PG Student Staff Meeting semester 1, meeting 2
Minutes with responses
In attendance:
Christina Branton, Sue Foster, Maria Indrawan Santiago, Rob Meredith, Michael Morgan, Ron Steinfeld, Steve wright.
Lan MBIS, Boyd MIT, Biffin BBS, Thomas IS
FIT5003.
- The lecturer is difficult to understand
- The content of the subject was interesting.
- The lecturer had problems explaining the material.
The lecturer was contacted. Students were reported to be happier.
FIT5047.
- There is too much assumed knowledge (that has not been covered in required the pre-requisite subjects that the students have done) and therefore students are struggling with the unit.
- For the assignment 1 there was a lack of information about programming in Java.
The unit is going to be reviewed by Graduate programs committee. It is on unit watch alert.
FIT5195.
- The tutor is unprofessional and unprepared.
- He is unable to answer questions about the tutorial exercises.
The lecturer has spoken with the tutor.
FIT5178.
- According to the students, assignment 2 requires Visual Basic Studio and some students are not familiar with VB coding.
- The students report the VB code is not working.
- Business students in particular are struggling because they do not have the coding background.
Response from Lecturer: There is a small part (5 marks) of a 10 mark assignment. ie 10% of the subject marks.
VBA was used for this part and students did not have to write any code, they only had to run a module written for them. Monash has installed the virus checker Microsoft System Center End Point Protection in the labs. This virus checker deleted the vba code from the Excel files.
You can exclude files the important files from the virus checker, but the faculty refused to do that.
Samedin Balla set up a virtual machine running windows 8. The code works in this environment. Last week (Monday) I changed the assignment to eliminate any need for any VBA. I will not try to use it again.
The assignment has been redesigned.
FIT9123.
- The tutor changed half way through the semester in the Friday 12 to 2pm class, but the new tutor is difficult to understand and has difficulty explaining concepts. It was requested that he write the comments of the board so it easier to follow.
FIT5133.
- The assignments are very theoretical, students would appreciate having an assignment related to an industry project.
Response from Lecturer:
This has been an issue last year and guest speakers were used to give insights into field implications of EA. This year, I had:
· Included references to real life case studies, including videos, during lectures and tutorials to illustrate the application of theory/concepts in practice;
· A small task equivalent to actually writing an EA artefact for a case government agency, like in the fields
· A real industry case study was used in assignment 1 and 2, to further align theories with case applications of EA to answer Qs
· Introduced catering for varying learning styles when delivering the lectures, which about half to a third of students attending.
The calibre/competency of critical thinking and writing among students also contributes to the challenges of their learning through field case study methods, not mentioning normal ones.
The challenge I had in partially redesigning some aspects of the unit is limited by using associated hours. I spent over 50 hours redesigning the 2 assignments and exam paper, with Q&A guidelines and unable to claim, not mentioning many more unpaid additional hours to redesign the lecture slides to increase linkages to industry practice concepts. However, I don’t mind contributing in-kind effort as the goal is to deliver a unit well.
There are also expectation differences between a small handful of students with some industry experience, vs a larger group with no work experience and having critical thinking and writing challenges.
I am in for supporting increasing alignment of theories with field practice in unit redesign, but the above issues need to be considered to result in a balance unit that is doable and perhaps offer choice of theory oriented vs industry applied assessment in further assignments – just food for thought at this stage. RMIT is delivery industry like EA courses that are linked to some EA standard accreditation – the Q is whether Monash wants to go down that pathway.
If there are any other feedback, please share as I am all for supporting continuously improvement.
Also: Chris Gonsalvez is looking at engaging more speakers.
General issues
- Construction noise in K Building from jack hammers etc makes it difficult to work on group projects.
- There is a lack of space for students to work on group assignments outside class, many study areas are designated quiet spaces so they cannot discuss their work with each other.
Passed on to e-services.
- Group discussion rooms with computers need to be made available for group work assignments.
- For the Monash mobile application, iOS version, the map links display the incorrect campus maps.
- For lecture theatre B215? (for FIT5057 Project Management I think) the folding tables are not working properly and do not sit flat so student equipment rolls off.
A BEIMS has been raised for this issue.
- Students would like to have a seminar series on interesting topics that was open to all students (similar to what is covered in FIT5141 Advances Topics in IT).
The ADE will be increasing industry engagement.
Students’ request was brought up at the School Meeting