The first I noticed while at my weekly physio session at the local hospital. I thought, not only is our health in question at the hospital, but our very souls may be a risk!
The second picture is a (de)motivational poster I found online some time ago. Unfortunately, even with my limited editorial experience, this is all too true.
I'm still taking the YA writing course... My third accredited university course in the UK (after 2 open university courses) and, I have to say, I'm really not liking the teaching / grading mentality behind the courses. The formula seems to be: lots of group discussions with guidance-related instructor input (of course, realizing that the instructor has put the course syllabus together in the first place, so not dissing them on that respect), followed by 1-2 feedback sessions (which could also be a small, almost meaningless test), culminating in a final project worth at least 90% of the grade, but for which you get zero feedback.
And that's my real pet peeve. I could live with the entire course structure and the meaningless tests/feedback sessions, as long as the instructors/tutors gave feedback on the final project. After all, what value does a number have by itself? If there is no context, there is no meaning. As a student, you will have virtually no understanding of what you did well and what you did poorly.
If you are writing an 'answer the questions' exam, that is clearly different. After such an exam, most people have some idea of whether they did well or badly, and approximately where they succeeded and failed. But with a single, relatively-open, project feedback is an absolutely crucial part of the process. Without it a huge amount of learning is lost.
Now, the main reason I'm taking this writing course is to get out of the house and meet some people, so the grade is not, itself, significant. In fact, at my point in life, already having a Ph.D., none of the grades in courses I've taken lately have mattered to me. I'm only there to learn. Which is precisely why I want the feedback. I've essentially stopped taking Open University courses now, because, if they're all like the ones I've previously taken, then I see almost no value to them. In fact, I'm starting to get a negative view of the British, with their apparently love of this time of learning system. I have the feeling that it's little more than 'feel good' education that's addictive because you think you might be learning something, and you're having fun so what's a few hundred pounds to the university every half a year? But IMO, if I'm spending that much money for a course, the instructor can at least resist their laziness long enough to write a few comments about my project. I know I did, when I marked 300 undergrad biochem courses one term.
But maybe that's just me.
Insight and longevity.
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