Talk:Academic Calendar for 06-07
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One of the major issues is a suggestion to make summer 8 weeks instead of 10 weeks. This would allow faculty who have children in public schools the opportunity to both teach and have a short vacation period before their kids go back to school. Can labs be taught in such a period? Can classes be reasonsbly presented in these abbreviated formats? Many schools do this, so there is precedent. How would such a thing effect you? Would it be totally impossible, or just an inconvenience? What are your thoughts? Any other input on the academic calendar is also welcome.
I think it would be very difficult to squeeze in all of our labs in such a tight semester. Currently, we in ECET will schedule labs to occur twice per week for 4 of the weeks during the summer rather than just meeting weekly so that all of the labs can be accomplished in the shortened 10 week term. This is already extremely cumbersome as it is difficult to match up the lab concepts with the lecture. The accelerated time also does not allow most students to comprehend all that is covered. I remember when we converted to semesters that the Summer 98 term was like 7 or 8 weeks. That was a nightmare. For the benefit of student learning, I think we should maintain at least 10 weeks for summer term. Does anyone know what are peer institutions are doing to handle labs and ensure that students actually can learn 15 week material in about half the time? I also would like to see a spring break that is actually during the spring rather than during the winter or at least a week before spring...
31 August 2005 12:17 (EDT)
For whatever it is worth, lots of places do a summer session in 5 weeks, with students able to take up to two courses (one in the morning, one in the afternoon). I have taught Organic Chemistry (with lab) in this format. It isn't delicate, but it can be done. The big advantage of a short summer session is that you can have more than one of them, which is convenient for a 2 part course (like Organic I and Organic II).
--Zvi Szafran
Why not a 12 week summer?
Several universities with which I am familiar have 12 week summer sessions. It allows instructors to choose between a 6 week or 12 week format. Most of the lab courses are taught over a 12 week period whereas approximately 1/3 of the non lab courses are offered in a 6 week format.
My preference is we maintain at least a 10 week time frame.
Just a reminder to everyone; faculty set the academic calender so don't feel like you have no input. You have all the input that matters--a vote. :)
Tom
When do we vote on this? Will it be brought up in a senate meeting or will it simply be brought up at a Gen Fac mtg soon??? I assume based on the above diction and tone that it is the Curring type of Tom who knows the answer! :)
Lance
Twelve-Week Summer Term!?! How About Eight?
Commencement this spring was May 7 and classes started May 17. At the end of the summer, we had Commencement on August 6 and kickoff activities started the 15th.
That's 18 free days total between spring Commencement and fall kickoff. If one used 14 of them to add two weeks to summer term, we'd have perhaps the Sunday after spring Commencement plus a long weekend after summer Commencement to prepare for the next term. And maybe even take a break.
I think this would take a toll on students as well as faculty.
Suppose, instead, we did an eight-week term as proposed above, with double-length classes? It is pretty easy to telescope a 16-week schedule into an eight-week period. Of course, that would make it tough to teach (or take!) more than two classes in summer...
Bob Brown 1 September 2005 17:00 (EDT
I am fine with a lecture only class being done in half the number of weeks by doubling the per week contact, but am really uncertain about the parallel lab content. Here is an example scenario. A 3-3-4 class would meet for 6 hours per week of lecture and 6 hours per week of lab. That's 12 hours per week and then runs into the difficulty of having enough students take enough classes to make summer profitable or at least break even if they are only taking 2 classes during the term. Enrollment would be smaller and then we might not have as many course offerings prolonging graduation among many difficulties. Why did we change to semesters ? :( I continue to also be concerned about the masses of students who would be lost by such an accelerated schedule.
Lance
== One size may not fit all--how about flexibility in schedules ==
There was an attempt in Georgia to synchronize K-12 school schedules with post-secondary schedules. I am not sure that we have been able to benefit from that because of our early summer start date. By starting our summer term as early as we do, we exclude both graduating high school students and teachers as students at SPSU. For the past several years (and the 2006 term is also included) we have started our summer term before the local schools even end.
We serve different constituencies with differing needs and a one-size fits all schedule is just one option for summer term at SPSU. If we can become a bit more flexible in when and how we offer summer courses, we may be able to attract these groups as well as our current students. Some universities use a two-week block between spring and summer for a May-mester. This is a time for intensive courses and, in some cases, international study tours (for credit). While this option might not attract high school students and teachers, it might be attractive to our students as well as to students from other local colleges. Not all courses would fit in a two-week segment, but it is something to consider for some offerings. Five week terms might work well for some courses, but the work is much more intensive. Labs are more challenging and students might have to limit how many courses they take. Other colleges have adopted this approach to summer and one of several options to make courses more available. Another approach is to offer an intensive class (face-to-face) and then assign a project to be completed over a longer period of time. Some weekend programs use this model.
I think that we can become a summer school of choice if we expand the schedule options for prospective students.
Sandra
