Incentives and School
17 Feb 2022
After completing the RadGrad new user tutorial, my first impressions were very positive. It had introduced lots of new programs as well as neatly identified which courses cover certain topics like Databases or AI. However nearing the end I thought to myself, why should I keep track of and keep updating this RadGrad profile? There was no other monetary value other than maybe earning a sticker, it was just a helpful tool to further one’s education.
RadGrad as a College Resource
Personally, I think RadGrad is an excellent tool for students as it provides almost all the resources you will ever need to navigate through UH’s system. It provides clubs, internships, as well as a comment section for certain classes so students can know what they are getting into. However, I see no point in having to keep on updating on what you have finished as well as completing the whole RadGrad program as the path to graduation is already listed in STAR GPS. To me, RadGrad does very well as an online resource for students to keep track of opportunities as well as their progress but offers no incentive to keep on updating your progress.
Incentives
Throughout most of my years of schooling, I have found that people only really take classes if they have to or it offers something in return. RadGrad does not offer almost anything important to keep updating it over and over again to keep track of your progress. While I can see which classes are offered in the ICS Department, by updating does it show me how close I am to graduating with a degree in Data Science? If I update it for opportunities will it prove to me that I am now an experienced programmer or ready to take on the real world? No, it doesn’t so updating your profile offers almost nothing for someone’s personal gain and just serves as a checklist to all the things a person has completed in the ICS department.
Making RadGrad Better for the Individual
Despite my criticisms, I believe the RadGrad updating system can work as a very good community builder. Experienced students in the ICS department can give their input on classes as well as help guide students and the people new to RadGrad would believe them as their progress shows it. This however all relies on the effort of the individual to build a better community which doesn’t seem to work so far as from what I have seen as beyond level two there were only a handful of people updating their progress. Even then the Discord for ACM has already done a much better job of building a community as people can ask seniors about classes they have taken as well as get new opportunities. As it stands right now RadGrad is just another online resource for students to use. So then my suggestion is this then, incentivize people to update their progress. Give them something to work for such as a job, student benefits something that students would want to strive for. This will motivate them to update their progress, all helping to build a larger community.