Biomedical sciences year 2

[Ginfordinner]

Is anyone els'es DC doing biomedical sciences? DD is finding that the workload in year 2 has ramped up considerably, and having to to 5 online lectures a day, plus self study and seminars really hard going. Everyone she knows on her course, even the super conscientious is falling behind.

She says that none of her friends taking other subjects have this kind of workload, so is is normal for biomed? She is at an RG university with an AAA - AAB entry requirement for the course.

Not biomed but my dc2 (also 2nd year RG STEM) has found the workload is enormous compare to last year. He's managing to get assessments done on time, but doesn't have time for both lectures and seminars.

I suspect it's the online learning tbh. Rather than one lecture followed by questions if you didn't understand something (2 hours per module plus one piece of coursework and one exam), they're expected to watch the pre-recorded lecture, follow the links to fully understand the content, do a small piece of assessed work to show they've understood it, then go the live online seminar where they look at it in more depth and get more work to do. About three times as many hours.

I certainly don't remember dc1 (also RG STEM) finding the second year this much work.

She should give feedback by the way, better still get a group to write to the course director.

I did a course very similar to biomedical sciences, with lots of shared modules. Sometimes lecturers would bulk out their modules to a ridiculous extent, often being "enthusiastic" or imagining everyone possesses a photographic memory. If a large proportion of people are struggling it's important to say something now- I.e. before exams (so it doesn't look like they're kicking up a fuss because their results aren't as good as they'd like). I wonder if staff are piling on extra virtual learning now to compensate for the reduction in face-to-face teaching.

My daughter is doing biomedical science at a RG uni but is only in her first year. I’ll be watching this with interest.

Thank you for the feedback. I have suggested that she talks to her (unapproachable) course tutor, who she has only met once, and who didn't turn up to the zoom meeting she was supposed to have with him.

There should be a course director or director of undergraduate teaching in her department. There should also be a course rep. Union might help with signposting.

My dd in her first year at RG University - Biomed and she commented last week that the workload looked massive in year 2..i think she said over 20 lectures a week compared to 9 so far this year.