Fix My Timetable! Campaigning to end split reading weeks, provide a codified system for recorded lectures, and better disperse deadlines
Hey! I'm Alex and I'm a Liberal Arts student. I'm campaigning to be AEL school representitive in hope to rectify issues that I've encountered within the school's system, with a view to end split reading weeks for joint-honours students, better disperse assignment deadlines, especially for assignments of the same type, and to provide a centralised database for recorded lectures.
The School of AEL plays host to a significant portion of the joint-honours students studying at Queen's, something that isn't at all reflected by the way the school is currently organised. There's a distinct lack of clarity as to which school joint-honours students should avail of supports from, deadlines are grouped into short timeframes that cause unnecessary stress for students and faculty, and the way the reading week is currently set up, with courses in the same school having different reading weeks, deprives joint-honours students and single-honours students studying alternate modules of an actual break within the school term, instead making them attend two half-weeks of class.
As school representative for AEL, I'd work independently and with other school representatives to organise schools within the faculty to keep the same term dates, meaning that classes for joint-honours students or students taking modules outside their core subject would have their classes start and finish at the same time, and would have a singular reading week, giving them an actual break during the school term. As part of this re-organisation, I'd also work to better disperse the deadlines within modules, especially those of the same type, as currently both single and joint-honours students have been struggling with short periods of time (often singular weeks), being host to deadlines across all their modules for that semester.
The school of AEL could additionally use improvement where it comes to recorded learning resources for students who, for any reason, cannot physically attend a class. Currently there is no standard way to record a lecture or universal platform that lectures are uploaded to, with some being accessed through canvas, some being emailed out, and some being uploaded to youtube -- that is, when they're recorded at all. As faculty rep, I'd endeavour to establish an overarching policy on recorded lectures (ie, which lectures are recorded and how) and implement use of a singular platform that would be organised and easily-accessed by students, taking the confusion out of accessing these recordings and providing a centralised system to make revision easier.