Four Famous Artworks- a creative discussion

Jay Rixon is a Senior Manager in Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation and responsible for the MA or MSc Open qualification. In this post, Jay reflects on a staff-student online drop-in session titled ‘Four Famous Artworks – a creative discussion’ session held on Tuesday 16th June 2020. 

 

Image of four famous artworks

In our student and staff Open Programme drop-in sessions we have covered many a key topic such as music, books, films, TV, travel, pastimes/hobbies and food among other themes, and for this week’s session our spotlight landed on the world of art.

We chose to spend our Adobe Connect session focusing on four famous artworks: exploring the paintings, the artists who created them, and delving into the back story behind each piece.

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Lockdown Likes: Creative Initiatives we have enjoyed

Jay Rixon is a Senior Manager in Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation and responsible for the MA or MSc Open qualification. In this post, Jay reflects on a staff-student online drop-in session titled ‘Lockdown Likes’ which was held on Tuesday 2nd June 2020. 

This period of lockdown has been punctuated with welcome initiatives that have been local, national and international. For this student and staff Open Programme drop-in session, we explored some of these initiatives that have seen a creative use of ideas, collaborative approach, technology, social media and entrepreneurial spirit. For this session we use Adobe Connect, where we can verbally exchange ideas and capture comments in a chat box making full use of this technology to connect in our Open Programme community. We opened the session discussing the different lockdown initiatives we have been exploring.

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Time for an Open Programme quiz? Let’s play Trivial Pursuit

Jay Rixon is a Senior Manager in Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation and responsible for the MA or MSc Open qualification. In this post, Jay reflects on a staff-student online drop-in session titled ‘the Open Programme quiz’ held on Tuesday 12th May 2020. 

During this season of lockdown, quizzes seem to have had a resurgence or suddenly become cool again. I’ve heard of families spending more time together who started getting boardgames out of cupboards, brushing the dust off them and playing the type of games normally only saved for post-Christmas dinner. The rise of the online quiz has also been hugely popular during this current period, with online technology saving the day: clever interactive programmes or apps enabling a community of people who can virtually gather together to play or meeting virtually by using software like Zoom, Facetime or MS Teams. I’ve played games where everyone has written a round of questions or someone has played the role of quiz master for a group of friends or a wider community.

Image of a women looking at a computer screen nervously chewing a pencil

These re-imagined quiz nights seemed like just the right thing for this period. A chance to spend virtual time with friends and family when we could not be together, but to also have a laugh, have a bit of escapist fun and for those who have the tendency to be a little bit competitive – get your game on!

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Top Telly Talk

Jay Rixon is a Senior Manager in Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation and responsible for the MA or MSc Open qualification. In this post, Jay reflects on a student/staff online drop-in session titled ‘Top Telly Talk’ held on Tuesday 5th May 2020. 

 

During this season of lockdown activities that support our well-being have spiked, with people seeking out opportunities to work-out, to escape into a world of books and read, or to find solace in the kitchen while baking and cooking. One pastime that has seen massive uptake is the world of TV and by TV, I mean, ‘telly’, watching live, catch-up, on-demand or streaming.

Since the lockdown began watching live broadcasts has increased by 17% and since March of this year there have been an estimated 4.6m new signups to subscription platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and the new kid on the block Disney+. Apparently In the UK, Netflix is the market leader with 12.4m subscribers and Amazon’s Prime Video ranks second with just over 7 million subscribers.

In this student and staff drop-in session we discussed the question ‘Is TV still a thing?

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What’s Cooking?

Jay Rixon is a Senior Manager in Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation and responsible for the MA or MSc Open qualification. She is a self-confessed food lover, who rather enjoys spending time in the kitchen cooking and baking. In this post, Jay reflects on a student/staff online drop-in session held on Tuesday 28th April 2020. 

In this season of lockdown many people have turned to areas of comfort: music, books, movies/TV have all been much shared and discussed, but the flour, sugar and egg shortages demonstrate that the nation has been cooking and baking again!

In this session we discussed comfort food, what people have been cooking, food no-go’s and how our relationship with food may have changed through this season of lockdown. As a result of this session a collaborative cookbook has been produced, imaginatively titled ‘The Open Programme Cookbook’. (To view or download the cookbook, right click on the link and open in a new tab) 

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Favourite Places: Travel Highlights

Gina Sharp is the Open Programme Co-ordinator in Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation team. In this post, Gina reflects on a staff-student online drop-in session held on Tuesday 21st April 2020. 

Whilst we are currently confined to our homes during the Coronavirus epidemic, the thoughts of places that we have travelled to in the past, or hope to travel to in the future, can be a cheerful thing to meditate on!

This was the latest topic on the table at our Open Programme student/staff drop-in. We began by thinking about the inspiration for travel – why do we go to the places we go to? What is our hope in travelling further afield than our normal sphere?  The discovery of new sights, sounds, smells and experiences seemed to be high on our list.  Finding out about the world we live in; the cultures, dress, food and atmosphere of new places.  The idea of being immersed into new cultures is appealing and helps to broaden our life experiences.

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