Make it acceptable to skip a good portion of classes. Yes, some attendance at some classes may be important, but there are many cases when we just zone out and get absolutely nothing out of class (this is especially important for foreign language, although my university has been kind enough to give me a foreign language requirement exemption), even though we would do perfectly well (and learn even more efficiently) if everything was just distributed outside of class.
Some of the accommodations are not especially helpful—tape-recording lectures, for example, means that you often have to listen to the entire thing again and use up even more time, when in reality, we could learn the material in a fraction of the time (at a time when we are alert—the problem is that it’s hard to predict periods of alertness and periods of unalertness, and their periods vary from day to day) if we were given written access to the material at a time when we were alert.
My problem may be more related to ADD, but I have both, and there is said to be a large comorbidity between Asperger’s and ADD.
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Also—more class discussion over class forums and less class discussion in class. Also, a school-wide online forum (or mailing list, or at least one for particular majors) would REALLY help for making connections (I know that some schools, like Wellesley, have school-wide forums, and other schools, like Caltech, have house-wide mailing lists). I have no friends here, and part of the reason for this is because there’s simply no online way for me to approach anonymous people in my major or school. This is especially relevant when you have the social skills to only be friends with, say, 0.01% of the population, and are trying to find ways to identify that small percent. Also, people with social anxiety also partake better in forums, and it would make it easier for us to meet those with social anxiety.
Basically, make as much content online as is practically possible. That is the single-most important thing, IMO.
Modernizing classroom instruction as well (more emphasis on interactive simulations when available, rather than on blackboard). I’ve made a list of them here: http://physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=470676
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Also, some system to control variance in GPAs. A lot of us have higher GPA variances than others. The problem with this, though, is that an isolated 0.0 could totally destroy our GPAs (a 0.0 does far more damage than a 1.7, even though there is really little difference between the two), even though we may otherwise have very strong grades. And autistics are probably more likely to get these isolated 0.0s due to issues that arised in one quarter, or communication breakdown between student and professor.
A lot of us have higher GPA variances than others.
This is very interesting. Aside from specific class/professor problems, I wonder if another cause of this is the challenge of multi-tasking a variance of courses.
It might help if each semester could be structured so that it contained related or complementary courses. Or better yet, have the option of taking double credit-courses. So, a full course load of 2 or 3 intensive courses would be the same amount of hours as 5 or 6 regular courses.
I had this happen unintentionally in my sophomore year (computer engineering).
In 3 different classes (MechE, DiffEQ, and circuits) we happened to be going over very similar material from different angles (under/over/critically-damped systems).
I learned those concepts pretty well, with less effort than other quarters.
Oh yeah, this is very interesting too. Personally, I really cannot fully participate in each and every class when I’m taking 5 classes a quarter. I can only mange to do this by intensely focusing (and going to class) on 2-3 courses, and then practically skipping all the lectures for the other courses (but still managing to do quality work in them relative to the rest of the class)
Make it acceptable to skip a good portion of classes. Yes, some attendance at some classes may be important, but there are many cases when we just zone out and get absolutely nothing out of class (this is especially important for foreign language, although my university has been kind enough to give me a foreign language requirement exemption), even though we would do perfectly well (and learn even more efficiently) if everything was just distributed outside of class.
Some of the accommodations are not especially helpful—tape-recording lectures, for example, means that you often have to listen to the entire thing again and use up even more time, when in reality, we could learn the material in a fraction of the time (at a time when we are alert—the problem is that it’s hard to predict periods of alertness and periods of unalertness, and their periods vary from day to day) if we were given written access to the material at a time when we were alert.
My problem may be more related to ADD, but I have both, and there is said to be a large comorbidity between Asperger’s and ADD.
==
Also—more class discussion over class forums and less class discussion in class. Also, a school-wide online forum (or mailing list, or at least one for particular majors) would REALLY help for making connections (I know that some schools, like Wellesley, have school-wide forums, and other schools, like Caltech, have house-wide mailing lists). I have no friends here, and part of the reason for this is because there’s simply no online way for me to approach anonymous people in my major or school. This is especially relevant when you have the social skills to only be friends with, say, 0.01% of the population, and are trying to find ways to identify that small percent. Also, people with social anxiety also partake better in forums, and it would make it easier for us to meet those with social anxiety.
Basically, make as much content online as is practically possible. That is the single-most important thing, IMO.
Modernizing classroom instruction as well (more emphasis on interactive simulations when available, rather than on blackboard). I’ve made a list of them here: http://physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=470676
==
Also, some system to control variance in GPAs. A lot of us have higher GPA variances than others. The problem with this, though, is that an isolated 0.0 could totally destroy our GPAs (a 0.0 does far more damage than a 1.7, even though there is really little difference between the two), even though we may otherwise have very strong grades. And autistics are probably more likely to get these isolated 0.0s due to issues that arised in one quarter, or communication breakdown between student and professor.
This is very interesting. Aside from specific class/professor problems, I wonder if another cause of this is the challenge of multi-tasking a variance of courses.
It might help if each semester could be structured so that it contained related or complementary courses. Or better yet, have the option of taking double credit-courses. So, a full course load of 2 or 3 intensive courses would be the same amount of hours as 5 or 6 regular courses.
I had this happen unintentionally in my sophomore year (computer engineering).
In 3 different classes (MechE, DiffEQ, and circuits) we happened to be going over very similar material from different angles (under/over/critically-damped systems).
I learned those concepts pretty well, with less effort than other quarters.
Oh yeah, this is very interesting too. Personally, I really cannot fully participate in each and every class when I’m taking 5 classes a quarter. I can only mange to do this by intensely focusing (and going to class) on 2-3 courses, and then practically skipping all the lectures for the other courses (but still managing to do quality work in them relative to the rest of the class)
Thanks, very good suggestions.