9-14-2013
What a week! This past week was the first week of class. On Wednesday, around a dozen of students showed up to my first class meeting in “User Behavior Research.” I made it clear that this course is designed for doctoral students, but I am expanding it to Master’s students. It is theoretical with heaving readings. Several students showed up because they could not get into my “usability” class. There were five students who were “international,” from Netherlands, Swiden, and US. After I explained the nature of the class, we ended up having five students, three of them were LIS doctoral students, which is what this class was designed for. We had a good class session with interesting discussion.
My usability class yesterday was insanely overloaded with students wanting to register for the course. With the class held in a computer lab that can seat about 40 people, the classroom was filled with people, people standing by the wall, sitting on the floor, and lining up at the door. Because the classroom space, and the limited usability lab (there is a makeshift usability lab here at NTU) space and opening hours, initially I had planned to take 36 as maximum, but after the class I decided to take up to 40. During the break, students lined up to request a permission slip from me, and there are at least 25 people in line, but I was only able to give out 9 and I told people I can only take seniors and graduate students.
It was a truly touching experience — my usability class at Simmons was never this popular (I wonder why:))! In addition to the LIS students, I have students from computer science, sociology, psychology, civil engineering, bio-industry communications and development, and several other disciplines.
This is me before my class
- Rong getting ready for the usability class
And remember Heihei — the black swan? I still see him (or her, I don’t know the gender) everyday as I pass by the lake. This morning he was there but there were also some students doing boating and lifeguard exercise. Heihei was a little bothered by the kids but he gracefully handled the noises and was able to enjoy the lake as his living and playing space.
Here are two pictures of heihei this morning:
- Heihei and a boat
- Heihei enjoys the lake
Have a great weekend!
Until next time,
Rong