May 12, 2005
Have an awesome summer
Hey guys, I don't know if anyone's going to check this page anymore since all submissions are done, but I just wanted to wish everyone an awesome summer. Writing papers isn't ever fun, but I made a few friends in this class and it was awesome, considering I almost didn't take it because of credits... But I'm glad I did. GL on the rest of your exams and I hope to see some of you guys around campus sometime. ~Later~
May 11, 2005
this is just might be the final draft
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heres what might be our final draft as long as one of the group members doesnt change any thing.
May 10, 2005
Cover Page and my part
Baldemar, put what you got together and I'll reread it before I go to bed tonight... GL
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Current Situation
Current class situations can relate almost directly to statistics generated from an admissions survey put out to UT Austin college students online. According to the polls provided by fifty-two UT Austin students, many college attendees would agree with the fact that academic classes aren't like they used to be. According to statistics derived from the online survey, most students estimated their largest class to contain as much as two hundred to four hundred people crammed in one classroom.
When thinking of large compact classes, one can very much assume that many students would feel completely comfortable either chatting with friends, playing games on laptops, or drifting off to sleep. Comfort level serves as a large problem in very large classes for the fact that professors cannot see and probably don't even care whether or not you're paying attention to his or her lectures. Although comfort level, for many, is an important factor in feeling that they can concentrate more efficiently on their studies, there's a difference between relaxed studying and relaxed napping. In the survey, more than two-thirds of the students agree that they have fallen asleep either sometimes or very often during a crowded lecture. More than fifty percent of the surveyors even admit to being comfortable enough to not even show up to their larger classes.
Even though many students felt comfortable enough to drift off is classes, those students actually felt VERY uncomfortable actively participating during lecture. A huge 82.7 percent of the surveyors agreed they were NOT comfortable at all asking their professors questions.
Logically speaking, a typical college students would academically perform stronger when they are in a small class rather than a large class for the fact that their student-to-professor ratio is smaller. With s student-to-professor ratio of 15 to 1, students have a better chance of communicating with their instructors as opposed to a student-to-professor ratio of 400 students to 1 professor. According to statistics, roughly 68 percent of the surveyors feel they would have performed better had the size of their classes been smaller.
Proposal
If more students were to consider taking one or two online classes to replace the large stadium classes, there would logically be a decrease in the amount of people enrolling in those classes that contain an average of three to four hundred students. Our proposal largely consists of having the university offer a greater amount of online courses for a larger variety of different subjects, especially the core subjects that many students must take for general credit. Students who feel they can apply themselves better to their studies by themselves would be able to attend some of their classes on-line in the comfort of their own room, while the students who feel they can learn well in a physically interactive class would be able to have the professor-to-student interaction they need for their own personal perseverance.
Students should have some line of encouragement to take some online classes. Therefore, we propose that students who choose to take a couple online classes will receive a discounted tuition rate per online class they attend. Instead of paying the full rate per online class, for example, they would only have to pay fifty percent of the expected tuition rate per online class. So instead of paying $136 dollars for a course online, a student can get a discount of roughly $68.
Since online classes don't have the physical interaction of actual on-campus classes, one other way to improve online classes is to include a mandatory, weekly discussion session on campus with a teaching assistant so students can feel free to ask the assistant questions and discuss the material among other students taking the online course.
We also propose, along with the encouragement for online classes, a more strict admissions application for incoming high school students. Instead of admitting every single student automatically if they scored within ten percent of their graduating high school class and almost everyone else who aren't in the top ten percent of their class, the university admissions counsel would set up personal, one-on-one interviews of someone on the admissions counsel with an applying high school graduate. Thus, the admissions counsel will have a better factor in determining the incoming freshmen, and university applicants would also have a higher yet equal standard of competition between themselves.
my part revised
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hey guy heres my part, James i guess could put the parts together since he's finishing it off. and spell my name right Baldemar Hernandez Jr.
May 09, 2005
Colin and Rubina, hey sorry i got sick this weekend and my cell broke so it was getting fixed. I have my part of the paper all edited and everything so all we have to do is put everything together. try to call me tomorrow, bc i dont have any of your numbers. -charise
May 08, 2005
May 07, 2005
May 04, 2005
May 03, 2005
First Draft
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Rahul and Maradona put this together... now it's John's turn.