Nightmare Assignment

HOW WE GOT DATA

Ethnographic

• Personal observation during lectures (more technical)
• Limited because of nature of learning experience- individual
• We always qualify to comment as we are students
Interviews (focus)
- 12 people in all (excluding us)
- each of us interviewed 4 persons
- 2 friends (more willing to be frank), 2 strangers (diff views as we tend to have same group of friends)

PROBLEMS FOUND PLUS SOLUTIONS

Technical

- equipment not user
- friendly (lecturer doesn’t know how to use, so waste time) training session for lecturers, get tech idiots to choose the AV equipment, attach a technician to these lecturers
- but note that it is better to teach one how to fish than give fish
- poor temperature control (subjective) can’t satisfy everyone, wear less and bring a sweater- low screen leading to poor visibility by shorter students sitting at the back taller positioning of screens- too cramped seats with insufficient leg space

Students

- bad view of screen tall people should just sit behind
- shy to speak up culture change/ technical: logging in real time to contribute
- laptop charging facilities only available at back of lecture build more power supply sockets
- latecomers are disruptive thought of building 2 levels like in UCC but not feasible, thought of imposing fines on latecomers but will not affect the rich → can scan matric card as attendance (but thought that people might get friends to help), so can do fingerprint scanning instead
- help lecturers feel more secure having webcast for those who really can’t make it on that day cause this method ensures attendance
- loud keyboard typing sounds see below- talkative use of technical equipment (soundproof headphones
- those who are hygiene freaks or are feeling too rich can purchase a personal set or coax the school to change new sets every few years. Lighted student seat/ soundproof bell), culture (could it be lecturer’s fault indirectly as well?)

Lecturers

- speak in monotone/ high pitch use of technical equipment to adjust pitch as lower pitches with varying tone have been proven more beneficial for maximal absorption
- talk too fast but if use technology to slow down pace, when people reach home, you might still be there listening to the recorded lecture
- too much information in a single lecture
- information overload get lecturers to better manage workload and cater to students’ tastes by holding surveys, resist the temptation to impart a lifetime of knowledge in one and a half hours
- not sensitive to students’ needs: when we are tired, don’t give break technically, could use technical equipment to vote for a break and alert the lecturer when majority opts for one
- refuse to end punctually, hence the students who may need to leave earlier for a next class may miss crucial things like exam tips and be deprived of a chance to listen through a lecture in its entirety like the above problem, could try not giving lecturers performance bonus
- boring: can cause people to talk/ doze off bring gadgets/ samples like Mr. Reddy did with the cameras and scents, hold surveys/ ratings (but not very effective because locals tend to be polite about this), make lecturers memorise some related jokes when all else fails (it worked for a GEK module I took)
- not uploading notes before lecture culture in Singapore to be kiasu. Some lecturers in other countries may feel this impedes learning,but because of Singaporean culture, we tend to copy everything even when there are no notes; even harder to listen
- quality of notes



BUT....
• Tools are only as good as their user
• Majority of people interviewed mentioned that lecturer is still the most important
• Which way the lecture goes depends on the lecturer: if interesting, people naturally find it easier to follow through and recall/ be silent & punctual out of respect (top down cultural change)
• We admit that being students, we could be biased about the solutions
• If lecturers were to do this assignment…

CONCLUSION: cultural solutions

Good points of cultural solutions:
- get to root of problem
- save $$
- technology can be unreliable at times (headphones could spoil)
- inventions cannot solve the problem and we do not want to churn out inconsiderate noisy people from NUS (macro- societal level)

Bad points of cultural solutions:
- takes a long time to implement and see changes
- people cannot be controlled, could be too stubborn to change, should respect human rights

WHAT WE REALISED
- Everyone is different, can’t please everyone
- No one blamed their own attitude (including us)