Today was my first actual day of classes. I had a lecture for my animal physiology class in the morning, followed by an hour break, and then another hour of the same lecture. The class was very different than a typical class at U of R. This class had hundreds of students in a gigantic lecture hall--much different than the biology classes I am used to with thirty students MAX (some of them having less than twenty). Overall the teaching style wasn't hard to get used to. The professor stood at a podium with a microphone and lectured from a powerpoint presentation. What was different, however, was that students didn't ask questions. There was really no interaction between the students and the professor. Regardless, he was clear and easy to understand, and the lecture made a lot of sense.
Another difference in the class was the use of textbooks. At Richmond, I am used to being required to buy textbooks for several hundred dollars, read them each week, and often do assignments in them. Here textbooks are optional. If a student wants to use one, it is only for further knowledge, and the textbook can be borrowed from the library so that students do not have to buy it. While there is no requirement that students read a certain set of pages, it is expected that students have a general understanding of the concept, although that understanding can be obtained from reading any source the student chooses.
All in all, class here seemed much less rigorous than in Richmond, at least for now, and I am looking forward to my next class, which isn't until Thursday!
No comments:
Post a Comment