Starting lectures at uni 2017

[HSMMaCM]

The other thread filled up really quickly, with exciting talk of laundry, mattress toppers and lost property.

Here's where the rest of them settle in, get through freshers and the work gets serious.

No fridges allowed in the room for DD either.

Sorry about the food thefts, but it is de rigeur in halls. Although it hasn't been a problem for DD yet. I remember my old best mate shouting "who's eaten my f'ing cheese and coleslaw one night when we came in from a club - he was furious

DD has already been ill (though definitely not seriously) already and has managed fine without me

However, she has just rung to say that only 3 out of 11 students turned up for the 5-6pm on a Friday seminar, and the other students are using long words that she doesn't understand She needs to get reading more widely!

Just found this thread! DD has just finished the first week of lectures. She has been amazed at how many students turn up late/ unprepared or don't turn up at all. If I was paying all that money for a degree I'd want to get every penny's worth of tuition

With regards to lectures, DS1 (who is in his third year of uni) has just done a big presentation as part of his course about why lectures are the worst way of learning - presented to 3 professors who all teach through lecturing . Apparently the working memory wont store much more than 10 minutes of info, so an hour lecture is useless and a day of back to back lectures as DS2 has on his course is potentially detrimental to learning. DS1 tells me that all lectures are podcasted anyway so he says in fact there's literally no point in turning up in person to a lecture hall these days.

Yes but what about meeting people, ds? Nah, he has that covered.

What is his take on seminars, Haff?

Apparently seminars are great if they include lots of interactive learning. (Bless. He thinks he's discovered something new )

eve, what support does your DS have? If he has a current assessment, he ought to qualify for special support. If he doesn't have a current assessment, he should apply for one. The university will have a disability resource centre that should help. He should not be struggling on with this without proper support.

It would be normal, for example, for a student to have accommodations that might include an amanuensis to take lecture notes, permission to record lectures, permission to video lectures ... the exact details would vary, but he shouldn't be coping on his own. Photocopying notes from a friend with neat handwriting is not an appropriate accommodation (it's very sensible and organised but he shouldn't have to rely on that).

He should talk to his tutor about this asap.

HSM I hope your DD is feeling better now. How frightening for you.

Maiden food thefts are sadly nothing new but to lose so much in one go is infuriating. Your poor DS. When I lived in halls we kept everything in our rooms because anything left in the fridges disappeared. Buying DD a jar of Coffeemate to take away with her was a definite blast from the past.

I've just ventured into DD's bedroom to hunt out various items she cannot live without, and I am now feeling vaguely traumatised. That room is going to be blitzed from top to bottom as soon as we get back from seeing her this weekend.

DS (also dyslexic) was complaining that the notes they were expected to have read through for a seminar yesterday morning were only emailed to them by the lecturer at 10:30 pm the night before. It was a couple of chapters. It’s difficult enough for him as it is.

However, he has still not contacted student support.

LED,

He is going though assessment, he's just had it done and sent back last week, he's allowed laptop, scanner, scan reading software, dictation software, recording equipment and extra time.

So waiting to get all of that in place which should help in the next week or so. He's been to see the support people but til they get report/ funding won't do a lot. I phone DSA today to see how long things take , they said about another week to allow orders to be placed.

He was happier tonight, enjoyed his structural engineering lecture, it was the economics one what he struggled with - which fits his visual learning strength.

Oh, that's great. Rotten that they're not doing things in the interim, but good it'll be sorted.

It might be worth him emailing the lecturer to ask if they can help? If he's super polite and acknowledges they might not have lecture notes, and that he's asking because of a disability? I'm an academic and if it were me I'd really want to help a student in his position - some lecturers can be a bit funny about giving out notes, but others wouldn't mind at all.

Has he asked if the lectures are/can be recorded? At Dd's university the lectures (at least in her department) are recorded and put on the portal (or whatever it is) for students to assess - she missed one because of a GP appointment and was able to watch it later and assess the related stuff.

some lecturers can be a bit funny about giving out notes I wonder why? What do they gain from this? I realise it will ensure bums on seats at lectures but lecture notes are a major source for revision.
DS1 did maths and not only were very few lectures recorded there were some who did not provide notes either. He missed one of these lectures because he was in hospital and the lecturer still wouldn't help.

Well, I'm sure there are bad reasons, but the good reasons would be (IME), either that you've not yet published this bit of research and you get nervous about it floating around in full written form rather than student notes, or that you don't write lecture notes in any form that a student could find helpful, so it's a lot of extra work to produce them (that's sometimes the case with me, but I always explain when it is).

With recordings, occasionally you don't want a lecture recorded because you're discussing things that are quite sensitive with the students and they might say something personal they don't want on record. Again, though, you can explain this and I doubt it happens often in Engineering.

(And the final reason is that some students - not, typically, ones struggling with good reason to need support - write emails along the lines of 'Hi, I missed your lectures. I need the notes. Thanks.'

I dont remember any notes being avaiable at all when I was a student in the dark ages. Dont know if they are available for DD either - such a help for dyslexic students.

DS is home for the weekend and I am very pleased to here that for both his subjects there is a system where not only are the lectures all video recorded but when they are played back the video is on one half of the screen and on the other half of the screen is a closeup of the whiteboard.

Apparently it is standard across the university which is why the lecture halls are all set up for it with the cameras and software. It's not something I would have thought to ask at the open days but I think DD will ask when it is her turn.

Also went to uni in the dark ages and regularly used to go to lectures, grab the notes and leave

OddBoots Yes it was a question DS2 asked at open days after his DB mentioned it. I know they are supposed to take their own notes but on some topics where they really don't understand or get it at the lecture, going through the notes and better still watching the lecture again is really helpful. Also DS2 found in his first year that watching the lectures again months later before exams was a boost to revision.

Must ask DD if she knows of this - sounds good. Can any students access the videos etc?

DD gets lecture notes as power point so sits in lecture with laptop as split screen, one side the power point and writes notes on the other side

Tilly DD accesses them through the Blackboard area for her course, I'll ask her if she can access other ones.

or that you don't write lecture notes in any form that a student could find helpful, so it's a lot of extra work to produce them (that's sometimes the case with me, but I always explain when it is)

This is definitely the case for me. I have to rewrite my notes if a student asks as the notes I have are designed to work for the person who is giving the lecture, not for the ones who have to understand it. But would always gladly do so to help.

Also always put my powerpoints up on a public space and try to produce a good clear handbook with expectations clearly set out.

Would be happy to be recorded myself, but preferably for the one-man-show type of lecture: otherwise, I'd be worried that some students might not want to ask questions or volunteer opinions if they thought they were being recorded and that this would work against the more sensitive students.

That's such a great resource. Will ask DD if she knows about it. She is not dyslexic but is studying a subject she hasn't done before...

Good to know there could be other resources, such as notes, to access alongside lectures.
Like BigTilly I hardly ever came across any notes back in my day, we definitely had to make our own!