Ellie's PG Cert Blog

Online Garment Lecture delivered to Year 1 BA FDT Womenswear students.

• Timed session plan and/or slide deck:

• Key decisions in your planning:

I found the planning and decision making process quite difficult (see Reflective Blog Post 3!), but I am glad I was able to come through the other end and focus more on the emotional read rather so much on the forensic approach.

I am very glad I asked people to bring garments to the session, this was a integral part of how I wanted to run the session. It needed real, physical objects that people could touch.

This was quite low stakes, as if the participants forgot, they are all wearing clothes so could have used something they were wearing on the day.

• Brief description of what happened:

Participants were introduced to the idea of garment research through the question, ‘How do we interact with our clothes?’.

The sessions focused on a three-part framework, with an activity corresponding to each step:

1. Observe – 2 mins, very quick and reactive, put comments in chat.
2. Reflect – 5 mins (although this took more like 8 mins), group discussion lead by tutor.
3. Interpret – 5 mins, plenary of learning and thoughts, ‘How do YOU interact with your clothes?’.

Session was based on my personal practice of garment research and supported by The Dress Detective (Mida, I and Kim, A. 2015) and Craft of Use (Fletcher, K. 2016).

• A brief summary of the feedback you received:

Feedback was very positive. It spanned praise on clarity of structure, tasks and visual layout, as well as a positive reaction to engaging with a real object.

It also focused on my ability to create a safe and open space for discussions. Somewhere participants felt able to engage and also develop their ‘reflective voice’.

(See below for quotes from the session transcript. These are mainly for my own reference, but also support the summary in more detail.)

• Your reflections about the microteach, and what you learned:

Historically I am a very concrete outcome kind of person, but in the end I really enjoyed the fact this session was a bit freer and more ambiguous. It was a struggle to get past this in the planning, but having delivered the session I definitely want to bring this into my teaching more – less concrete outcomes and more emotional connection – especially in the very early sessions I have with Year 1.

I am planning to embed these activities within a longer ‘Garment Research’ session. The fact there are no stakes in the activity is something to embrace, and having a longer session will only allow more time for group discussions and reflections of shared experience. I would also like to add some sort of drawing activity, so there is an added observational element, one that does not involve language. This will allow student who are less confident speaking to participate in a different way.

I was surprised at the response to my ‘openness’.  I know I can plan a session and put together a clear and visually pleasing presentation, but this was something I wasn’t expecting so much feedback on.  I do admit that this maybe comes quite naturally and I don’t necessarily think about what I am doing, but maybe this is something I need to dig into a bit more. Especially as Unit lead on a course where at least two other people are teaching lessons I have planned. How do I ensure the same level of openness is afforded to all students? Is this in the planning and structure? Or the delivery? Or most likely a combination of both.

Disability Service – getting an ISA

Part 1: This was something I knew I needed to do from the start.  I know that I am dyslexic and I was very apprehensive about the writing and reading needed for doing the PG Cert. I know that I am capable of doing it, but it takes me much longer and balancing that with my teaching workload was definitely something I wanted to get ahead of.

Cut to when I am writing this – I have just missed my first appointment because I was doing tutorials as my students had in on Monday.

At first I was being hard on myself, but then I sat back and reflected that I should give myself the grace I would give my neurodiverse students. It is making me think about my place as a neurodiverse staff member and how that effects my day to day. I am curious to see this process from the other side and will report back once I have had my appointment – could this be something that can also be applied to help staff too?

Update: I am now on my fourth appointment booking: 1 – missed, 2 – moved to accommodate Peer Review of Teaching, 3 – cancelled by Disability Advisor, 4 – hopefully 4th time lucky as this is now happening less than a week before the submission deadline.

This truly is a glimpse into what it is like to be a neurodiverse student trying to access help. I can see why students don’t mange to set things up and how easy it is just to give up.

If I was not older and did not have a lifetime of working through systems that seem set up to make you fail, I honestly may have given up myself. This reminded me that the only reason I was able to access a dyslexia diagnosis was because I did an MA. I was on the waiting lists all through my BA (at UAL) but never got to the top. It was only when I came back to UAL for my MA that I got a call asking if I was still interested in having an assessment.

Since the days of my being a student we have moved into the social model of disability, one that lets people advocate for their own experience and that does not have to rely on these assessments any more. However I am still waiting around, struggling to access the help I need.

Part 2: I finally had my ISA appointment. It was good, but not what I was expecting – I think I had built up in my head that it would this transformational experience that would give me a deep insight into the student experience. The reality was that it was super chill and helpful.

Things have moved on since 2014 when I last accessed any form of support at UAL (back when I was a student). Lots of the adjustments I knew about because of working with current undergrad students, but the assistive technologies have come on a long way. I have tried to use these before but with little success, but am now realising the barrier of having to use another programme was maybe the reason. ‘Immersive Reader’ built into Word 365 is something I can already see myself using.

Form this experience I think the main take away is that the support is there, but accessing it is still a very large barrier. This is supported by what I was writing about in Case Study 1; the biggest issue for most students is not what support is available, but the urgency and reactiveness of getting that support in place.

[I have left the Academic Support section for my own reference and reflection, but this it is over the wordcount so please feel free to stop here!]

Academic Support – how do I do the referencing?!?

Part 1: I desperately need help with the referencing.  I did not think I would struggle with this so much and I know everyone keeps telling me there are tools online to help me, but I still don’t get it.

On my path of discovering what it is like on the student end of the support system, I am going to go to academic support. This has been quite nice as I am allowing myself to just write and record references as best I can, with the intention that I will fix them with help later!

Again, I will report back for part 2 once I have seen them.

Update: As we are close to the end of the unit I tried to access this online – it was actually super confusing and clunky to use. The website kept directing me in circles and there were not 1:1 tutorials I can access. When I looked it was 3 weeks until the deadline and the only session available is on the Thursday before the deadline, and is a drop-in.

Again, this feels like something that I am only able to navigate as I know what help should be available and have had many years of experience trying to work through these kinds of obtuse systems. I wonder if there was a dedicated space on site, like with the SU and Student Services, accessing help would be easier? If there was somewhere you could go in person to help you navigate the complexities of the booking systems and to highlight was help is actually available.

I am planning to try and attend the drop in session, so will report back on my experience of that if and when I manage to access help.

Part 2: I ultimately decided not to go to the drop-in session. I had a tutorial and Rachel was able to give me some examples of citations to copy – this was essentially what I had been trying to access via Academic Support.

Like with the ISA, it is the systems of access that are the barrier. In this case, my needs were not severe, but this would be much worse if I needed help with more than just referencing. I am not sure what the solution is to either of these instances, but I keep coming up against these barriers so there is clearly a need for improve the systems of access.

I thought doing the microteach would be easy. I am very familiar with object base learning  – I already use it a lot in my personal practice and also within my teaching practice. But I have been slightly blind sided by how difficult I have been finding it.

I think the crux of the issue is that I can’t work out what the point is.

Not the over arching point of object base research, as I have mentioned I use this all the time, but the point in the context of this session. It is a standalone session, with no stakes. It doesn’t feed into anything else and is not supported by any broader context. It is also so short, 20 minutes. 20 MINITES! This is barely enough time to do an activity, let alone include any introduction, discussion or plenary.

I am used to object based research having a clear intent – to extract information to aid design. Whether this is construction, shape or even cultural associations, all these things feed into the end goal of designing a garment. In my teaching, this takes the form of multiple activities within a 3 hour session – and in my own work there is no time limit at all.

The other issue that I am coming back to is online vs in person. Creating a session that has less of a concrete ‘point’ feels easier if it was face to face. I could bring my own objects, and we could simply discuss those. Online it is trickier, you have to rely on the other participants to bring things. I could, I admit, have photographed my objects, and used a similar method to what we did in the lecture. But in my heart I know I want this session to include objects that are real and physical.

Material objects matter because they are complex, symbolic bundles of social, cultural, and individual meanings, fused into something we can TOUCH, see and own.

Anne Smart Martin

(The Dress Detective. Mida and Kim, 2015.)

I keep coming back to this quote and am realising that touch is such a key thing for me when using objects. Therefore, I think I am tied into using things people bring. However this still doesn’t get me any closer to the ‘point’.

I have spoken to friends and colleagues and still can’t get a handle on what it is.  I was hoping this post would act as some cathartic release and I would suddenly have some clarity, but I am not sure that is coming.

I think the main takeaway is that I need to focus on this idea of touch, and therefore maybe a more emotional read. Get away from the forensic, quantifiable and familiar way I approach this topic.

Resources:

MIDA, I and KIM, A (2015). The Dress Detective: A Practical Guide to Object Based Research in Fashion. Publisher: London, England : Bloomsbury.

(my usual go to and a more forensic approach to reading an object).

FLETCHER, K (2016). Craft of Use: Post-growth Fashion. Publisher: London : Routledge.

(a new book suggested by a colleague that is more about our emotional connection/interpretations of clothes).

This was one of the biggest revelations for me, and something that I keep coming back to. I find myself thinking about it from time to time, I mention it to colleagues and friends – I think subconsciously I am trying to gain evidence of a shared reaction – that university education should not be a commodity to be bought and sold and that students should not be thought of as customers.

I, like many people, have worked various service jobs in my time.  I was freelance for many years and supported myself along side that with a wide array of jobs. Stepping into ‘academia’ I thought I was getting away from customer service, but it turns out I have traded selling clothes for selling how to design and make them.

In 2014 the Consumer and Markets Authority (CMA) started a consultation with universities and other HE related bodies as to whether they were compliant with consumer protection law. The UCAS document (2015) ‘CMA Adviser Info: Consumer Protection Law and High Education’ describes the outcome very succinctly…

“The CMA considers that if universities or colleges are acting for purposes relating to their trade, business, or profession when providing educational services, they will be a ‘trader’ or ‘seller or supplier’ under consumer protection legislation. Prospective and undergraduate students will mostly be acting for purposes outside their trade, business, or profession, and therefore will be ‘consumers’ under the legislation. It follows that consumer law will generally apply to the relationship between universities and colleges and prospective and current undergraduate students.”

Sections 1.18 of the CMA Consumer Law Compliance Review (2016) outlines the consequences even further:

“In addition to the possibility of action by the CMA or other enforcement or HE regulatory bodies, students can also choose to take private actions and seek redress under consumer protection.”

This idea that students can take ‘private actions and seek redress’ if they deem their university experience not up to standard is quite dystopian to me.

What has been troubling me most is that I know that most people dealing with students’ day to day don’t view the relationship of tutor and student as one of ‘consumer’ and ‘seller’. But it does often feel like this is the view of the wider governing bodies at UAL.

When reading a recent post on Canvas from Professor Karen Stanton about the new “strategy refresh” (UAL, 2025) she describes UAL as “not structured like most universities; we have a distinct set of histories, cultures and strong brands.”

Brand

noun

noun: brand; plural noun: brands

1. 1. a type of product manufactured by a particular company under a particular name.

I know there are certain financial pressure with running such a large institution, but I do find this wholesale acceptance of commerciality unsettling.  Surely there must be a middle ground where we aren’t turning education into a product that is bought and sold?

References:

UAL (2025). Vice-Chancellor update: strategy refresh and Executive Board portfolios. Available at: Vice-Chancellor update: strategy refresh and Executive Board portfolios | 11 June 2025, By Karen Stanton Vice-Chancellor, Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:30. (Accessed 28th January 2026).

UCAS (2015). CMA Adviser Info: Consumer Protection Law and Higher Education. Available at: https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/cma-adviser-info.pdf. (Accessed 28th January 2026).

Competitions & Markets Authority (2016). Consumer Law Compliance Review: Higher Education Undergraduate Sector Findings Report. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5791e595e5274a0da300019f/compliance-review-findings-higher-education-undergraduate-sector.pdf. (Accessed 28th January 2026).

[Further reading that informed my thought process but was not directly quoted.]

Browne (2010). Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher
Education: An Independent Review of Higher Education Funding & Student Finance. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7f289540f0b62305b856fc/bis-10-1208-securing-sustainable-higher-education-browne-report.pdf. (Accessed 28th January 2026).

I have been apprehensive about starting the PG Cert for several reasons; balancing workload, having not written anything since my undergraduate degree (my MA was one of very few that specifically had no dissertation requirement) and also choosing to be in the online group. This decision was one born from the necessity of my previously stated workload balance, but this is quite a rogue choice for me.

Historically I am an IN PERSON kind of person.  I have a physical diary that I cannot function without, I prefer to meet face to face, and I really dislike online teaching.  This is partly because of the type of sessions that are taught online in my role – I teach 3D realisation and development so by nature this must exist in the physical realm.  Therefore, the majority of my online teaching experience has been large lectures of 150+ students. During the first PG Cert Workshop I was struck by how the choice to do the PG Cert online may provide its own learning and insights in addition to what I am actually learning as part of the course. Observing how the tutors allow moments of pausing to allow for questions to be asked and for information to be digested is just one thing I have already observed that I will be taking into my own teaching practice going forward.

Based on the tension of how I was feeling about online learning, I chose to read the ‘Embracing the silence: introverted learning and the online classroom’ by Katherine Harris (2022) as the pre-task for workshop. Harris argues that pressure to actively participate may be counter-productive and that online teaching environments can help us challenge the established notions of active and passive learning. She writes ‘might those periods of apparent “inactivity” actually be when a learner is at their most intellectually active?’ and supports this theory with quotes from several other sources:

Fox-Eades (2015) points out that: “Silence, a quietening of mind and body, helps us to flourish, to think clearly and creatively”.

Alerby and Elídóttir (2003, p.46, cited in Fox-Eades, 2015): “It is in the silent reflection that our thoughts take shape and make the experience into learning”.

Wesley (2013) writes of students who “are quiet because they are inclined toward silence; sanctioning silence in the classroom can relieve their anxiety”.

Her ‘underlying question is: could the digital classroom be an opportunity to accommodate those who have a more introverted learning preference – and even to embrace their silence?’ (Harris, 2022).

I am still puzzling out my final thoughts on this. On the one hand I agree that giving space to reflect and formulate thought is important (I have literally written above that this is something I noticed in today’s session). However, on the other hand, I think this is a balance and we should be challenging students to move outside their comfort zones. Not in a way that causes stress and anxiety, but in ways that will lead to new experiences and hopefully discovering things they did not know they could do. I definitely have my own biases from my previous experience teaching in online spaces so hope that being on the side of the student will give me some new insight into the online learning and teaching environment.

References:

HARRIS, K (2022). Embracing the silence: introverted learning and the online
classroom. Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal. Vol, 5. Issue, 1.

[Quotes from other sources cited in the above paper:]

Fox Eades, J. (2015) ‘Silence and stillness in the classroom’. Available at:
https://jennyfoxeades.com/2015/02/12/silence-and-stillness-in-the-classroom/

Wesley, C. (2013) ‘Sanctioning silence in the classroom’. Available at:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/sanctioning-silence-in-the-classroom/