This is a follow up to the previous one, now that I am in third year.
- Not uploading PowerPoint slides in PowerPoint format
What is with PDF that lecturers just love to post instead of the original PPT? Compatibility? Why not upload both versions? Copyright? Lecturer's lecture notes are NUS property, not personal property.
Some of the lecturers go a bit further on the PDFs; they upload different versions of the PDFs. Like 4 slides per page, or 8 slides per page.
It is a war of PPT vs PDF! 4 images stolen
Hello, why not save the trouble and just upload the original PPT?
OT: Deciding whether to go for Office 2003 or Office 2007? Go for Office 2003. The interface for Office 2007 is way way different from Office 2003. What's more, there is no way to switch to the Office 2003 view.
OT: For those new SOC computing freshies, help yourself to the latest Microsoft developer software. No Office though :(
Word 2007 new interface - all menu options are now reshuffled around
- Not providing answers to exams and/or tutorials
Common excuses:
- "We want you to discuss the answers".
- "Giving model answers may make you think that this is the strict answer"
Translated, in my opinion
- "There are so many answers that we feel it would take too much of our precious time"
- "There are many answers for this. So we feel it is better that you write / record / memorize the words spoken / displayed during the tutorials so that each of you get your own unique idea of the answer"
Sometimes, you wish there is a ten year series assessment books for modules like this.
Get the answers during the tutorial. No written answers will be released.
- Not randomly assigning project groups
Some of you may not agree with me. That's probably because you already have mates that are taking the same modules as you. However, this introduces a problem. The saying 'Birds of a feather flock together' explains the problem.
What I mean is that people who know each other will form up and the leftovers are left to scour for group members in the forums.
Do you get to choose your members in the work force? Image stolen
This means spending time to post in a forum (citing marketing words like ' I cannot SU this module', 'have taken related modules before', 'cap 4.5+!!!', etc) and making guesswork of whether a topic poster has already formed their group - not many people update their thread if their group has been formed.
- Providing lectu__ notes with bla__ spaces
Combine this with the PDF problem mentioned above and you either MUST print out the lecture notes, or write the answers in a separate sheet somewhere.
The aim here seems to be to improve attendance to lectures. But why??!! If students don't want to attend, then it is their problem. It is a choice they have taken to sacrifice your all important famous mythical (insert-more-words) lecture. Why do lecturers have to encourage them to come by putting 'blanks'? Besides, they can get the answers from those who attend the lecturers. And you waste time by waiting for students noting down the answers.
In the uploaded slides, the underlined texts are just underlines without text
Tip: Most lecturers change their lecture notes after going through a lecture so I tend to print the PPTs only before a major exam. Furthermore, you can modify the lecture notes with your own notes. Provided, the lecturer. Uploads. In. Powerpoint.
Tip: You can print 16 slides per page using a combination of Foxit Reader and PDF Creator. They're really not that small unless the lecturer squeezes many points in one slide. In fact, sometimes I print 25 slides per page, if the slides consist of mostly few words in big font (e.g. Catherine Tay's BSP1004 slides).
- Marks for acting stupid, being talkative or just asking wild questions
Translated into real world - "Class Participation". This is a great boon for those people who are not afraid of stares, making mistakes, saying stupid things and things that others may not understand. Oops, did I just admit something about myself?
The act of the tutor or tutorial assistant having to write a mark every time somebody opens his/her mouth sometimes looks funny to me. People are getting rewarded for talking! Wow.
When in doubt, act stupid! Image stolen
Maybe NUS is training us to be more willing to talk. Well, I think this method only serves to reward people who are not afraid of talking and since marks are given for talking, some people may be more reluctant (rather than more eager) due to the fighting for tutor's attention and marks.
Meeting NUS CORS soon; bidding time again. And what do I see? A new CORS homepage design!
For some odd reason, the header's right side seems to going to break off anytime
Good luck to all bidders. Don't forget to read through these valuable CORS tips.