Personally, I find myself switching between being an extrovert and an introvert. It's baffling sometimes, but short of being a schizophrenic, I think I've found somewhat of a nice balance between the two, finding benefits of each in different situations. I'd probably need to be more of an extrovert though, if nothing else, only if to start working on the issues in my previous entry.
I've found myself speaking up more in classes. Asking questions, clarifying things, pointing out mistakes, and generally just participating in lessons. I don't think I'm that guy who just interrupts a lesson as a way to seek attention, and I really hope my classmates don't think so too. Sometimes I feel embarrassed when I ask, in retrospect, a silly question, but most times, I think my participation in class has really helped me learn better. It definitely has helped me to stay awake, that's for sure, and doing a part-time degree where classes are few and far in between, I really think that every moment in class is precious.
Which is part of the reason why I feel very strongly when I think I'm not getting the most out of the class. When a lecturer appears to be wasting our time that I wonder how the hell he/she got the job in the first place. I've conferred with some of my classmates and realised that I was not alone in my anger and frustration. So here's part 1 of my log on my dissatisfaction with two lecturers in UniSIM, and a general unhappiness with UniSIM's standard of choosing lecturers. A general unhappiness with UniSIM's standard, period.
I am undertaking a module called Audio Technology for my Degree in Multimedia Technology & Design. This module is pretty much Digital Electronics from my Diploma in Electronics, Computer & Communication Engineering, so while there are some differences, I already have the basic understanding of what is being taught. My classmate, Kyle, also has an engineering diploma, so we don't really have that much of a problem understanding the material. Some of my other classmates who have no engineering background (however limited mine was) are not that lucky.
In comes our lecturer who has a very thick China-Chinese accent (no prejudice meant here, just stating a fact) and who keeps mispronouncing every other word. Safe to say, half the time we would be trying to figure out what the hell he had just said. If that's not enough, he sometimes doesn't even finish his sentences and other times, he mumbles to the damned wall! ARGH! Can you imagine our frustration? Kyle was especially pissed off with him when he wanted to clarify an assignment question, just asking what does the question mean, and this lecturer answered, "I cannot tell you."
Wow. Great response.
My classmates and I had a lot of complains about him, but our complains are of course to each other. Kyle once said something like, "He's a doctor leh. A PhD, but don't know how to speak English." I replied, "His PhD not in English mah, not in Communication." We were discussing how he's "qualified" but cannot teach at all. Just because you are competent in a subject does not mean you can teach that subject.
I decided to write an e-mail to him, listing our "challenges" and seeing if he improves, 'cause I really wanted to already request a change of lecturer from our course's Head Of Programme. Here's what I wrote to him, with the support of a few of my classmates.
Dear Dr XXXXX XXXXX,
My name is Zulkifly and I'm a student in your Audio Technology seminars. I'm writing on behalf of several members of your tutorial group with the hopes that we can further benefit from your lessons.
We have been having challenges with your lessons due to the reasons listed below :I hope I didn't sound rude in this email, as that is not my intention. I thank you for your time, and I hope you appreciate our feedback.
- We worry about the teaching style that you adopt. We notice that you would go through the content of the seminar like how someone would read a book.
We would appreciate it if you could first give a brief overview of what we would be learning in the seminar before starting it so that we could follow better. Even though we sometimes do read ahead on what the seminar would be about, sometimes we don't quite understand, so giving a brief overview would help us tremendously.
It would also be greatly appreciated if you could give a short explanation (without going in too much detail) of what a formula/equation is for before diving into the parts of the formula.
If you go straight into explaining parts of the formula without explaining what the formula itself is for, we find that we have trouble following your explanations.
- We notice that you go into the technical details that might not be entirely relevant to the module when explaining certain topics. After spending a lot of time on the theory, you would then rush over the activities and examples, since time would then be running out.
For a module that's heavily formulae-based and somewhat mathematical, we believe that it would be much more helpful if more time is allocated for examples and explanations on how to properly apply the formulae given.
Without these examples, the students would be left scratching our heads on how to apply the numerous equations in our hands.
- Your accent is quite hard to understand since most of us are from a very sheltered Singapore background with little experience with foreign language.
It would be of great help then, if you could enunciate your words a little bit more clearly so that we can understand what you're trying to say. Otherwise, 3 hours of lecture per class would have passed by with us not understanding 90% of what you taught. Not because the module is difficult, but because we didn't understand the words you were speaking.
It would also help if you project your voice towards the class, rather than talking to the whiteboard while writing. Muffled voices in foreign accents tend to be rather incomprehensible.
- Your addition of the Fourier series and Fourier transform chapter was a surprise, and we hope that you would consider dropping it.
This is because there are no supporting texts in our lecture notes or our set text book to help us further understand the chapter. For those of us who didn't understand what you were teaching in class, or miss that lesson, we don't have any proper back-up references to check to clarify our doubts.
Referring to the MTD205Audio_July08_S3.ppt notes doesn't help much either since the explanations are very condensed.
Regards,
Zulkifly
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I'll post his reply in my next entry.