Headmaster Report #14

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Headmaster Report #14

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The rundown

The SA Society changes that I announced last month seem to be working smoothly. The rank progression does now sort of resemble a pyramid, but with plenty of people filtering through the low-to-middle ranks and unlocking all of the shiny new accessories (but everyone is just going to start opting for the swank ribbon cases, right?)

One other SA-related tidbit that some of you may not have picked up on relates to the new Cluster of Earth medal for PvE gaming. Val noted in his last report that the Dark Sage - Warfare degree had been changed to match the new GMRG progression system. What that means is that each CF is worth two CEs. To accomdate that change, the "Warfare point" system for the sage degree has been increased from a 1000 point scale with 1 CF = 1 point, to a 3620 point scale where 1 CE = 1 point and 1 CF = 2 points. The change also affected which medals will count. Previously, only CFs and PoBs earned beyond the GMRG Rank X requirements would count for points. With the new expanded point pool, all CFs, CEs, and PoBs now count for points, so you will be earning Warfare points for every gaming activity you submit. The change should not impact degree attainment, unless you had a ton of PvE-earned CFs that have transmuted to CEs (and hence are worth fewer points).

Finally, yesterday marked the twice-yearly Scroll of Foundation deluge for my staff (and those silly ACC judges who grade exams from time to time). In total, 157 SoFs were awarded to 35 members for their work over the past six months, which included grading a total of 1219 exams with an average grading time of 27.5 hours. Of course, our goal is to grade all exams within 24 hours, but in this case the number was a bit skewed by Mr. Wally, whose average of 336 hours per exam was a bit outside the normal range. :p

Of Courses and Profs

Zagro, professor of CORE Studies has resigned due to real life time constraints. He has done an excellent job, helping to clean up some of the dust left by last year's audit pass through the department, and he graded a high volume of courses (277, to be exact) with an average grading time of a mere six hours. Impressive. He has left some big shoes to fill. However, for now the position will remain empty and Ood, Farrin, Qormus, and I will take over grading duties for that department. With the upcoming path and order changes, the CORE department is due for a major renovation. If the CORE department survives the transition (and it may not), then I will seek a new professor for the job.

I do have some new courses to announce: first, Philosophy 1: Views has been revised and published; second, Philosophy II: Cults has (finally) been rewritten and will be released soonish; third, the first two of four planned new Astronomy courses are being coded and prepped for launch as I write this report. Written by Zednich, Seraphol, and Lexiconus (who is apparently now a wookiee :p), the revised Planets and Stars and brand new Regions courses include a good amount of actual sciencey stuff and are quite interesting.

All of these courses have some now questionably-canonical information in them. As we learn more about the brave new Star Wars universe, we will revisit these and other courses and either revamp or retire them. Tentatively, my plan for non-canonical courses is to place them in a new Department of Legends -- this is where the current six CORE courses will probably end up by the end of the year. I will flesh that plan out as the Force awakens some more.

Top Exam Takers!

Since my last report, the top five exam takers at the SA are:

Name # of Exams
JK Darknyte (he's not new :p) 22
PRT Juliana Kelrune 21
DJK Marcus Kiriyu 15
ACO Sparky 14
PRT Khal Xanderi 12

Great work, everyone!

Conclusion

As always, I'd like to close this report by asking for your help. The SA is a massive wall of text that covers ever-shifting topics and is prone to typos and run-on sentences. If you spot substantive or grammatical problems, please let me, Ood, and the course PROF know so that we can fix them ASAP. As we work through the Departments during the audit, we're also going to be asking for help reading and editing -- if you have any particular expertise, let us know when we announce the next Department being audited. There are shiny things available. :P

Bubba

Dark Side Adept Dacien Victae di Plagia
Headmaster of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood

I may as well be new, Dac...I've been gone for nearly a decade. Btw, gimme a job :P I miss working in the SA.

Nice report, Bubba!

Curse you Wally! Messing up our awesome grading time :D

Oi, I grades them as I sees them... Silly ACC Judge is me :p

Howie is a higher rank than me? This system is rather flawed. BUT. Do all the courses.

Yay for Astronomy and Space stuff. Also yay for my name being mentioned in a DC report that isnt by the JST! :D

On a serious note, go take the old Astronomy Course if youve not done so. I wrote it several years back and its still a decent course. Itll help with at least 2 degree's I believe.

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