How UOM or any univ for that matter kills creativity
hi.. this is going to be a hot topic… and i believe kind of … difficult and taboo to post such stuffs.
please note THIS TOPIC ISN’T TO BASH LECTURERS. THEY KNOW THEIR STUFFS, THIS IS JUST TO QUESTION WHETHER THE SYSTEM GIVES US STUDENTS ENOUGH TIME TO LEARN NICER THINGS AND HAVE TIME TO BE CREATIVE. please stay within the limit of the topic. Thanks
Many probably never post such stuffs as this might be harmful to their results as they fear this might get a few lecturers pissed of…
Well, i believe they can be mature enough to understand, in this post, i am just posting a simple example of how a normal student who is a human being will never be able to be creative.
I was having a chat with a few 2nd year Computer science students, they seem to be always ranting about how bulky things are for them, well, i personally think they are really good in class and work well. Ohh well… i thought maybe its just normal for them to be ranting … then i asked them about a detail of their work plans this semester.. after getting the details.. i was like “WHAT THE FUCK!!!” .. i was totally shocked and felt almost suffocated.. how the heck can a normal human being be doing that! The weird thing on top of that, those students just keep ranting between themselves but will never dare ask the lecturer for some time to breathe.
After some time i realized that .. heh, it is completely stupid to overload those students, because in the end, those kids will just begin to hate this subject (not to mention that many of my friends who got out to work in this field has started hating it due to mainly low salaries being paid to programmers and analysts [ which is another issue]).
Let’s take a typical example of a kid who is in second year at uom doing computer science …
- week 11- Submit DBMS report + TEST WEEK
- week 13- Submit TWO Software Engineering reports.
- week 14- Submit graphics Assignment and DBMS software presentation
- week 15- Submit Web Assignment
- week 16- EXAMS
Not to forget, weekly labs and “homeworks” [yes homeworks :s]
Some lecturers even mentioned more assignments i heard… and those are second assignments already
Now i wonder where shall the kid focus his attention? Test? Exams? Software Engineering assignment? Web Assignment? Graphics Assignment? DBMS assignment?? Where?
Now.. leaving that aside… think deeply… and ask yourself these questions…
Does the kid have time to do side project s/he loves? Learn stuffs s/he loves? Be CREATIVE!!! at this phase of life, there is a lot interesting stuffs one wants to learn, a lot of inventions to think of … but with our form of education.. does those kids really manage to get the time to give some time on that??
I don’t know, but for me, the way i see it.. university here seems to be training those students to work and think like robots in a way to prepare them for what will soon be happening to them.. many who are into the IT sector in mauritius can confirm.. that its a form of modern slavery… yes people, slavery hasn’t been abolished yet! So do we really want that??
Which is why i believe people who don’t go through this system makes more money and are WAY more creative and had got the time to learn nicer stuffs!
So are the lecturers are fault??
I believe partly, but not mostly, because those dudes still are human also, its just that from their perspective.. they don’t see what is really happenning down to earth [i.e from the point of view of those kids].
Say you are a lecturer and you give an assignment, sure it seems easy and doable .. but the problem is you don’t know that other lecturers have thought the same way and given assignments and works like that.. just because they didn’t realize that the student is doing several modules.
Then, i also believe its also some problem with the students themselves… hell don’t you guys have any guts to go and let your voice be heard and give proper reasoning why you think this this this might not work, because you are also learners and brains i believe some mature discussions can help this. But then sometimes there sure are some mean tutors who just… don’t care what the students think.. coz they don’t care.. i guess this will only turn thing worst.. coz one day or the other, it will be among those students that future lecturers will come from, this vicious cycle wil go on and on!
There is also this wonderful video from ted that i would like to share with you on creativity (thanks to my friend doorgesh who introduced me to ted some time ago).
So with that, enjoy the talks of Sir Ken Robinson! (You will really like it!)
I also will like your comments on this, whether you are from the teaching side, student, someone in the field or anyone interested about creativity.
Please be mature.. this is a sensible topic, for once, I’ll be setting my blog on moderation! Any naming will be seen as a violation and your comment will not be approved. Be mature!
thanks roushdat and doorgesh for the grammatical correction
p.s good luck for the test week!
+$3|v3n
Popularity: 45% [?]
April 4th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
You should be checking our engineering timetable… 5 fraking YEARLY modules & 4 semester modules… with all tests scheduled in 1 week… lab reports each week (took me 4 days to make the last one coz I had to research everything from scratch)…
There is absolutely NO breathing space… :S
April 4th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
pfff….waii u ena reson…being a 2nd yr stud myself..i can undrstd n actually feel wat z rest of z class is gng thru…juz wen we really want 2 do really gud in our studies..esp in modules dat we really lyk..we find our way hinded by zose stupid asgnmts forced upon us…okk…sum r’nt as bad as dat..n help us 2 learn yaa…4 e.g z web asgnmt encouraged us 2 go seek further knowledge…bt nw many of us r still struggling wiz da asgnmt burden it gets added by yet anozer web asgnmt…its nt juz abt web oci…recently we’ve had z privilege 2 listen 2 quite a few guest lecturers…deir talks were really enlightening..least did we knw dat we will b bombarded wiz yet ozer asgnmts based on wat they said…pfff..i knw im getng a bit carried away laa…bt did we hv a choice…most of z lecturers wud juz nt listen…actually none wud…mayb we did hv a choice..mayb we didnt…personally i dunt fink i hv enuf energy left 2 waste on fighting against z system…esp wiz soo many fings gng around in uni lyf…asgnmts..test week…exams…baaah…:P:P
dsl 4 any offencing words..:P
April 4th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
UOM made me a dumb! lol. Infact I am doing my last year and till now everything i know was never taught to me at UOM! All i learned was in ebooks and web and books.
UOM is known to bombard with a overdose of boring stuff to do and student kill their creativity. In my case i have given my creativity more time so i will for sure work bad for uom
Everything is so boring! This week i have 6 class tests plus have to submit assignments! Next tuesday is deadline for dissertation. Its all stuffed. They should have removed class tests for 3rd year student or atleast reduce the amount of assignments coz the final project take all the time.
April 4th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
its true creativity is compromised against academic results
we cant blame the lecturers when the education/academic system as a whole is not meeting the modern day requirements.
4 weeks to submit reports/ assignment seems better than having to return all on the same week
personally i wud prefer having work placement for a longer period than having to submit assignments for each module. for some courses work placement is a requirement, y not for CSE?
“university here seems to be training those students to work and think like robots in a way to prepare them for what will soon be happening to them.. many who are into the IT sector in mauritius can confirm.”
its not true. those in the IT sector can confirm how much learned during those 3-4 years in being used while working. not even 50% i guess…. wen a fresh graduate joins a company, he/she has to undertake another training to meet the working world requirements,
its seems changes are being made to adapt to the modern context.
wud be nice to have more companies to partner with the university to provide more adapted courses.
e.g company X may give a lecture about methodologies used to develop their product/
company Y provide more insight about technologies used etc…
Learning should be more fun and creative so as students dont get bored.
April 4th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
I am a CSE year one student. here is what i have ahead:
week 12 – TEST WEEK – 5 Modules Monday to friday
weel 13 – Submit SSD project
Submit COMs Report
week 14 – EXAMS
week 15 – presentation COMs
I would like to point out that some electurer are really good at what they do. Even when they give assignments, they give interesting stuffs, things we will want to do. Things that will benefit us. An example. Mr Gavin Sathan. My programming lecturer
On the other hand, thers are lecturers who DONT CARE. you see, just by being prsent in their lectures, that they are working for MONEY only. Zot pena lamoure prop. [moderated part]
I am not exagerating. No matter how hard you try to understand what he is explaining. he just isnt explaing so that you could understand. I guess you all know who im talking about. (a BLOG POST COMING about that, after the exams)
Nice topic selven.
April 4th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
@carrot: Yes, i wanted to say for most courses infact, but i had only an example for computer science [for pure engineering i know its worst!]
@ruby: indeed.. seems really :s:s suffocating.. i would have died… btw, i was trying to imagine a severely epileptic kid through that! Would that make him dumb if he couldn’t cope?
@Avish:
Reminds me of that song by metallica called “Sad but true”.
Well i wouldn’t go to the point that i didn’t learn anything at univ, i did learn a great deal of stuffs at univ, but then, i had to stop myself from getting caught up in the system also, to go out more and discard the rules of the game once a while, otherwise i wonder how i would have kept my sanity!
ohh well, when you get strucked by the realization that when you reach 27, your brain starts to rot… you realize that your ability to be creative will start to diminish soon…..
April 4th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
hot topic indeed, makes me remember a post during our last year in uom, where the whole CSE dept was in total chaos
I am damn sure everyone (of my generation) knows what I am talking abt.
When students spoke out from the depth of their heart, lecturers took that badly and most of the classes had morality sessions.
I guess that the system is as such, where you have so much to learn in 1 module X number of modules.
Once, some friends n myself had a discussion with a lecturer to ask the reason behind teaching us ‘useless’ things which we will probably never use as programmers.
The reply was satisfactory : “To develop yourself, so that you can cope with anything in the future”
You are talking about uom, but when you will see the modules taught at utm, you will be shocked!
I had a look at the final year projects, and I can tell you, the cse projects at uom are only 25% of utm’s project complexity!
However, I would like to write down a very important point, applicable to our field:
Someone graduating with a first class will not necessary be as productive and efficient as one who graduated with a 2-2 or 3rd class. [Personal experience]
I am sure that this post will turn itself into a nice topic of discussion!
April 4th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
@ splash
:p you don’t get 4 weeks to submit reports :p
itsl ike 1 week each or for 2 reports :p
I was referring to working time and bulk of work…
That might be something interesting to try.
EXACTLY!!!
@ sun sozzz
indeed
(Btw please don’t mention names…. for obvious reasons..)
hmm sun.. sorry had to cut a bit what you said.. coz it pointed directly to a certain lecturer.. and it was too obvious.. [am still a student :p ]
@yashvin: lol i remember what topic you are talking about! lol me fears a lil bit just in case i pass through that :p..lol.. but heh.. am in no way saying its the lecturers who are bad, but rather, the system which doesn’t give enough free time for thoughts to students..
April 4th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
I have the same perception as urs selven! This is getting really exhausting! From certain point of view…we are just puppets to their eyes who are always here to do their biddings!! Duhhh!! I’m a 2nd yr student myself….i barely have time for myself.
For eg..i really love sports! Ever since i started uni……each semester i’ve been going to the gym to improve my badminton skills!! I helps me to feel better and this semester i’ve been ‘deprived’ of that!!
I thing i want to point out, sometimes we are blamed for our poor performances and the truth is we are trying the best we can to cope with these hectic situations!! We can’t juggle with for eg 6 assignments at a time and prepare for test week….not to add for the exams! pfff!
Somehow i believe the students themselves shud voice out their frustrations! We tend to remain silent and accept how things are! Anyway…most probably we will be ignored like you said!
Better break is over now….got to prepare for the test week!! lol!
April 4th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
@ nitish: Very true! for example sport itself is a way to help us become creative, to release our tension and let us think out of the box! hehe that video by sir ken robinson rulez!
April 4th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
@ yashvin
mo ti pense sa lepok la kan mone lire sa post la
same apply for CPE / SC / HSC results.
also it would nice to have a poll among the student community to see how many prefer semester against yearly system.
April 4th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
:p i personally prefer semester wise modules :p
future posting idea for the poll :p
April 4th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Creativity my friend!!…IN UOM???…OR IN MAURITIUS???… Dats a general problem in mauritius selven…la societe mauricienne bzin sanz so mentalite firstly…Most of mauritians, its like doin wat u r told 2 do..or.. wat u shud do only….but derz nofing bout…”hey wat bout doin dis!!!”..pena sa lattitude la ditou dan maurice ek dan uom komen to p dir…mwa mo penser…bzin sensibilise zot tou..pou vivre ene la vie meilleur lor facon nou viv mem…ek montrer dimoune ki “nissa” ena d’etre creative instead of a boring daily routine….
L’education li important….mais li zis ene moyen pou exploite ene dmoune so identite, talent ek capacite humaine…. si to gete en dehor komen eT…dpi zenfan…zt viv ene lavie d’un facon curieu de fer kelkechose fantastik dan tou domaines….Mo kone ene ta camarads ki ena sa pensee la komen twa e mwa…mais li zis minime…
INITIATIVE e le gran mot pou sa marcher….
April 5th, 2009 at 12:05 am
@yud
you are right about this, i believe its mostly, because people don’t have the time!
April 5th, 2009 at 12:24 am
Hello Selven!
PLEASE IN SUPPORT FOR US, READ THIS COMMENT IN FULL. IF YOU HAVE TIME.
I am going to take this opportunity to rant a bit more, being a CSE Level 2 student. You did mention we are ranting, so I’ll add my contribution.
Dude, that’s exactly it. Our workload not only kills creativity, it also kills our brain cells! You can’t imagine the amount of work we got coming!
Seriously, who can give that many assignments with deadlines in such short times? Want me to explain the full situation to you without naming anyone? Bear with me then. All of you, commenter included, will know how things happen in CSE.
In Sem.1, we used to have WEEKLY assignments for a module I will not name, but Selven must know what I am talking about. We had to submit labsheets each week, and they would be graded. Assuming that each of these lab question take around 2 hours to understand the concept and implement, and considering you get 5 questions per week (lecturer marks them at random, so you gotta do them all), that module alone eats all your time. At the same time, you are trying to learn the other languages you need for the semester.
Now, you got other modules right? Yes, they got assignments too. I’ll mention my Web module which is incredibly interesting and fun, introducing us to languages like PHP, Javascript and concepts like AJAX. Do I have time to go in depth and learn these technologies well? Nope. Do I have time to experiment and be creative? Nope.
Another module: Soft. Eng. We were introduced to the Java language. If you don’t know, Java is an extremely powerful language. Did we have time to experiment and learn it in depth? Of course nope! We had to do our OpenGL assignment!
Did we have time to experiment with OpenGL? NO!! We had to do our Web Assignment! And our OpenGL assignment. And all the other labsheets. Oh, if you have ever used OpenGL API, you know how long it takes. As a simple estimation, writing a program from scratch and displaying a cube on screen takes around 200 lines of code. Imagine doing a whole 3D scene in that.
At the end of the semester, we have to revise our notes for the whole semester, submit assignments and still have to do 1-2 labtests and submit some labsheets. Fortunately, our Web assignment was postponed for Sem2 which was nice from our lecturer. Thanks Ma’am!
Now, Semester 2 starts extremely jerkily! We are told we’d have to do 3 assignments right at the end: Web, DB, Graphics-Maya assignment. The DB and Maya ones require that you learn PostgreSQL and Maya to be able to do them. Both of these are extremely powerful and fun to play with? But do you have time? Of course no! You have to learn new languages: Scheme and Prolog!
Before I move on, I need to mention that you are given 1 week to learn Prolog, and that 1 week is just 2 weeks before exams. Did I also mention that in the 3 weeks that separate Test Week and Exam week, you will need to submit 4 assignments? And that you will need to submit one assignment on the LAST DAY of test week?
But then finally, the best is: You need to read a year’s worth of Notes to be able to do your exams. Reading notes is shared with doing 4 assignments. Oh, remember that module I mentioned at first? Well, you have 15 questions to do in a single labsheet now.
Seriously, how do you expect us students to work like that, and find time for creativity? It’s pure madness!
And if you think we haven’t tried anything, WRONG!
I personally did ask lecturers if we’d be able to submit those assignments 1-2 weeks after exams are done. The do take 1-2 weeks to correct the papers, so we could just be working in the mean time and do their assignments, and still find time for revision. Seems fair to me, right?
Guess what was the answer: “No. UoM rules does not allow this.” Even after much complaining and pestering, I was given the impression that they simply don’t care or don’t want to bend the rules of the great UoM a bit to help students.
Don’t tell me they are not aware of each other’s schedule. Google Calender does exist and they could well use it to plan their work. That’s no excuse.
And what stupidity is that? Why is there a Test Week in Sem.2 when 3 weeks after, you got Exams that cover the whole year, including what the Test Week will cover? Does that make any sense?
We students are at a loss. We don’t really know what to do, and I’m pretty sure Student Union won’t be able to do much here. We just have to do what we can, and pass with average CPA at the end of a year’s effort. And if people want to know why CSE students don’t perform well, you just got your answer. That’s what happens when you compress a 4-year long module in 3 years to cut costs.
Voila. My rant is done. I hope it is useful to somebody. Someday during the hols, I’m going to post this rant in full and put more details.
And thanks to Selven for talking about this. If you got solutions, propose people. I’ll go back to my Test Week revision that’s still far from being complete. It’s 00h22. Sunday. Tomorrow, Test Week and madness starts. :/
April 5th, 2009 at 12:49 am
@InF:
Exactly, the problem is time time time!
Indeed that’s really.. weird. though i does help quickening the revision a bit..but still.. i wonder why we just don’t have a semester wise stuff??
was myself getting frustrated seeing you people in such deep shit, i was wondering how horrible this is!
EXACTLY!!!!!
as for solutions, i’ve got none, other than just how i got through it, jsut do what you can, focus on what weights more and just relax and try doing a few thing you still love about computer science in parallel and .. in hiding…
gud luck for your test!
April 5th, 2009 at 2:06 am
very nice topic as i am in the same situation too! IS yr2.. we also have 2 ISD assignment for due week13!! one MAD assgn week 13 too. software assgn week 13. – not to forget, test week on week 12. (week 14 dbms presentation, week 15 web presentation) —–AND you expect me to give an exam on week 16???
I believe there will be alot of resit this time, as we barely have any time to revise.
April 5th, 2009 at 7:20 am
My group and I are having the same damn problem! It’s like it’s spread to the whole uni. Last week, including yesterday, we had to submit 3 assignments and we had 2 tests. It’s like they’re asking us to choose between revising or completing the assignment. This really decreases the quality of our performance. And we were given only 2 weeks to complete the assignments. We can’t be expected to write 30 pages on each assignment in only two week and we had to carry out researches as well. :S
A la fin tou travail ti coumendir bacler, mem bane tests la
April 5th, 2009 at 7:59 am
@Splash:
also it would nice to have a poll among the student community to see how many prefer semester against yearly system.
Unfortunately, this would be useless, since the reason behind this yearwise system has already been revealed since long, I think you were yourself present when we asked the question.
@yud: You are right.
Unfortunately, we are not creative in MRU, its a fact.
Our education does not allow us to do this, since our time is spent in college and tuition + time to travel.
Above all that, the educators think that the only way to make us learn is to overload us with homeworks, assignments.
When the damn will we get the time to be creative?
April 5th, 2009 at 8:47 am
During my stay at uom hmmm… First of all it is a fact that humanities sylabus is 10 times less bulky than is and cse one. I duno why selman.
For my course we were taught only the theories and we have to apply it in actual context. We are marked on rational thinking more than theories. A bit like GP.
For is and cse , instead of teaching bits of everything , why not give the students an opportunity to specialize in one specific field. But wait if this happen how will lecturers get a life and salary.
Anyways good luck to is and cse students …
April 5th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I’ll rant after test week. I’m not into CSE nor IS as a whole. But I believe my rant will contribute as I am a 2nd year student doing BSc. (Hons.) Management (Minor: Information Systems).
April 5th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Very good post
I’ve been to 2 universities: UoM for BSc and Greenwich for MSc. Since most of you know the UoM environment, please allow me to illustrate what you said using the Greenwich way of teaching.
Here, there is only one assignment and one exams … plus some tutorials in between. The lecturers come and deliver their lecture and it is up to you to do most of the work.
The university decided to ban lectures on Wednesday afternoons to allow students to d group works, learn by themselves in the library or hold union meetings. This is a good measure which should be implemented in any university.
It’s true that most Mauritians do not know how to complain and do not complain when their rights are baffled. The complain mainly about petty things: mobile network coverage, food, rain … instead of fighting for their rights.
April 5th, 2009 at 11:59 am
@morinn:
I would even go as far as saying, it’s as if they are asking people to choose between revision, completing assignment, have a life, or keep our sanity!
@ yudz:
morinn illustrated that so well with that phrase
VERY VERY TRUE indeed!
@yashvin:
In mauritius i believe they want people to start to be creative at the age of 65, well am not so sure if the brain still works the same way at that age!
@yusha:
Well computer science i believe is about a lot of things, and you need to atleast have an idea of what is what, which is why there is so much, but still, forcing all that on student will not make em keen to learn new stuff or have any… love for that field at all. I believe more time should be given and slots for free time should also be considered.
@chaya:
Well i jsut took cse as example coz that’s the dept am having the most rants, but i guess this applies for most courses also…
you are welcome to post your rants 
@bruno:
That’s indeed a very interesting way of doing thing, i suppose the assignment would be tougher and cover up most stuffs, but still it is just one assignment.. you can have lesser stuffs to focus on…
also, the ‘it is up to you to do most of the work’ is what a univ is supposed to be, i guess that forcing things on student tends to make em even dumber.
ahh if only here they could see the uni life as a global thing instead of uni being just learn notes do assignments do exams.
hahahaha true, very true!!!!
April 5th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Did you forget the first year CSE students?
week 12 test week
week 13 final presentation comm
week 14 presentation of ssd project
week15/16 exams..
Just to elaborate on what Sun said. We are in the same class. But our *censored* lecturer sucks. He don’t even give a shit to explain well. Most of the time, he talks only to the front 1o to 15 students. And now since some few weeks, most of the students don’t even bother to go to his class. His class on All *Censored*days has a max number of students of 20 only. And the class has a population of 110 students. 20/110! !surely something must be wrong somewhere.Also, the lecturer has the biggest failure percentage in UOM{Avish knows that well} and still, he is there lecturering students.In the first semester test, 70% failed in *that subject*.
I have not gone in his class for months. It is more stupidity to go to his class and not being able to understand shit. He will keep on talking to the front guys and if anyone ask him a question, he will make as if he did not hear it. Screw that lecturer.
PS: I don’t care if he reads this or not.
Rant over.
back to my revision.
April 5th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
@Tushal: I think I know who that guy is!
And dudes of 1st year, you are not at the end of your sufferings! Bear with it, until something better happens.
April 5th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
ok
i didnt read what most you wrote..am just replying to the post..
i’ve been at uom for 3 yrs..my batch was the first one to have yearly modules..yashvin will know..we were from the same batch
we had the same kind of overloaded time tables..the 3rd yr was hell..we had the FYP..the assignments..tests exams..everything together..
i actually now realised it was a good thing we had so many stuff at the same time..now i can very easily handle enormous workloads at work..it some times happens that we have to look after 4-5 projects at the same time…and each come with their own amount of stress..
i am not a programmer..i don’t do coding and i have no clue..and i dn’t wanna know how things go on for programmers..but am telling u about my own experience..
today i dnt much of the stuff i learned at uni..hell i dnt do software engineering..am a system engineer not a software engineer..there was only 3 modules..which i can say helped me out a lot in what i do..Computer Networks, Parallel Processing and Network design and Services (i was doing CSE and i didnt network design and services on special request to the dept coz i needed that in my project) and thats it..oh yeah i couldn’t forget OnM which is very very helpful specially when u got to manage a team..
i still don’t agree with the yearly modules since we don’t get to go in depth with both of the modules combined..and having to revised somethng which u did in the previous semester is pretty tough..obviously..some who are good at learning stuff by reading in books succeed..other who require more practice..but who can actually have more potential than those previously mentionned get penalised..this is unfair..
have any of you studied in any uni abroad? maybe their input will be welcomed..as i feel we are all here biased by uom..so we cant say its all bad..
one thing is sure..many uom graduates are more sucessful than overseas graduates..having 100 students in a class..we are now becoming like abroad unis..a friend of mine told me there was about 150 students in his lecture..i aint talking of uom here..but some uni in bangalore..
uom aint the best uni..mais its all what ppl who cant afford otherwise can afford..i learned a lot of things from uom..as i said earlier i dnt use everything..c pas le but ene uni..ene uni pann fr pou montrer toi servi java ou oracle ou ene switch cisco..li la pou montrer toi kifer to servi oop..kifer to servi ene switch ek pas ene router..li la pou montrer toi concept la..ek mo dire zot frank..mne apprane boucou concept..ek sa ban concept la..nek apprane li pas servi toi nanien..to bizin kne fr ban parallel..develop to prop concept..
si to envi smtg ki pou servi toi at work..ale fr ene cour technique..ene uni c academic..pas technique..si zot check ban cours ki offert dans ban lezot uni check banla zot syllabus..ek ours..zot pou trouver li parey..ena meme topic ki couvert..ban meme concept..biensure..banla kav afford ale plis en details akoz zot ena plis moyen..
nu pauvre ici..mais sa pas veut dire ki nu pas kav emmerge..ek kouma yashvin inn dire..c pas ene boute papier ki dire ki to plis bon ki lot lala..kan to lor ene site kinn down..ek to ena pou remonte li akoz to ena plusieur milliers roupies ki p perdi sak minute ki to tarder..c pas to grade ki tne gagne ki pou tire dans dans beze la…
bon
pou revinn to the main point..
mne passe dans sa ban time table overloaded la..i’ve had my dose of sleepless nights..cki mo kav dire zot..cki zot p gagne uni la..li a walk in the park..trust me on that..take this as part of your learning..kone manage zot letemps..lepok mo ti uni mo ti bien pas konne manage li..mais mne apprane fr li…mo konner ki li facile dire mais difficile fr..mais c laeme kot zot apprane ene premier nivo management..,manage zot meme avant tout..
anyways
manz r li ban zenes..a bientot..
April 5th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Add please…
Medical science students had 10 weeks of placement in the middle of the year because of a ’sick’ lecturer.
So you imagine, we had much time for our dissertation.
last week we’re informed of a practical test/EXAM this week…dont even know if its an exam.LOL
ONE stupid lecturer comes and boasts a lot in class without teaching anything….
next….syllabus?whats that?
next… completion of courses? answer = MAYBE possible
April 5th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
nicely written DEA-|-H, but then… the point isn’t that univ workload is less than that of work… as we mentionned earlier… this is the exact problem.. univ workload is training people to become future slaves… people who won’t have time to think other than what they are assigned to do.
By that i mean, suppose you got an idea say.. a relation to find the nth prime number without requiring previous prime numbers.. just input n in the function and get the prime number in O(1) time. That would be a nice discovery..
but then, you got just an idea… its from such a small spark that bright creations usually starts.. but then, with such amount of work loads… will you ever get the time to think about it gain? Probably no.. unless you wish to sacrifice you degree.. right?
so over the time, you will probably forget about it.. or wait till univ is over, several years has passed.. now you also do know that your brain’s power just wither with time… will you have that same mental ability to continue on thinking hard that will lead you to that discovery?
Simmillary, a simple case, if you had an idea about a business, something that will really work, but with something taking up all your attention.. will you have the time to implement it? i guess no.. in the end.. you will always end up at someone working for someone else? right?
the thing is.. those kids here are not putting in question the authenticity of what they are given to learn at univ… sure it is important … but the issue of this “talk” is more about… is there enough time to think freely?
+$3|v3n
April 5th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
btw, i would like to add sometihng else, many of you have been mentionning a lecturer… i would like to remind you that no such attacks is allowed, remember that this post is not about how lecturers teach, but about why we are not given much time and why are we overloaded with work!
why we don’t have time to think by ourselves?
infact according to me that lecturer you mention… to me he seems to be good, since.. he doesn’t overload you with assignments.. that’s what is important, you have a lot of time to catch up and be able to think of other thing.. he also do give plenty of short exercises to work, which saves time but are to the point.
Whether he’s voice is low or manyt can’t adapt to his teaching methods does not concern this thread of discussion… as it is OUT of subject..
coz come on.. in a univ we are supposed to learn by ourselves. Only problem is… we are suffocated with all kind of works … which doesn’t really make sense!
April 5th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I have to agree with Selven here.
Lecturers are not always to be blamed for, specially the person who 1st year students are mentioning. If I am correct, it’s a “he” and even if his explanations are no good, he’s good in what he does actually. And no, he’s not teaching what he’s good at unfortunately.
That’s one of the major problems at UoM I think: Square pegs in round holes. Some lecturers are very good at their domain, but the unlucky thing is that they get to teach modules they are not familiar with. And at the end, students suffer.
And yeah, stop complaining about how lecturers don’t know how to teach. Remember, it’s uni. Uni is characterized by one thing: Learn on your own! You will need to learn and read stuff, and try to understand the concepts alone. Lecturers are guides, not teachers.
What I was ranting about is how their is no cooperation between them. How they give too much work without consideration for our time tables and our life. Their teaching is not flawless, but it’s sufficient. If you need help, ask questions! My class is shy, I will admit. No one wants to ask questions for x,y,z reasons. If you are shy too, go meet your lecturer after classes, or in their office. It really helps, trust me!
I was thinking about some solutions for our problems. Many of them came too late to be implemented or never will.
One interesting one is Joint Assignments. Some modules can work together. Consider Web and Database. Web is concerned with front end. DB is concerned with backend. So, simply collaborate and give a joint assignment, where the DB module corrects the DB part, and the Web module corrects the front-end part. I dunno if this is workable.
@Sun: You mention that working under stress at uni makes you better at work. True. You are more efficient. But are you more creative? I doubt that you will come up with bright and revolutionizing ideas at work on a regular schedule. If you were given the opportunity to study things more in depth at Uni, you would be able to bring in more ideas and invent things, instead of re-using the same old stuff.
I dunno what you actually do as work, but I say that if you had more time to actually enjoy uni, do extra-curricular stuff, interact more with people, and experiment on your own, it’d have been much better overall for you.
April 5th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Hi.
Your post makes me think much…..
am a Final Year student at UTM.
Well we are actually going on the 11th week of this semester and for the coming 5 weeks, the following are on the agenda:
- Test for 2 Modules
- 6 assignments:
> AI
> Security
>Large Scale Systems Architecture
> Mobile(3 assignments)
-SMS
-WAP
-J2ME game
+
{ Final Year project (to be submitted by 20th April).}
Means, for us..in some ways..there’s no time for creativity.
We have already got into the “modern slavery” life right from the university days
The lecturers….(they are good indeed)..but..don’t they realise that we are afterall….humans..??..
MayB its a good course of learning..but…
Enfin …
April 6th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
@bobok:
nice name indeed.. hahahaha
sometimes… some lecturers just see students as just another batch or figures on paper… they don’t realize that they are in some way handling the destiny of some people in their hands…
@ inf
exactly.
I wonder if you guys can propose such an idea.. seems really… VERY GOOD.
@H_land
poor you, i guess this thing is present at utm also… i believe there is a serious flaw in such ways of teaching as students we are the one that really… turn out to be the ultimate losers since. Usually people who design such stuffs about education don’t really feel anything about it… as they are no more students.. how can they understand the need of the student?
hmmm seems you guys have an interesting list of things to do at utm
, just to bad time will not make you enjoy it or have enough time to experiment with them.
+$3|v3n
April 6th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
@Inf
agreed
@all
ban zenes ale apprane/fr assignment trankille..arete plaigner..zot p ecrire long long post..zot ti kav fini bat ene lab la :p lol
cya later..
April 6th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I scanned for any LLB Yr 2 student, couldnt find any! Must be coz they’re all revising for our Wednesday test!
To be fair, our course allows creativity to some extent. I remember when we were in our first year, we had to make our first presentation, and the lecturer gave us free rein. We did come up with some very creative stuff, earning much praise (and marks!) from the lecturer!
It might depend on the course you are doing, i dont know (not having done any other course except the present one!). Since i can talk only about mine, i’d say that we do have room to manoeuvre: we can be creative IF WE WANT TO, our lecturers are very understanding – they dont drop a test on us when we’re already having one that week, they agree to extend assignment deadlines if we have to submit more than one, and the like.
Of course, sometimes it does get too much. Our tests are extremely energy-sapping, and its a very demanding course (like all others, i’m sure). i personally cant do anything other than sleep in front of the telly on the day after a test!
But like someone mentioned above, the way we’re being taught at uni can have its advantages too! We’ll be able to work well under pressure and subject to tight dealines later on, we’ll stop relying on people to spoonfeed us (like we were when we were in secondary school).
I, for one, have learnt a lot there, not just academically, but in terms of studying independently, working quickly and efficiently, developing time-management skills and so on. I know that i am now much more organised than i ever was, and all thanks to UOM!
Courage, les amis, it wont last forever, and though it may seem unlikely now, you’ll probably be thanking UOM too, one day!
April 6th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
@ Death and Anikka ..
I think you are having trouble understanding what exactly the goal of this thread…
its not about asking lecturers to be more helpful and more clear, but instead, to leave people more alone so as they can learn by themselves more and more…
its not about whether lecturers are good or not… but about, whether the students are treated as academics who can also think by themselves…
its not about training to work under pressure… its about realizing that we will be under pressure all the way after univ, and we won’t have that precious time to be alone with ourselves and to think. A human brain is very powerful, leave it alone and it can make wonders…
by that i mean, instead of letting the industry force student into learning about the industry and how to cope with ACTUAL workload… let students learn to wake up that philosophical part of themselves, that visionary aspect of themselves, sure many don’t have that, but those who do have it.. their talent will fade away with time if they don’t have the time to use their gifts…
many as i see seems to have the tendency to think that the goal of going to a university is to get a training to get a job… if that were the case… then the human race will be something completely stagnant.. working on the same thing over and over again. with minor improvements with companies that focuses in research.. but still then… after the age of 27.. a human being doesn’t have the same brain he has when he was younger…
I believe a univ is a place to create new knowledge rather than just use existing knowledge… and its only younger and fresher brains that can do that more efficiently…
as far as i know… about the stress and stuffs, all those year 2 are doing their assignments and coping with their tests… but still they know and many are sad that they will never be able to have the time to experiment fully with their newly gained knowledge.. since they will be needed to do other assignments :p so they just need to do it like at work… just do what we are told to do and nothing more!
+$3|v3n
April 7th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Selven,
All i can say is that i dont find that my course is killing my creativity or preventing me from developing the way i want to, or only training me to get a job later on. Thats why i said i can only talk about my course.
I suppose its not the same for other courses, in which case i would like to point out, as a few others have already done, that this is a mere extension of the situation in our colleges, where students have to limit themselves to what the teachers tell them to do (and even if they wanted to go beyond that, there wouldnt be time for them to do it, what with homework, tuition, etc)
Creativity is not allowed to flourish in our colleges, especially at HSC level. I remember how i absolutely loved creative writing, and while i was still in Form 5, i could still write creative essays, but as soon as i stepped in Lower 6, poof! Nowhere to pour my creativity (i tried doing that in GP, but quickly realised that i’m not “supposed” to be creative in GP, i just had to write what the teacher thought was right!)
In the end, the problem lies in our education system itself. It produces academically sound individuals, but creativity-wise, they are very poor and sort of…underdeveloped! (cant find a better term!)
Just another thing before ending this: the grass always seems greener elsewhere, and i saw someone talking of the English system. The unis are pretty cool there, sure, but other than that, the system is abysmal! My uncle was in Mauritius last week, he’s been living in England for the past 40 years, and you should have heard him ranting about the education system there, especially the number of drop-outs.
All this to say that we may have problems with our system, but so does every other country with theirs, and it does not do to slate our system just for the sake of it (Note that i am NOT targetting anyone here!)
Cheers!
April 7th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
indeed… but then, according to my beliefs, the entire education system of the whole world is flawed
..lol
thanks for your comment on this
April 8th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
This post really scare the shit out of me.. i applied CS first choice for this year’s intake.. now i’m seriously thinking to do lighter stuff like IS ..
April 9th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
there is no need to be scared. also IS is no lighter than CSE, its almost same.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
@giga
lol IS is as screwed up as CS.
Actually, its not the nature of the modules which are hard, if you love it, you’ll like it and won’t find it much hard…
the problem is… they tend to overload you with work.. and in the end, you don’t get enough time to play with all that you have learnt.. or trying to learn.
ps. do it only if you love it
April 9th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
I love computing lol.. programming etc. I even made a webbrowser in VB6 and made a stuff known as ESET login viewer for getting ESET user/pass (google gigabyte89 login viewer) & a server patch for eset. LOL.. well hopefully i will not get bombarded with work..
April 10th, 2009 at 8:31 am
:p well good for you :p i hope that when you shall be learning new thing at univ, that you shall have the time to continue thinking of new things to write
I’ll check that gigabyte89 later on :p
April 10th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Thanks.. surely i will learn lol, these were not difficult things actually.. VB6 ain’t real programming
April 10th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
hahaha @ giga :p amen!
April 24th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I cant be bothered to read all the comments but the video was awesome
April 24th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
June 8th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Hi all,
I have gone through your post.
Well i was a student at UoM too, there were classes when even i did not understand much, there are a couple of things i would like to share with you though:
It pays to ‘pester’ your lecturer outside class to clarify all your doubts. If you have not understood something during class, make it a point not to leave uni on that day without grasping the concept.
You are entitled to contact hours outside lecture hours to contact your lecturers for any problems….use that efficiently.
Arrange for a couple of group sessions , say once a week to quickly revise on major topics, these work…trust me on that.
One thing i like to say is that you need to work on your own a lot. Do get access to resources or books and read the required chapters, the lecture notes are just about of main concepts, for a thorough understanding of the topic, the recommended text book is a judicious choice!!!
Gavin SATHAN
June 8th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
@gavin,
issue is not about ‘understanding’ what is being taught, its about … the massive slaughtering of creativity of students, making em turn into by the books kids without leaving em time to put in practice what they learnt and do something much more ‘what they believe can be made from it’ rather than ‘learn what was taught’.
For example, overloading people with lots of really dumb assignments which are sooo simple at times that it is just considerred as time waste, but one needs to do it to get the degree.
It would have been much more productive to give one really really tough assignment which would require lots of out of the box thinking rather than 10 easy but nagging assignments.. and this is just an example.
+selven