Examples of weaknesses identified for undergraduate programs
- Students often struggled to articulate effective arguments for which approach had more influence on subsequent architectural and urban practice. For some this extended to a lack of understanding of how to write a topic sentence, as well as how to use that topic sentence to organize the paper.
- Students had difficulty on the more advanced concepts relating algorithms to computational complexity.
- The primary struggle for most students was a lack of fundamental writing skills, in particular, an understanding of how to write a topic sentence, how to use that topic sentence to structure the paper, and in general how to write clearly.
- The format of the oral critique can sometimes make it challenging for students who are shy, or nervous public speakers to fully participate.
- Many students are not yet able to use scholarly discourse, vocabulary, syntax, etc., and write in a predominantly colloquial style.
- Most challenges were related to practical application of material on quizzes and exams. Questions that required them to think through case scenarios were the most difficult.
- Students struggle with reading review papers and dealing with the gray areas – that science issues are not black-and-white.