Suspect Device Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 On 18/08/2022 at 22:51, mathematics said: Give it time, it’s a busy period for feckless admissions staff. The feckless admissions staff finally got their finger out. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 1 hour ago, Suspect Device said: The feckless admissions staff finally got their finger out. Congratulations! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coprolite Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 1 hour ago, Suspect Device said: The feckless admissions staff finally got their finger out. That must be 12 hours attendance a week, max. Well Jell 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 We're doing our induction/welcome/freshers week starting September 5th. Have taken the decision that absolutely none of it will be online. All of it will be in person. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coprolite Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 6 minutes ago, oaksoft said: There are ways around that to spot a cheat. Firstly, there are a few obvious websites that students use to cheat in this way. Personally, I'd be sitting on them watching new questions coming in to see if there was a serious problem. The next thing could be to introduce fewer lectures and more project and tutorial type classes where students work in the class itself and submit work at the end of the hour. Then you can add in regular mini-vivas where the student is grilled on their understanding of a topic. That's useful for catching out people cheating on their lab reports for example. IMO universities need to get away from this idea of 50+ minutes lecturing and onto more progressive active learning programmes. Right now, university learning is simply too passive from the student's perspective and has been for generations. TBH, I'm not sure I would even have formal structured exams. There really are very few places in the real world of work where that would be a thing. As someone who did quite well out of minimal coursework and lots of last minute cramming, this sounds shite. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suspect Device Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 22 minutes ago, coprolite said: That must be 12 hours attendance a week, max. Well Jell Aye, seems pretty light in terms of lectures but not got the timetable yet. St. Machar for a beer, Bobbin for food. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacksgranda Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 19 year old granddaughter is off to Wales on 26th August, but can't get into her Halls of Residence until 1st September. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanius Mullarkey Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 41 minutes ago, scottsdad said: We're doing our induction/welcome/freshers week starting September 5th. Have taken the decision that absolutely none of it will be online. All of it will be in person. Pretty early start. That must be eating into the Profs holidays. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 3 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkay said: Pretty early start. That must be eating into the Profs holidays. He doesn't do the induction stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathematics Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 33 minutes ago, oaksoft said: There are ways around that to spot a cheat. Firstly, there are a few obvious websites that students use to cheat in this way. Personally, I'd be sitting on them watching new questions coming in to see if there was a serious problem. The next thing could be to introduce fewer lectures and more project and tutorial type classes where students work in the class itself and submit work at the end of the hour. Then you can add in regular mini-vivas where the student is grilled on their understanding of a topic. That's useful for catching out people cheating on their lab reports for example. IMO universities need to get away from this idea of 50+ minutes lecturing and onto more progressive active learning programmes. Right now, university learning is simply too passive from the student's perspective and has been for generations. TBH, I'm not sure I would even have formal structured exams. There really are very few places in the real world of work where that would be a thing. All sensible suggestions, with caveats: 1. watching websites: some academics do this. However, there are loads (with more appearing each year), with possibly thousands of uploads per day (these are international websites), and some staff just don’t have the time, or the conscientiousness. 2. Lectures are dying off (for better or worse) and most face to face sessions are now interactive all singing all dancing amazing learning experiences. Staff don’t have the time allocation for marking all that formative or summative assessment. Mini-vivas for all would be perfect, but again staff just don’t have the time. 3. Formal structured exams also dying off (for better or worse) at some institutions. This is leading to the massive increase in cheating. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathematics Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 (edited) 25 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said: 19 year old granddaughter is off to Wales on 26th August, but can't get into her Halls of Residence until 1st September. Where abouts? ETA, I’m not being a creep, just spent a few years working in Wales. Edited August 22, 2022 by mathematics 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathematics Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 34 minutes ago, coprolite said: As someone who did quite well out of minimal coursework and lots of last minute cramming, this sounds shite. Definitely fits the arty types better than science and engineering types. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacksgranda Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 1 minute ago, mathematics said: Where abouts? ETA, I’m not being a creep, just spent a few years working in Wales. Aberystwyth, I think. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 19 minutes ago, mathematics said: All sensible suggestions, with caveats: 1. watching websites: some academics do this. However, there are loads (with more appearing each year), with possibly thousands of uploads per day (these are international websites), and some staff just don’t have the time, or the conscientiousness. 2. Lectures are dying off (for better or worse) and most face to face sessions are now interactive all singing all dancing amazing learning experiences. Staff don’t have the time allocation for marking all that formative or summative assessment. Mini-vivas for all would be perfect, but again staff just don’t have the time. 3. Formal structured exams also dying off (for better or worse) at some institutions. This is leading to the massive increase in cheating. I am making a new course for this year and am keeping the "flipped classroom". So when students show up to my class, they are not sitting down to get a lecture. I've recorded that as a video and they can watch that at home. No, in class it is all about the tutorial; interactive learning, tasks, Q&A, etc. I think this is better. If it isn't I'll revert to the traditional in a year or two. We are going back to invigilated exams. For the past 2 years, for too many students what we have learned is their fast googling and paraphrasing skills rather than if they have met the learning outcomes for a course. Our university discipline committee used to meet 4 times per year. It is meeting weekly now, the number of cases has exploded so much. That was my morning. You can (like @oaksoft) question the value of a traditional exam. But it does interrogate if the student has learned and understood what has been taught. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottsdad Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Got a couple of Open Days booked to take Scott to next month. Dundee and Napier. Edinburgh College of Art is online only. Will probably add one or two more in October also. Any Dundee, ECA or Napier students/graduates with any insight? Good places or not so good to be a student? My niece loved being at Dundee. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Connolly Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 6 minutes ago, scottsdad said: Got a couple of Open Days booked to take Scott to next month. Dundee and Napier. Edinburgh College of Art is online only. Will probably add one or two more in October also. Any Dundee, ECA or Napier students/graduates with any insight? Good places or not so good to be a student? My niece loved being at Dundee. @Shandon Par 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanius Mullarkey Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 1 hour ago, scottsdad said: Got a couple of Open Days booked to take Scott to next month. Dundee and Napier. Edinburgh College of Art is online only. Will probably add one or two more in October also. Any Dundee, ECA or Napier students/graduates with any insight? Good places or not so good to be a student? My niece loved being at Dundee. DM me re Dundee. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergeant Wilson Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 2 hours ago, scottsdad said: He doesn't do the induction stuff. Quelle suprise! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathematics Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 1 hour ago, oaksoft said: Oh my idea of what needs to change isn't without it's potential pitfalls. I wouldn't disagree with that. The staffing problem can be partly resolved by breaking the traditional link between research and teaching. Those are two entirely different jobs and need full time people in each IMO. Obviously teaching staff need to keep abreast of research developments but those roles need to be de-coupled. I am aware that some universities having teaching fellows to try and help with this and that's a positive thing. The staffing problem can be solved by hiring more staff and recognising that academics often work substantially more hours than that stipulated in their contracts just out of sheer consciousness/stupidity (delete as appropriate). Agree that teaching-only contracts can work, if managed appropriately. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathematics Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 3 hours ago, Jacksgranda said: Aberystwyth, I think. A good school. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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