As usual, lots of things happening with academic and co-op related issues and I’m looking to hear back from y’all about your thoughts:
WaterlooWorks Feedback!
Submit your opinions here: bit.ly/WaterlooWorksFeedback
At the time of writing this article, there were 300 submissions to the Feedback Survey, over 137 of which were from Engineering students! We’ve opened up the survey to other faculties, so that they too can contribute their views on WaterlooWorks as well. Keep the feedback coming!
By the last council meeting, I’ll be putting together a preliminary summary of the results of the Engineering input. Based on the frequency of common feedback, we can help determine what the biggest pain points in the system are and urge CECA to prioritize those. With that, I will be working with CECA’s WaterlooWorks team and my fellow VP Academics/Education across campus to determine what students want collectively and what changes can be made easily and may take longer to implement but are important to change.
Also, continue to check out CECA’s feedback response that they’ll update on a (hopefully) monthly basis that addresses some of the most common pieces of feedback (e.g. opening multiple tabs, ranking links being at the bottom of the dashboard): https://uwaterloo.ca/co-operative-education/waterlooworks-news/waterlooworks-feedback-response
And if you’re curious, you can check out this term’s employment statistics after the end of main round here: https://info.uwaterloo.ca/infocecs/students/statistics/index.php
WatPD
Although behind a log-in wall, check out the results to the WatPD survey: https://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~watpd. Many of the results are as expected, reflecting what many of us as students anecdotally complain about as some of the shortcomings of WatPD, the level of motivation most students have while completing the courses and the methods that students typically use to pick their PD electives. Professor Dan. Davison, Acting Academic Director of WatPD-Engineering, has a goal of being able to determine conclusions and actionable items by the end of the 2017 calendar year with the WatPD Eng group with representatives from each department as well as the EngSoc VP Academic as the student voice. Over the Fall term, we will put together our recommendations based on the outcome of the survey to shape the future of the WatPD course in hopes of making the program more meaningful for students. While that is happening, we’ll also be looking for student input, so stay tuned!
Teaching Awards
Thank you to all those who submitted nominations for the EngSoc Teaching Awards that happen every term. The results will be out by the final Iron Warrior issue.
Just a reminder that if your class has a great TA, also nominate them for the Sandford Fleming TA award instead at https://uwaterloo.ca/sandford-fleming-foundation/teaching-awards!
Exam Bank
After reaching out to our faculty and to other VP Academics, I’ll be putting together a summary of my findings about the relationship between exam banks, students and professors/faculty. Talk to your class reps after the July 5th council meeting and make sure your class makes an informed vote during the last council meeting about exam bank access. More info to come!
Co-op Student Policy and Rights
Currently FED’s VP Education,Andrew Clubine is helping continue and start some initiatives around co-op regarding the creation of a co-op student policy, the determination of co-op student rights and starting a year long investigation into the somewhat mysterious co-op fee that we pay (which doesn’t go towards WatPD at all).
That’s all I have this time for updates. Let me know your thoughts at vpacademic.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca . Ta for now!
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