It takes a lot to get through 15 credit hours in 15 weeks as a student, often including putting your mind to the test in multiple different subjects and different contexts at the same time or even just trying to survive the boredom of one professor who insists you attend an hour of mind-numbing lecture.
The truth is that college is supposed to be hard. I can whine about it, but education is inherently not easy. That being said, there are certain things that universities and courses can do to try to make sure that effort is more focused on learning than it is on surviving.
One thing that NC State could do to make sure that students’ brains aren’t split between too many subjects at once is allowing students to take a wider variety of eight-week courses during the spring and fall semesters, similar to the length of summer courses.
While the experience of an eight-week fall class would be slightly different from five-week summer classes, the idea of more concentrated classes is still applicable. In my personal experience during the 2018 summer semester, I found that shorter classes let me focus on a fewer number of things at once with a much higher quality of work in each of those classes.
Being able to concentrate on a few things and successfully use that knowledge is a highly underrated experience. This is especially evident when it is compared to the fall and spring semesters. In these semesters, students essentially live in a constant state of paranoia just to get the work they have done on time and to get decent enough grades on their exams. Suffice it to say that not forgetting the subject material by the time I have an exam is a nice feeling.
However, if a student currently wants to register in an eight-week class that is under 300-level, they would have a whole selection of four non-fitness related courses to choose from, one of which being a freshman advancement seminar. The options for students who want to learn at a different pace are abysmally small.
The reality of increasing the course options for eight-week classes would mean ending up with more of what are called “mini-terms,” which are defined as courses where all the material is compressed into an eight-week syllabus. These classes are typically known for helping students who want to get ahead. However, that in no way disqualifies the effect they could have at NC State.
One university that uses mini-terms is the University of South Florida, which claims that, “For faculty, mini-session courses provide the opportunity for them to develop innovative courses and to work with students in a concentrated teaching and learning context.”
Needless to say, students and faculty alike would benefit from this. Students would theoretically be more engaged, as would their professors, and have more of a reason to show up to participate and learn in each class.
Furthermore, while these classes are historically used to get ahead, I would suggest that they not need to be used that way at NC State. Instead of taking a heavier course load, the purpose of these eight-week mini-term courses should be to help accommodate those students who would prefer such a learning environment and the advantages that come with it.
The current situation at NC State forces students to accommodate a very specific, inflexible style of learning with a minimal choice of different lengths of courses. This is not a style that benefits every student, and until NC State decides that there is more to education than the strict tradition of 15-week classes, students like me will always attend a university where we feel too divided to reach our full potential.
