tutorial system. I definately like the idea that I was able to upload work on Blackboard and Mirko gave written feedback. I wouldnt of been hesitant if I had a on site tutorial but the fact is I find sometimes tutors feedback can be lost in speech and oral engagement. In my case and the online tutorial I had my feedback written down. This gave me a continual point of reference and Mirko was able to give me a lot more feedback - all of which I had permantley to look at. Weekly I would find myself reading his comments and continually going back to make sure I have done what he has suggested.

I dont believe that the workload for this subject was overwhelming. There definately was a lot to do if you wanted to achieve high grades. I can honestly say I would have spent probably 7 - 8 hours a week dedicated to Arch and the City. I did find it stressful at times but it definately helped that I did little bits every week. It is always pleasing to see the outpout of work I was able to produce. I must also commend other students on there quality of work. I really was impressed by some of the Project 3 submission. Personally I am not artistically gifted and I was envious on some other students ability to produce paintings, books, models etc. They really were impressive.

I have said previously in the blog that I was happy that I did little bits week by week. There definately is an advantage to this. You get more feedback and chances to improve your work. I would always recomend this to other students.

I have found that this subject has also enhanced other skills that have come in handy for the rest of my study. At the beginning of the semester I could barely use photoshop. This is probably reflected in the early modules from week 2, 3, 4. My skills have really developed and I am now comfotably to use photoshop with ease and am impressed with some of the diagrams I can produce. I also really like prezi. I will definately use this for other units in the future if it will be suitabel for the requirements.

The one criticism for the unit would be Assement 1 - this blog. 40% of the grade is dedicated to feedback to our peers. I am not against this cause I beleive it is definately a good way to learn and test your own skills, however, I have found it hard to comment on others work simply because they havent uploaded anything to the discussion board. Therefore I had nothing to comment on. I tried to comment on a weekly basis but it was hard if it was the same person every week. I sort of ran out of stuff to suggest. Particulary if Mirko had already given his feedback.
I would maybe suggest rewarding students who do weekly work by making that a small part of the criteria or having a single discussion board (aswell as the system they are using now) for students to upload so the can comment on people who actually have done stuff.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable subject. I have learnt a lot about the structure and development of cities aswell as a lot of useful theoretical applications.

Thanks Mirko and the Arch and City Team