When Bae Soh-young (English, 2) accessed the Ewha homepage to refer to the course syllabi in the process of planning her timetable for the fall semester, she found that none of the courses she wanted to take had been uploaded. The course syllabi Bae was looking for remained offline for the rest of the course-planning period. She had no choice but to rely on course feedback and comments by other Ewha students on a Web site called “Timetabl,” a site that allows virtual timetable planning and provides course feedback by students. Bae is not the only student to be inconvenienced due to course syllabi that were either uploaded late or not uploaded at all.“I was looking for a class that did not assign too many reports throughout the semester, but I had to pick a class at random since the course syllabus was not uploaded,” Lee Bo-mi (Sociology, 2) said. “I later found out I had enrolled for the exact class I wanted to avoid.”Courses without uploaded syllabi not only leave students in the dark about how the program will proceed, but also mislead them regarding what they expect to learn.“I took a psychology class, hoping to learn what the course name signified,” Bae said. “Even though the focus was on something completely different, I could not drop the class, as that would leave me with only 15 credits.”According to the Office of Faculty and Academic Affairs (OFAA), professors can upload course syllabi anytime from the day after the course schedules are announced until the first day of course registration. However, students point out that the given deadline does not help them unless professors upload the syllabi a few days ahead of the deadline. They feel this way because the jang-ba-gu-ni (shopping cart) system that allows them to pre-select courses before the actual registration period closes at midnight on the day before the registration period.“Uploading the course syllabus on the first day of the registration period gives too little notice,” Lee said. “Students might realize that a certain course is not what they expected but, by then, it is too late to change their timetables and sign up for a different course.”The OFAA responds that the designated deadline is meant to give professors as much time as possible to upload their syllabi.“As the first day of course registration is reserved for chapels and courses at other universities, we wanted as many course syllabi as possible to be uploaded before the second day of registration,” said Kang Hae-seon, the official in charge of this field at the OFAA.Aside from course syllabi that are uploaded too late, some are not uploaded at all, even after the course registration period is over.In order to encourage professors to upload course syllabi, the OFAA reminds all professors to upload course syllabi. Whether or not a professor has uploaded is also reflected in professor evaluations conducted at the end of the year.“The period for uploading course syllabi was settled this way to provide as much convenience as possible for students but, if necessary, we will consider adjusting the period,” Kang said.“As for courses where the syllabi are not uploaded, may be due to last minute changes regarding who will teach. In that case, please feel free to contact the professor or college that is responsible for the course and ask for more information.”yychung@ewhain.net
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