Modularisation

tintinr35

im in 2nd arts now and apparently the college will be totally modularised next year when im doin my finals what exactly does this mean, now dumb it down ppl cause i tried to read the website and was confused after the first sentence!!!

Vainglory

Where have you been told that?

tintinr35

twas on a letter that was put into the ucd diaries when i went down to get my student card yesterday

themole

well, the info is here:

http://www.ucd.ie/horizons/

but i presume this is the site which is causing you confusion

the main consise info from the front of the site:

*Core modules that must be taken as part of a designated degree programme
*Option modules where you have some choice within the major subjects of your degree programme
*Elective modules which you can select according to your own interests.


now, since you are doing arts you prob don't have any core modules, but in for example Computer Science these would be baisc programming and any other subjects deemed necessary to the degree.

option modules are options with your degree, for example in arts do you want to do history or soc and poll,

elective modules can be from other faculties and not normally part of your course. ie a computer science degree student could do say history. which is not a core or optional subject within the degree.

i think they are only rolling the system out to first years this year and they will continue to be able to avail of it, afaik since you are already in 2nd year you will not be able to avail of the system.

Vainglory

Are you around college now? I'd like to see that letter, so I can then go insane at the college authorities.

themole

tintinr35 wrote:

twas on a letter that was put into the ucd diaries when i went down to get my student card yesterday

this will prob only mean semesterisation to you

tintinr35

i know first years are doing it now but and i quote from the ucd letter
"as a continueing student there is no change to your degree programme this year, we intend to modularise and semesterise all stages of our degee programmes from september 2006, so if you are still with us at that time, you will benifit from the flexibility of the modular system"
i am studying history of art and politics so does that mean i will be able to take for example HOA as my major and politics as my minor for instance, is it just a matter of making up credits???

tintinr35

Vainglory wrote:

Are you around college now? I'd like to see that letter, so I can then go insane at the college authorities.

if u go down to the student centre they are giving them out with the diaries down there

themole

tintinr35 wrote:

i know first years are doing it now but and i quote from the ucd letter
"as a continueing student there is no change to your degree programme this year, we intend to modularise and semesterise all stages of our degee programmes from september 2006, so if you are still with us at that time, you will benifit from the flexibility of the modular system"
i am studying history of art and politics so does that mean i will be able to take for example HOA as my major and politics as my minor for instance, is it just a matter of making up credits???

hmm, dunno.

could do.

Vainglory

Just got one.

tintinr35

and???

Vainglory

All I can say at the moment is that I'm working on it...

If people in 2nd year at the moment could use this thread to let me know what they think about the prospect of being modularised/semesterised for final year that would be really helpful.

Jonny Arson

Vainglory wrote:

All I can say at the moment is that I'm working on it...

If people in 2nd year at the moment could use this thread to let me know what they think about the prospect of being modularised/semesterised for final year that would be really helpful.

Even though I'm not in 2nd year (but should be.... grrr) I would be going f**king bananas over that. Introducing unfamiliar modularisation/semesterisation for the first time into 3rd year of all frickin' years will only have adverse affects on students performance as far as I'm concerned.

Such muppets running this university.

rainbow kirby

Vainglory wrote:

All I can say at the moment is that I'm working on it...

If people in 2nd year at the moment could use this thread to let me know what they think about the prospect of being modularised/semesterised for final year that would be really helpful.

Well it's for 3rd and 4th year for me... :eek:
In some ways, it could be interesting. In others... argh! The idea of getting to do a couple of courses outside of my main subject area is nice, but the practicalities of it would be a nightmare. Semesterisation isn't a big deal, the CS department already liked giving exams at Christmas, and for someone like me who doesn't handle exams particularly well - not having all my exams in one sitting is fantastic.

tintinr35

when i think about it and only if i am understanding it correctly it might not be such a bad thing, i really dislike politics and i love history of art and am alot better at it so the prospect of being able to take as little politics as possible and doing somthing i actually like it prob good cause i know it just would have ended up bringing down my degree anyway!. not sure if that is how it works tho.
i totally agree with the semesterisation because trying to remember and study stuff you have done in november when u are studying in april is a C**T :cool:

Vainglory

We did a lot of work on this yesterday, letter we wrote to the Registrar may be found here http://www.ucdsu.net/newswire.php?story_id=681

beanyb

Great letter! I hope they listen to it though.

It would just be plain confusing to change the entire structure of the way our course is run in our final year when we already have enough to worry about. Though semesterisation could probably be good in the long run, and lead to less stress in May.

Vainglory

Well, Philip Nolan has said now that there's no decision made on it yet. We're going to have a couple of open meetings the week after freshers' week that anyone who is potentially affected by this can come along to and tell us what they think ; there's no point the five of us deciding whether it's a good idea or not, we need your input too

beanyb

I'll try make it to one of those meetings, since I've made it my new (college) year's resolution to actually get involved with college stuff this year!

Vainglory

Do, and run for Class Rep as well. Nomination forms are available on the table outside the General Office in the SU Corridor in the Student Centre.

Pythia

I found out about that during the summer (that everyone was going to be modularised Sept 2006). Did they not tell the SU about it at all?

Vainglory

Philip Nolan the registrar told James (SU President) yesterday that no decision has been made on whether everyone will be modularised in September 2006 yet...I was in the room when he did. And I doubt they're going to make the decision on it now without informing us because we went crazy when we found out on Wednesday...I actually found out about it on boards

However, there's every chance that they did tell ye this during the summer and are trying to push it through without consulting students and the SU...whereabouts did you hear it? Was it written on something official? All the info you have would help us a lot.

tintinr35

after thinking about it its a F**king disgrace that all the college has afforded us as an explaination to the fact that the whole structure of our degree is changing is a paragraph in a welcome back to ucd letter. if there is nothing definate about the change then why was it put down in print on an official ucd letter. this is my third year in ucd now (after failing a year) and it becomes more and more apparent that the college just does not give a sh1t about its students. the fact that the whole degree is changing with this years incoming first years is fine and it seems that those of us in 2nd year who this is going to affect have been forgotten about. if ucd is as it says trying to become of the leading universaties in europe then a bit more communication between the college and students is going to be necessary. fair play to james for the letter he wrote but i think we all know it is going to make fcuk all of a difference because they will plough ahead regardless. :cool:

Vainglory

It wasn't just James who wrote the letter, btw.

We will be getting a written response from Philip Nolan which should say that there is no decision taken on the issue yet ; rest assured lads, this won't be taken lying down if they do plough ahead with it without proper consultation with students. Remember, if it does happen then me, Dan and James will all be going back into modularised and semesterised final years after our year as a sabbat.

JHJ

tintinr35

oh ya sorry it was all u guys who wrote it sorry

Pythia

Vainglory wrote:

Philip Nolan the registrar told James (SU President) yesterday that no decision has been made on whether everyone will be modularised in September 2006 yet...I was in the room when he did. And I doubt they're going to make the decision on it now without informing us because we went crazy when we found out on Wednesday...I actually found out about it on boards

However, there's every chance that they did tell ye this during the summer and are trying to push it through without consulting students and the SU...whereabouts did you hear it? Was it written on something official? All the info you have would help us a lot.

I'm pretty sure they told the staff.

beanyb

They did tell the staff, I asked my sister about it. She's only working as a temp in the nursing dept at the moment and she said she knew that it was going to happen. And she's just a temp!

Vainglory

If ye can, could you get me the letter/email/memo/anything that the staff were given to inform them about this? When I'm talking to Philip Nolan about it I can't just say "the boardsies told me" .

beanyb

I'll ask my sister for ya later!

ghostchant

The main reason I chose UCD over trinity was that I liked the layout of the final two years of my course (T. Physics). So much for that :rolleyes:

tintinr35

any progress since???