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- Jul 3, 2004
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Some of you may remember my rant about my students a few months ago. Well, I actually got over that and pretty much accepted the fact that that's how students are nowadays. Well, the new semester has started and two out of my three classes offered are way short in the number of students that it take to reach the minimum count.
The one class that is has no problem is a core class, so everyone has to pass it in order to move on. The two that are in trouble are "electives" in which they have options to choose from. One is titled "Design Communication", a brand new class that was added by the department because they saw how much the students need to brush up their communication and presentation skills. The second class focuses on behavior observation and analysis, a class that provides students the environment to learn how to analysis a user/consumer's subconscious values through various observation techniques. Now this is a class that is NOT OFFERED in any university because you usually only get to be exposed to this in much higher level of design profession when you actually get a job in the business. This would be a dream class if I had the chance as a student.
Not only that, for the first class, I managed to have a very good friend, a senior design manager in a mega corporation to host a series of workshops to create learning opportunities for the students, and this is unheard of. For the second class on behavior analysis, I've went out of my ways to convince a kindergarten(also tried with other organizations but none were being positive or helpful) to let us get involved with their kids to create a collaboration in which we teach and guide the kindergarten kids to create their own original stories to be made into a fun stop-motion short film, in exchange for the chance for our students to learn about behavior observation through this interaction.
So this is the first week of our semester here and both classes are short of students. If we don't meet the minimum student count by Monday, the classes are off. Now, I don't care if the classes are off. I've accepted that luck is never on my side and also the fact that bad luck likes me. However I do care for the fact that if I fall below the minimum required teaching hours, it is my department that gets discredited. I am new here and I know how hard everyone in the department works to make it what it is, and even though our department is kinda the rockstar department that brings in loads of competitive points and media coverage, the school won't hesitate to drop the hammer because they see this as a major fault on the department's part, when in fact, it's the students who are just too damn clueless to know what they need.
Why don't the students sign up for these two classes?
It's not because of the content of the class. It has more to do with "oh I don't want to get failed for other classes so I am not going to pick this one up, just in case I can't handle them". This may sound like they are trying to manage risk, but they really aren't. They are just avoiding the reality. Anyways, I don't even know what to feel about this. I feel terrible having to tell my friend and the kindergarten that the classes may be canceled because the students have other priorities. I feel that the seed will be planted in them, of distrust and/or even despise at college students, which means that this gate that I've worked so hard to open will be closed forever. Well, at least I have, and it's buried deep.
The one class that is has no problem is a core class, so everyone has to pass it in order to move on. The two that are in trouble are "electives" in which they have options to choose from. One is titled "Design Communication", a brand new class that was added by the department because they saw how much the students need to brush up their communication and presentation skills. The second class focuses on behavior observation and analysis, a class that provides students the environment to learn how to analysis a user/consumer's subconscious values through various observation techniques. Now this is a class that is NOT OFFERED in any university because you usually only get to be exposed to this in much higher level of design profession when you actually get a job in the business. This would be a dream class if I had the chance as a student.
Not only that, for the first class, I managed to have a very good friend, a senior design manager in a mega corporation to host a series of workshops to create learning opportunities for the students, and this is unheard of. For the second class on behavior analysis, I've went out of my ways to convince a kindergarten(also tried with other organizations but none were being positive or helpful) to let us get involved with their kids to create a collaboration in which we teach and guide the kindergarten kids to create their own original stories to be made into a fun stop-motion short film, in exchange for the chance for our students to learn about behavior observation through this interaction.
So this is the first week of our semester here and both classes are short of students. If we don't meet the minimum student count by Monday, the classes are off. Now, I don't care if the classes are off. I've accepted that luck is never on my side and also the fact that bad luck likes me. However I do care for the fact that if I fall below the minimum required teaching hours, it is my department that gets discredited. I am new here and I know how hard everyone in the department works to make it what it is, and even though our department is kinda the rockstar department that brings in loads of competitive points and media coverage, the school won't hesitate to drop the hammer because they see this as a major fault on the department's part, when in fact, it's the students who are just too damn clueless to know what they need.
Why don't the students sign up for these two classes?
It's not because of the content of the class. It has more to do with "oh I don't want to get failed for other classes so I am not going to pick this one up, just in case I can't handle them". This may sound like they are trying to manage risk, but they really aren't. They are just avoiding the reality. Anyways, I don't even know what to feel about this. I feel terrible having to tell my friend and the kindergarten that the classes may be canceled because the students have other priorities. I feel that the seed will be planted in them, of distrust and/or even despise at college students, which means that this gate that I've worked so hard to open will be closed forever. Well, at least I have, and it's buried deep.