University of the People Week 4 thoughts
Hey readers!
I thought I should give you guys a quick update on how things are going with my schooling at University of the People.
Things seem to be improving and others seem to be going nowhere fast. It took the school about a week after our discussion on the learning environment to acknowledge our displeasure with many aspects of it and our suggestions on how to change things. Supposedly things are in the works but other than them finally getting the forums working as they should, there is no indication that anything is happening other than the fact that they say there is.
I am liking the length of the homework assignments although the deadlines that we have to go by are very strange and I don't think they work that well for a global school. They also don't seem to care about the fact that nobody sees a purpose in having a learning journal and a really crappy one at that. They seem to be sticking to their misguided ideas and keep reminding us that if we don't use it, our grade will be affected by it. They can keep saying that all they want but it wont make me care any more than I did in the first place which is not at all. I still refuse to use it. My English class seems to require us to use it for the assignment this week. I am torn between wanting to complete my assignment and hold on to my boycott of the learning journal. I am still not sure what I am going to do but I suppose I better decide soon since the assignment is due tomorrow.
Maybe I am not talking to as many foreigners on there as normal but I haven't noticed the lack of English skills this week as much as in weeks past. That said, it seems that likely because of them, many people don't seem to be understanding the assignments and how to do them so when I grade them, I have to really mark them down because they didn't do what was asked. I hate doing that because they don't understand the question but the school was very clear about knowing English when they got into the school so I can't say I feel too bad for them when they get bad grades because they don't understand enough English to do their assignments as required by the school.
I am also slightly annoyed at the fact that they are teaching the basics of the desktop with XP. XP is old and about to die, it should not be used as an example in a learning environment. If you are going to use Windows, use Vista or even Windows 7. There have also been a number of other people with issues with this because they use Linux instead of Windows. I agree with them that it should be taught in more than one operating environment and I fully support their desire to have some of the material compatible with their systems as I use Linux as well on occasion.
Oh, and the calendar they use is crap! They need to use Google Calender.
That is all of my thoughts for this week on my experience at University of the People. More next week.
-pcnerd37
University of the People first impressions
Hey everybody!
I began classes at the new University of the People on Thursday and I thought I would give some first impressions based on what I have seen so far. To start, it isn't always easy to understand what people have to say because many of them are from countries all over the world who don't have English as their first language. Most of the time I can figure out what they are trying to say but it isn't easy. Considering good English skills were required to attend the school and an essay written in English to get accepted, I am kind of surprised at how poorly some write it.
The user interface for students isn't bad but it could be better. Having 3 different message boards with various scope but similar names is kind of confusing. It would be nice if they used some more user friendly message board software anyway but for a school that is just starting out, I suppose I can't be too picky. It would be nice to know which users are students and which are instructors and staff without them having to say so though.
This week has seemed a bit easy but I suppose that is to be expected for the first week of classes and one class that is an introduction to the online learning environment. Honestly, I could do with much more than 2 classes since I could probably accomplish a weeks worth of work in a couple of hours. Hopefully the work load picks up in the coming weeks. Speaking of the workload, apparently we are expected to keep some sort of journal about the school work that we do and our thoughts about it and stuff. Personally, I find the idea kind of stupid. If I want to write down my thoughts and stuff, that is what this blog is for. I think it is even more dumb that it is graded by teachers.
So far I can't speak too highly of the school but things are just getting started and we are still in the get to know you phase so hopefully in the next week or two things will pick up. I think this school has a lot of promise and I hope it delivers on that promise.
-pcnerd37