Course teaching poor

Any advice on how to navigate a situation where a lot of the course teaching is poor? Mostly in person, but slides available online so picking and choosing. Some stuff is slow and simple (covered at A-level). Some is missing steps or presenting overcomplicated solutions to simple problems. Head of department's lectures have been the worst - just lots of disconnected ideas.

Reply 1

hotpud

18

Original post by AdviceSponge

Any advice on how to navigate a situation where a lot of the course teaching is poor? Mostly in person, but slides available online so picking and choosing. Some stuff is slow and simple (covered at A-level). Some is missing steps or presenting overcomplicated solutions to simple problems. Head of department's lectures have been the worst - just lots of disconnected ideas.

Make a formal complaint to your university in the first instance (your union should be able to offer advice) and failing anything meaningful from that you can submit a complaint to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator. However, at every step of the way, you need to gather evidence. So start logging specifically which lectures are poor, noting dates and time and teachers and why they are poor. Collect sample notes. You might also have a look for your universities terms and conditions where they set out what students should expect.

Good luck!

Reply 2

martin7

20

Original post by AdviceSponge

Any advice on how to navigate a situation where a lot of the course teaching is poor? Mostly in person, but slides available online so picking and choosing. Some stuff is slow and simple (covered at A-level). Some is missing steps or presenting overcomplicated solutions to simple problems. Head of department's lectures have been the worst - just lots of disconnected ideas.

You say that some things are "slow and simple (covered at A-level)". If you're in the first year then this is to be expected to some extent. The first year is about getting everyone up to the level required for the second year. Some people won't have covered the A-level topics you're referring to, or are not as confident with them as they could/should be.

Have you talked to your fellow students about this to see whether they have the same impression of the course as you do? There's strength in numbers.

I don't agree with @hotpud though -- the first step is to raise this internally via your student reps. When you have problems like this it's best to raise them early, at a point where something can be done to fix the problem. This is where it's invaluable to see whether other students have the same perspective.

If raising things locally doesn't help then that's valuable insight that you can use if it does come to a formal complaint. Don't be surprised if when raising a complaint through formal channels you're asked what you did informally to improve things.

Reply 3

cheadle

17

I'm with @martin7 on this. You should bring this up with your student rep who will raise it through the staff/student committee - these meetings are minuted and actioned and passed up through the chain of command to university management.

Course teaching poor

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