499 Mid-Semester Evalations

499 students who are taking the class for a grade should expect an e-mail from me with your personal evaluation. Here are general comments:

The quiz averages are low because there have only been 4 so far. There is plenty of time still to raise them. If you have missed a quiz, please make an appointment with the SA to make it up. All quiz and assignment grades are scaled up at the end of the semester. Generally, I drop the lowest quiz score and the lowest assignment grade for each student. Remember that your final project is 40% of your grade.

There WILL be a quiz this week, covering the Objective Sound material (Acoustics) from Chapter 1 of the reading material, so PLEASE be on time. This is one of the most difficult quizzes of the semester, so please spend some time reviewing the material, and take time to ask questions at the start of class if there is anything you do not understand.

Also, we will be looking at your continuing work on your projects, this week specifically at the sound effects editing. You have only two weeks left. Several of you had almost nothing done for our meetings last week. Remember, I am grading you each week on your progress. Please have some more work done this week. Remember that after the mixes are done in two weeks, there are no more assignments and the class workload drops to almost nothing.

This week we will also determine mix times for the whole class. Another reason to show up on time!


Thank you all for your recommendations in your evaluations of my teaching this week. Unfortunately, opinions were completely divergent on almost every question. This leads me to believe that the basic structure of the class cannot accommodate the wishes of all students, so I am re-evaluating on a more basic level.

Instead of doing one major project throughout the semester that requires a lot of outside work, would you prefer a series of in-class exercises in which everyone participates? (This is how many of the other non-major classes are taught.) For example, one week, you would be taught how to use the PMDs, then sent out to record material, and at the end of class, we would listen to what you have done. Another week would be in the Foley room, and another week would be in the ADR room. This would require a lot less outside work. It would also leave me a lot more time to cover lecture material from the book.

Another option is that for a project, I choose a small set of scenes (maybe 6-10) for you to choose from, and pre-import a number of effects for you to edit from. This would lessen the outside workload as well.