TAMUC BAAS Org Leadership Update

[christinadq]

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-Since the major courses are going to be the exact same for everyone, can you list out the work required for each TAMUC class? I think you only had two done during the last update.
So how things seem to work is that the course work is highly dependent on the teacher. There are several teachers that teach the same course and they are all different in their requirements. Since the requirements change with each teacher it would not be the same for everyone. Essentially the gist is the same, a pre-test on day 1, if you get over 80% you can accelerate to the final project, if not you must complete all the course work which usually involves passing 3-5 quizzes and then you can do the final project. There is also a post-test for every course. You must get over 80% on the post test and final project each to pass. The issue I run into is that some teachers have been extremely picky with the final projects. I don't mean that as in rubrics not being followed, I mean that where the projects where assigned in vague terms and I ended up not meeting the expectation of the teacher thus me having to re-do it. One particularly difficult teacher had be re-do a lot of written work throughout the course. Another teacher kept adding on requirements to the final project as I submitted it for grading. So all this to say that the process is very 'messy' because it is so up to how the teacher wants to grade. It is a bit frustrating because the teachers so far don't give any lectures (pre-recorded or live) and don't do any active 'teaching' so it's hard to learn their style. Courses are always a patchwork of readings from articles, textbooks and videos sourced online. 

-Aside from the administrative delays, do you think anything you’ve encountered at TAMUC would have slowed you down regardless? Anything that you would have done differently?
Definitely making sure I took all of the Sophia classes ahead of time. I could've taken Sophia History 2 but I didn't and that ended up being my first class. I lost a week due to it, and it's not much but I am on a tight deadline so every course counts. However was hard to know which courses I needed, still, I should've done a lot on Sophia, even though I did do a lot. Secondly is really inevitable but some teachers are hard graders so there is nothing you can do if your paper keeps getting pushed back for revision that kills your speed. Finally, I do try to find quizlets for the classes to familiarize myself with the material and that does help. 

-Have you taken the Data Driven Decision Making courses yet? If so, how math-y are they?
LOLLLL no, I am laughing not at the question but because I was worried about this one, but it turned out like it was all theory. However, Data Driven Decisions II I had a really though grader teacher who required a pretty extensive final project, which was examining a fake company's data and putting together a presentation for it. I had to put together 15+ excel graphs and a 20+ slide powerpoint presentation with narration as well as a written paper for it. This was the most extensive project I have had so far. 

With all the back and forths on these assignments, do you feel like the program is still worth it?  It almost sounds like expectations are not clear, slowing down progress?  Is this a relatively new format or new program for TAMUC?  

When you say you find quizlets, does that mean that you find them yourself by searching other resources or are there quizlets available through the school?  Do the quizlets help with the pre-test?

How many of the classes have you been able to accelerate to the final project vs having to do all the assignments?  

Are you learning new things that are valuable during the courses?

Thanks for sharing so much -- as texas residents, this looks particularly interesting!