Entries Tagged 'education' ↓

There’s a group on Facebook called “I will kill your parents if you ask me what I’m doing after graduation.” Apparently this  is a group of people who are fairly uncertain about their future and feel uncomfortable when they have to admit it to friends ,  family and strangers.

I’m not one of those people.

I’m perfectly happy telling you that I am not sure what I’m doing. I know that I love to write. I’ve always liked it. It’s about the only thing I knew about myself when I was 18 years old and a frightened college freshman.  Once I got in, it felt like there were more options than credits at my disposal. I wanted to take a PR class, but the journalism powers that be didn’t want any cross-contamination.  To this day I regret not being able to take a basic PR class, where I could have learned a little more about the research side, how to create  a proper press-kit, etc. Still, a journalism degree seemed like a safer bet. I could do journalism– print OR web.. and I could branch out into PR. I also minored in literature so that I could keep up with the academic writing.

A lot of journalism students get uppity when it comes to PR. I suppose they don’t think much of it. As far as I’m concerned, I’m open to doing any kind of writing. If someone wanted a marketing coordinator tomorrow, and I got to dabble in Illustrator, InDesign and write… then hell, that would be THE perfect job.

If someone else said that s/he wanted a technical writer and were willing to train a neophyte, I’d jump at that too.

That’s what I love about this stage in my life. I don’t know what will happen, but I’m enjoying the fact that the options are a million. I don’t know if this sort of uncertainty will be quite as delicious in my thirties. It would probably be much scarier then. But for now it feels like there’s a road stretching out ahead of me.. with endless possibilities.

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I’d write out a good syllabus for general education courses. I’ve thought about this mostly because of all the  whiny people who wanted to know why they should take a general education class on the Middle east when their major is Business something or the other.  Apparently it didn’t strike them that a knowledge of the Middle-east might be useful if they were to work for a multinational company, for example. Nonetheless, they’d whine about the papers and the lectures and the presentations. Is there a way to engage such people?  I think there is.

Every syllabus includes a section wherein the professor describes the course objectives. But I’ve had few professors who have actually TALKED about it. Face it, most students don’t read the whole syllabus. I know I was pretty diligent about it, but I mostly read the section on grading and assignments. I didn’t exactly memorize the course objectives. So, although a good syllabus includes the course objectives, a good professor would discuss them, not merely tell students to read about it on the syllabus.

When designing a syllabus for a gen ed class, the purpose shouldn’t merely be to help students develope a basic understanding of that subject. For example, a professor could say  “I know most of you aren’t history majors and won’t be spending the rest of your life excavating ruins in Ancient Egypt. But I think this course will benefit you, because it will  help you become a better writer and speaker. This is something you can use regardless of what field you intend to pursue.” Boom. Thusly, the kids who actually care about ancient Egypt (uh, I would be one such geek) will geek out. The rest of the kids will at least feel as if they have something to gain.

The course should be almost evenly divided between memorization, written essays and speaking. This enables students to develop different but complementary skills.

Here’s how I’d break down the course:

Two presentations: 10 and 15 percent precise, lengthy directions. I say this because most professors seem to just wave us away and then accept mediocre presentations. I think presentation skills are among the most useful things you can learn in college, especially in classes that aren’t really in your area of interest/ speciality/ major. Specific requirements for a presentation could include reducing someone’s grade if s/he merely reads off the powerpoint slides, for example.

Two papers– 15 and 15 percent 4-5 pages each.

One exam: 20 percent final. Exams force students to, y’know.. read. And remember stuff. I think it’s worth forcing some amount of memorization because it makes students really pay attention while reading or taking notes.

Pop quizzes: 15 percent;  again, totally worth it. Forces students to do the reading. Give one  two weeks. Easy to grade. Easy to see who’s done the reading.

Participation and attendance: 10 percent. Significant enough that it’ll make students talk in class or at least show up.

So it comes down to:

35 percent of grade for memorization and absorbing the material (exam, quizzes)

25 percent for presentation skills, i.e. formal speaking.

10 percent for informal speaking and oral participation

30 percent of grade for writing formal papers

In the end, the grade is almost evenly divided between speaking formally, informally (aka in-class participation), writing and memorization. Perhaps a couple of reaction papers can be folded into the participation grade. Regardless, I think this is a good syllabus design, provided the prof explains the purpose clearly early on. This way s/he can go full-speed ahead immersing students in material they may not be interested in, but that they will feel compelled to pay attention to.

I also favor extra credit for people who print paper double sided. Yes, that’s awful hippy of me, but it’s something I believe in very strongly. Double sided saves a lot of paper, ink and money.  It’s also a small, relatively easy thing to do too. Little drops go to make an ocean, and all that.

OK, so the entry on the syllabus design mentioned in the previous entry will be postponed for a slide show of graduation pix!

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I just graduated college. One of the things I think of when I look back at good classes I had and bad, is the syllabus. Yes, I’m a dork. I think of syllabus construction.

I admire the profs who constructed clear, detailed syllabuses that left me in no doubt as to what reading or paper was due when. I remember how I took these detail-oriented profs for granted in freshman year. I assumed that all profs were this conscientious. By year 2, though, I saw the profs who handed out the infamous one-sheet syllabus, which told you the title of the course, the course aims, and a list of textbooks. Seriously. You have to wonder whether these profs didn’t get the memo on good syllabus construction.

Worse still was a professor who had a well-written detailed syllabus… except all the due dates were from the previous semester– so the papers were due on Saturdays and Sundays when the class was in the middle of the week! At no point did he attempt to make any corrections and he responded to my questions with a sort of dazed arrogance that still makes my blood boil.

One of the ideas I’ve been thinking about for the past few months is, if I could construct a syllabus, what it would be?  I will answer that question in my next entry on how to construct a syllabus for general education classes.