User talk:Titus tallang

Teaching permissions

I understand that James Annages was not permitted to teach classes, even though he was a Sophomore. According to How_to_schedule_a_class he should have been able to, despite his lack of knowledge. I understand this is at your discretion, but what is the actual criteria here? I don't like seeing teachers turned away (even with good reasons) and it wasn't very clear why his class was suddenly cancelled and turned down. I may PM you via Forums also, so respond whichever format is appropriate. Telinchei ^{Talk · Contribs} 12:21, 4 September 2015 (CDT) Edited to reflect my misunderstandings per reply. 06:40, 8 September 2015 (CDT)

Upon closer inspection, it would appear that the Sophomore would be scheduling the class for a 'registered' Teacher, and not actually teaching the class himself. Is that correct? Telinchei ^{Talk · Contribs} (same hour)

The Teaching department has, generally speaking, no issue with non-teachers teaching classes, as long as they are knowledgeable about the subject. If you schedule a class and we're not sure about whether you're knowledgeable, we may contact you and talk to you about this.

If this conversation leaves us in serious doubt about your qualification to teach the class, we may request that you allow a more experienced teacher to shadow you, or, in very very extreme cases, that you cancel the class. I want to emphasize that both of these did not happen in this particular situation.

If you are interested in teaching a class and have any doubts about whether the above would apply to you, then I would always encourage you to get in touch with a member of Teaching management first. Teaching is not out to get you - but you need to be aware that, in teaching a class, you are acting as a representative of E-UNI to the general public. Our classes have a reputation of high-quality educational content taught by experienced players, and this is a reputation we aim to uphold.

It takes more to teach a class than simply being able to recite a syllabus - we look for people that have plentiful practical experience with the subject of the class, and are thus able to answer most questions about the subjects that may come up.

As such, please also be aware that teaching a class is not a right, but a privilege - and while we are typically very encouraging towards players looking to gather experience with teaching classes, if we make the judgement call that we do not feel a person is up to the challenge of teaching a specific subject yet, we expect this decision to be respected. Once again, while I will not disclose any particulars for confidentiality reasons, I feel the need to once again state that such a judgement call was not actually made in the case you mentioned.

Another thing that is relevant to the situation you mentioned is that Teaching requests that we be aware of any class being taught in the University. As such, we strongly urge anyone looking to teach a class to publicize this through the scheduled classes subforum as well as corp mail. If, however, they decide not to, we request that they at least notify Teaching management of the fact that they are teaching a class on a subject at given time and have advertised this to a given audience. This is due to the fact that we cannot ensure the quality standards expected of University classes are maintained if we are not aware of said classes being held.

Also be aware that while I am the Director in charge of the Education department (which Teaching is a major part of) and thus have the final say in departmental decisions, the day-to-day operations are left in the capable hands of the Teaching department's manager and his assistants. Regardless, I hope this clears up any questions you may have - let me know if there is anything else that is unclear! Titus Tallang (talk) 19:16, 4 September 2015 (CDT)

Thanks very much for the thorough and clear reply. I understand that Mr Annages had some personal scheduling issues with IRL, so perhaps that was also a part of his decision with what happened to the class, and I apologise for the insinuation that it had been a higher-up decision – I may have misunderstood the circumstances and I should have been more clear with the wording. It makes a lot of sense that the teachers of the University are representatives of the corp as a whole I personally will be applying for the position through the regular channels so I assume the Teaching subdepartment will make the decision with respect to my experience at the time of application, but I will contact them if I have questions about the day-to-day operations at a later stage. Thanks again, Telinchei ^{Talk · Contribs} 06:33, 8 September 2015 (CDT)