TO THE EDITOR:
For years we have been clamoring for a computerized system to transmit course grades at the end of the semester. Now, in fall 2010, UNC administrators finally unveiled the new software. Intended to relieve us of the arcane way this onerous task has been done for decades, perhaps centuries, UNC implemented a poorly designed, outmoded system which barely improves on what we have done in the past (and who knows how much was paid for this).
Shame! What we have now is not that much improved over the triplicate carbon forms we filled out last year.
Each grade must be input manually. This creates a situation which is as error prone as the one we have had for years. Why is there no way to upload our grades like we have been doing with BlackBoard for years? Why must we input grades twice?
True, administrators have eliminated one step of copying the grades. But as instructors, our burden was not lightened — rather, the poorly documented system simply replaced one bad system with another.
This system seems to be a throwback to software developed 10 years ago. It has the look and feel of code written in the early ’90s, awkward and clumsy.
Where is the leadership on this campus? Who makes these decisions? Have they consulted those of us doing the work? Going from Cuneiform to Hieroglyphics does not strike me as an advance. For shame, administrators at UNC!
Jonathan M. Lees
Professor
