The Crunch Time

It's crunch time for me--and for you. For me, I've got 18 projects due for my "other employer" for a December 1 deadline. (No, that's not a typo: eighteen projects.) Then, I've got 2 more projects due later in the month. That's on top of marking term papers, prepping exams, and getting courses ready for next term.

As for you, you should be well underway writing your term papers--not deciding on topics, or looking for papers and books to read. If you want the best possible mark, now is go time.

Not getting the marks you want so far this term? It's not too late. I've written posts on improving exam prep, learning, and studying; just click on the Category links on the right side of this page. I've also got a page of study resources for you.

The Student Success Centre has workshops coming up soon, but you better hurry, time is running out! Need help writing your term paper, the Centre for Writers is still open, but only until the last day of class (but that's when your term papers are due anyway, right?).

Why aren't you studying?

The Snow Day

I knew it was going to be a bad day when, in driving my older daughter to school, there were two collisions on the way. Her school is less than 2 km away. Then I saw traffic backed up for at least six blocks. Yup, a bad one. I got home to pick up my younger daughter and take her to daycare, but had to shovel the driveway. And then I got stuck. That’s why I’m at home writing this blog post while watching Elmo’s World.

I’ve never missed an exam in my life. (Once, as a student, a snowstorm made me late for an exam--but it made everyone else late, too.) And I’ve never been snowed out of getting to class. Today, both of those perfect records have fallen.

There was good news and bad news about the exam. The good news was that my stalwart teaching assistant lives close to campus and was able to hike in and proctor the exam. Students, stuck in the snow, wiped out in the ditch, or abandoned by the transit system, were sending me a blizzard of emails and tweets asking what to do. My brilliant solution? Hold the exam again, during the next class. Brilliant, except that the Associate Dean (Undergraduate) of Science sternly reminded the Department of Psychology that that’s not allowed--exams have to take place according to the syllabus. No exceptions. That’s the bad news.

It would have been nice to get more advance notice about this snowfall. Environment Canada’s weather office issued a snowfall warning at 9:15 a.m. MST. Really? By this point, ETS had tweeted about weather delays, the Edmonton Police Service had told people to stay off the streets, and I was up to my knees shoveling snow. Don’t need a warning at that point. When I checked the weather last night before going to bed, only 6-10 cm of snow was forecast for today. The 9:15 warning predicted up to 25 cm, with my end of town already hammered by 18 cm.

Obviously, we can’t prevent a snowstorm, but knowing about it more in advance would have been a big help.

Why aren’t you studying?

The Udacity Partnership

Earlier today the UofA signed a MOU (memorandum of understanding) with Udacity to develop a research partnership about MOOCs (massive open online courses). In a MOOC, the entire course is done online, for free. You may or may not get some kind of credit for participating and completing it; you may have to pay for a certificate. So far, you can't use these MOOCs for credit towards an actual degree.

This morning at 10:00, a group of instructors, researchers, and administrators met with Sebastian Thrun, who cofounded Udacity. (Yes, this is one of the "secret projects" I'm currently involved in. Now it's not a secret anymore.) Thrun, who gave a talk about MOOCs on campus last month, showed us his content creation system, which runs as an iPad app. Even in pre-alpha, it was pretty slick, allowing videos, sketches, and interactive quizzes to be put together to create a course, which can also be "consumed" via an i-device.

MOOCs raise many important questions about pedagogy (the "science of education"), instruction, interactivity, and the role of universities. We're thinking about those. But the reason I'm writing this post is to get the view of students on MOOCs.

What do you think about free, online courses? Would you take one? Why? What would you want to get from it? Would it help your mom learn about psychology (or whatever your major is)? Or for your younger sister in high school, who hasn't decided what topic to study in post-secondary education (much less her future career)? Would you take it to supplement what you're learning in your in-person, for-credit class? Or would you want to get your whole degree online, instead of going to meat-space classes? (Hmm, isn't that already available?)

Why aren't you studying?

The Open Comments: 5

With midterms done/coming up or whatever your case may be (in my case, always both), it's time again to open it up for any comments you have.

Questions? Concerns? Can't hear me in the back? Don't wait until the end of term evaluations to tell me. I know I've been a bit low energy recently--this darn gastroenteritis. Ooh, that reminds me: it's time for my annual flu shot again. Are you going to get one? I don't know about you, friend, but I don't want to be laid up in bed during finals.

Why aren't you studying?

The Changes

So far, 2012 has been a year stuffed full of changes. My wife moved her practice to a different clinic. My oldest daughter switched to a different school. We have a new neighbour. Our basement is in the process of being developed. (You never realize how much stuff is in your basement until you have to move it all into the garage.) My sister-in-law got a new dog. (OK, so maybe that last one isn’t a big impact on my life.)

At work, too, there have been more changes this year than in the last decade. The Department of Psychology General Office has seen a major changeover in admin staff. (See The Cuts for more.)

I’ve had to adapt to some pretty major changes in my teaching schedule, too. Each Department makes up a “master schedule” of all classes, which includes information on who’s teaching what course, when each courses is being taught (term and time of day), and in which classrooms. Starting this year, some longer-range planning has been implemented. Now, people within each “area” of specialization in the Department of Psychology have to agree on who is going to teach which courses for the next 2 years. In principle, this is good planning. Unfortunately for me, as a teaching-focused Faculty Lecturer, my courses fall into three different areas: Cognition (PSYCO 258 and 494), Behaviour, Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience (PSYCO 267 and 365), and Comparative Cognition and Behaviour (PSYCO--whoops, that hasn’t been announced yet).

So far, not so bad. But there has also been a change in policy about when classes are offered. An analysis showed that most PSYCO courses were being offered between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., and most of them were on Tues/Thurs (“TR”), making it hard for psychology majors to register for all of the classes they needed to complete their degrees. As a result, a new policy was introduced, requiring 200-level courses to be 50-minute classes offered on Mon/Wed/Fri (“MWF”), 300-level courses on TR (meaning 80-minute classes), and 400-level courses to be on MWF (again, 50-minute classes).

This term, all of my courses were flipped. My PSYCO 104 was moved from MWF to TR; I haven’t taught it as an 80-minute class since 1997. I’ve designed, tweaked, and adjusted it to be a 50-minute class for 15 years, and now had to change it--syllabus, lectures, exams--to fit into 80 minutes. In addition, my usual 80-minute classes--PSYCO 267 and 494--changed to 50-minute ones. I’ve never once taught 267 as a 50-minute class, and the last time I taught 494 in 50 minutes was 2004. I’ve never been so busy prepping “old” classes before.

Lastly, even where classes are being held has changed for me this year. This term, one of my classes is scheduled in my least favourite room, and the others are slotted in rooms that are just slightly too big. Here’s the problem: If the room holds 413 people, and enrollment is capped at 390, there will be empty seats. Students come to class and see a certain number of empty seats every time, and go, “Huh. Not everybody is showing up to class. Why should I?” As a result, attendance drops steadily during the term. This general effect is called “social proof” (HT: Jennifer Passey). So I’ve actually asked for enrollment in most of my classes to be maxed out to room capacity. Bigger isn’t always better.

On top of all these changes, and the extra work they entail, I’ve also got to work on a new prep (academic lingo for “new course”). But that’s another post.

Why aren’t you studying?

The Commercial Message

I get a lot of requests from people who want to make an announcement in my class. Usually, they want to talk to my first- and second-year classes, probably because these are in huge rooms with hundreds of students. Some of the information is important, like raising awareness of UAlberta resources available to students, like the Peer Support Centre or student groups like the Undergraduate Psychology Association (I was a member of the UPA back when I was an undergraduate!). Although this is useful information to some students, I’m thinking that a lot of this is redundant with the New Student Orientation.

There are others who want to make a presentation about something not at all related to the university, per se. They want to encourage students to Study  Abroad! Get Volunteer Experience! Run Your Own Business! Or when it's SU election time, I'm flooded with requests. (Unfortunately, election time coincides with midterm time.) Is this appropriate in class?

I let someone give a presentation to my class the other day; they had arranged for this time weeks in advance. The thing was, the presentation went on and on and on. Eventually, when the person finished, they had burned through almost 10 minutes of my class time, and left me with a class that was totally not wanting to listen to anything I had to say for a long time. Thanks a lot. I will never let anyone from that organization give a presentation to any of my classes ever again.

Here are my rules for people who want to present something--anything--to my classes.

• Do not come into the room and start talking to my class without asking my permission and scheduling a date in advance. It’s like you’ve taken over my room. Please don’t. Even if I am not in the room yet. If I get there late and there’s not enough time for you to talk, sorry.
• Do not wait for me to introduce you, or tell you to get started. I am not going to introduce you, unless you are an invited guest. Introductions from me may seem to students like an endorsement.
• Show up early, if you need to ask me for permission. I may say no, depending on what I have planned for that class, or what you’re selling. Best to email me in advance and ask me for permission. I’ll send you a link to this blog posting. (Whoa--recursiveness!)
• Do not take up any of my class time. You can talk to my class while I’m setting up. If you have lots of information to give, you better talk fast. Once class time starts, you are done.
• I am not going to give you a microphone. You need to talk loud to get the attention of the class and to be heard over the general noise. I need to clip my mic on and get the audio system set up for myself, so you're on your own. Good luck.
• You do not get to use the computer/PowerPoint or the projector. If you do, then I cannot log in or set up my lectures (this takes an agonizingly long time--up to 10 minutes). If you get there before me and log in, then after you're finished I will have to waste class time logging you out (which reboots the computer), then logging in, and setting up; I will not be happy with your or your group, and won't let you present to my classes again. Yes, I have a blacklist (see above anecdote).
• You can email me web links, posters, or contact information, which I may post to eClass. (If you prefer, I may post your message in the announcements forum on eClass instead of an in-class presentation.)
• Only one presentation per day. First come, first served.
• If I have sent you a link to this post, you must email me back saying that you agree to all of these conditions and what your favourite colour of M&M is, otherwise your permission to present to my class is hereby revoked.

What do you, as students, think of these rules? Do you want to hear commercial messages? Are you already coping with information overload? Do you pay attention to the messages in class?

Why aren’t you studying?

The Paperless (Digital) Office

I just dropped off the paperwork for my Winter term coursepacks. Yes, already. They’ve got to go through copyright clearance before they can be copied, and that deadline is coming up October 1. I don’t want to be late...er, like I was with my Fall term coursepack.

The strange thing about this paperwork is that it actually was paper. Yeah, I did submit a copyright clearance spreadsheet via email, but I also had to lug paper copies of all the forms that SUBPrint needs, the table of contents, and hardcopies of every single reading in the coursepack. It strikes me as odd, because I’ve been working hard toward a “paperless office,” converting as much paper-based stuff to e-formats as I can.

Back in 2000, I was probably one of the first (if not the first) instructor to email my exams to SSDS (Specialized Support and Disability Services). (This is the office that handles, among other things, exam proctoring for students with disabilities.) I had a blind student in my perception class (yeah, that was a challenge to teach), and SSDS needed my exams in a format that could be read out loud by JAWS. I’ve been submitting my exams in PDF format via email ever since--saves me from walking over there to drop off every exam.

With the recent budget cutbacks, I’ve had to reduce hard copies of the syllabus in almost all of my courses. The exception is PSYCO 104: I want students to have something in their hands to read. Those classes are large, so copying is still a big expense. Funny, though, I’ve got nearly a hundred copies left--I guess a lot of students got theirs in PDF format from my website. Maybe I won’t need any hardcopy handouts soon.

My office is still filled with lots and lots of paper. One bookshelf has textbooks. But even there, things are moving digital. I can get online access to almost any textbook I need (yes, for free) from CourseSmart.com, a company set up by five of the largest textbook publishers as a platform for delivering ebooks. I do still like hardcopies, though. The tangible feeling of a book is something I’d miss.

Another shelf has print copies of the journals I subscribe to. It’s nicer to read long texts on paper, but for quick reference, I’ll go to an e-version. Plus, if I’m at home, I’m not about to go back to my office just to look something up in a hardcopy journal. And that brings me back to my coursepack situation.

Due to the UofA’s new copyright agreement, I have to submit hardcopies of my coursepack to the Copyright Office. They clear each work to make sure that it’s legally OK to make copies, and then they send everything to SUBPrint printing, and SUBPrint ships everything to the Bookstore. Even though I now have PDF copies of all coursepack materials, I’m not allowed to submit electronic copies. Why? That’s not exactly clear.

Otherwise, this new copyright scheme is great. A coursepack that used to cost $63.43 under the old agreement in Winter, 2012 costs just $25.50 in Fall, 2012 term--a savings of $37.93! Of course, under the new agreement, the UofA has to pay Access Copyright $26 for each full-time equivalent student. I doubt the UofA will just eat that; they’re going to pass that cost along to students, right? So maybe the savings aren’t so great.

Aside from going from paper to e-formats, I’m also converting everything else analog to digital. I’ve got a set of VHS tapes of a series called Discovering Psychology that I’ve finally converted to DVD because a lot of the newer classrooms no longer have VHS players. (By the way, I bought a licence to make a copies. It's all legit.) In this case, DVDs won’t be the final step. It won’t be long before the computers in classrooms no longer have built-in DVD players. By then, though, we’ll all have bionic implants, so that won’t matter. I’ll just beam the lectures from my cyborg brain-chip to yours.

Why aren’t you studying?