UWA rant-age
So before I get right into my post on cheap toys aimed at kids, I just have to vent my frustration at UWA’s really lacking website and communication of info and facilities in general. I don’t usually log into WebCT or MyUWA but I have recently had to get a couple of forms online so I can pass my Arts Practicum and I have just realized how immensely slow and cluttered everything is. Not only did it take me ten minutes to completely log into my account on MyUWA, why does it seem like the one thing you want is the hardest thing to find on the page?!? I was looking for a link to my webmail everywhere and for some reason it just blends in with all the rambling text EVERYWHERE on the screen. Its just..confusing.
I know you can link your email to an external mail application, which is something I do, but honestly…it shouldn’t be this hard. It also seems to be incredibly hard to find the login/setup details for if you actually do want to connect your webmail to an application – I think it took me round half an hour to work out how to actually do it because when they changed the webmail to Gmail last year they also changed servers and stuff without telling ANYONE. -_-
Not only is navigating your way around myUWA’s homepage like walking through a minefield of pointless and useless junk, there’s no user intuivity WHATSOEVER. Hence why you have to click through a million bazillion links before ACTUALLY ACCESSING wherever you want to go.
I don’t know, perhaps I’m just not used to the rage-inducing facility that is MyUWA and WebCT because I don’t log into it a whole lot anymore. There is a reason for that however…and that is because it has ALWAYS been slow and frustrating. Hell, WebCT doesn’t even work properly on my laptop sometimes – it just freezes, says I am logged in twice when I’m not!, or just makes me log in over and over until it finally connects to the server -.- StudentConnect isn’t much better either, but at least they have their links ordered in a neat sidebar to the left.
Oh and that reminds me, I got a letter from UWA the other day. My group won the People’s Choice Award last year for our short film, and for the prize I got a cheque for $250. I was like “ohhhh yeah B)”. Fast forward 6 months later, and they’re now asking me for $225 back due to a clerical error. Yeah…..SIGH.
You gotta wonder where all the money UWA has actually goes to – their website sucks, their student services are crap and don’t even get me started on the food. I was pretty happy to learn they had a new science cafe with supposed ‘fresh and organic’ food…..turns out its just the same limp noodles you can find at the ref, and they use the word ‘organic’ wherever they can as an excuse to charge more. Seriously, 5 dollars for organic water?!?!?? What the HELL constitutes organic water?! Not only this, they used all this money to build a fancy cake fridge. Which either has one really generic lemon cheesecake in it which is at least a week old, or stale sandwiches with the most uninteresting fillings ever.
ARGHH. I could go on forever about the food at UWA. It’s just SO HORRIBLE.
And on the topic of funding and whatnot….I really think it’s about time UWA put some money and effort into revamping the arts/communications degrees they offer. Not only is the facilities second rate (seriously, even ECU has better equipment and software), I don’t understand how some international students can pass these units in English and Communications when they can’t even speak or write english PROPERLY. It makes me AN-GRY, primarily because I was put in a group of international students in first year, and I ended up doing all the work and retyping all their stuff because it was just so grammatically and syntactically incorrect.
Funny also how I had to use iMOVIE to edit our video clips for Digital Media in second year too. This was in 2008, by the way. It was only in 2009 which they rolled out Final Cut EXPRESS in the maclabs…is that not the saddest thing you’ve ever heard?! Not even Final Cut Pro….Final Cut Express. Yeah. I feel ripped off.
I really like UWA as a campus and the lecturers are mostly great, and there are some great things about studying at UWA…its just…foodwise, technologywise, artswise……these things could definitely be better. I’m not being entirely critical, I’m just saying, there are SO MANY THINGS UWA could improve on but probably won’t for a long time to come.
Edit by Cam: To add to this, UWA nearly messed up my entire enrollment back in ’08! I emailed this woman and it was like she could not understand what I had written (and I like to think I write fairly well).
That said, the computer science and mathematics departments at UWA are pretty rockin’
“…and for the prize I got a cheque for $250. I was like “ohhhh yeah B)”. Fast forward 6 months later, and they’re now asking me for $225″
WHAT?! That alone constitutes use of the ‘horse shit’ tag (I love that tag, it’s probably the best thing I have ever done).
So basically they reckon you only deserve $25, what the shit! Do you HAVE to give it to them?
Man, that bit alone is making me angry, haha.
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Yeah I pretty much have to give it to them in like two weeks….or they’ll work out some sort of payment plan for me -_- How nice of them huh?!
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