I think Illinibucks would be an interesting idea to adopt, but it would need to be done with a lot of attention to detail though. One major concern I thought of was that there are only so many openings for certain classes, and usually those openings are needed by people to graduate. If Freshman/Sophomores used their Illinibucks to take those openings it would cause major problems for those older students. You could argue that they could use their own Illinibucks to register for that class, but if they were not smart at managing their Illinibucks they may have used them in the prior years. Essentially, the most desired classes might be impossible to access without these Illinibucks. This could also be looked at as a positive for some people though, it would allow them to register for these classes whenever they chose to do so, and not just their senior years.
I think there could be a limitation on the uses for Illinibucks as well, there really are not that many opportunities for their implementation. However, I have thought of a few ideas for their use. The first would be to be able to register for Mckinley appointments on the exact date/time you wanted. In my experience, Mckinley is always booked at least a fews days in advance, and it's usually hard to get a time that fits in your schedule. For me, this would be a great opportunity to use the Illinibucks, especially since a lot of times getting medical attention is a very high priority. I also know that many of my friends have had struggles signing up for Mckinley appointments when they needed them the most.
Another Idea I thought of would be to be able to see your counselor at any time/date. From my experience, there are certain times when the counselors are booked to the brim, especially during registration periods. During these times is normally when I need them most, so seeing them is a need and something I would be willing to spend my Illinibucks on. Another way to use Illinibucks would be to use them to talk to your professors. In some of the larger classes I have taken office hours can be a timely process. I have had very important questions to ask but haven't had the patinece to wait for the professor to give me his attention. If I could use my Illinibucks to jump the wait and have my questions asked immediately it would help clear up a lot of confusions I have in my classes.
All in all, I think there are a ton of uses for the Illinbucks and it certainly is a promising idea, but I don't know if the logistics of it are detailed clearly enough to prove to me that it would work. For instance, it scares me that signing up for a class might only be possible for individuals with a set amount of Illinibucks. If I used all my Illinibucks by my senior year but need that class then I would be tough out of luck. The idea has promise but at the end of the day I think there are a few to many question marks to start doing it at this University.
Let me take on your very first assertion - there are only so many openings for certain classes. By the time you register for classes that is usually true. But might there be more openings planned for if there were known to be that much demand? If so, how would capacity be expanded? (In other words, what is the scarce input that might be hard to expand on? Or is there such a scarce input?)
ReplyDeleteJust to give one example, that is not completely relevant because there is no capacity constraint now, our class is sufficiently unusual that there may be nobody else on campus but me who could teach it. If the campus wanted to expand the capacity of our class it might do so by offering another section taught at a different time and inducing me to teach it. But I am really not interested in doing that. At the amount they'd need to pay me to make me interested, it probably wouldn't make economic sense to offer that section. So in that sense, the supply of our particular class is pretty inelastic. (They could have scheduled a larger room and expanded capacity some that way.)
So the issue is whether for the classes that are really over subscribed if supply is inelastic or not.
You are the first student over the years who in writing to this prompt talked about appointments at McKinley. Way back when I started I had to get a TB shot as a condition for employment. It's the only time I've ever been there as a patient. I can imagine for students it is something of a pain to schedule (pun intended). But I can also imagine the real issue is when the flu goes around and then they get swamped. Not sure how that should be managed on campus. My HMO has something called a patient advisory nurse who you can call for advice without going in face to face and you can also send a message to the nurse of your primary care doctor to ask a question. It is definitely note the same thing as a visit, but it is something. And for prescription renewals, that can be done online.
So, there are ways where they are probably more efficient than they were 20 years ago, but it is still and issue. I am not sure I'd want to triage that via Illinibucks. Maybe the seriousness of the health situation should do that instead.
The scarce input could be a few different things. First off, there may be a select few amount of professors willing to teach that class, and that have the knowledge to do so. Also, these professors would more then likely be more expensive than the typical professor. You go into some detail on this that is enlightening. They could pay you more to teach the uncommon class, or make the classroom larger as a whole. Although, the money could be an issue because the amount they would want to pay you more then liekly would not be enough to justify you wanting to teach another class. Adding more seats is a solution, but it may then take away from the quality of the course as a whole, especially if the course is designed to be in a smaller setting.
DeleteFor me, Mckinley has been an issue when I get very sick rather suddenly and seek immediate attention. More often then not, that immediate attention is not possible, I am forced to wait a few days until i can get help. When the flu goes around there are many who need immediate attention, which causes even longer delays. Nowadays, there are many ways to get help without an actual appointment, like the virtual Walgreens diagnoses, but these are only good for minor things. There will always be a need for seeing a doctor in person it just all depends on the severity of your issue.
I agree that Illinibucks may not be the best way to fix this issue. If someone needs immediate attention they should be able to get it, it should come down to the severity and who needs it the most.
I enjoyed reading your post because you brought up a lot of ideas that I hadn't thought about. One thing we did agree on, though, is that the implementation of this system would take a lot of careful planning and the creation of many uses for the Illinibucks to ensure maximum efficiency. My favorite idea of yours was the use for advising appointments. This isn't something that I had thought of when writing my prompt, but would be a great candidate for use. I experience more issues with advising appointments when I was an actuarial science major, because the major is growing quickly and the resources (advisors and professors) were becoming scarce. I think that many students would opt to use Illinibucks in this way.
ReplyDeleteYou also bring up many interesting points to using this system for class registration, and I agree that this would be one of the scenarios that would take a lot of planning since student's graduation status depends on classes.
When it comes to advising, depending on your major it can be very scare, with Illinibucks this issue could have a resolution. A different way to solve this could maybe be to hire more counselors, which would maybe to cost inefficient. Another way might be by having larger advising sessions rather than just one on one. If they implemented this along with individual sessions it may help with the limits in demand for advising.
DeleteI think that using the Illini bucks to skip lines at McKinley and to get privileges when meeting with a councilor or a professor is definitely a great idea and great potential. Making appointments with councilors during finals and during registration week has always been a nightmare and often I have to schedule it a month ahead and usually always something comes up in the meantime where I cannot show up to the meeting because of an interview or extra studying for an exam or doing a group project so having the option of using the Illini Bucks to make a quick unscheduled appointment for zero wait time would be fantastic and a really good use of your bucks whenever you need it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely, during finals it is a real struggle, and this could be a good solution for the problem . However, there may be easier solutions to the problem as well. Like for instance, maybe when demand for advising his high, there can be group advising opportunities. Or maybe when demand is high they can hire extra support for the advising team to meet that demand. I think the Illinibucks is a good idea, but I think there are easier ways for solving most of the problems on this campus.
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