As another year ends, and in the spirit of the upcoming holidays, let’s put our Santa hat on and take a look at the naughty or nice behaviours NAIT students have displayed throughout the year. Did you make it to the nice list by setting a good Ooks-ample? Or will you find yourself stuck on the naughty list with a coal-filled stocking? Let us find out.
Classroom behaviour
Naughty: Talking while a lecture is going on
Nice: Listening attentively and participating in class
Many students do not realize that classrooms at NAIT, especially the ones in the CAT building, have excellent acoustics. Those who think they are being discreet by just whispering to each other can in fact be heard by everybody else in the room. By installing private messaging apps such as Microsoft Teams or WhatsApp on our laptops, we can quietly chat with our friends without being a distraction to those who want to listen to the instructor.
Group project behaviour
Naughty: Ghosting or freeloading off your groupmates
Nice: Contributing a fair share to the project and keeping a line of communication open
In reality, we will be forced to work with people we do not really vibe with at some point. This is something NAIT trains us for when we are assigned group projects with random people. Being proactive is the least one can do in this situation.
Behaviour during exams
Naughty: Copying another person’s paper or talking during an exam
Nice: Being well-prepared for exams and exercising academic integrity
It is puzzling that this is still an issue during face-to-face exams because everyone takes the same Academic Integrity course at the start of each term, yet cheating still happens. Whether your excuse is “making sure it’s done right” or “just confirming the instructions,” it is wrong to communicate with someone other than the instructor or proctor. It is best to not give anyone a reason to suspect you of academic misconduct.
Waste disposal
Naughty: Indiscriminately throwing garbage in the waste and recycling bins
Nice: Making sure waste is properly disposed of
NAIT is committed to environmental sustainability, and the waste and recycling bins around its campuses are part of a bigger institutional effort. NAIT aims to achieve 90 per cent less landfill waste by 2040, and by 2050, have net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
There is no need to rush. It literally takes just a few seconds for us students to do our part by making sure our discarded coffee cups or paper towels find their way to the right bins.
Anonymous online behaviour
Naughty: Leaving exaggerated negative reviews on Rate My Professors and similar sites
Nice: Leaving honest and constructive feedback on the NAIT Instructor Feedback Survey
Anyone who has ever used Rate My Professors to select their instructors should know by now to take negative reviews there with a grain of salt. As with all user-generated rating sites, their site moderators cannot prove or disprove anything users say. Their very guidelines say this. Needless to say, whatever is posted there does nothing to improve perceived bad qualities of instructors, even if they do turn out to be factual.
A better use for one’s anonymity is to complete the NAIT Instructor Feedback Survey. Links to these surveys are emailed to all students towards the end of each term. They provide a great opportunity to provide quality feedback that will be read by both the instructor and their department head.
Did you make it to five out of five on the nice list? Congratulations, and thank you for being a model student at NAIT. As for those who found themselves on the naughty list… Well, there’s always next year.
