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APRIL 10th is the deadline for your students’ work to be uploaded to IBIS – so at this point I’m hoping that by now everything has been finished and photographed/scanned etc – and either already uploaded to the IB or about to be uploaded.
I uploaded the work for my students a few days ago. It’s the second time I have gone through this process and as usual it all went fairly smoothly, although I did have to contact IB Answers at one point when IBIS wouldn’t let me upload the additional information.
Their response was quick, courteous and helpful and 24 hours later they had repaired the broken link and I was able to finish the uploading process.
The upload process is not without its critics. The visual arts forum on the OCC has posts from many exasperated art teachers either asking questions or expressing their frustrations.
Even if the upload works faultlessly it can be a lengthy process, especially if you have a lot of students. In this context I would say a group of more than 15 could constitute ‘a lot’.
For one thing, if they are all HLA then and there are 16 of them the you will be uploading potentially 288 studio files (16 students with 18 studio photos or videos each) and 864 bits of information relating to the studio files (i.e. title, medium and size – the date seems to no longer be required information).
In addition to that there are the investigation workbook pages (one file per candidate), the candidate statement (300 words max) and the ‘interview’ which is now either a 15 minute video or 1000 word (maximum) statement. I strongly advise that you take advantage of the option to also upload two photographs that provide an overview of the exhibition. Putting my examiner hat on, I find these photographs really useful just to give me a sense of scale, size and space. (Reading the measurements is useful but a visual depiction of the show is a bit more immediate!)
Organization is of course vital: before you even start the upload process you need to have assembled a complete set of folders with everything at hand. Gathering all the digital files needs to be done well before you log on to IBIS – ideally in nice neat folders, one for each student so that each file can be easily located when you are uploading. And as before, the more students you have the more time you need to allow for assembling their files.
Anyway, my experience of the upload process has been fairly positive.
I am, however, concerned that once again it seems to have caused many problems for so many teachers, and will be interested in hearing what the IB technological team have to say about it. There is likely to be a meeting to discuss upload issues at the visual arts Grade Award meeting in June.
Five days to go – good luck!
IB answers
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