Music Dept making me crazy

banquo

This rant mostly concerns the backwardsness of the Dept RE: using moodle or any form of technology.

I, like many other students in 2nd years music, have to work around 25-30 hours a week to pay for rent, etc. This is necessary to attend college, yet conflicts with college attendance. If the dept would post and accept assignments online then the bright and curious among us who really want to do well would be on a level playing field with those from better off familes and who don't have to work.

I don't mean any kind of notes or substitute for lectures, just the homework, and at the moment Adrian is the only one who'll do it. Compare the two:

1) Adrian knows that we work and can't always go to lecutres so he sent some of us a link with all the notes and assignments so far, with posible solutions to the assignments and the message to contact him should we have any questions whatsoever.

2) I went to the new professer to ask her and she literally shut the door in my face mid-sentence after explaining to me that "if students can't attend lectures for reasons economic or otherwise that is not the department's problem"

Do few/many people feel this way?

porn_star

Aye, it's really annoying. I'm sure she doesn't agree with the working and college but it'd still be a good idea/development/that's what moodle is there for, so she shouldn't be shutting the door in your face..
but i'm the same, i end up missing a bit and then end up having to try and find the lecturer to get the notes/assignement thats due for the following week and half they're consultation hours don't suit.
It's one of the big things I miss about being in Adrian's class, I couldn't take his cos it clashes with English, but he's one of the more decent/understanding ones.
Always thought the music department is a bit backwards tbh

funky penguin

I'm only in first year, but I love that the Sca has no fear of using Moodle. Was it brought up in the last meeting? I haven't had a chance to read the minutes.

Suppose we could go on further than the lack of moodleness...like the practice rooms. It's not so much that there aren't enough; what annoys is is when I get settled into a room and then a tutor pops in his heading saying he has a lesson.

porn_star

Apparently the new professor is sorting out practice rooms. think they're building rooms behind the prefabs for lessons or something and gonna leave the ones that are there as practice rooms i think

Zapp Brannigan

They changed english to be online only (basically) this year and it's an absolute nightmare. Not only do you have to submit assignments through moodle you also have to submit a hard-copy i.e. a printed one. How does that make sense?

It is annoying how none of the music faculty I've experienced, so-far, barring Adrian don't even bother with moodle. But I'm the same as pornstar and couldn't take Counterpoint this year cos of English...grumble grumble.

JBoyle4eva

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

They changed english to be online only (basically) this year and it's an absolute nightmare. Not only do you have to submit assignments through moodle you also have to submit a hard-copy i.e. a printed one. How does that make sense?

Ya, I'm doing Eng in 1st year and we had major troubles with our 1st essay with Conrad in EN111. Our essays were to be submitted via "turnitin" on Moodle. HOwever, you had to use Mozilla Firefox as it wouldn't work with Internet Explorer, and you had to do it through the PACR PCs, would NOT work on a laptop! :mad:

Then, for the essay for EN112, we had to hand in a hard-copy and use turnitin, incredibly fustrating process.

And now on EN112, our new lecturer Conor McCarthy refuses to even use slides in his lectures and no online notes whatsoever.

I can feel your pain in the Music department, but I somehow wonoder would the situation be any better if your dept. was online, as you can see with the nightmare that we've gone through in English

porn_star

oh god, i remember conor mcarthy's lectures. i can't tell you what they were about, but possibly the most boring class i ever attended...all two or three times.
I don't think it'd be a nightmare if the music department were to go online. sheesh, all they need to do is shove up a few notes, or at least assignment hand outs. I don't care if I have to hand in essays online or just a hard copy. Infact I actually prefer being able to hand in my english assignments through moodle, the only pain in the ass now, is that they actually want it both ways, which somewhat defeats the purpose of turnitin I would of thought.

banquo

This is it, even if they JUST put up the homework that would be amazing.

What us second years are doing is making Adrian a christmas pressie for using moodle and trying to get everyone in 2nd year to sign it. Anyone else who wanted to sign it could as well, I suppose.

John

This may seem like a silly question but why go to college at all if you can't go to the lectures? Lecturers are there to lecture and not just send out notes because you can't make it. If you must work why didn't you do an Open University course? Now I wouldn't slam a door in someone's face but there's no way I'd make concessions for people because they're in work instead of college. It is insulting as a teacher to have students come up to you and demand notes because they had to work over going to your lectures. You're all adults and should be able to manage your time better than that. 25-30 hours is most of a full working week, how can you expect to go to college (a full time job as it is) and work on top of that?

It's easy to point the blame at the college and say they don't use moodle but at the end of the day it's down to you prioritising and managing your time better.

Sorry if I sound a bit harsh but honestly I feel that if you're in college and want to get your degree, then you should be putting that first. Yes you have to pay rent and buy groceries but most students manage that without having to miss lectures. Have you considered a loan or a grant?

funky penguin

What if you're sick? What if you miss a train? What if you had a funeral to go to? What if you missed your brothers wedding to go to a lecture on the concept of modulation?

Things happen that cause people to miss lectures accidentally/unavoidably.

What Banquo was saying was regarding the posting of assignments online. As it is, some are just posted on the music noticeboard in college. It would be much handier to be able to access the question online and then submit it online. Especially for people who might go home on the weekend.

John

Yes but people tend to be sick for one or two days, not repeatedly as they are for work. Those (apart from train mishaps) are extraordinary circumstances and the college knows that these things happen and should make allowances accordingly. However, having working hours that clash with lecture times is within the realms of your control and is something that you need to address yourself.

banquo

Because they don't use the net at all you have to be geographically nearby to hand in homework at all. homework = marks. To be geographically near by you must pay rent. Rent is money. Money must be earned.

The purpose of college is a measured qualification of knowledge in a particualer field, what does it matter from where the knowledge comes from? Be it from books or a teacher, you deserve the oppurtunity to prove you know the stuff.

And it's not an exception, there are a load of us students - especially in music - for whom work is not a choice but a complementry activity. You can work, or go to college and work, but college alone is simply not feasible.

John

banquo wrote: »

Because they don't use the net at all you have to be geographically nearby to hand in homework at all. homework = marks. To be geographically near by you must pay rent. Rent is money. Money must be earned.

That's it, get belligerent, that will win me over to your side.

The purpose of college is a measured qualification of knowledge in a particualer field, what does it matter from where the knowledge comes from? Be it from books or a teacher, you deserve the oppurtunity to prove you know the stuff.

Well it matters where the knowledge comes from because it is the lecturers who set the questions and correct the work. That's how all courses work, they are usually standardised by a governing body so that all music courses, science courses, etc. in different universities can be compared to each other, so that your degree is worth the same as every other music degree.

Have you read the music department handbook? It states quite clearly there that you are required to attend lectures:

Music Dept Handbook wrote:

ATTENDANCE
Students are required to attend all classes, lectures, and tutorials. Up to 40% of end-of-year
examination marks are awarded on a constant assessment basis for work during the academic year.
Medical certificates must be supplied in the event of absence due to illness

This is college policy (and policy in every other college too for that matter). Everyone is expected to do it, not just the music department. Lectuters put a lot of effort into each course they teach, for you not to show up and then demand notes is insulting to say the least.

And it's not an exception, there are a load of us students - especially in music - for whom work is not a choice but a complementry activity. You can work, or go to college and work, but college alone is simply not feasible.

And? You're not the first student to work and go to college at the same time. The vast majority of students (in all colleges I've had experience with) manage not to miss lectures and work. They make sure their work hours do not clash with their timetable. If people in engineering (up to 40 hours a week of lectures and practicals) can do it, why can't you? If you can't submit the work on the date of the deadline, do it earlier and submit it on a day when you are in college if it doesn't suit. Few courses offer online submissions via moodle (I never even encountered web submission until my final year) so it's not like the music department is going against the grain here.

At the end of the day, if you can't make it to lectures or access materials/submit assignments on time then it's your own fault, not the university or the department for not putting stuff on the web. It's nothing to do with what course you're doing or what job you're doing, it's managing your time properly which is as much a skill as knowing your tempered scale from your just intonation.