Lecture Hall is too small

electric applause · 22-09-2014 3:50pm #1

I'm a 1st year Commerce International student and a lot of our lectures are with other B.Comm Intl students, but our Management lecture is mixed with General Commerce too.

The only trouble is, we're in Kirwan and we don't fit.
The General Commerce students have a lecture in Kirwan straight before our Management lecture so no matter how early we get here, there simply isn't any seats left. Right now I'm sitting on the floor at the back of the unbelievably hot lecture theatre righting this post because I can't see the screen and can't focus. (I took out my laptop thinking our lecturer would have the powerpoint up on Blackboard so I could keep up....she doesn't)

Will they split us into two groups? We'd fit in O'Flaherty I'd say but this is getting ridiculous. I don't have a clue what's going on in this module and I'm so scared about how much I'm falling behind. Any advice?

minion35 · 22-09-2014 3:56pm

I would raise your complaint to your courses class rep, this allows for them to relay it to the lecturer. Although from what I remember about the larger courses/classes in college most start off with having very few spare seats. Although over the course of the next few months it should quieten down especially due to the fact it's a first year course (drop outs, people not showing up).

electric applause · 22-09-2014 4:13pm

We don't have class reps yet! should I email the lecturer?

minion35 · 22-09-2014 4:16pm

I would email the lecturer in that case, just keep the mail brief, concise and nice. I would also put in something like "I would have raised this too the class rep but we haven't assigned/elected one yet"

Ficheall · 22-09-2014 5:46pm

It'll all calm down next week - half the class will decide not to come in and then you'll have no problems.

Mr. G · 22-09-2014 9:32pm

It's the same story with our Maths classes in those lecture halls. People tend to sit on the steps, and spend about 10 minutes all getting seated. Over 300 people in the room.

Has anyone got class reps yet?

Ficheall wrote: »

It'll all calm downse next week - half the class will decide not to come in and then you'll have no problems.

Perhaps I guess. I hope so.

challengemaster · 22-09-2014 11:52pm

It's not exactly a new issue though - this happens every year. In general I think people just deal with it.

Squeeonline · 23-09-2014 7:12am

Mr. G wrote: »

It's the same story with our Maths classes in those lecture halls. People tend to sit on the steps, and spend about 10 minutes all getting seated. Over 300 people in the room.

Has anyone got class reps yet?

Perhaps I guess. I hope so.

Nah he's right. The Kirwan is one of the biggest theatres on campus. First year biology usually has people sitting on the stairs for the first week or two. After that, it's at below 50% occupancy unless there's a really good lecturer.

The only guy who could fill the theatre mid semester has retired though. Prof James Houghton, what a legend.

Chuckieawrlaw · 30-09-2014 6:58pm

Don't email the lecturer ... That's stupid sure what are they supposed to do about it ...... The lecture Hall I'd always packed the first day and the last few days ... It will b half empty every other day

wmirl · 30-09-2014 9:14pm

Chuckieawrlaw wrote: »

Don't email the lecturer ... That's stupid sure what are they supposed to do about it ...... The lecture Hall I'd always packed the first day and the last few days ... It will b half empty every other day

Well, the lecturer is the first point of contact for any module-related query. I would imagine that if the class was too big for a single lecture hall consistently, they'd split up the class into different theatres or different times, which amazingly is one of the many superpowers a lecturer has! To a first year with no experience of how much attendance drops after a few weeks, it's a valid question.

challengemaster · 01-10-2014 4:03pm

wmirl wrote: »

Well, the lecturer is the first point of contact for any module-related query. I would imagine that if the class was too big for a single lecture hall consistently, they'd split up the class into different theatres or different times, which amazingly is one of the many superpowers a lecturer has! To a first year with no experience of how much attendance drops after a few weeks, it's a valid question.

Surprisingly not, actually. Planning and room booking wouldn't be done by the lecturer, and they have very little control over these things. Most rooms are probably booked solid, and splitting classes means more work for everyone involved (and more cost to the dept.).

There will be a main point of contact for a module, not necessarily the lecturer though. The lecturer should be able to tell you who this person is.

wmirl · 01-10-2014 9:58pm

challengemaster wrote: »

Surprisingly not, actually. Planning and room booking wouldn't be done by the lecturer, and they have very little control over these things. Most rooms are probably booked solid, and splitting classes means more work for everyone involved (and more cost to the dept.).

There will be a main point of contact for a module, not necessarily the lecturer though. The lecturer should be able to tell you who this person is.

Aye, the nitty-gritty is handled by the admin staff, but in my experience, the lecturer has always been the one to contact about these things to organise it. You could go to your course coordinator but they'll just talk to the lecturer. It's part of their duties to do clerical work and answer students' emails, though there are some lecturers who pawn a lot of it off to the tutors...which has happened to me *grumbles*

Lecture Hall is too small

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