If you were taking a module called Fundamentals Of Graphics Design, what would you expect to learn in it? Probably designing some mock advertisements using Adobe Illustrator, or some other design software, yes? Maybe actual drawings would be needed to be handed in or something.

Would you expect to do Mathematics in a module called Fundamentals Of Graphics Design? Yes? No? Well, that's what I'm doing in this module! When I first got my course materials, I totally went, "What the fuccckkkkkkkkkk, man!" Of all the things I was expecting from a module named that, this never occurred to me.

What this module teaches is Mathematics For Game Programming & Computer Graphics. Herein lies one of my more general annoyances with UniSIM - the misleading of students and potential students. The module description in the course brochure stated for this module : "This course covers 2D and 3D computer graphics, along with the necessary geometrical background and programming methods to generate them." How really enlightening is that? "Necessary geometrical background"?! They should've just listed Mathematics For Graphics Design or 3D Mathematics as the title and describe the module as it is!

Hell, even the whole course name is misleading! Multimedia Technology & Design! I really would never have thought that it would be filled with modules which involves a lot of Mathematics, what with the misleading descriptions in the brochure. I might've as well taken a degree in Mathematics! For the Audio Technology module, the brochure states, "This course provides the theoretical foundation on the operation of audio systems as components used in multimedia production, distribution and reproduction." Not very descriptive, is it?

One night while walking from the class to the bus stop, me, Kyle and Adeline were talking about how we weren't expecting Audio Technology to be that crazy (along with the fact that we had a very incomprehensible lecturer). We were saying how we expected to do more design than learning about all these theories. Then I said, "You know what... It's all in the name of the course. We are doing Multimedia Technology & Design. Not Multimedia Design & Technology." How an emphasis on just one of the words suddenly makes so much more sense.

Back to the topic of Fundamentals Of Graphics Design module. We had a local lecturer for this module, so understanding her speech wasn't a problem. She had lousy teaching skills, though. At first, we didn't really have much of an issue with her teachings, but near the end we started to get more and more pissed off. Here's an email to her that was sent near the beginning of the term, before we got really pissed.

Dear Madam XXX XXXX XXXXX,

My name is Zulkifly and I'm a student in your Fundamentals of Graphics Design (MTD201) seminars. I'm writing on behalf of several students with the hopes that we can further benefit from your lessons, especially in the upcoming Advanced Graphic Design (MTD203) seminars.

We would like to point out that the way in which you write your examples and explanations on a piece of paper that is projected on the screen tends to be rather confusing. The way they are written have no structure or segregation, and you jump from writing on one corner of your paper to the next corner, which usually is already filled with previous examples.

If you put yourself in our shoes, all the information you write and project will get very messy very quickly, especially for some of us who are learning them for the very first time. I have found myself trying to follow your written examples, comparing them to the lecture notes, and a second that is spent with my eyes on the lecture notes could mean I couldn't follow what you were writing on the paper anymore. This is very frustrating for us.

I would like to suggest that you prepare a set of rough paper to write on before each class, and once you've used one part of that paper for an explanation, to move on to another part of the paper structuredly for another explanation, and not to jump about haphazardly, or re-use the paper that you've used before.

This request might sound silly to you, but I assure you that this will help a lot of your students.

Another point that I would like to bring up is the usage of YouTube videos as the main teaching element. We don't think it's fair for you to "teach" by showing YouTube videos that do the teaching for you. It would be fine if you first explain it yourself, and then use the video as a supporting teaching tool, but to use free YouTube videos as your main teaching element leaves us feeling that we would be better off at home, learning via YouTube ourselves, without paying UniSIM the amount of money that we do.

I hope I didn't sound rude in this email as that is not my intention. Thank you for your time and I hope you appreciate our honest feedback.

Regards,

Zulkifly

P/S : I found that Dr Phil (who taught some of us Discrete Mathematics and Further Discrete Mathematics) teaches in a very structured and understandable manner, as well as entertaining.

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Yes, as mentioned above, she uses YouTube videos to teach. Not as supplementary tools, but as the freaking main teaching element. Here's what she would do. Goes to a YouTube video page, all the while saying how hard it was to scour through all the videos to find this "really good one" (WHAT THE FUCK). Plays the video, and walks around the lecture theatre. There was one time where she actually went out of the lecturer theatre after she played the video, then goes back in near the end. And we're paying how much for this free video?! Her doing this makes me wonder if she's actually qualified to teach the damned module.

Another really crappy thing with this module (which really is UniSIM's fault, not the lecturer's) is that we were taught (and I use the term very very very loosely) 70% 3D Mathematics, and 30% Graphics Design (using 3D Studio Max). BUT. The weightage given for assessments are completely opposite! The Maths we are tested on makes up 30% of our final grade while our End-Of-Course Assessment is project based, and depends solely on our usage and expertise of 3D Studio Max!

So, we have a module that teaches us only a little bit of 3D Studio Max, but that counts for 70% of our final grade. We have 6 seminars in total, and 2 of them were on 3DS Max. PLUS. Our lecturer? She's not well-versed in the program at all. In fact, she admits that she doesn't really know how to use the damned program! OH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE! If you're not competent enough to teach the damned program, what the fuck are you doing teaching it?!

I especially loved it when someone would ask her a question which she obviously doesn't know the answer to. She would then say, "Okay, if you want to find out what that is, all you have to do is just click on the Help button, and type in what you want to know, and the answer will be there. Use the User Reference tool, it is really helpful." The first few times she did this, I would turn to Kyle and laughed and said to him, "HAH! She doesn't even know! And she's masking it by going to the Help section! It's so fucking obvious lah!" When she kept on doing that, I got seriously pissed off. She even wasted about half an hour teaching us how to use the damned Help tool. What are we, primary 1 students?! We're here for our goddamned degree, for fuck's sake. We freaking know how to use the freaking Help tool!

ARGHHHHHH!!!

One of my classmates, an IT Trainer, Ziana, was telling us, "Wah lan, even my P5 students know how to use the Help tool without me telling them!" It was really that ridiculous.

This lecturer was almost opposite of the Audio Technology lecturer. The Audio Tech lecturer was competent in what he's teaching, but he cannot really teach. This lecturer is not competent at all in what she's teaching (at least the 3DS Max part), but she can kinda teach. Kyle argued that this is UniSIM's fault, not her fault, since UniSIM hired an incompetent person to teach this part of the module. Yes, incompetent. She is freaking incompetent.

How can it not rile me up when she's incompetent in that part of the module that is weighted 70%? Wouldn't you be pissed off too?

I'll post her reply, and my reply to her reply, in my next entry. This string of entries is growing much longer than I had expected. Hmm. Wouldn't it be funny if these bunch of entries climb up near the top of a Google search whenever someone Googles for UniSIM? Haha.

Oh look, a quick Google search proves that I'm not alone with my dissatisfaction with UniSIM. Here's one posted just a few days ago in Stomp. I'm sure there's more, so go Google for them if you're interested.