Results tagged “academic” from I, Curtis

Dear Southern Association of Colleges and Schools:

     As you may be aware, you are the primary accrediting authority of all schools below the Mason-Dixon Line and east of the Mississippi. A fact I do not know if you are aware of is all schools in your division teach common sets of courses, but all with different names and course identifiers. I challenge you to take all of these catalogs and discover the commonalities, then assign each of the sets of identical courses a serial number. Schools will take your serial number and use them for transfer, and not an arbitrary “equivalency chart” that holds no real value. Many transfer evaluations are handled by department chairs that may have a desire to lure students in by issuing them a lot of transfer credits, even if they have not truly earned them. Other department chairs have pride issues and will withhold credit where credit is due in an attempt to force students to take their version of a course. Some departments have set policies based on having a highly structured industry affiliation, for example, all psychology courses are essentially defined by the American Psychological Association, with each institution simply applying their focus (research, clinical, historical, etc) to them.

     There are so many courses at institutions that are equivalent, but there is no common course library to define them as being the same. Registrars, admissions directors and counselors do not have the capability to know how to evaluate every course, and even if they did, it would cause so much administrative overhead that other areas of their duties would suffer.

   I believe that it is within the scope of responsibility of SACS to create a universal course library to ensure the integrity of a student’s course portfolio, even when it is transferred between institutions. I would recommend the Common Course Library of the North Carolina Community College System for the departments that are part of the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement of the University of North Carolina System as an example of how such a catalog might operate.

Sincerely,

Curtis M. Kularski

Student, Gaston College

Student, Central Piedmont CC

Student, UNC-Charlotte

Student, UNC-Chapel Hill

Student, Fayetteville State University

HIS 131 – American History I
Grade: A
Grade Status: Official

ART 115 – Art History II
Grade: A
Grade Status: Instructor Notation – Awaiting Registrar Confirmation

CSC 153 – C# Programming
Grade: A
Grade Status: Numerical Average Complete – Awaiting Instructor Confirmation

ENG 131 – Introduction to Literature
Grade: B
Grade Status: Instructor Limbo – System Provided Numerical Average

I don’t know if anyone really cares to read my academic writings, but here they are, my final papers:

ENG 131 - Introduction to Literature
Frost vs. Longfellow

HIS 131 – American History I
Sociological Impact of the American Civil War

At some point near the end of this semester I am considering taking a correspondence course from UNC-Chapel Hill called “Advanced Poetry Writing”. It is a self-paced course that has a format allowing the student and instructor to develop the curriculum for the course. I have been wanting another Creative Writing course since Creative Writing II left me a little empty after so much fiction writing and so little poetry. Only problem with the course is I have to get approval of the instructor to even enroll in it, and I am afraid that my current poetry portfolio sucks.

http://www.fridaycenter.unc.edu/cp/catalog/english.html#engl407

If I take this course, it will be my first correspondence course. I fear that I will develop an obsessive compulsion of walking to the mailbox every 5 minutes each day until the mail arrives with feedback and assignments from my instructor.

I am becoming more and more frustrated with my Art History instructor. I have emailed him and posted a forum discussion about a problem I am having with the course. The particular problem is that the instructor has not released the full details of quizzes once they are complete. In a standard classroom course, once everyone has taken a quiz, it is possible to obtain the hard copy of the quiz to determine what you got wrong, well, that's supposed to be the case online as well. I haven't been told that my request for release of the full quiz is inappropriate, and I haven't been told that it would be handled either, the instructor has ignored all attempts at being contacted about the issue, which greatly pisses me off.

I have now added the Associate of Fine Arts to my program at Gaston College. I don't know if this will lead to a BFA, or not, but its at least a start and I am admitting that Art  is an interest I have.

Presently I have classes that feel a bit like they are in very different conditions. I am feeling very good about American History  1, Art History  II, and Ceramics Studio. I am feeling more shaky with Intro to Literature as well as Sculpture. Literature is a bit misguided and in Sculpture I am just not very motivated. I get no sense of direction in Sculpture, and the course is starting to seem more pointless to me every day.

C# is in a class by itself, its self paced, and I am keeping up with the deadlines. I think it will work out fine.

I am on course for an A in American History, and at present, a B in Art history, but that can change any moment, there are a lot of assignments left. I feel like I can get back into the flow of things with Literature, I am just not presently very comfortable with the course and its delivery method. Sculpture is feeling more  lost, or more accurately I am feeling lost in it. The only course I am considering dropping is Sculpture, but I don't like the idea of giving up like that. Its one of those things where if I keep the course I might not have a 4.0 GPA anymore, or if I withdraw I certainly won't be on the President's list for the semester. I feel like my only option is to fight it out and try to make it work.

I thought my C# course was going pretty well, being self-paced and with minimal assignments to work towards. Yesterday there was an email sent from the instructor, apparently now we have a load of stuff to do through the Microsoft IT Academy, woohoo! I remember Microsoft IT Academy from when I had to use it to prepare for my certifications a long long time ago. I hated it then, and it is even worse now. There are now interact lab things to do, oh so much fun.

ART115 - Art History II - Got through the first module with no problems. I got an 80 on the quiz, but got 100 on both of the discussion assignments, so I'm happy for that. It seems like it is going to be a very fun course. I am still learning how to prepare for this course.

ART281 - Sculpture I - I am working very hard on my first project. My personal staff is coming along nicely in concept, but I haven't really spent much time working on it physically. I'm thinking of going fairly simple with it.

ART288C - Ceramics Studio - This course is moving a little faster than sculpture, even though it is the same instructor. I am mostly finished with my garden "totem", I just have to fire it and then glaze it. I might do a few more spare parts for it, but I am overall happy with it. This is easier than the staff, this is just simple shapes that I like.

CSC153 - C# Programming - This course seems to have been designed for a 10 week schedule. Nothing was officially due until yesterday. I have gotten that work done, as well as some other work. I am making good progress towards the next deadline of September 27th. The course is self-driven, which is a new concept to me in this type of course. It is almost like an independent study attempt at the subject. The course fits into my schedule very nicely, because it really has no schedule of its own.

ENG131 - Introduction to Literature - Lit is going as Lit goes, slow and boring. I am not sure I understand where the course is going, we are reading a really weird comic book that reminds me a little of the diary of Anne Frank, except a lot less coherent and with a lot more opinion. I don't like the book, or its "comic" approach to the topic. http://introduction2literature.wikispaces.com/Maus+Discussion

HIS131 - American History I - History is going VERY well. I have gotten through the first module, did the first quiz (twice), got 90% on the quiz, and will have an opportunity to earn the other 10% back.  I am getting a hold on the material fairly well. I am enjoying myself, which has completely shocked me. I do like history, I guess I just have to be able to do it at my own pace, and not at 9am.

Overall I am happy, except for the 9am ceramics class, which I am adapting to.

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/09/open-source-tex.html

While the idea is founded in solid ideas and overall good marketing, there is one factor being missed here, departmental textbook adoption. Colleges get a lot of "incentives" from publishers to use texts, often in the form of additional "resources", such as classroom aids and instructional equipment. In some cases, schools even get paid to select a certain book. The entire thing is very corrupt, and as a result, open source will not work. If you don't believe me, take a look at online learning environments. Moodle is free and open source, Blackboard is thousands per semester. Every school in North Carolina uses Blackboard, if not primarily, then somewhere, but very few use Moodle or any other free platform.

What would a person do with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Humanities? I've been looking at the degree from UNC-Greensboro because it seems interesting, but I can't really see it being useful. Anyone have any ideas on jobs where this could be a useful degree?

http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/web/bls/default.asp

This evening I was reviewing the syllabus for my literature course, trying to get an idea about due dates and what type of work load I should be prepared for. When I opened the syllabus, I looked for the "Evaluation" section, the standard place for finding such information. I found no such section of the syllabus, and the information is no where else on the syllabus. I am now in a slight worry, since the syllabus is essentially the contract on which a college course operates.  Why would an instructor not include it? I have too much active course work for this one instructor to throw unexpected variables into things because of a lack of information on the syllabus.

I just took my first attempt at the first quiz in American History. It didn't take me long, about 25 minutes for 20 questions  (out of 30 minutes allowed). I was a little uncertain about it going in, but I did relatively well. I don't really love history, but don't hate it either. I got an 16/20 on the first attempt. I get to try once more, and then two scores get averaged. Maybe I will get them all correct and still manage to get an A on the first quiz. On the more positive side of things, I have earned 1.5 points of extra credit (on a 200 pt scale).

A quick email to Dr. Dellinger this morning fixed all of my problems. Proper forms are on file with the registrar to recognize my HIS-131 as "in progress", and Dr. Dellinger defended my change of course for the literature course to the registrar.

I love Microsoft Office as much as anyone, but there are limits to its capabilities. Occasionally I end up with an instructor (usually one that isn't very PC friendly) who decides that Doc is the best possible format to share content with students. I personally can't stand Word when I have a browser open (exception being research). I do feel that instructors are limited in what they can select, but it seems a bit bloated to use Doc. PDF is much better for web-based course instruction in my opinion. PDFs display in browsers more gracefully than a Doc ever has. Why would a C# instructor select such a clunky format to give class notes in?

Every semester there is a moment I both look forward to and dread, its the moment I have the full assignment list. While it is nice to know the way things will line up, it is such a pain getting everything into GITI. I have for many years considered writing a bulk assignment addition script where I can enter everything at once, but I haven't gotten there yet. Every year I think I'm going to do it, and then before I write it, I have the assignments all in manually. Sometimes there are other factors that complicate the process of entering assignments into GITI during the first day of a class, such as lack of due dates on assignments, or instructions that are incomplete.

I currently have two courses open and active, but already I feel like I am a little overwhelmed by the syllabi and the course information stuff. I don't know quite where to begin with stuff. I suspect it might be my tiredness, but I really want to get started with the courses, but feel too confused to really dive in. Tomorrow after I get my hair cut I will likely feel better and more able to handle getting going on my two courses at CPCC and the one already active at Gaston.

CPCC Online courses are now open. It seems I have one in Blackboard and one in Moodle... No consistency across platforms this semester (especially since I have one course at Gaston on WIKI!)

Classes start in under a week, so now I'm getting like all nervous and stuff. Usually I'm very calm this time of the year, I am so planned and everything it just seems like it should be fine and smooth. I suppose my biggest problem this semester is I changed schedules around so much that I wasn't entirely sure what I really wanted my schedule to look like. I have two 3D studio courses, an Art History course, an American history, a programming course and a literature course. It could be an exhausting semester, but at least I will have plenty to do in my spare time. Or... is it really spare time if I do nothing else but academics?

I am still really nervous, especially having an 18 hour load, even though 12 hours are online. 18 Hours is not normally considered insane for a normal student load.