Topic: Bang Your Head on Your Desk - the thread of teaching despair!

[FishProf]

Student who needs to pass my class to graduate and GO AWAY - and is a long shot to do that, just emailed me that he got himself suspended for the last week of the semester.

[RatGuy]

For gen-ed courses, I ask students to submit to me quiz-style questions in preparation for final exam review. Most of the time the review session consists of teams of students trying to stump other teams. I then collect those questions and post them all to the LMS as a study guide. Students seem to love it, and it's very little work for me.

I tried this for a class of majors this semester. Only 3 students submitted their questions to me (out of 28) enrolled, so the study guide was less than a page. Some (other) students are now complaining that "I promised a study guide" but the one posted is "insufficient." How is that my fault?

[FishProf]

Online practical exam, fill-in-the-blank.

Instructions include - I program the correct answers into the grading system.  It only recognizes EXACT spellings.  However, AFTER everyone has taken the exam, I will go back through and manually give partial credit for close answers.  Just be patient.

30 minutes after exam goes live (and it's 30 min long):  "I just finished the inverts practical and there were two questions that I got wrong due to misspelling. I believed for question # 8 I put Crustacean instead of Crustacea and for # 12 I put Echinodea instead of Echinoidea. Is there any chance you can give me some partial credits for that?"

I so want to say: "Well, no.  Not now.  You didn't pay attention to the instructions."

[Hegemony]

FishProf, I don't understand the situation. Those wouldn't count for partial credit?

I feel a little bad for students with spelling difficulties. My son (college age) is as smart as they come, but sometimes he even spells his own name wrong. He would probably fail your subject on the spelling requirement alone.

[onthefringe]

FishProf, I don't understand the situation. Those wouldn't count for partial credit?

I feel a little bad for students with spelling difficulties. My son (college age) is as smart as they come, but sometimes he even spells his own name wrong. He would probably fail your subject on the spelling requirement alone.

I think Fishprof is indicating that the answers are going to get partial/full credit, but due to Fishprof not having magical instant regrading abilities it might take more than 30 minutes for the updates to be made. And that Fishprof is frustrated with the student ignoring the directions that state "AFTER everyone has taken the exam, I will go back through and manually give partial credit for close answers.  Just be patient"

I'm guessing the "not now" comment is a "wish I could say" thing not a "this is my plan" thing.

[FishProf]

Thank you onthefringe, that is a perfect summary.

I have way to many legit emails to process and address at this time of year to waste time answering questions already answered.

I am just done.

[OneMoreYear]

Thank you onthefringe, that is a perfect summary.

I have way to many legit emails to process and address at this time of year to waste time answering questions already answered.

I am just done.

FishProf, does you want the exam to release scores to students even before you've given partial credit for spelling errors?  I have some exam items autograded, but I've set it up so it does not release to students until I've checked the exams (and corrected for issues that you described) as well as scored any questions that are not autograded. Do you want students to have immediate feedback (and their grades may go up after you give partial credit) or can you set your exams to not release grades until you've corrected them?

I am also very done this semester. But, it's mostly my own fault for not adjusting my classes correctly in the transition from fully online to hyflex.

[Puget]

Thank you onthefringe, that is a perfect summary.

I have way to many legit emails to process and address at this time of year to waste time answering questions already answered.

I am just done.

FishProf, does you want the exam to release scores to students even before you've given partial credit for spelling errors?  I have some exam items autograded, but I've set it up so it does not release to students until I've checked the exams (and corrected for issues that you described) as well as scored any questions that are not autograded. Do you want students to have immediate feedback (and their grades may go up after you give partial credit) or can you set your exams to not release grades until you've corrected them?

I am also very done this semester. But, it's mostly my own fault for not adjusting my classes correctly in the transition from fully online to hyflex.

Yes, I've found it reduces a lot of panicked emails if I delay releasing any grades until everything is checked and I've sent a course announcement with info about interpreting the grades. I also use this strategically to control when the panicked emails will arrive-- even if the grading is all done the evening after a test, I won't release them to the students until the next morning because I don't want a bunch of evening emails.

[FishProf]

Perhaps I was too optimistic that my announcement both in class and written with the test instructions with allay any excessive concerns. So I was happy with them seeing the minimum score they were getting right away

[Istiblennius]

Students in my class have a lab writeup due mid-term. if they submit it on time they are allowed to revise it and improve, but if they don't submit on time they can still turn it in late through the end of the term. A small handful of students did not submit writeups on time and I use our LMS to contact them on a weekly basis and remind them "your writeup is still missing, it must be submitted by X at X pm. I will not grade writeups after that. And of course three of them did not turn in the writeup by the end of the term and then emailed me the next morning to ask for an extension, which was turned down. But I still feel bad!! Does anyone else ever feel that trying to give students a lifeline (the extended deadline) inadvertently is giving them the rope to hang themselves?

[the_geneticist]

Students in my class have a lab writeup due mid-term. if they submit it on time they are allowed to revise it and improve, but if they don't submit on time they can still turn it in late through the end of the term. A small handful of students did not submit writeups on time and I use our LMS to contact them on a weekly basis and remind them "your writeup is still missing, it must be submitted by X at X pm. I will not grade writeups after that. And of course three of them did not turn in the writeup by the end of the term and then emailed me the next morning to ask for an extension, which was turned down. But I still feel bad!! Does anyone else ever feel that trying to give students a lifeline (the extended deadline) inadvertently is giving them the rope to hang themselves?

No, I think it's a way to fully document that you gave them the opportunity to succeed, reminded them of said path, and documented the results of their choices.  A student having a rough week, that is otherwise an organized & responsible student, would have turned in their report.
I have a similar method for the handful of students that were absent from their lab presentations.  I contact them, tell them they can present to me (in person or on Zoom, or even send me a recording), and see what happens.  As of today, only 1 of the 10 or so students has arranged to meet with me.  The others are not responding.  So, when I enter a grade of 0 points, I have documentation that I gave them the opportunity to succeed, but I'm not dragging them kicking and screaming into my office to show me their presentation.

[RatGuy]

Student's essay on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" argues that the greatest fear of the town residents was "airborne pathogens" and I wonder which story she read instead.

[mamselle]

Student's essay on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" argues that the greatest fear of the town residents was "airborne pathogens" and I wonder which story she read instead.

Sounds like, whatever it was, she slept through the class discussion...

M.

[OneMoreYear]

Student's essay on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" argues that the greatest fear of the town residents was "airborne pathogens" and I wonder which story she read instead.

I'd guess it comes from the line "There was a contagion in the very air that blew from that haunted region; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and fancies infecting all the land."

[marshwiggle]

Student's essay on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" argues that the greatest fear of the town residents was "airborne pathogens" and I wonder which story she read instead.

I'd guess it comes from the line "There was a contagion in the very air that blew from that haunted region; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and fancies infecting all the land."

Is there a term, kind of like memes, but for bad ideas *and/or incorrect information that gets distributed like a pathogen? If there isn't, there should be.

(*Maybe there need to be different terms for different kinds of things, like different virus types. So, for instance an unhealthy or unsafe fad would have a different term than an untruth like "vaccines cause autism".)