Lectures, lecturers and contents

The way of teaching and the level of the contents vary a lot per subject. I noticed that most teachers here, go through the content quite fast. Often it was nearly just lecturers reading the information that is in the PowerPoint without any other information, such as examples or a broader explanation. This can quickly lead to skipping class, as you know that you are not missing out on helpful information (that is not in the PowerPoint). This is not the case with all of my lecturers, for instance my Law lecturer had very helpful classes; including examples and assignments. What bothered me on all of my subjects, was the fact that I felt none of them actually would help me gain actual knowledge on tourism, even though the minor I am doing is Tourism. This was frustrating and really did not motivate me to go to school and get a lot of work done. Furthermore, there were many grammar mistakes in the content of most courses. 

Territorial Tourist Resources in Spain

The lecturer is this class did not give lectures at all. He spent the first one and a half class asking the students suggestions for ‘Tourist Resources’, which simply meant naming every place in Spain that attract tourists, without any additional information given. It should be said that all of this was in Spanish. I did not ask him to switch to English, as I could follow what was being said and none of it was essential or informative. After this we have not gotten any classes, there were only presentations for about a month in this class. Only the groups that were presenting had to be present for this. During the presentations the lecturer did not say anything, did not ask anyone any question about the presentation and did not give any feedback. Not even a ‘Thank you, you may sit down now’, which is why after the presentation we stood there waiting for him to say something, unsure what to do. He acted as if we were not even there, so after a moment we just sat down. Even after the last presentation of the class he did not say a word, I have never experienced such a thing and it was a very awkward atmosphere throughout this whole class. Aside from this, we had to write a report in groups, about three tourist resources of choice. Which were handed in at the start of December and were not graded by half of January. I have never had a teacher like this, I did not know a level of education this low was even possible. All other lecturers were a whole lot better than this man. Each of them gave lectures and were available for questions. 

The Basic Principles of Law in Tourist Application

This was my favourite course of this minor. Although it was not really related to tourism; the only thing mentioned regarding tourism was the fact that tourism does not have its own branch in law. However, I do feel like I have gained knowledge from this course, that I may be able to use in the future. The course had interesting content and it corresponds with both the content and the level of education on my home university. The lecturer had interesting lectures, included examples and sometimes had us do assignments in class. Also, I liked the set-up of this course. At the end of October there was a mid-term, about the content up until then. The students who made and passed this midterm, had their final exam only about the content of November and December. I think this is a great system, as you would not have to study the content of 4 months earlier for the final exam. Furthermore, the lecturer was friendly and helpful.

Applied Statistics for Tourism

This is the second and last course from which I feel it may be useful for me in the future. It was not directly related to tourism, but should you be working with data regarding tourism, the content taught in this class is helpful in analysing and sorting out data and information. The first view lectures of this class were okay, the lecturer was teaching the class the basics of statistics and students were paying attention. However, when the content started to become more complicated, some of the explanations were too fast and not enough elaborated. At the start students would sometimes ask him to explain one of his examples more or to go through it more slowly, which he would gladly do. However, at some point many students would stop attending his classes as they were not able to follow his examples and explanations. When there would only be a smaller amount of people in class, I often felt like he was there teaching himself. Doing the examples on the board and talking through it, but not making any contact with the class or looking if anyone has questions or has trouble understanding. I assume this is a result of many people not attending and many students not paying attention during the class. I understand that this is frustrating and not motivating, but it resulted in him not paying attention to anyone in class anymore… However overall, he was a good lecturer and the communication with him is perfect; very quick to answer emails, gives clear instructions through emails. Thereby, he is very eager to help students if they have questions, so that is very positive! 

History of Travel and Tourism

I did not and still do not understand the purpose of this course. I understand that it can be helpful to know about some of the history regarding travel and tourism, in order to understand the current tourism better or to be able to predict situations as they may have occurred before. However, all of the content in this class, relate to how things were before Christ. I would have understood if we got one or two classes regarding traveling and tourism in this period of time, but not a whole semester this detailed as to this topic in that time. I cannot imagine to ever have any benefit from the information I learned during this course. Aside from this, I could not follow the classes given, as most of the content was completely new to me and the lecturer went over it very fast. Thereby, we were not allowed to take pictures of her PowerPoint slides and she did not put her PowerPoints up in Aula Virtual. She told us this was because she wanted to get people into class, and that you have to make notes to gain anything from her classes. She did upload many other sources, articles and information regarding the content. According to her you should be able to pass the final exam with that material. However, I think it is not fair to not upload all of the content that you are trying to teach. This way, students who are sick or unable to come to class someday are negatively affected for something that is out of their control. However, the lecturer was very friendly and open, and it was very clear that she knew what she was talking about, which was good. Also, for a report we had to upload, she made all the groups sent her the setup of their report and she would give feedback to ensure we were all working in the correct direction, which was very helpful and thoughtful. 

First foreign language I: English

This course was about the way I expected it to be. I missed the first view weeks of class, because I was planning on switching courses, as I do not need an English class, which could be done after 3 weeks. However, I did not manage to switch classes due to these being full or being at the same time as my other classes. So, after that, I started following this English class. At the start, I was surprised by how low the level of English that was given actually was. However, the teacher was really kind, and her classes were well-given. The only comment I have is that a part of the exam (listening exercise), did not match the level that was taught in the lectures. The listening exercise itself was not necessarily very hard, but it went way too fast for the amount of questions that had to be answered during the exercise.