Guide to the University


General Guide to the University


Welcome!

Within this thread, you will find all you need to know about the University to gain the knowledge you seek!

Feel free to contact me at my Discord (derp#9479), or my nation, NationStates | The Porter of Zukchiva if you need answers to some questions, you have suggestions or any other reason you feel you should contact me for.


About the University

So what is the University?

The University is basically a place of guides on subjects that somehow relate to NationStates. These guides, called “courses”, can range from issue writing to roleplay to issue solving! With these courses, we hope to give you, the student or professor, the chance to explore the topics presented more. We’ll talk more about the courses later in the guide!

A very (very) Brief History of the University of the East Pacific

The University first began as an idea in a simple thread somewhere around 2009. Since then, many famous East Pacificans came to teach at the University, and in some cases, to govern it. The Education Act, the law which governed how the University would be handled, went through four renditions before being repealed in 2018. It soon became replaced by the Curia act. The last two Chancellors, Atlae and Batchtendekuppen, have both worked on the University for a good amount of time- Batchtenekuppen, in particular, working from 2014 to 2018 to get the University up and running, before giving the chair to Atlae. Without them, the University wouldn’t be rebuilding as well as it would be today.

So who is this Chancellor?

The Chancellor is basically the Principal of the University! Just like a principal, the Chancellor has to answer to a higher power- in TEP’s case, the Delegate. The Chancellor basically maintains the University, and they make the decisions on what should be added or removed from the University. However, the Chief Minister of Regional Affairs and the Delegate have the final say on matters that occur in the University.

The current Chancellor is NationStates | The Porter of Zukchiva.

The current Chief Minister of Regional Affairs is NationStates | The Most Handsome of Marrabuk.

The current Delegate is NationStates | The Proud Placental Heritage of Fedele.

University Roadmap

Being that the East Pacific’s forums are generally seen as confusing, a guideline (with links) to the University shall be left here in order to make your time here easier.

The announcement hall is where any announcement concerning the University is made! Usually, the Chancellor will make announcements.

This thread is the application thread for becoming an official student of the University. There are no requirements to join: anyone from everywhere can join, provided you are not banned from the East Pacific! The application is simple, just state that you wish to be a student. You most likely will be accepted!

Just a link source that you can go to in case you need to find a link that eludes your grasp.

The Course Bulletin contains a summary of every course offered by the University. The pinned thread at the top contains a basic list of current and inactive courses for your convenience.

A place where the actual lessons of courses are found. All the content of every course (besides additional resources) can be found here.

Records for everything concerning the University are found here, including former, current, and graduated students, the staff of the University, current courses, and other items.

Where graduations shall be officially announced, as well as a list of badges and the rankings of the University. (Badges can also be found in the Hall of Records - The East Pacific - Tapatalk.

This is a place filled with essays, interviews, and the like concerning TEP and Nationstates in general. Take a look around! Named after a hard working and former Chancellor of TEP, Bachtendekuppen.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/tepwiki-f212/
The official TEP Wiki! It is currently being built up, but in the future, it will have much of the information found on TEP’s current forums, with a less confusing layout common to wikis.

Courses

Basic Information
Courses are the backbone of the University. In their basic form, courses are mainly guides of certain topics attached with homework, a final test, and a final grade. Courses are structured in such a way in order to provide you an understanding of how well you were able to learn from the guide. As stated in the Roadmap, course information can be found in the Course Bulletin and the actual courses themselves in the Lecture Hall.

Course Bulletin
The following will compromise the information that should be found for any lesson in the Couse Bulletin.

Course Name: What the course is officially called and stated as in the records and Lecture Hall. (Ex: Got Issues? Lesson 1)

Professor Name: The name of the professor.

Grader Name (If applicable): Should a professor leave the University and not specify what should happen to their course, a “grader” shall be assigned to the course to grade homework assignments and the final test, if possible. If the professor is actively teaching the course, this is not needed in the Course Bulletin Entry.

Contact Information: A list of contacts which a student can use to get in touch with professors.

Final Exam: What is the type of final task you will be expected to complete in order to pass the course. (Ex: 10-word quiz; writing a roleplay post; having an issue proposal accepted as an actual issue on NS.)

Final Exam Passing Grade: A final exam’s passing score.

Midterm (Y/N): Y stands for yes, N stands for no. This is to indicate if the course has a midterm, which can generally be anything the professor wishes, long as it is not very difficult.

Couse Lesson Links: A list of links leading to the individual lessons of the course, for your convenience.

Additional Resources: A list of resources a student can use to gain a further understanding of the course in order to complete homework. Also added to help make the courses more useful as their roles as “guides” by helping students understand the content.

Courses Part 2- Grading

General Grading
Grading in the University is generally similar to American schooling. In its basics, it is up to the Professor to decide the weight and the total number of their assignments. This means that a homework assignment can be worth much more in one course than in others.

The University grades on a percentage system, meaning that while a letter grade can be suggested, your official grade will be revealed as a percentage of all the questions/work in the course that you answered/did correctly to the total number of questions/amount of work in the course.

Grading for Finals and Midterms
Every course at the University of the East Pacific has a final. This final can be anything related to the course, not just an online quiz. For example, it could be making a factbook about a topic. Professors will decide the passing rate for the final and midterm of their course. Finals and midterms cannot have a passing grade above 100%. Such tests can have a 100% or nothing pass rate, as they can often be graded for completion rather than the quality of the work, to an extent.)

That being said, finals and midterms cannot be made extremely difficult for students. Finals and midterms will be adjusted as needed if they are too difficult for most students taking the course.

What occurs if a Professor cannot grade their own course
Professors may sometimes become inactive or refuse to grade their courses. In that case, their course becomes the property of the University (unless the Professor makes an objection, in which case the University will remove the course.)

In such a case, a rubric for every assignment and test in the course shall be established. The rubric will be available only to Professors and Education staff- but it shall contain all the necessary information for grading. After the creation or finding of a rubric, the University will dispatch a Grader to handle the course and grade assignments. Graders shall be responsible for the creation of rubrics for a course if none are obtained from the Professor in question.

Graders will have the full authority of a Professor in grading. Should a student require a question that needs to be answered, the Grader shall try to obtain the information for that question, or find someone else to answer it.

Remember, grading for courses is simply to help you gauge your understanding of the basic concepts. They are in no way a measure of how much you have mastered applying those actual concepts. Everything takes practice to become perfect: courses only provide you the knowledge you seek. But it is up to you to practice and put that knowledge to use and to turn it into wisdom.

Ranks
What Ranks Are
Ranks are basically titles that can be earned at the University of the East Pacific. Following the Concordat, they are NOT honorary titles, but instead titles that track how many points you have earned in the University. Ranks have no effect on you besides giving you bragging rights to your fellow students (and professors).

Professors are not exempt from the ranking system. Although they have higher authority than any student in teaching situations, a professor can be lower than a student in rankings. Again, rankings are not a sign of authority, but a sign of progress.

The Rankings
RANKING
POINTS REQUIRED
BADGE

Apprentice
1,000
WIP

Learned
2,000
WIP

Master
4,000
WIP

Professional
7,000
WIP

Guide
11,000
WIP

How to gain points
There are a few ways to gain points. Completing these actions shall increase the total amount of points you have, and reaching certain amounts of points allows you to reach a rank.

Ways to gain points:
Helping a peer with a simple task: 100 points
Getting above 60% on a UTEP Course final: 200 points
Completing a course (Grade must be above 50%): 500 points
Graduating from two courses or more in the same month: 500 points
Getting 100% on a final: 500 points
Co-authoring a course for UTEP: 1000 points
Writing a course for UTEP: 2000 points

Badges for the ranks are currently in progress of being designed. However, after obtaining a badge, anyone who has that rank shall be able to show off that badge in an appropriate manner.

Attempting to lie about the number of points/your UTEP rank will have you stripped of your rank and from gaining points in the future. However, you may continue to access normal UTEP facilities in a normal manner if such an event happens.

Graduation
So what is graduation in the instance of this University?
Glad you asked (heh)! Graduation in UTEP refers to the once a month ceremony congratulating students for completing their courses. Graduation shall take place in the https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/the_east_pacific/graduation-hall-f202/- a special place for the ceremony. To graduate, students MUST reach or surpass the passing grade of both the total grade and the final exam grade of the course. Once this occurs, a student is eligible to graduate in the next graduation.

To graduate, a student must also do ALL coursework required. This requirement can only be exempted by the Professor of that course- and a student still must do 50% of their assignments in this instance to graduate.

How many courses can I graduate from at once?
As many as you can pass! The sky’s the limit (and the number of courses we have here.) Make sure you get assent from your Professor/Grader that you passed, however. Or else, you won’t be considered as for having officially ended/passed the course.

What happens during graduation?
Within the Graduation Hall - The East Pacific - Tapatalk, which within, you will see posts as “Graduation Ceremony for Class of XX-XX-XXXX”. Simply find the post for your class and click on it.

In the post for your “class”, you will see a table or list of students with badges awarded to them for different rank promotions and graduating classes. Graduation will be split into two sections: a) Courses and b) Ranks. Badges will be awarded within each section.

Badges indicate the reaching of a certain rank or passing a class. Your name will be mentioned besides your classmates/promotees, with the badges being revealed as well. Graduation is a one time process and after it is posted, you will receive the badge.

Final Words

So that’s the end of this guide! If you have any questions, please approach me! Also with any suggestions if you have any.

My contacts are: NationStates | The Porter of Zukchiva, or derp#9479 on Discord. :smiley:

Thanks for visiting the University!

— Begin quote from ____

About the University

So what is the University?

The University is basically a place of guides on subjects that somehow relate to NationStates. These guides, called “courses”, can range from issue writing to roleplay to issue solving! With these courses, we hope to give you, the student or professor, the chance to explore the topics presented more. We’ll talk more about the courses later in the guide!

A very (very) Brief History of the University of the East Pacific

The University first began as an idea in a simple thread somewhere around 2009. Since then, many famous East Pacificans came to teach at the University, and in some cases, to govern it. The Education Act, the law which governed how the University would be handled, went through four renditions before being repealed in 2018. It soon became replaced by the Curia act. The last two Chancellors, Atlae and Batchtendekuppen, have both worked on the University for a good amount of time- Batchtenekuppen, in particular, working from 2014 to 2018 to get the University up and running, before giving the chair to Atlae. Without them, the University wouldn’t be rebuilding as well as it would be today.

So who is this Chancellor?

The Chancellor is basically the Principal of the University! Just like a principal, the Chancellor has to answer to a higher power- in TEP’s case, the Delegate. The Chancellor basically maintains the University, and they make the decisions on what should be added or removed from the University. However, the Chief Minister of Regional Affairs and the Delegate have the final say on matters that occur in the University.

The current Chancellor is NationStates | The Porter of Zukchiva.

The current Chief Minister of Regional Affairs is NationStates | The Most Handsome of Marrabuk.

The current Delegate is NationStates | The Proud Placental Heritage of Fedele.

— End quote

I had to reread the last line. Isn’t Fedele in the Rejected Realms?