This morning I stumbled across this article on CNET: The iPhone moves from the quad to the classroom and thought it was quite appropriate for the majority of schools & universities out there. I think back to my experiences while at university and the courses were boring, mind-numbing for the most part and there wasn’t much to get excited about when choosing classes. The only time it was a class I looked forward to was when the professor was truly interested in the students and when the courses were actually something that I could see using in the real world.
Quoted from the article, “A professor for almost 30 years, Joy has mainly researched computer graphics and visualizations, until he and a former grad student came up with the idea to offer a class that teaches to the iPhone SDK (software development kit). Joy didn’t have much experience in mobile platforms, but he was game for teaching something “relevant” that would keep his students motivated.”
That last line is the reason for this result, “ECS 198H wasn’t approved as a university course until 10 days before the fall quarter started in September–in other words, students already had their class schedules set. But less than four hours after Joy placed it in the registration guide, the class was filled to its 35-student capacity, with another 40 people staking out wait-list spots.”
Advice to universities: Have your professor revamp or create RELEVANT classes & students will come. For any university to be wildly successful this is a MUST! Many kudos to Professor Ken Joy!
What else do you think is key to getting students excited & interested in taking classes?
No related posts.
