I wonder if their printed catalogs are also going away.
MIT stopped printing the IAP Guide on newsprint a few years ago. Understandable, but unfortunate. (IAP is MIT's Independent Activities Period each January, when lots of short courses and one-time events of all kinds are held.)
MIT stopped printing their IAP guide not just because of cost, but because the content kept changing. Those who decided to hold an event after the guide was printed were often SOL as there was not a good way to publicize.
Personally I find the digital IAP guide much more useful than the paper guide ever was.
I like the idea, but I find it much more difficult to deliberate on the computer then when I have a coursebook with me sitting on a bench outside with a pen circling what Im interested in then going back and rethinking all my choices.
I guess its the same feeling people get with newspapers going online. You feel like your going to miss something because you can just directly to where you need to go. I ended up at a few elective courses I would not have looked for but saw as I was flipping through the book waiting for my adviser to show up.
No more games of hurling "Courses" across the room and seeing whose toss opens to the most ludicrously impenetrable description (applied math and linguistics were favorites). No more cheap and ready replacements for missing couch legs.
The University plans to integrate on-line course evaluation information with the shopping tool so that students can view a course’s Q scores and compare classes on the basis of various parameters
This is the sort of fusion of data which has been technically possible for years, and helps inform better decisions. I'll probably never take a course at Harvard, but I hope this sort of data and access is a model for others.
Comments
what about Harvard Summer and Extension schools?
I wonder if their printed catalogs are also going away.
MIT stopped printing the IAP Guide on newsprint a few years ago. Understandable, but unfortunate. (IAP is MIT's Independent Activities Period each January, when lots of short courses and one-time events of all kinds are held.)
MIT & print guides
MIT stopped printing their IAP guide not just because of cost, but because the content kept changing. Those who decided to hold an event after the guide was printed were often SOL as there was not a good way to publicize.
Personally I find the digital IAP guide much more useful than the paper guide ever was.
I like the idea, but I find
I like the idea, but I find it much more difficult to deliberate on the computer then when I have a coursebook with me sitting on a bench outside with a pen circling what Im interested in then going back and rethinking all my choices.
I guess its the same feeling people get with newspapers going online. You feel like your going to miss something because you can just directly to where you need to go. I ended up at a few elective courses I would not have looked for but saw as I was flipping through the book waiting for my adviser to show up.
I'll miss it
No more games of hurling "Courses" across the room and seeing whose toss opens to the most ludicrously impenetrable description (applied math and linguistics were favorites). No more cheap and ready replacements for missing couch legs.
For me, the coolest part
For me, the coolest part is:
This is the sort of fusion of data which has been technically possible for years, and helps inform better decisions. I'll probably never take a course at Harvard, but I hope this sort of data and access is a model for others.