Class Selection: Which class would you choose?

[AndrewsMother]

If you needed to take an additional three hours, which class would you choose?

CUST 3320: Multicultural Environments in Urban Settings
Educational experiences of children in multicultural schools and communities.

or

TELS 3363: Technical Communications
Procedures and techniques of preparing technical memoranda, oral and written reports, manuals, and other source documents that fit the pattern of industrial and institutional communications

[c'est moi]

what's your academic major? what will be most useful to you? what is most INTERESTING to you?

i'm in education, so i'm clearly biased and would suggest the first class. doesn't mean it's right for you though. if you're an educator and haven't been exposed to issues in urban settings, i'd say the first is a must.

[AndrewsMother]

I am not an education major, but I am interested in education and the problems if both urban and rural public schools.

My major....good question. I am hope to change my major to either Radiation Therapy or Medical Dosimetry. If I am not able to change my major to either of the previous choices I will major in Health (the majority of the major classes are offered online) while earning an AAT in Radiation Therapy from an area junior college. I am also Pre-Med.

To accomodate a full time job, I am taking classes at the University (12 hours) and two classes at a Community college. I need one more hour at the University to receive my grants and scholarships, but there are not any other Health Classes that I am able to take this semester.

I will gain valuable information in either class, so I am tempted to enroll in the course with the least expensive book.

[Ellien C]

My best advice is not to choose classes from the catalog, but to ask around about the teachers and students who have taken the classes. Do you know anything about the teachers? What can you find out? Any other students or class boards where you can ask these things?

[AndrewsMother]

Originally Posted by Ellien C

My best advice is not to choose classes from the catalog, but to ask around about the teachers and students who have taken the classes. Do you know anything about the teachers? What can you find out? Any other students or class boards where you can ask these things?

At this point I don't have time to ask around. I have to make a choice by tomorrow at 17:00. Once I decided to accept employment I had to drop an onsite class that was not required and replace it with an online course.

I have read both instructor's reviews at ratemyprofessors.com, and the feedback between the two is comparable.

I would love to take a course on the Vietnam War, but I am NOT purchasing another $200 book this semester.

[~pi]

Wow, those are very different courses! My honest opinion: The second is probably more related to your major. Technical writing skills are always in high demand. And I cannot imagine the first course not having some sort of assignment that requires actual field study (i.e. not so compatible with a full time job.) That said, the first sounds more interesting.

Re: buying textbooks, have you tried renting them? (http://www.chegg.com/)

[AndrewsMother]

Originally Posted by ~pi

Wow, those are very different courses! My honest opinion: The second is probably more related to your major. Technical writing skills are always in high demand. And I cannot imagine the first course not having some sort of assignment that requires actual field study (i.e. not so compatible with a full time job.) That said, the first sounds more interesting.

Re: buying textbooks, have you tried renting them? (http://www.chegg.com/)

Pi, I agree. The first course sounds far more exciting, but the second course will prove to be the most useful. There aren't any field studies required with the first course. From the information that I have gathered from ratemyprofessors.com there are four essays whose information comes from articles, books and movies.

I normally buy used textbooks that are one to two editions out of date for less than $10. Unfortunately many professors at my University have penned their own "novels" which includes access to an online portal, and are only available at the campus bookstore.

(I pay for the class, pay fees for Blackboard at the Uinversity, pay an additional $100 per online class, then I have to pay an additional sum for online access to a third party website. Ridiculous.)

I save textbooks for my husband, we have the same major.

[oceane]

I think the first one can really be useful for Health, too, especially health promotion. vulnerable target groups and environmental aspects all in one class

[Carita]

i agree with pi- the second will be helpful in your future coursework, even though the first does look interesting.

[claddaghmom]

I'd choose the one with the least coursework.

Of course, you have to be confident that the teacher isn't hiding behind the syllabus. For one of my classes, the syllabus had 2 discussions per week, worth 20 points each. That's pretty basic and in my whole 2 years of school there, a discussion typically means a paragraph or two on related chapters.

So I start school and she emails us an updated syllabus; not the one the school requires her to post.

In it, we all discover that her 2 assignments per week are actually 1500 word APA papers.