The Art Institute of Las Vegas Review: Unprepared Class Sessions

Perhaps one of the most annoying aspects of my experience at The Art Institute of Las Vegas is the fact that it isn't uncommon for instructors to not be prepared to teach a class or completely deviate from the syllabus we all sign on the first day of class.

The vast majority of the classes are to be two hours of instruction and two hours of lab time.  However, many times, the two hours of instruction go as low as 30 minutes.  Most of the "lab time" is utilized to work on homework, projects, or sometimes in-class assignments. 

(One thing they are always prepared for, however, is with the piles of pizzas they give out during Pizza with the Deans)

Many times, instructors will declare that they are "giving" the students time to work on projects.  It's not really "giving" if students are paying to be there.  Nothing irritates me more than showing up to class to find out we're just doing homework for the majority of the time.  Why even bother going to class if nothing is going to be taught? 

I've even had an instructor ask the class what the class wanted to learn.  Why not just teach what is suppose to be taught?

I understand the defense for this statement that the vast majority of the students are in different levels of their education (you can have a student in his/her first few quarters be in the same class as a student in his/her last few quarters).  This is partially due to the number of times classes are offered, i.e. my Short Form Production Class has only been offered twice in the last two and half years.  Sometimes teachers will go over what students were suppose to learn in another class; sometimes they will not.  Either way, it leads to a waste of a portion of students' paid time.

The best part is that, as film majors, we are ALWAYS preached to never "wing" a production, yet I feel this is how the school teaches its courses.

List of all the posts I have about my experiences at AILV