I am currently studying for one of my two exams which I have tomorrow morning. While I realize that many of you have had two exams in one day, or possibly as many as 3 or 4, it seems as if this should no longer occur given the technology which is currently implemented in most modern universities. I am speaking about the course management systems in place in schools such as Carnegie Mellon University (Pulse Scheduler) and Pennsylvania State University (ANGEL). Through these systems students and their professors are able to post papers, take quizzes, and view lecture notes. Additionally, these systems also have an often overlooked calendar application.
I propose that schools begin to utilize these calendars for the posting of all exams, not simply final exams as is the current practice. By doing so, and making this calendar global to each student (displaying all exams which are applicable to them), this will allow professors to see when an exam is causing an unnecessary burden on students. Given this information, professors will then be able to schedule exams in such a fashion as to limit a student’s exam quantity to simply one exam in a day (in most cases).
As the databases which store student course enrollment information are already integrated into these course systems I do not see any problems in the implementation of this exam scheduling solution. Now, if only this system were already in place I wouldn’t be studying for biology at 1am after having had to study international economics for several hours prior.
You fail to make the point of WHY anyone should bother with this? Students have managed multiple exams a day for decades and decades. Why should extra work be put in place to prevent them now? Are students more fragile, more overworked, or just more entitled than they have been before?
Frank,
I think that in modern times everyone is multi-tasking to a higher extent than anytime before in history. This is not to say that students should not be fully focusing on their studies, but if the technology is easily available to make the lives of millions of students a little bit less stressful then I don’t see why it should not be implemented.