It's a work in progress.

I need somewhere to work out my course evaluation for a certain person at the end of this term. People seem to enjoy the bitterness and it never hurts to get feedback on one's compositions. This is only a draft. It will get updated as the bitterness accumulates and distills into the finest form of written cyanide. It's been awhile since I've written anything worth reading, so the purifying process may take awhile yet. But am I in a hurry? Not really. Whatever I have by December will be submitted. And then I have another 4 months to polish THAT draft and submit it again.

Subject: On the topic of course communication
The frequency of e-mails rivals that of the most virulent spambot in existence. The contents themselves, being so convoluted by length and pointless wordiness, are indecipherable to the point of making students shudder upon seeing the dreaded mail icon in WebCT. To actually understand the course itself, one must rely on those poor unfortunate souls who manage to navigate through the mazelike sentences through any combination of luck, sheer force of will and fear. If the tool that is supposed to enhance and facilitate understanding between individuals is simply ignored most of the time by the receiving party, then it is obviously not being used properly. One may be assured that after receiving up to five e-mails in one day that are marked as being important or urgent but say nothing, it should come as no surprise that students eventually end up ignoring them. Operant conditioning is a powerful thing.
A teacher must be professional at all times. If there are numerous questions on the WebCT discussion board regarding a certain issue, then there is a serious miscommunication from the teacher's end. As the provider of information, the teacher is responsible for answering questions in a manner that cannot be reproached for snarkiness or misdirected anger. If a question is answered directly, it must follow that students will be satisfied.

Subject: On the topic of a certain lecture
When one clearly loses one's voice and cannot be understood even with a microphone, it is an appropriate time to cancel class. Students learn nothing from a teacher who sounds as though she is on the threshold of death. It should be obvious that miming is not an effective communcation method. This is a university class and not a 3-hour game of charades.

Subject: On the topic of course organization
A syllabus should not be 50 pages long. The information within should be easy to find. The most important part of a syllabus is the list of assignments and their due dates. This should be the most prominent, instead of being buried under paragraphs of mindless text. This helps not only the students but also the preceptors, since one may be sure that clinical nurses will not read all 50 pages of the package, if they've opened it at all. If one wishes to publish a book, then one can easily do so online at various self-publishing websites and not foist their prose disguised as course material on defenseless students. If the faculty is confused about what the course entails, then this is an indication that the expectations of the course are too much. The blind leading the blind will not end well.


Like I said, this is but a beginning draft. You can expect much more from me if I start having blood-drenched nightmares again.