ANU students pile up bodies to protest dying tutorials

housebound said :

Can’t imagine uni without tutorials.

I did an entire engineering degree without a single tutorial. It was all texts, lectures, assignments and individual chats with the lecturer.

Can’t imagine uni without tutorials. Here’s a radical idea: if you wanted to cut something, cut the chalk and talk lectures, make students learn online, and beef up the tutorials.

Alternatively, re-examine a funding model that encourages universities to cram as many first year students as possible into the system without a concomitant increase in resourcing, knowing that many probably won’t pass through to second year.

*10 point for creativity

Well 10 points creativity. If only they put that much effort into their studies.

What a bunch of dopey, time-wasting drama queens.

Good for them. Students are paying to be taught things by people. Sure, some kids don’t make the most of what they’re paying for, but they’re still paying for it. (well, the Commonwealth is for the time being while we take 20 years to pay it back. you want your taxpayer dollars wasted on MOOCs that anyone can get for free online?)

As for being capable of independent learning and research, no, that’s WHY you’re at university (undergrad anyway) – to learn those skills. Anyone can get a reading list off the internet or someone’s reference list at the bottom of a paper, there’s a lot more to learning than that. Some first-years are coming from school still wondering how to correctly cite Wikipedia. There’s some teaching that needs to happen there.

Interpersonal verbal communication is a really important part of university education, especially in the Arts because it’s all about the communication of ideas to one another. When you’re selling your Arts degree to that APS grad program, you’re talking about high level communication skills both written and, importantly, verbal. Giving your tute presentation to your webcam is not the same; many professions still require the ability to interact with humans in an intelligent fashion IRL, no cuts, no do-overs, no Ctrl-Z… it’s so awkward.

Not to mention, if you’ve ever thought there were Mully contestants on Riotact, you’ve never been on an undergrad Wattle forum. Wow. Tutorials are bad enough with some of these kids, forums let them write the equivalent of a 20 minute speech on their ~thoughts~ because they think that participation marks are a function of word count. This is what the tutor is for; to stop that from happening, keep discussions on topic, make the quiet ones feel uncomfortable by asking them direct questions. Forums are not the same and there’s a reason for the old way. Not that there isn’t an important place for distance ed, and I think the ANU should offer more distance options, but it’s not a replacement for the traditional institution of discussion, in person, led by someone who knows more about the topic than oneself.

(btw I’m not affiliated with the protestors, lol. sorry for ridiculous post length.. turns out I am that guy on the student forum)

Death is dressed just like that woman from ANU. Or is that the other way around?

Great to see some student activism re-emerge. Back to the 70s. Quality in education will only be preserved if it is demanded.

Idiots. Tutorials in arts are not an efficient use of time, students often don’t turn up, they have trouble getting tutors to do them, and students have increasing commitments off campus.

You’re at university now, you should be capable of independent learning and research.

The proposed forum format is not an acceptable alternative, but moving tutorials online is a proven approach.

Unfortunately a bunch of professional protestors don’t really care about reason, they’re just spoiling for a fight and some theatre to go with it.