On the amount homework and units

On the amount homework and units

MIT measures the size of a class in units. The formula for figuring out the likely time needed to complete the course in X-Y-W, where X is the number of hours of lectures, Y the number of hours of laboratory work, and W is the number of homework. For example, I am currently taking Systems engineering and Operation management classes. Both of the are 3-0-9. So, I would assume them to take about similar amount of time, but they are not. Systems Engineering is taking much longer, even more than it nominally should. It seems that the faculty has two ways of interpreting the amount o homework necessary in a given course. Some of them, like professor Simchi-Levi, think that it is enough to give enough homework to guarantee that we learn what we are supposed to learn. Others, like professor Frey, seems to feel forced to give enough homework to fill in the nominal hours, no matter that quite a big junk of the homework does not add anything to our learning. I think it is not hard to guess, which approach I consider fair and professional.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs from July to September 2005".