If you, like me, ever
thought of being finally free from ‘tough lecture-time rules and regulations’
from the likes of Madam Julio Korongo and Emily Ng’enoTuitoek, then you are
surely wrong! This conclusion seemed unlikely to come by until yesterday
afternoon in Lecture Theatre 1.
“So I am Dr. Odero and
I will be teaching you this course; INS 319 – Subject Indexing and Thesaurus
Construction.” Her soft voice could not promise to draw attention from the
entire crowd almost immediately, as it is always the case when both the
third-year Media and Information Science groups converge in a common forum. It
was not different yesterday. You could still hear, although not necessarily
comprehend, voices from different corners of the venue until the MU FM Director,
Mr. Gilbert Lang’at was completely done with assembling the projector
components.
“Now as usual, before
we begin our lecture, let me give you some simple dos and don’ts regarding how
we are going to relate to each other and what will be expected from each of us
– which will not be any different from other lecturers’.” I quickly took out a
pen and slid my exercise book towards myself, away from Tom who, as usual, was
sitting beside me at the foremost two-user table – just before the lecturer,
who was by now resting her right hand on the other side of our small wooden
table. I was prepared to write anything that I would consider important. That
is my habit.
“I will not expect any
of your gadgets [as she lifts up her black flapped phone using her free hand]
to ring during lectures. If you are expecting an emergency call, kindly put
your phone in silent or vibration mode and sit strategically at a point where
you can move out to answer it without interfering with the others. That will be
allowed.” Well, to me, that sounded almost normal because if all students
decide to leave their phones in loud ring modes and they start receiving calls
or messages at, say, a five-minute interval, with all the funny ringtones I
have heard before, it would sincerely not be a serious class. However, that was
not the end of her first instruction. “But just to reinforce this rule, if one
phone rings, I will assume that you are sending me a message of either you are
too tired and therefore want me to leave or that I should skip what I intended
to cover for that particular lesson. Trust me; I will walk out and expect you
to read on your own. If one person’s phone rings, we all suffer!”
At that point, I could
hardly distinguish Dr. Odero and Madam Tuitoek. Perhaps the only observable
difference was the fact that the latter said the same while sited on a blue
rotatable chair but the former was currently upstanding. That was the time when
all the initial noise from the students went down and a deafening silence fell
over the room. You could easily confuse the situation with some degree of
cowardice.
“Secondly, we shall be
using this reference manual for all our lectures.” She said this while showing
out a fat document titled, ‘Guidelines
for Indexes and Related Information Retrieval Devices’. So she continued,
“You can choose to print a copy for yourself alone or do it in groups of up to
three, but you will always have to sit together. It is only 53 pages long so
you will not spend a lot of coins. If you want it in soft copy, I will send it
to your class e-mail addresses, together with the course outline. If you go for
the soft [copy], you will have to carry your laptop each time we have a class.”
Still on the same, Odero promised to be occasionally giving out bits of notes,
especially on areas she feels are slightly technical. Where she thinks that
everything is straight forward, she will never do so. Comrades will therefore
be expected to always be on toes and absorb such content during the
discussions.
“You
will also be required to be signing the attendance list.” On this note, the
lecturer discouraged anyone from signing on behalf of a friend. “The first
signature I receive today must be consistent. Do not sign for anyone else
because that might force you to do so throughout the semester. You do not know
at what time I will randomly cross-check.” Now, something good about class
attendance is her consideration for the group’s having two four-hour lessons on
Wednesdays. She promised to allow additional 30 minutes on top of the one-hour
break from the first lesson which ends at noon in the same venue. “We shall be
starting our classes officially at 1.30pm instead of 1.00pm unless otherwise
communicated,” she confirmed. However, she chose to remain silent on what
happens if a student arrives late for class.
“You will be working in
groups for your assignments, projects and even the sit-in CAT.” She then proceeded
to give a warning on how one may lose some or all assignment marks. “If your
name appears in two different groups, then you automatically won’t get any
mark.” According to the woman, any assignment handed in late will also face a
thorough deduction of marks. “Whichever group hands in an assignment a day
after the stated submission deadline, I will deduct five marks; two days, you
lose ten and on the third day, it will be minus 15. Afterwards, you get a zero
because an assignment carries 20 marks in total.”
Although she left it
unclear whether or not she will be giving unpredictable sit-ins and
assignments, one could easily smell such intentions from the conclusion of her
instructional speech. “If you won’t attend a class, please inform your class
representative earlier enough because a valid reason may give you
considerations for a second chance in case of a missed CAT or presentation
assignment.”
It was until she had
coughed out all what she had to, when the first lecture kicked off. Though this
may not be the right moment to evaluate her mode of facilitating, in my view, she
may be assumed to deliver content well. She does not quickly move to point B
unless she notices some few nodding from the audience, signaling a sense of understanding
to the explanations of point A. At some points, she notably seemed to create
fun which, minus the regulations, made her appear substantially friendly.
When asked about the
long-awaited trip at the end of the lesson, the lady had this to say, “You people
think that my department of Library and Records Management has the sole
responsibility of organizing for the trip. No, this is an issue for the whole
school.” However, she went ahead and made another fresh sweet-scenting promise of
pushing for the coordination of all concerned departments in terms of budgeting
because that is the major issue. Nonetheless, she had some reservations concerning
how soon the trip can come. It cannot be as soon as this month. The whole
process may take a while because preparations for the 29th
Graduation Ceremony to be held on 30th August are also on, at least
according to her. The first week of September is also ruled out because there
will be a conference and so, most of the university buses will be committed to
ferrying attendants to and fro. It follows that the second week of next month
is a probable moment for the trip unless something else presents itself in due
course.
