Pending final approval by the Faculty Subcommittee on Liberal-Minded Requirements, students will now be required to take at least one class deemed moodle intensive.
President Beck responded to questions regarding the Moodle requirement, saying, “Moodle, in addition to being a crucial part of a Lawrence education, enriches the sense of community in any classroom.”
Students have generally been apprehensive about the change to the curriculum citing frustrating experiences with Moodle in the past.
“Bullshit!” freshman Erin Watson replied after hearing of the added requirement. “Whatever happened to handouts? Are we trying to make things more complicated, or are we just giving teachers the freedom to change assignments hours before they’re due?”
The online classroom manager replaces the complicated system of pesky handouts and straightforward deadlines by posting everything online. Due dates, assignment requirements and supplemental resources are neatly scattered throughout a tangled web of links and sub-links in an easily accessible, password-protected Web space.
There are additional benefits to Moodle including the ability to create online profiles, providing a much-needed outlet for online networking among students. Lawrentians, however, have yet to tap into this useful feature. “Yeah, we really could use more online profiles,” Watson remarked sarcastically. “Give me a f***ing break.”
Courses fulfilling the Moodle intensive requirement will include an incomprehensible breakdown of grade percentages, barely relevant supplementary reading posted without explanation, as well as a random mixture of extraneous and vital assignments with no clear distinction between the two.
All Moodle intensive classes will be level 400 or above with the exception of one intro-level course in an underappreciated department with an exorbitant and unenforced limit of enrollment.
Faculty committee introduces Moodle intensive requirement
