My daughter registers for her classes in the fall in two weeks at Illinois.
In reading the descriptions of some of the classes, some intro classes have over 700 kids. Yet you pay the same for that course as you do for a 30 person upper level course. Why? If you can teach someone via lecture for that many kids, you're essentially teaching online. I'm sure most of the grading is done by TAs.
Obviously, this is one of just many problems.
I will say, one great thing about U of I: if you took 4 years of foreign language in HS, you automatically satisfy any foreign language requirement for college (if you aren't majoring in that language).
I had fewer than 60 kids in my HS graduating class. My very first class at IU was in Woodburn 100 with all the murals, and it was full. It felt like there were a million people in there. I can't imagine 700 people in a lecture hall.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
My daughter registers for her classes in the fall in two weeks at Illinois.
In reading the descriptions of some of the classes, some intro classes have over 700 kids. Yet you pay the same for that course as you do for a 30 person upper level course. Why? If you can teach someone via lecture for that many kids, you're essentially teaching online. I'm sure most of the grading is done by TAs.
Obviously, this is one of just many problems.
I will say, one great thing about U of I: if you took 4 years of foreign language in HS, you automatically satisfy any foreign language requirement for college (if you aren't majoring in that language).
My son will graduate from college this year and says it’s a joke. Even in the high level courses there is very little if any teaching. He is so ready to be done. He will be a stem major but is going to get a teaching certificate for Indiana. The curriculum for the one education course he took last fall was ridiculous. I’m sure you can guess some of the “assignment” requirements.
Higher education has joined getting married and getting buried as one of the biggest wastes of money
Man, that’s discouragingMy daughter registers for her classes in the fall in two weeks at Illinois.
In reading the descriptions of some of the classes, some intro classes have over 700 kids. Yet you pay the same for that course as you do for a 30 person upper level course. Why? If you can teach someone via lecture for that many kids, you're essentially teaching online. I'm sure most of the grading is done by TAs.
Obviously, this is one of just many problems.
I will say, one great thing about U of I: if you took 4 years of foreign language in HS, you automatically satisfy any foreign language requirement for college (if you aren't majoring in that language).
My son will graduate from college this year and says it’s a joke. Even in the high level courses there is very little if any teaching. He is so ready to be done. He will be a stem major but is going to get a teaching certificate for Indiana. The curriculum for the one education course he took last fall was ridiculous. I’m sure you can guess some of the “assignment” requirements.
Higher education has joined getting married and getting buried as one of the biggest wastes of money
I had fewer than 60 kids in my HS graduating class. My very first class at IU was in Woodburn 100 with all the murals, and it was full. It felt like there were a million people in there. I can't imagine 700 people in a lecture hall.
Woodburn was like 400 max, but it was never completely full for any classes I had. There were a couple other lecture halls that were about that size. Don't recall anything being 700.
Large lecture halls for 100/200 level courses aren't a new thing, though.
I had fewer than 60 kids in my HS graduating class. My very first class at IU was in Woodburn 100 with all the murals, and it was full. It felt like there were a million people in there. I can't imagine 700 people in a lecture hall.
Woodburn was like 400 max, but it was never completely full for any classes I had. There were a couple other lecture halls that were about that size. Don't recall anything being 700.
Large lecture halls for 100/200 level courses aren't a new thing, though.
The 700 comes from Brad's original post. I don't know of any lecture halls on the IU campus that hold 700 either, but it sounds like UI does, unless I'm mistaken, and it's a class that can be attended remotely.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
Most profs will now do their big lectures "remotely". Especially since Covid, a good chunk of professors now tape / live stream their classes because 1) It's not particularly difficult to do anymore and solves the problem of allowing all students to catch the lecture even if they are sick and 2) It provides a good record for the kids to study from later when they want to review material before the mid-term / final. Attending on-line is probably less interactive (ie, not as ideal as being in the room), but is a heck of a lot better than trying to teach a kid an entire lecture's-worth of material during office hours.
My daughter registers for her classes in the fall in two weeks at Illinois.
In reading the descriptions of some of the classes, some intro classes have over 700 kids. Yet you pay the same for that course as you do for a 30 person upper level course. Why? If you can teach someone via lecture for that many kids, you're essentially teaching online. I'm sure most of the grading is done by TAs.
Obviously, this is one of just many problems.
I will say, one great thing about U of I: if you took 4 years of foreign language in HS, you automatically satisfy any foreign language requirement for college (if you aren't majoring in that language).
The biggest thing that needs to change is people being paid for literally doing nothing. Trim the fat, cut the golden parachute retirements and benefits to normal levels and maybe we could see tuition costs come down to more reasonable levels.
Of course, it would have to be country-wide...otherwise the argument would be losing all of the good professors/researchers to other universities. The problem is similar to salaries in sports that do nothing but go up and up (not as high per person but more people). Maybe put an end to or shorter limit on sabbaticals.