Texas State should consider making shorter semester classes available to students in the fall and spring semesters similar in length to the summer classes already available here.
An optional offering of classes that may only be eight or four weeks in length should be made available to students as an alternative to taking the traditional 16-week semester classes. This will provide options for students who may want to take some of their classes for the full 16 weeks and other classes in a shorter, more condensed period of time.
There are certainly students who may feel that taking these shorter classes, like the ones available in the summer now, isn’t always the best idea. For some, taking these mini-mester classes might put too much of a workload on students in a short period of time, causing grades to suffer and other issues. Although I feel this could definitely be true for certain students, it is certainly a very manageable option for many students.
When I took summer classes, knowing I was able to get multiple classes done in such a short period of time was a great feeling. As long as students learn how to manage their time right, it can be a greatly beneficial educational experience that allows students to get their classes done sooner and move at a faster, more efficient pace.
I attended a couple of community colleges before transferring to Texas State. One thing I enjoyed about the registration process at these colleges was the wide selection of different-length semester classes made available, accommodating all students’ semester scheduling needs and preferences.
Although there are a few classes I found on CatsWeb available for a few majors that are shorter-length semesters, the selection is extremely limited and not nearly enough to accommodate the vast majority of students. If Texas State can also make these different options of semesters available to students, the increase in flexibility and preferable options for some Bobcats would improve the overall registration process.
When I took four-week-long classes in the summer, I felt the overall educational experience I was receiving more engaging and efficient than the 16-week-long semesters. For some students, like me, having class only a couple of times a week over the course of 16 weeks feels like too long and slow of a period to be able to retain all the information learned in a class consistently throughout the semester.
Taking a shortened course in four weeks allows students to always have the information they’ve learned fresh on their mind during the whole class. Although many students may not prefer this shortened period of time to take a class, there are still plenty of students like myself who would greatly benefit from having these types of options in the process of registering and taking classes all year.
This article was written by Nabil Hourani and sourced from https://star.txstate.edu/node/2403
