I, Curtis

Category: Academic

  • Biopsychology Off To An Interesting Start

    My correct Biopsychology textbook arrived today, via US Mail, so I got started on the course. The first quiz, due on Tuesday, has been finished, so now I can relax and work on getting ahead in the course. The instructor who wrote the course is not the same as the instructor who is teaching the course, although, we have him for a little while with him until the new instructor is finished with his Blackboard training.

    One of the cool things about Dr. Van is he does not stay strictly with the “normal” course material, as can be seen in his choice of video for the brain anatomy overview he selected for our second set of lectures:

  • Textbook Flub

    Whenever I am not suspicious of something potentially going wrong and just trust things, then things go wrong. All of my textbooks for Summer arrived on time, and I thought everything was good, until the department chair sent out a memo stating that the bookstore had sent the wrong books to students. I checked, and yep, I’ve got the wrong book for Biopsychology, which pisses me off since there will be an exam next weekend and the first assignments will be due on TUESDAY. I have contacted the bookstore, and they will send my replacement out tomorrow, Friday. They use FedEx, so the package will not actually reach me until Monday. This fucking sucks. My first weekend of courses for the summer semester and I am already behind because of people getting orders wrong.

    I only have one thing to ask here, why is the textbook wrong? The textbook is part of the rental program, which means that the instructors and department are locked into a 24 month contract for which text to use for the course. There are no changes allowed until that time is up, and since the program just started last Fall, that could not be the case.

    Also, no sign of the new instructor yet, the department chair is covering for him still.

  • Summer I 2009 Semester Opens

    The first summer session at Fayetteville opened this morning. My Stat course opened last night, but my Biopsychology (Physiological Psychology) course was not activated until a few minutes ago. Everything for this semester seemed to be going very well until today. My books for the semester arrived last week and I was able to register in a decently timely manner for the courses (before the juniors were opened). A few days ago the instructor changed from being Dr. Van to being “Tba Tba”. I thought nothing of it, assuming it was interim between Dr. Van and another instructor in the course. When I woke up this morning, the course was still listed the same, but did not appear on Blackboard. I e-mailed the department secretary and was informed very promptly that the instructor is new and that he will be joining the course once he finishes his Blackboard training. A few moments ago the course appeared on Blackboard, but it appeared as having “No Instructors”. The course content is very obviously Dr. Van’s Fall 2008 version of the same course. All of the discussion boards and everything are still present. I trust that the department will get the new instructor, Dr. Steven M. Platek (sounds Klingon) up to speed by the end of the week.

    Sum2009BB

    Additional concerns for the semester include the fact that the statistics course in synchronous. Five times this semester I will have to be online to take an exam with my class at 7pm. Also, there is a software package that we must use this semester. It is called SPSS. It is a statistical software. I have access to the software through Citrix at FSU, but I feel about that like I would feel about checking out a textbook from the library, although the software can be almost $200. I can get a copy for 13 months that is very limited (but will work for the course) for $99, or I can spend a little more and get the full package, with no restrictions on the time of the license for $199. I haven’t decided which of the methods I want to use yet (Citrix [free], Rental [$99], or Own [$199]). I do not trust the FSU network for being available when I want to do my labs, so I will likely try to own the software or have it here in some method, even if I have to use a trial or something.

     

    Other than these minor issues, the semester is off to a great start.

  • Procrastination Strikes Again

    For the past several weeks I have been highly focused on my work in my psychology courses, and now that they are over, I can focus on the courses that I have been giving a little less attention. No course is so abandoned as my art history course. The course is self-paced, so everything I have so carefully scheduled for myself was put to the side in the previous weeks and now I realized that I am many chapters and a few papers behind, leaving with a heap of work to do. I have a quiz for each chapter and 2 or three papers to write. I need to get these things done soon, preferably within the next 2 days. I usually do not do these types of things, but I know I can get them done in time. Always do.

  • My Progress Per Semester

    PSYCcurrent

    My semester plans, with the pre-requisite lines. The key is the same as the previous chart.

  • First PSYC Grade Posted

    2009SPGrade1

    I know its kind of silly, but I am really happy that my first grade as a psychology major has been posted. Unfortunately, it will likely be another full week before the other class grade is posted, even though I completed PSYC 421 first. It is pretty much up to the instructor to decide if he/she will post the grades of all students today, or only the grades for graduating seniors today. Theories of Personality has closed out all of its required components effective last Sunday so everything is clear, whereas Dr. Hogan has decided to allow course completion until May 8. Academic standing is of course still blank until the other grade is posted and the semester is closed on my record. I have been stalking Banner since Sunday evening waiting for grades to be posted. Now that I have one and my academic record at Fayetteville is established, I can relax and wait for the other to be posted.

  • Teaching Chancellor

    Reviewing the Fall 2009 schedule for Fayetteville I ran across something somewhat interesting. Dr. James A. Anderson, 11th (current) Chancellor of Fayetteville State University, is teaching General Psychology (PSYC 210) on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:45PM to 8PM. I reviewed the available information and determined that he is qualified to teach it, but why would he want to? He is not officially part of the Department of Psychology and the department has no shortage of faculty. Another really interesting thing to note about the course listing is that while all of the other sections of PSYC 210 are either full or almost full, Dr. Anderson’s section has all 25 seats still available (even the 45 seat section with no instructor has 41 students). If I were close to the campus and/or needed a General Psyc credit I would so take the course with him. I must wonder if everyone else is scared of taking a course with the Chancellor.

    I do wonder about some of the potential for conflict of interest type situations that could occur with the Chancellor teaching though. Grade appeals is the primary thing that comes to mind. All of the administrators involved in such a process report directly to the Chancellor. The potential issues aside, I think it is wonderful that Dr. Anderson still teaches. I do not believe that any other Chancellor in the UNC system would actually have that much contact with students. 

  • PSYC 310 “Group” Project

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    Just for fun, I am making my project on Dr. George Kelly available here.

  • Academic Software Problems

    I don’t quite understand why academic administrative software is written quite the way it is. At every academic institution I have ever attended, the student side of things is quite incomplete compared to the information that the registrar is able to see. There was an issue earlier of whether or not Fayetteville had recorded the fact that I have completed an Associate of Arts degree, since in an email communication, the registrar only noted the existence of the Associate of General Education. Those are the types of things I would like to be able to see on my side of things, so that I can confirm things more easily and not have to bug advisors and registrars every time I have a question. Banner just doesn’t tell me enough info. I don’t know whether this is an issue where SCT thought that students are too stupid or if their are document security concerns with having the full and complete academic record accessible to the student side of the portal. Neither WebAdvisor (DataTel) nor Banner (SCT) will show a student their completed degrees, which sucks, since sometimes it would be nice to be able to verify that everything posted OK and that no one has fucked up records.

    On a related, but yet, somehow not related topic, I am not sure if Fayetteville will fully accept the terms of the North Carolina Comprehensive Articulation Agreement and no on seems to be able to give me clear answers to anything. I am a few days from transmitting a fax on my letterhead demanding a formal degree evaluation of the degree in progress.

    On to something 100% not related, the Art Institute keeps bugging me, even though the admissions counselor will not respond to my email.

  • Final/Group Presentation Madness

    In Theories of Personality (PSYC 310) this semester, there was a group project. Groups were assigned after mid-term. I have never liked group projects because of the awkward interpersonal aspects of them, and the difficulty of getting started. Somehow I always manage to end up in the leadership role in groups that I am in (even though I am the biggest sheep there is). This time I ended up in the leadership position because no one else would make the first move. A few days after taking leadership of the  5 person group, I had only 2 group members respond. A week later one of the people who responded dropped the course and the other had become non-responsive. I let a few weeks pass, and tried on several occasions to contact the remaining 2 members of the group (I responded every time I emailed myself, I am good at self-communication). Finally I was left with the feeling that no one was going to respond to me and I contacted the instructor, who basically granted me permission to go ahead and do it as an individual project. A few hours after that permission was granted one of my other group mates contacted me and asked what she could help on. I gave her two of the component parts. Again, weeks passed. The project was due on April 22nd, so on the 20th I decided to do my part and hers and then I turned the project in as mine and graded each member of my group accordingly on the group assessment sheet. You would think this story ends there, right? No, not at all. Last night (actually 1:58am on April 23rd), I got an email from her, the text said “Thanks.” and she attached her component part of the project. I thought, “ok, shes like way  behind, and I’m done, not an issue”, then I go into the class discussion board and she has replied to my project posting, stating that she had tried sending the email before and she thought I had received it. I tend to take pity on non-technical folk, so I decided to check the properties of the Word document. I looked at the statistics tab, and checked the document creation and overall editing time. It was started April 23, 2009 at 1:06am, and was edited for 42 minutes. She started her component 3 hours after the time the project was due, and on top of that, I asked for citations for her work, the document contained none.

    I do not know what is going to come of this, but at the moment I am hoping that my “partner” spontaneously combusts or goes back into the hole she has been hiding in for the past 3 weeks.

    On the up side, everyone likes my presentation and acknowledges all of  MY hard work, even after the  alleged “partner” tried to dive in and claim that I had somehow left her out. Me intentionally leaving her out would imply that I liked doing all of the work myself, right? That so isn’t the case.