ORIENT: 10-week term?

Thu May 29 10:04:41 AEST 2008

Dear All,

This is becoming a little confusing, partly because language and non-language courses in the faculty have different numbers of contact hours per course and partly because there also seems to be a difference in required class hours per course between FAS and Law.  My understanding is that when the university administration decided to change courses from 8-credit to 6-credit units, thereby requiring full-time regular students to take 4 courses per semester instead of the former load of three courses,  we were instructed to do two things:  a) reduce the assignment load per course by roughly 20-25%; and b) reduce the number of class hours per course, also by roughly 20-25%.  As a result, in non-language courses we generally did things like reduce essay requirements from 2500 to 2000 words (which we knew didn't reduce the difficulty or time needed by students to complete their essays), and it was agreed that the number of class hours should be 32 hours per course.  What this meant was that if a course was taught 3 hours per week, in effect it was an 11-week teaching course.

Law, however, seems to have retained the original 39-hour teaching semester, and so presumably their students do 39 more hours of classes per semester than they used to when a course was an 8-credit unit and they did only three of them.  But perhaps Law course requirements originally demanded a lot more hours than in most other programs?

And language courses in FAS, in order to make sure a decent level of competency could be achieved per semester, basically retained the original number of class hours, or created 12-credit units and so on.  Regarding the core graduate courses (which at the time of transition from 8 to 6-credit units consisted of 2 core courses per semester, one for E Asia and one for SE Asia), we avoided the danger of these becoming rather less than what one would hope of a graduate seminar course, by turning them into 9-credit courses (6 credits for doing the seminar course + final exam and 3 credits for doing the long essay).  I'm not sure how they are run now.

Best,

Ken

----- Original Message -----
From: Shun Ikeda <Shun.Ikeda at anu.edu.au>
Date: Thursday, May 29, 2008 9:37 am
Subject: Re: ORIENT: 10-week term?
To: Roald Maliangkay <roald.maliangkay at anu.edu.au>
Cc: orient at anu.edu.au

> Dear all,
> 
> Are you suggesting a 12-week (teaching week) semester?
> 
> Shun Ikeda
> -----------
> On 29/05/2008, at 9:25 AM, Roald Maliangkay wrote:
> 
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I very much like McComas's idea; it would also be a nice thing 
> for  
> > the students to look forward to after our mid-term exams which 
> we  
> > could then organise at the end of the 6-week period. He has my 
> vote  
> > (and so does Pedro).
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Roald
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 29/05/08 9:16 AM, "McComas Taylor" 
> <McComas.Taylor at anu.edu.au>  
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Colleagues
> > >
> > > I am also very concerned about the 10-week stretch next 
> semester  
> > - what
> > > about a CAP-wide non-teaching week (say, week 6?) to 
> give  
> > everyone a bit
> > > of a break.
> > >
> > > McC
> > >
> > > Kent Anderson wrote:
> > >> Dear Colleagues:
> > >>
> > >> This is an email from a colleague in Law.  It raises 
> and  
> > interesting issue.
> > >> It would be good to think about it in our individual  
> > circumstances, maybe
> > >> around the coffee machine and corridors, and email chatter.
> > >>
> > >> Cheers.
> > >>
> > >> kent
> > >>
> > >> ___________________________
> > >> Professor Kent Anderson
> > >> Director, Faculty of Asian Studies
> > >> ANU College of Asia-Pacific and ANU College of Law
> > >> The Australian National University
> > >> Canberra, ACT 0200
> > >> Tel +61-[0]2-6125-5125
> > >> ANU CRICOS Code 00120C
> > >>
> > >> My diary can be checked at http://calendar.yahoo.com/fas.director
> > >> ___________________________
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>>>> Daniel Stewart 05/28/08 12:28 pm >>>
> > >>>>>
> > >> Colleagues,
> > >>
> > >> The second teaching and learning forum for this year is 
> on  
> > tomorrow, 29/5
> > >> from 1-2 in the Moot Court 3rd floor (note change of 
> venue).   
> > Vanilla Bean
> > >> wraps and sandwiches will be provided.
> > >>
> > >> The topic for this week is managing the 13 week semester:
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Second semester this year is split into 10 and 3 teaching 
> weeks,  
> > and some
> > >> staff members have suggested that they intend to split 
> their  
> > undergraduate
> > >> teaching up with a lecture free week to try to better 
> manage  
> > workloads across
> > >> the 10 weeks.  Should we take a College wide 
> approach?  Are  
> > there alternative
> > >> ways to manage workloads, both for ourselves and our 
> students,  
> > across what
> > >> can be a long semester?
> > >> Possible issues for discussion:  managing workloads 
> over a  
> > semester,
> > >> including
> > >> - How do we currently use the 2 week mid semester lecture 
> break  
> > in our
> > >> teaching?  Is it for assessment? Extra reading? Chance 
> to take a  
> > break?
> > >> - Trying something different: how to break things up 
> without  
> > confusing and
> > >> losing the students
> > >> - How much to do before, during and after each class: or 
> why we  
> > need the
> > >> break as much as our students?
> > >> Preparation:
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> How do you currently approach public holidays?  Do you 
> schedule  
> > a make-up
> > >> class?  Wait to see whether you can make up the time 
> in other  
> > ways?  What
> > >> does this say about the 13 week, 39 (or 52) hours of 
> contact  
> > time teaching
> > >> model?
> > >> For those unable to attend any responses to these questions 
> or  
> > the issue of a
> > >> teaching free week are welcome, by email to me or otherwise.
> > >> Thanks,
> > >>
> > >> Daniel
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> _______________________
> > >>
> > >> Daniel Stewart
> > >> Director, Teaching and Learning
> > >> ANU College of Law
> > >>
> > >> Building #5
> > >> The Australian National University
> > >> Canberra  ACT  0200  Australia
> > >>
> > >> P: +61 2 6125 8370
> > >> F: +61 2 6125 0150
> > >> W: http://law.anu.edu.au ( http://law.anu.edu.au/ )
> > >>
> > >> CRICOS Provider #00120C
> > >> ____________________________
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> fas.academic mailing list
> > >> fas.academic at anu.edu.au
> > >> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/fas.academic
> > >>
> > >
> >
> > ---
> > ORIENT is a mailing list for circulating scholarly and  
> > administrative information in the Faculty of Asian Studies. It 
> is  
> > not for personal messages, non-Faculty matters, or 
> messages  
> > forwarded from other lists.
> >
> > Email your announcement to:
> >
> > orient at anu.edu.au
> >
> > If you can, please send your message as plain text. Not 
> everybody  
> > can read attachments and styled text.
> > ---
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> ---
> ORIENT is a mailing list for circulating scholarly and 
> administrative information in the Faculty of Asian Studies. It 
> is not for personal messages, non-Faculty matters, or messages 
> forwarded from other lists.
> 
> Email your announcement to:
> 
> orient at anu.edu.au
> 
> If you can, please send your message as plain text. Not 
> everybody can read attachments and styled text.
> ---
> 
> 
> 
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