This petition has the aim of highlighting the failures in the delivery of the Stochastic Processes module and the severity of those failures.
The first issue with the module was the lectures. It goes without saying that Dr Dario Spanò is obviously a brilliant mathematician. However, near enough every one of his lectures had numerous mistakes. While I understand that everyone makes arithmetic errors, numerous errors in the vast majority of lectures starts to affect the confidence and concentration of the students sat in front of him.
These mistakes became more of a problem when they fed through to the support classes. There were a few examples where the seminar supervisor found the solutions difficult to understand and had to create their own or didn’t understand the solution at all and we were left without an answer. This was brought up to Dario at the time and the solutions were removed from the web page to be reviewed, they have not been uploaded since.
Which brings me onto the biggest issue, the resources. There is a webpage for the lecture notes of this academic year. The last time these notes were updates was January 26th, only 17 days into the module, they contain about a week’s worth of content. Instead of finishing a complete set of lecture notes, we have a document pointing us towards 2 different sets of lecture notes and one textbook. Obviously, these do not flow at all, they use differing notation and lack good quality explanations.
All of these problems come together and result in a mess of a module. The teaching was substandard but the real problem comes when you try to learn the module in your own time. It feels like we are being set up for failure. And with 70% of ST202 students last year failing to achieve a 2:1, I fear the same might happen again and it if it does it will be because of the reasons above. Furthermore, the failures in this module will have an impact on students’ abilities to choose modules for the following year as ST202 is a prerequisite for ST333.
I appreciate that it is too late to change anything about the module, but we ask for these points to be considered when allocating grades because it is unfair for everyone’s degrees to suffer because of it.
PLEASE ADD YOUR STUDENT ID ONTO THE END OF YOUR NAME WHEN SIGNING. Thanks
Updates
May 27, 2017
The feedback I have received from students reflects a shared frustration regarding the inconsistencies in our course materials. I am currently organizing the collected documentation to present to the department chair for a formal review of these academic standards.
May 27, 2017
The momentum behind this petition highlights the widespread frustration regarding the current delivery of the Stochastic Processes module. I am grateful for the collective resolve shown by those who have stepped forward to address these academic concerns. This response confirms that our pursuit of accountability is both necessary and timely.
Reached 100 supporters
May 27, 2017
34 Comments
Dr. Nikos Zygouras/ Dr. Larbi Alili would better at teaching this module, although they still are not that brilliant at teaching. I rather have a pedagogically excellent PhD student, such as Nick Tawn (who is unfortunately leaving soon).
Have to retake this module after failing it last year. The module has changed a lot since then and the inadequate online resources (my only source for studying as I wasn't able to join lectures) makes study much harder than it should be.
4 different sources of lecture notes and inconsistencies in lectures themselves make this a bit of a joke
As a lecturer, he has a responsibility to be well prepared and deliver the module in an organised fashion. Dario has clearly failed to do so, resulting in us students ill-prepared for the exam due to the lack of clear understanding of the module content.
It is disappointing that we received so little support from the lecturer and I feel like the problems mentioned in the feedback form was not treated seriously. Being a core module just makes it even more stressful and even devastating.
I have heard awful things about this module. I am worried for my fellow students taking this exam.
1426176
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This petition has the aim of highlighting the failures in the delivery of the Stochastic Processes module and the severity of those failures.
The first issue with the module was the lectures. It goes without saying that Dr Dario Spanò is obviously a brilliant mathematician. However, near enough every one of his lectures had numerous mistakes. While I understand that everyone makes arithmetic errors, numerous errors in the vast majority of lectures starts to affect the confidence and concentration of the students sat in front of him.
These mistakes became more of a problem when they fed through to the support classes. There were a few examples where the seminar supervisor found the solutions difficult to understand and had to create their own or didn’t understand the solution at all and we were left without an answer. This was brought up to Dario at the time and the solutions were removed from the web page to be reviewed, they have not been uploaded since.
Which brings me onto the biggest issue, the resources. There is a webpage for the lecture notes of this academic year. The last time these notes were updates was January 26th, only 17 days into the module, they contain about a week’s worth of content. Instead of finishing a complete set of lecture notes, we have a document pointing us towards 2 different sets of lecture notes and one textbook. Obviously, these do not flow at all, they use differing notation and lack good quality explanations.
All of these problems come together and result in a mess of a module. The teaching was substandard but the real problem comes when you try to learn the module in your own time. It feels like we are being set up for failure. And with 70% of ST202 students last year failing to achieve a 2:1, I fear the same might happen again and it if it does it will be because of the reasons above. Furthermore, the failures in this module will have an impact on students’ abilities to choose modules for the following year as ST202 is a prerequisite for ST333.
I appreciate that it is too late to change anything about the module, but we ask for these points to be considered when allocating grades because it is unfair for everyone’s degrees to suffer because of it.
PLEASE ADD YOUR STUDENT ID ONTO THE END OF YOUR NAME WHEN SIGNING. Thanks
Updates
May 27, 2017
The feedback I have received from students reflects a shared frustration regarding the inconsistencies in our course materials. I am currently organizing the collected documentation to present to the department chair for a formal review of these academic standards.
May 27, 2017
The momentum behind this petition highlights the widespread frustration regarding the current delivery of the Stochastic Processes module. I am grateful for the collective resolve shown by those who have stepped forward to address these academic concerns. This response confirms that our pursuit of accountability is both necessary and timely.
Reached 100 supporters
May 27, 2017
34 Comments
I've really found it hard trying to compile a decent set of notes for this module, and these struggles have affected other studies as well. Taking this module has certainly put me off taking ST333 next year.
Dr. Nikos Zygouras/ Dr. Larbi Alili would better at teaching this module, although they still are not that brilliant at teaching. I rather have a pedagogically excellent PhD student, such as Nick Tawn (who is unfortunately leaving soon).
Have to retake this module after failing it last year. The module has changed a lot since then and the inadequate online resources (my only source for studying as I wasn't able to join lectures) makes study much harder than it should be.
4 different sources of lecture notes and inconsistencies in lectures themselves make this a bit of a joke
As a lecturer, he has a responsibility to be well prepared and deliver the module in an organised fashion. Dario has clearly failed to do so, resulting in us students ill-prepared for the exam due to the lack of clear understanding of the module content.
It is disappointing that we received so little support from the lecturer and I feel like the problems mentioned in the feedback form was not treated seriously. Being a core module just makes it even more stressful and even devastating.
I have heard awful things about this module. I am worried for my fellow students taking this exam.
1426176
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I've really found it hard trying to compile a decent set of notes for this module, and these struggles have affected other studies as well. Taking this module has certainly put me off taking ST333 next year.