Education Forum Split - Feedback Requested

[TeethWhitener]

For one thing "Open Practice Problems" will be retired.

Are the unanswered problems just going to go back to their respective subfora? I still enjoy playing around with them when I have a spare moment (increasingly scarce though they may be).

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Are the unanswered problems just going to go back to their respective subfora?

Yes and you can always find them by sorting the reply column. We certainly still welcome and encourage their answering.

 

[dlgoff]

I feel this way:

I personally feel that there is no need to split the Academic Guidance forum. I would argue that we should keep Academic Guidance as is, but just remove the Open Practice Problems.

 

[CrysPhys]

The former is questions about specific schools/admissions and specific courses school's provide and the latter is for questions regarding various exams and testing taking advice/tips etc.

The issue that's likely to arise with this proposed split is confusion over where threads on entrance exams (such as SAT's and GRE's) should go, since they are exams that are used for admissions.

 

[CrysPhys]

Regional separation is not really attainable in our setup because you can't have multiple prefixes. Having separate forums for both will dilute globally applicable advice. Interesting idea for the future though!

OK. But I highly recommend a sticky in each (Academic and Career) strongly recommending that OP's provide relevant country info up front and cautioning respondents about strong differences in national practices (that the practices they are accustomed to may not apply for others), and respondents should also identify what country they are talking about.

 

[Vanadium 50]

But I highly recommend a sticky

Stickies are routinely ignored, particularly by new members.

respondents should also identify what country they are talking about.

I agree, but everyone's seen threads where it takes for-ever for someone to finally let us know where he is.

 

[Ibix]

Stickies are routinely ignored, particularly by new members.

Could it be done via a template, like the homework one? No obligation to use it, but if you don't specify where you want to study, note that the advice may be wrong.

 

[CrysPhys]

I agree, but everyone's seen threads where it takes for-ever for someone to finally let us know where he is.

Yes, that's why it's critical that the OPs identify their countries up front.

 

[CrysPhys]

Stickies are routinely ignored, particularly by new members.

Well, my first recommendation was to split the fields into US/non-US. But that has been shot down.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Yes, that's why it's critical that the OPs identify their countries up front.

Sometimes people fill out their location field in their profile.

 

[CrysPhys]

Sometimes people fill out their location field in their profile.

Some do, some don't. Then the burden falls on the respondents to check the profile of the OP ... just to find out that the info isn't there. And even when it is there, it becomes obvious that many respondents don't check (such as respondents discussing options in the defense industry with an OP whose country listed in the profile turns out to be halfway around the world). And in many instances, the current country of residence by itself isn't sufficient (when the OP plans to study or work elsewhere). I answered a post on the "Patent Attorney" thread. Turned out the OP was a citizen of the Philippines, studying in Japan, but wanting to become a patent practitioner in Germany. You would think it would be obvious to include all that info in the first post, but I got that info only after some probing. I think that many OPs (and respondents) operate under the assumption that practices are uniform across the globe and that terminology (such as A Levels) is universal; hence the need for an improved process or (minimally) instructions.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Thanks for all the feedback! Looks like the best course of action is to keep the Academic Guidance forum as it is. However the OPP forum will still be ending and we've decided to bring the homework help forums to the top homepage level instead of sub forums. Thanks!