Blackboard

AllStar

Why the fcuk wont lecturers put notes up it defeats the fcukin purpose of the whole thing :mad:

Ed

There's some weird copyright issue with using blackboard, which is why a lot of lecturers won't use it.
As best i can tell, if a lecturer posts up their own work on blackboard they lose the copyright on it.
An issue that has also been raised by staff, is that of falling attendances in lectures as a result of the availability of lecture notes.
Their argument would be that the lectures are there as essential guidelines to be used in conjunction with the notes, readings and overheads.
Personally i'd argue that the overheads should be available in some format(some lecturers make them available via photocopies in the students union, well for arts anyway, not sure how it works in other faculties) allowing the students to make the decision to go to lectures on their own.
Going to lectures is a really good idea, failing is no fun.

tintinr35

failing no fun, tell me bout it
they should still put them up, or do like the psychology lecturers and put up most of the stuff but they leave out certain things that u only have if uve been to the lectures :cool:

Syth

It is stupid for lecturers to not put notes up on th'interweb because of copyright concerns. Firstly if it's a issue why don't computer services (or whoever owns/operates) blackboard change it? Secondly it's no big deal if someone in america uses your notes. Lecturers don't get paid to write notes. They lose no money if someone uses them.

I don't think the attendance of people with a poor attitude to lectures is enough to counteract the good that making lecture notes available on the web.

Red Alert

Can someone elaborate on this? Who exactly owns the copyright if something is posted on this system>?

blondie83

Have you ever noticed how if you don't know the URL you have to go into at least five or si different pages just to log into Blackboard? I miss online classes

beardedchicken

Syth wrote:

Lecturers don't get paid to write notes. They lose no money if someone uses them.

true, they don't get paid for preparing lectures, but it's not unheard of for articles and books to be published on the back of lectures, and some lecturers will include their own research in lectures, so losing the copyright can cost them dearly in terms of one of the most important part of an academic's job: publishing!

Jonny Arson

I really do think it is essential that lecturers do put their notes on Blackboard. For example in my Sociology lecture today, our lecturer used about 9 or 10 different slides full of lots of information. When we were half way taking the notes down from the slide the lecturer changed slides. This kept on happening throughout the lecture and it came to the stage peoples notes were disorganised from only been able to take down partial notes and everyone just stopped taking notes after 20 minutes or so. Because of this the lecture was meaningless as nobody could possibly take in all that information in their heads and without proper notes nobody probably really learnt anything. This is why I feel that lecturers should put up their notes on Blackboard. Lecturers should embrace Blackboard more as it is a fantastic educational tool which means that students will never miss out on anything in their espective course. Yes I do know people don't go to some lectures because they can get the notes from Blackboard, but at the end of the day those people will get nowhere. Only around half of the people doing Sociology on average attend lectures and there is no notes available on Blackboard so I don't see how it will makes things worse regarding lecture attendance. I belkieve having notes on Blackboard will mean more people won't fail exams more than anything.

beardedchicken

in that situation, it seems you just need to nominate someone to tell your lecturer that the class is having trouble keeping up with the lecture, and can he or she slow down a little, or just keep the slides up for longer. it's good to get to know your lecturer anyway - he or she will remember later on that you were engaged with the subject, and confident enough to raise the issue!

granted, blackboard (and in my day online classes) is really handy if you're stuck or you missed a lecture, and i know a lot of lecturers swear by it, especially in subjects in the sciences, where accuracy of notes is important, but i would advise against depending on them.

in any case, lecture notes aren't supposed to be the beginning and end of your studying. harsh as it sounds, you should only use them as a jumping-off point, and use them to steer your reading.

regarding the people in your class who are regularly missing lectures - that's their mistake. they'll realise this when the exams (and repeats) roll around. you shouldn't be too worried about them - the worse they do, the better you look (assuming you're one of the ones who show up to lectures regularly)

Alana

Lecturers get paid how much a year...? (Way above the national average as far as i can remember-shall go hunt stats and inform ye) they get how many weeks holidays...?And they worry about copyright...? :rolleyes: grrr :mad:

Red Alert

actually, compared to people of similar qualifications elsewhere they're paid pretty bad.

i don't know any of the bb urls, and if you try skipping the "Welcome to blackboard page" by saving the login screen in your bookmarks, it just sends you back there. an idiotic system, designed by idiots! it cost a **** load too, i wonder who did Blackboard Ltd. take out to lunch?

tribulus

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

Only around half of the people doing Sociology on average attend lectures and there is no notes available on Blackboard.

you can get the sociology notes but you have to pay for them , not sure where/how i'l ask my gf and get back to you

Syth

I know some people doing mathematical physics and there are 2 people who have a system for notes. When a slide with lots of equations is put up one of them starts transcribing from the start, the other from the middle. After wards they join them up.

rainbow kirby

I think that was physics, in Luis Leon Vintro's lectures in 1st year. He spoke too quickly and too Spanishy to understand...:(

Red Alert

Luis Leon Vintro gave us all notes last year for 2nd Eng Physics. I passed the exam because of him as i knew nothing from O'Mongain's stuff.

Jonny Arson

tribulus wrote:

you can get the sociology notes but you have to pay for them , not sure where/how i'l ask my gf and get back to you

Yeah I know I can get the Sociology notes from the Students Union but if I was to get notes for every lecture, it would cost a bomb. The Sociology department are very scabby about putting everything into the SU compared to my other departments. Thanks anyways for bothering to check that out.

arbeitsscheuer

I'm in 2nd year - Politics and History, and this is an issue that p*sses me off as well...

Basically, fair play to the Politics department, every course I'm in the lecturer puts the slides/notes/resources on Blackboard. Respect

But those f*ckers in the History dept. put absolutely nothing on Blackboard (which is highly ironic cos, looking at my history notes, they really REALLY suck. Seriously :mad: ).

It would be ok if they made their slides/notes available from the SU photocopying centre, but nope, nada, zilch, nuffink....

Chinafoot

SebtheBum wrote:

But those f*ckers in the History dept. put absolutely nothing on Blackboard (which is highly ironic cos, looking at my history notes, they really REALLY suck. Seriously :mad: ).

It would be ok if they made their slides/notes available from the SU photocopying centre, but nope, nada, zilch, nuffink....

yea same here. to be honest when it comes to most of the first semester in history my notes are utter crap. my elective isnt too bad cos i had Elva Johnston and she had a really good structure to her lectures but the core stuff was brutal.

i dont really expect anything on Blackboard (as nice as that would be!) but at least put the overheads in the SU!

Alana

http://www.ucd.ie/personnel/html/ops/scales.htm

eh red alert i don't think so.... e120k p.a aint to be sneezed at. However i think that someone with qualifications in say hist of art or prehistoric literature would not b as likely as say sum genius physics/chemistry prof to get a job that pays more.. However lecturers also have the time to pursue other things, research, books, etc, unlike other careers...

anyway boo to ppl who dont put notes on bb

beardedchicken

Alana wrote:

e120k p.a aint to be sneezed at.

However lecturers also have the time to pursue other things, research, books, etc, unlike other careers...

firstly, the 120k figure that you quoted is the very top of the pay scale for professors, who are very rare in universities in Ireland; generally only the heads of some (but by no means all) departments have professorships. the vast majority of lecturers are just that; college lecturers or senior lecturers, and if you look at the pay scales for those positions, you'll find that they're around, or slightly below the average for someone with their qualifications.

secondly, the "other things" that you mention are in fact the backbone of an academic's career. researching, writing and publishing, attending conferences, supervising research and even administration takes up the majority of his or her time, it's actually the lecturing part that's the relatively unimportant part of the job.

anyway, this is veering wildly off topic. agreed, it's a bummer when stuff isn't available online, but it does provide an opportunity to go and find the information somewhere else, which will help your independent learning skills enormously. resourcing is always a problem in college, so don't look on this as a problem, look at it as an opportunity.