Thursday, Dec. 5, 1985 From Page One University Daily Kansan 5 Shellv Continued from p. 1 psychology of satisfaction class, Shelly used a different system to integrate his theory of Complexism with teaching and grading techniques. The computerized system was named ILIA after a mechanical Star Trek character. Students entered inventory data into computers to receive individualized lectures. The ILIA lectures, however, were only part of the class' assignments. Students participated in hypothetical exercises, many of which were criticized heavily by students and professors. In one classroom activity, students blindfolded themselves and walked around campus linked together by a rope. This perceived mimicry of the blind caused a campus unroar. Hallenbeck, who is blind, said that students were abused. "The total impact, not only for those people involved, but for everyone who read the resulting article was the impression that blindness was scary, negative and horrible," he said. Shelly's and Moos' course. Violence, Aggression and Terrorism in the Modern World, PSYC 571, also stirred negative reaction because of the experiential class activities. Students were assigned to hypothetical terrorist and anti-terrorist groups to better understand the difficulties of combating terrorism. But controversy arose when David Huet-Vaughn, a member of a left-wing political activist group, accused class members of following and threatening members of the Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas as part of the class activities. Later, he and Ruth Lichtward, then president of GLSOK, discovered that all activities in the classroom were hypothetical situations and that GLSOK members had not been harassed by Shell's students. Many faculty members were not so understanding. They expressed concern over the non-traditional, experiment-oriented teaching methods, calling them unorthodox and deviant. "I'm entirely supportive of learning by doing," Baumgartel said, "but he needed to use some good sense in the terrorism course." 'The main purpose for any class should be efficiency: maximum learning through minimum work. Psychology classes should be especially easy because most of psychology is very trivial and unsubstantial.' — Maynard Shelly professor of psychology Shelly said he finally decided to "abandon all forms of experiential learning and restrict himself to purely intellectual exercises" in the terrorism course and in other courses as well. He developed the computerized games to replace experiments in the satisfaction class and in the terrorism course. He also made games for his course Social Psychology, PSYC 260. Student reaction to the board games as substitutes in the satisfaction course varied last spring. This fall, students accept them more easily. But, Shelly said, the dropout rate was still 15 percent. It was 25 percent last spring. "I don't think it's fair to use our class for an experiment when our GPAs are at stake," said Sue Connet, a Lawrence senior who took the satisfaction course last spring. "I feel as though I don't have any control over my grades when I have to play this game that I don't even understand." Other students, however, liked the games despite their complexity because they offered a relief from the standard lecture format. "It's the most interesting class I've ever been in," said Rick Walters, a former KU student from Roeland Park who took the class as a senior last spring. "It's boring to sit through a lecture class, and the games provide a little excitement." Heather Craft, a Leawood senior in his class this fall, said, "I think it's an interesting way to teach, but I thought it was too competitive. I'd rather have lectures." Scott Sutter, a Lawrence senior in the class this year, said the class was not beneficial for him. "I just learned gimmicks to do well in the games," Sutter said. "You do learn some stuff, but I didn't get a whole lot out of it. Even though the games are fine, I'd like to see the lectures tied into them a little better." Shelly had hoped that the computerized instruction would help students learn the difficult concepts of Complexism and make classes easier. But if a student is uncomfortable with the computer games and receives low grades, Shelly allows him to write a paper to improve his grades. He also could write papers, if it would make the course easier for him. "The main purpose for any class should be efficiency: maximum learning with minimum work," Shelly said. "Psychology classes should be especially easy because most of psychology is very trivial and unsubstantial." Baugartelaid said he thought Shelly was frustrated as a visionary because he saw things that needed to be changed. 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