Sculpture courses

Guidelines for submission for formal assessment

Look at OCAs Student Support Guide Assessments and how to get qualified, available to download from, OCAs student website: oca-student.com. This will tell you about the assessment process. Also look out for videos and other tips on assessment that are posted on weareoca.com. Look out for updates on these guidelines on oca-student. com Digital Submissions
Please note that all written work (tutor reports, learning logs and blogs do not have to be printed out, if they are submitted digitally) submitted for assessment MUST be submitted digitally as well as printed out and submitted on paper along with the rest of your submission. Digital work should be submitted to assessment@ oca-uk.com, clearly stating your name, student number, the course name and what the digital work attached is (eg critical review, essay etc) This is a requirement and is to enable OCA to carry out plagiarism checks on work, and a requirement of our validation with the University for the Creative Arts. If you are submitting an entirely digital portfolio on CD or a USB stick, or entirely via a blog, only a sustained piece of writing (such as an essay or critical review) needs to be sent to assessment@oca-uk.com as well as printed out and submitted for assessment in hard copy. If you are submitting work on a USB stick or a CD please ensure you check it thoroughly for viruses before you send it in.

Presentation
Include a clear contents list with your assessment submission. All your work must be clearly labelled, stating which assignment it relates to and with your name and student number on every item you submit. Where there is a clear link between project work and your learning log, or blog, this should be clearly labelled or cross referenced in some way. Make sure you package up your sculptures to send for assessment as robustly as possible. Use bubble wrap, parcel wrap and cardboard to ensure you work is suitably protected. The professionalism of your presentation is important and you will lose marks for poor presentation. Sculptures should be suitably displayed on stands or plinths where appropriate. If the sculpture is an installation or diverges from a traditional form in any way, clear instructions must be included to explain how the sculpture should be displayed so that the examiners view it correctly. Students may consult with their tutor if they feel unsure about what to include in their submission based on their strengths and weaknesses and also for guidance on presentation methods.

There is a maximum weight of 20 kg for all submissions.

Any submission in excess of 20 kg will incur a surcharge for additional postage and admin.

Requirements at each level

Level one course (HE Level 4)
All five assignments of the course including: your preparatory work: comprising sketches, notes, maquettes or models your sketchbooks your learning log or blog url. Important note about Assignment one for level one courses. Although Assignment one is not formally assessed component of the course, the assessors do want to see it, so that they gain a comprehensive view of your development. So, if you are applying for formal assessment, do send assignment one in with all the others.

Level two course (HE Level 5)

All six assignments of the course including: your preparatory work: comprising sketches, notes, maquettes or models your sketchbooks your learning log or blog url a 2,000 word critical review to support your research and development as a sculptor based on a study of a sculptor or movement this should be submitted as a sixth assignment, but you should be working on this along side your other work (send both physical and digital copies).

Level three course (HE Level 6)

All five assignments of the course including: your preparatory work: comprising sketches, notes, maquettes or models your sketchbooks your learning log or blog url a 3,500 word review or essay to support your research and development as a sculptor based on a study of a sculptor or movement (send both physical and digital copies). You must also submit copies of all your tutor report forms. If your tutor has annotated your written work, then you must submit the annotated version of the written work as well as the final version.

Clarification on presentation of work when studying multiple courses

If you are studying more than one OCA course at the same time, you must ensure that your work on the courses you are studying do not overlap in any way. You must keep separate learning logs, demonstrating that the research you do is specifically for each of the courses. It is essential that when you present your work for assessment that it is clear which work relates to which course. There must be a discrete set of work for each course so that the assessors are clear what they are assessing. Students cannot present the same piece of work for marks on two different units. However, if a students is studying two units at the same time and doing general sketchbook work for example, to support both units, this person can submit the sketchbooks for both units as evidence of background research.

About assessment at OCA

The assessment process involves your work being marked by one assessor and then moderated by another assessor. The average amount of time spent reviewing each submission at assessment is 45 minutes, but this may increase at level 3 (HE6). The assessment process is validated by an external examiner who observes the assessment and reviews a sample of the submissions. The resulting marks are provisional. The marks are then confirmed by an exam board convened by the validating university, UCA.