Notes from Abroad
Academic responsibility
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
By Corey Kapolka
GVL Study Abroad Columnist
Months ago, as I learned my way around campus during my first week here in Oslo, I met a witty Norwegian graduate student named Milo.
He gave me a thorough introduction to how things worked at the university, though I didn’t quite take him seriously when he described how the semester would progress. As finals now bear down upon us, I can see that he was quite right, and I find myself regretting not listening to Milo’s advice a bit more intently.
The University of Oslo has a policy of "personal responsibility" that reaches into many of its students’ lives. This forces students to take their education into their own hands, which certainly seems like a good thing.
It also, however, includes an unfortunate lack of lecture hours and quality lecturers, which means most of what students learn in a class comes in the libraries.
There are also incredibly few assignments during the semester and, aside from classes with midterms, I have heard of none that actually count toward the final grade. (These are pass/fail and required to sit for the exam.)
Grades are usually exclusively assigned by how one performs on the final exam and/or project, which puts an incredible amount of pressure on the students for the final few weeks of classes.
Because of a lack of graded content to provide motivation (in concert with the unfortunate lack of good lectures), students largely don’t bother studying throughout the semester unless they have personal interest in the subject material.
This creates a massive cramming period during the few weeks before finals begin that is plainly evident on campus. Formerly sparsely populated libraries are now bursting with people, and instead of hopping among a plurality of parties on weekends, it seems that everyone has suddenly adopted hermitic lifestyles.
This behavior can be somewhat evident at GVSU, but not nearly to the extent that I have seen in Oslo. The stark contrast between lazy lecture attendance and feverish text reading is astounding.
I may simply be ignorant to how major research universities work because I’m only really familiar with the teaching style at GVSU.
Perhaps the fact that I am so used to our typical class demands and access to helpful professors means I’m unsuited for UiO’s brand of "personal responsibility."
But frankly, I don’t find this pattern of academic acedia with a tail end of library bingeing to be conducive at all to good learning. It seems content to assume students are educating themselves with the ample free time it affords them, and indeed some do.
I, however, would take a quality instructor over a book any day.
GVL Study Abroad Columnist
Months ago, as I learned my way around campus during my first week here in Oslo, I met a witty Norwegian graduate student named Milo.
He gave me a thorough introduction to how things worked at the university, though I didn’t quite take him seriously when he described how the semester would progress. As finals now bear down upon us, I can see that he was quite right, and I find myself regretting not listening to Milo’s advice a bit more intently.
The University of Oslo has a policy of "personal responsibility" that reaches into many of its students’ lives. This forces students to take their education into their own hands, which certainly seems like a good thing.
It also, however, includes an unfortunate lack of lecture hours and quality lecturers, which means most of what students learn in a class comes in the libraries.
There are also incredibly few assignments during the semester and, aside from classes with midterms, I have heard of none that actually count toward the final grade. (These are pass/fail and required to sit for the exam.)
Grades are usually exclusively assigned by how one performs on the final exam and/or project, which puts an incredible amount of pressure on the students for the final few weeks of classes.
Because of a lack of graded content to provide motivation (in concert with the unfortunate lack of good lectures), students largely don’t bother studying throughout the semester unless they have personal interest in the subject material.
This creates a massive cramming period during the few weeks before finals begin that is plainly evident on campus. Formerly sparsely populated libraries are now bursting with people, and instead of hopping among a plurality of parties on weekends, it seems that everyone has suddenly adopted hermitic lifestyles.
This behavior can be somewhat evident at GVSU, but not nearly to the extent that I have seen in Oslo. The stark contrast between lazy lecture attendance and feverish text reading is astounding.
I may simply be ignorant to how major research universities work because I’m only really familiar with the teaching style at GVSU.
Perhaps the fact that I am so used to our typical class demands and access to helpful professors means I’m unsuited for UiO’s brand of "personal responsibility."
But frankly, I don’t find this pattern of academic acedia with a tail end of library bingeing to be conducive at all to good learning. It seems content to assume students are educating themselves with the ample free time it affords them, and indeed some do.
I, however, would take a quality instructor over a book any day.
Posted 9:30 PM
