2014 catalog offers a variety of electives

Photo by: Will Gentry

As Oklahoma Christian University students wrap up their required and core classes for the fall semester, they are beginning to look toward the spring semester and a class to fill their free elective slots.

After the unveiling of the spring 2014 catalog, there were a few changes to students’ degree audits. Missing were a few major specific history and communications classes, but in their places were a few elective classes.

Sometimes students get in a jam when it comes to registering, and they may not be able to add another full three-credit class to their schedule, but an elective class is typically less credits and can flex to fill those slots.

Oklahoma Christian Registrar and Professor of Education Mickey Banister commented on the use of elective classes.

“Funny thing about elective classes: what is elective for some students may actually be required for others,” Banister said. “Many of the academic programs require specific classes and do not allow for electives to be taken.  All classes are being monitored by the department chairs and the deans of the various colleges.  Courses that may not be receiving the enrollment they need will be looked at carefully and then may be cancelled because of low enrollment.”

Classes offered next semester include Movement and Choreography Stage, Game Theory and Design and Game Programming.

Creator of the Game Design elective and Associate Professor of Engineering Pat Smith said that elective classes are valuable and needed.

“Elective classes allow students to explore areas that are of interest to the student, and enrich the overall university’s educational offering,” Smith said. “Electives allow students to explore areas that might not otherwise be covered in their specific field of study, or in the core of their field of study.”

Smith said that student interest is definitely a deciding factor when it comes to elective classes.

“Classes are driven by student interest, faculty expertise and interest, and also market demand (what employers or graduate schools expect or want students to be trained in),” Smith said. “As a result the classes offered, or content of electives, is certain to change and student interest is certainly one of the factors that will influence that change.”

Senior Connor Zaldivar said he was worried that when the time came for him to take an elective there would not be a diverse enough pool from which to choose from.

“With a lot of friends at large schools that have the ability to offer an extensive range of elective classes, I was a bit worried going into the registration process,” Zaldivar said. “One of the elective classes that Western University offers is The Many Faces of Harry Potter, a semester-long course that will look at all seven books of the series.  Although OC does not offer that class, I was in fact pleased with the classes that I did find.”

Another perk of being enrolled in an elective class is the ability to learn more about specific majors.

“I thought it was interesting to be able to take classes more specific to my major instead of a class that covers a broad part of engineering, such as statics,” senior Alexander Gower said.

Senior Timothy Sikes approves of the electives Oklahoma Christian offers because of the ability to take classes he would not normally be exposed to.

“Electives let you learn something outside of your range of normal learning,” Sikes said. “Being a computer science major, I would not normally learn about game design and game mechanics … yet it is something that can be taught and involved in academics.”

With multiple classes being offered, there are a few favorites to look out for.

“There are specific classes that seem to be more popular than others,” Banister said. “As you can tell, those would be the classes that fill early on. Offhand, some of the classes that are popular would be Perspectives in World Music, Personal Evangelism, Personal Family Finance, Christian Family and World Regional Geography. While these may seem like elective classes, they are all classes that can be used to meet various requirements of the core curriculum.”

The nature of electives allows for them to easily fall in second behind core requirements in interest level for students.

“If people have some extra hours to fill, I would suggest to them to take an elective; it lets you learn things in various departments in which you would not otherwise get to learn,” Sikes said.

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