582 replies to this topic

[spanky123]

I don't think much will change until students waken up to the reality that five year degrees could be easily completed in two.

 

It's bonkers, isn't it, that we move from high school where we spend 8:45AM - 3PM every day early September to late June, to university, where students spend three hours in class per day, from early September to early April.

 

Universities are incented to have students attending classes as long as they can.

[m3m]

I don't think much will change until students waken up to the reality that five year degrees could be easily completed in two.

 

It's bonkers, isn't it, that we move from high school where we spend 8:45AM - 3PM every day early September to late June, to university, where students spend three hours in class per day, from early September to early April.

 

The difference is that in high school, the students are children and their guardians have a legal duty to provide shelter and food. As well, the tuition is free.

 

University students are often living on their own, paying their own tuition, and covering their own living expenses, because... they're not children. Devoting 8 hours a day to school and then hours on top of that for homework and studying is not feasible when you have to pay rent and put food on the table yourself. 

[laconic]

In the past degrees from online universities have had less of a cachet. That will probably change in the future for some professions, though you so probably don't want a surgeon with a degree from University of Pheonix Online.

In the IT world, outside of major institutions, it has generally been more acceptable to hire people based on "show me your work", "let me see your portfolio", or "show me your code".

[m3m]

Most of the exams I had were open book exams. They required you to identify issues and apply the knowledge you learned and present an answer.  Far more difficult to cheat on an essay type of an exam than a multiple choice or true and false exam. 

[AllseeingEye]

Being old school pardon the pun, meaning being a university student in the dark ages before this internet thingy showed up - at least the commercialized version of it, back then it was the ARPA-Net and was strictly a US military-university system confined to those very few chosen folks with access - I'm glad I had to take the traditional route through undergrad and grad school i.e. being physically on site more or less always.

 

IMO sitting on your bum either by choice or by medical edict on a computer in a basement means you lose much of the university experience including meeting and interacting with people who ultimately become friends for life. As a result of time physically at Uvic and UBC my own circle of lifetime friends probably tripled. My daughter today by contrast loves the fact she does most of her learning at Camosun by "distance". Personally I would have chafed at the thought but of course its a different generation today. She has to transfer to UVic next year and its my hope she is able to spend much if not most of her time on campus to really immerse herself in the experience.

 

Back to the Dark Ages: in addition to knowing the UVic (and UBC) library stacks intimately for my areas of study and spending probably a few thousand hours up there at all times and days over 6.5 years, often you did that with your chums, meaning for all practical intents your cohort studied together, you ate together, often had part time jobs working together - I bounced at both the UVic and UBC pubs - had coffee and cigarettes together (yes Virginia you really could smoke in the basement of the Mearns Center or whatever they call the main library these days); and you certainly partied your brains out and drank copious amounts of alcohol together in the old Sub Pub, which I understand these days has all the excitement of a tooth extraction procedure.

 

And unlike a hard science or "Comp Sci" where tested knowledge was a yes/no proposition - either you could code or you couldn't, either you knew the material such as the lifecycle of malaria (a standard first year Biology test question) or you didn't - hence the emphasis on rote memory skills - the social sciences such as Poli Sci required that you spend the requisite time in the stacks reading everything that was published and relevant to whatever 30,000 word paper you were working on, in addition to the fact profs back then typically had been published for years or even decades in order to achieve their tenured position, meaning they had read practically everything there was to know on that subject. That in turn mean "whoa" to the poor sap who dared copy and paste or plagiarize any scrap of that material because the profs were generally_very familiar with which authors in that field wrote which reference materials. Punishment was harsh and it was swift....

 

I saw one guy in grad school who submitted a 15,000 word essay where it was 99.99% original or appropriately re-written material, cited correctly with the exception of three paragraphs which he unwisely included in his final draft on the second to last page of the paper - verbatim - and un-cited. Prof recognized it instantly, he'd taught that course after all for over 20 years so no surprise, and that grad class quickly had one less student - he was expelled summarily literally on the spot.

[Nparker]

...IMO sitting on your bum either by choice or by medical edict on a computer in a basement means you lose much of the university experience including meeting and interacting with people who ultimately become friends for life. As a result of time physically at UVic and UBC my own circle of lifetime friends probably tripled...

This.

[Mike K.]

The difference is that in high school, the students are children and their guardians have a legal duty to provide shelter and food. As well, the tuition is free.

 

University students are often living on their own, paying their own tuition, and covering their own living expenses, because... they're not children. Devoting 8 hours a day to school and then hours on top of that for homework and studying is not feasible when you have to pay rent and put food on the table yourself. 

 

Sounds like these serious adults have too much time on their hands.

 

[Victoria Watcher]

A cluster of COVID-19 cases associated with the University of Victoria community rose to 124 as of Monday, a day after the school moved all exams online.

Lab sequencing found at least four cases of Omicron among the cluster and it’s expected that additional cases of the variant of concern will be identified, according to a joint statement from Island Health and the university.

The health authority and UVic are not aware of any hospitalizations associated with the 124 cases, according to the statement.

https://www.vicnews....micron-variant/

[Mike K.]

What are the high school children doing right and the university adults doing wrong?

[Victoria Watcher]

First-year computer-science student Baz Cox was studying in the library Sunday when he learned through a friend that his Monday-afternoon exam would no longer be held in person. His professor sent out four or five emails Sunday evening to the class, explaining how the 2 p.m. exam would proceed online.

 

While students were told the evaluation would not be open-book, Cox said he’s skeptical professors will be able to enforce that. Having written two exams in person, he said he feels he’s at a disadvantage because students taking the same courses will now get to write those exams from home, potentially with access to their notes and textbooks.

 

https://www.timescol...ncelled-4861215

[Mike K.]

How can students taking 'the same course' write exams on different days? Are profs teaching the same classes at different times of the day now?

[Victoria Watcher]

How can students taking 'the same course' write exams on different days? Are profs teaching the same classes at different times of the day now?

 

If it's a very popular course, might it be cut into two or three different classes, maybe taught by different professors too?

 

Certainly when I was at UVic, we had a mandatory first-year English class for all year #1 students, and there were many of them.   My class was only ~30 so presumably there were dozens of others.

 

But it also seems to me we did all do exams together in larger rooms, for the purposes of fairness.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 December 2021 - 08:52 PM.

[Mike K.]

Oh yeah, make sense. And yes, I now remember these classes were indeed taken at the same time. Maybe now it's different? It's been a while.

[phx]

Lab sequencing found at least four cases of Omicron among the cluster and it’s expected that additional cases of the variant of concern will be identified, according to a joint statement from Island Health and the university.
 

 

 

As usual, DBH and co. are late to the game.  

 

There was an earlier outbreak up-island that must have been Omicron by the way it spread.  Would the students have been more careful had they known?  Not all, but I expect some would.

 

[Victoria Watcher]

Due to concerns with rising cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, and in consultation with KFL&A Public Health, Queen’s University will be transitioning most Winter 2022 academic activities delivered in Ontario to remote delivery until the end of reading week on Feb. 28, 2022. This is a proactive measure to support the health and safety of the Queen’s and Kingston communities and align with Ontario’s accelerated booster dose rollout for all individuals aged 18 and over.

 

With some very limited exceptions, which are themselves subject to change should public health considerations require it, all courses will be taught remotely until Feb. 28, 2022. 

 

 

https://www.queensu....y-february-2022

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 December 2021 - 04:18 AM.

[Cats4Hire]

Uvic is online only until at least January 24 https://www.uvic.ca/...s-update notice

[max.bravo]

UVIC is currently hiring for a job titled 

Manager, Sexualized Violence Education, Prevention and Support

 

The salary range for this position is: $86,217 -  $123,935

https://ca.indeed.co...from=serp&vjs=3

Job Summary

 

The University of Victoria recognizes that sexualized violence is a significant and systemic issue on our campus and in society. The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) sets out that the mission of Sexual Violence-Related Programs and Services is to end sexual violence on campuses and to engage campus communities in creating a safe, supportive, and responsive environment for all members affected when sexual violence occurs.

 

At UVic, the Manager, Sexualized Violence Education, Prevention and Support will support the Associate Director, EQHR, in taking a lead role in implementing the university’s Sexualized Violence Prevention and Response Policy, particularly in relation to a campus-wide strategic and coordinated approach to prevention and support for all students, faculty and staff. The Manager’s work will acknowledge the intersection of social identities and related systems of oppression, domination or discrimination as well as people’s position within university structures, hierarchies, and power relations.

 

Co-developing and leading a university-wide strategic sexualized violence prevention plan, including the development, delivery, and coordination of curriculum and programming; 2) leading the efforts of the sexualized violence resource office which will is the centralized hub for advice, information, support, and policy options for all students, staff, and faculty; and 3) collaborating with key university units and stakeholders to both prevent and respond to incidents of sexualized violence in accordance with the Universities Sexualized Violence Prevention and Response Policy

 

 

 

I wonder what the KPIs are for measuring success... If they achieve the elimination of sexualized violence, does the manager lose their job for redundancy, or do they get a bonus?

Edited by max.bravo, 09 May 2022 - 10:54 AM.

[lanforod]

Given students turn over 20% or so every year, it'll never be eliminated, there will always be things to do for a role like that. Sad that it is necessary, but it is necessary, IMO.

[amor de cosmos]

The University of Victoria is set to offer what it says is the world's first master's degree in Indigenous reconciliation in partnership with the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres (BCAAFC) next year.
 
Earlier this month, the province announced $8.4 million in funding for B.C.'s social services sector to develop a reconciliation framework over the next five years. 
 
Overseen by the BCAAFC, the framework will include a master's degree in business administration in Indigenous reconciliation and a training program for people working in Indigenous nonprofit organizations.
 
"We wanted to develop a really customized MBA that really focuses on Indigenous not-for-profit practices," BCAAFC executive director Leslie Varley said on CBC's On the Island. 
 
"So I put out a tender to six universities in B.C., and we got some really, really good responses, and we decided to go with UVIC."

https://www.cbc.ca/n...-uvic-1.6527540

[Spy Black]

The "Reconciliation Industry" is really picking up steam!

 

The millions of dollars currently flowing into First Nations coffers could potentially be billions of dollars within the next 5 years, especially with dozens of MBA's running around and keeping the cash flowing.

 

40 years ago young folks were told that "plastics" were the future, then 30 years ago "computers" were the future ... in 2022 it would seem a wise choice to recommend to young folks that "First Nations reconciliation" is the next big thing, and if you want that SFD in Oak Bay, a 40' boat and a BMW, it's the new, hip industry on which to hang your hat.