(*Warning-the following is in my own words and based on my own understanding of said issue.)
USD implemented a course years ago called IdEA. They were required to offer a course that differed from all of the other BOR schools across the state and made it mandatory for every student to take in order to graduate. The purpose of the course was to prepare students for post-college life by working with others, so it became a cross-disciplinary class that taught students how to debate, interact, and function outside of the classroom. From the beginning, students didn't buy in to this class. At first, it consisted of a two part course--one to be taken during your junior year and the second half to be taken your senior year. The first part was the same for everyone. The second part specialized in certain areas. Some groups wrote papers while others did group participation projects and others even put on concerts. It differed depending on who taught it. The general consensus from the student population though was the course was a waste of time and money, especially considering the course couldn't handle all of the students who needed to take it at the same time. Hence, some students had to wait to graduate. (I'm not blaming the course for all of that btw, college students are pretty stupid about that kind of thing anyway.) After a committee was formed in 09-10 to look at the IdEA program and re-evaluate how the course could better help students, it was completely revamped and turned into a one semester course called XDIS. It was also taught in one classroom on campus that had a million dollar makeover with all of the fanciest new technology one could ever need. They offered two or three sections, taught by different professors again, and as before it failed. This is the last year the course is being offered, and I'm in it.
Before I begin my rant on my experience with the XDIS course that I still refer to as IdEA, I'll explain why I think it failed.
When the committee above was formed, they asked a few different student organizations to sit down and discuss possible solutions and offer their opinions on how to make the course better. When SGA and the Volante were offered a seat at the table, two people showed up--myself (representing SGA) and one member of the Volante staff. As far as I'm aware, the other groups who were offered a voice at the table didn't have a much better turn out than us. STUDENT FAIL. We had a chance to change something that most students bitch about in their 4-5 year "sentence" here and we blew it. The committee seemed very open to listening to our ideas and offered a lot of constructive criticism to other ideas, so I thought that many of the issues I had heard about from friends would be fixed. Alas, I was dreaming again. One issue that both the Volante rep and myself addressed was the issue of grading group projects. One complaint that we had several of from our fellow students tied into "unfair" grading policies within groups and how, just like in high school, one or two people did most of the work for the entire group and if one member didn't pull their weight, the whole group grade went down.
This is what I'm struggling with this semester. My XDIS group originally consisted of 7 people. As of right now we are down to 3 people + 1 drunk. Class is at 9:30am TTR and as any of my friends know, is not my best time during the day. I've stepped it up this semester though. I'm a senior and I really like the idea of graduating in the Spring, so I'm trying to be a better student. I haven't been oversleeping (too much ;) and I wanted my group to do well, so I've been trying to help out as much as possible. Did I mention I was the only girl in my group? It sucks. Anyway, our first group project-a debate- went quite well. We all signed into Google Docs and took one section and wrote something about it. The second debate wasn't quite as much of a success. Our group was picked to do the public debate in class and it ended with one of our teammates yelling and walking out of class during the debate. We were the laughing stock of the class. I ended up writing and debating the third topic by myself. We had a week to put together a debate on White Clay and Pine Ridge and when we got to the classroom on Thursday morning, I was the only one who had done any work on it. Luckily, the public debate for the third topic took too long so we didn't have to debate until Tuesday. I figured that over the next four days, the guys would go onto google docs and contribute something... anything. Wrong again. They didn't do a damn thing. When we got to the classroom on Tuesday morning, they played the whole "oops I forgot, what can I talk about" card.
Now I'm not sure what to do. Every point I got for the third debate, they got as well. Our final debate needs to be submitted by tomorrow night and so far, only two of us have worked on anything. I hate that I'm the one getting stuck with everyone's work and the only reason I care about this class is because I want to graduate... finally.
