Announcing our new Study Groups

Online schools such as ours offer the immense convenience of being able to study with the top artists in their field from the comfort of your own home…But how does an online school recreate the camaraderie of a brick-and-mortar school, with it’s personal interactions between students?

If you’ve visited our Member Forums in the past day, you may have noticed our solution; The Study Groups forum.  This new forum is meant to help our students get to know each other through peer reviews, friendly critiques, and the occasional “special assignments” or “group activity” given out by it’s moderator, Watts Atelier student and specialty instructor Tom Babbey.

We’ve put together a small FAQ regarding the Study Groups Forum, to help introduce you to their format.  If you have any questions that aren’t covered in the following FAQ, please head on over to the Study Groups forum themselves, and ask in the FAQ post, found here.

We look forward to watching everyone grow through this exciting collaborative learning opportunity.  This forum is a tool for you, the student, to utilize in order to increase your rate of learning and get to know the other students on a more personal level.  Share not only your artwork and your feedback, but also your personal stories of struggles and triumphs that you’ve encountered throughout your learning.  Your advice, your journey, and your hardships are not unique to you, and as a community, we can help each other grow, learn, and embrace the creative process of becoming a visual artist.

Enjoy the FAQ, and we’ll see you around the Study Groups!

Q: What are the Study Groups?

A: The Study Groups are focused discussions, created with the intent of building student camaraderie and collaborative learning. In short, this is the place to post when you’d like to study with other students from the online school and get a bit of help from your peers.

Q: How are the Study Groups organized?

A: The Study Group Forum is broken into several topics (threads). Each thread covers a specific phase from our online school. Think of each of these topics as a specific study group for that particular phase. If you’re concentrating your learning on a specific phase, or struggling with one phase in particular, look for that phase’s topic in our forum, and say hello in it to get a bit of peer help.

Q: What should I post in a Phase’s thread?

A: Post your work from that phase, of course! The purpose of the study groups is to show your work, ask for help from students, and give help in return. Post what you’re currently working on in the appropriate thread, and let your peers know what you’re struggling with; chances are, someone has struggled with the same concept, and has found a way of understanding it that might work for you, too. Of course, if you see someone having a problem with a concept that *you* once had an issue with but now understand, share your knowledge and give your feedback; That’s what the study groups are all about.

Q: Can I be active in several Study Group Phase threads at the same time?

A: You can, yes, but remember not to spread yourself to thinly or to ”jump ahead” of where you are in our online program. Our online programs are structured in a progressive fashion; Each phase builds upon the concepts learned in the previous phase. Be sure to focus your study group efforts on the phase you are currently in, so you can work on progressing and advancing your skills. You are encouraged to visit the threads of phases you’ve completed, however, to glean more insight into them and to share what lessons you’ve learned.

Q: Will Instructors from Watts be participating in the study group feedback?

A: While one of our full time instructors or Jeff may pop in from time to time to give encouragement and comment, they will not be actively participating in feedback within the threads (if you are interested in direct, focused feedback from an instructor, please consider upgrading to one of our mentorship programs). Watts Atelier Support member Tom Babbey will be helping to moderate the study groups, however. Tom has been a student of the Watts Atelier for several years, as well as a specialty instructor for us. He will help guide discussions and occasionally provide feedback for the study groups.