The lowest grade in my lighting class went to this image. : -)

It was bound to happen.

I took a class and the experience was abysmal, dreadful, and appallingly bad.  It would be easy enough to pan a course and an instructor but that won’t do a good job explaining my perceptions during the semester.

Lighting is an elective course. It was my first elective course at AAU and I can’t recommend it.  My experience here gives it a solid D-minus.  Tamara Hubbard , Associate Director of Online photography MFA, and I had a dialog concerning issues surrounding both the course and the person assigned to teach it. Three points stood out from this discussion:

1. I may have been over-qualified to take this course.
2. The course is being revised.
3. The instructor issues have been noted and I should additionally contact another Director to follow-up.

For the first point: I don’t agree. I am an experienced photographer but I only do a little studio work and I really wanted to take something that I knew I was good at but would greatly improved my skills and knowledge of the subject by taking this elective.  Other classes I’ve taken had students with a huge range of abilities from poor to excellent yet it seemed that most students that applied themselves did really good work and improved personally over the duration of the term.  The director did encourage me to contact her directly about future course suggestions which I find to be very commendable.

Second: So the course is being revised.  This means that I do not recommend the PH608: Lighting class I took in Spring 2010.  It also means I cannot make any judgments on any revised course until I see the new course material.

Third:  The MFA-Photography AAU folks do occasional online town hall meetings.  I haven’t attended one but one of my fellow students did and her takeaway was that if you have particular issues with a class then contact a director.  I didn’t want to be a whiny student so I contact a couple other students in my class, and I discovered that the issues I had were also held by some other students as well.  One of the students actually met face-to-face with one of the directors and did voice concerns about the course and instructor.  This made my follow up easier as all I had to do was validate how I and the other student felt and I could be contacted for additional information.

Being able to document and criticize (both positively and negatively) is very important when praising a course/instructor.  Being able to easily communicate that to the directors of the program speaks highly to the department’s desire to build and maintain a strong program.

This is my second Master’s.  I draw on my experience as an MBA student where I went into a class and didn’t like the instructor or the material and I would change my courses to reflect that.  As an online student I have to remind myself that I am the master of my schedule and education, therefore I need to be informed about my classes and take action when I feel there are serious problems with a class.

The worst thing about the lighting class wasn’t the waste of money, nor the waste of time – the worst aspect of that class was the incredible de-motivation felt by this student which drove me to do mediocre work in a class I was initially very excited about taking.

The best thing that came out of this class was learning that the department appears to really care about the program, the course, and the quality of the instructors.

[UPDATE 6/17/10 : I've learned that the person that taught my section is also teaching at least one Summer section - email me if you want to know the instructor (or go find another post). I have (for better or worse) suggested to a former classmate to drop that class or find another instructor  that is teaching it. It is that bad a class in my personal opinion]

[UPDATE 8/29/10 : I believe this instructor is still teaching the lighting class at AAU. My recommendation is that you do not take this class.  If you want to take it I would suggest contacting the Director and ask for a complete course listing for this class which will allow you to decide if if you REALLY want to take it.

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