Procrastinating until very last moments to take online exams

[marshwiggle]

I just heard from one of those AWOL students, two full hours after the deadline had expired.

Stu Dent: "... is a way for me to make up the exam. Because I was at work and I tried taking it on my phone but it wouldn't allow me to."

Wow. You waited until the last minute... to take your major exam... at work... with your phone.

Isn't this a perennial issue with online classes (some people thinking of it as something they can slot around their actual lives, rather than something that demands the level of time/attention as in-person classes)?
No way in a F2F class it would fly "Oh I didn't sit the exam because I went to work that day instead".

Yes.

It's also interesting to watch my dual enrollment students in the high schools always use their phones if at all possible. For one class, we had a cart of brand-new MacBooks in the classroom, but the students would always try to do everything on their phones. Even if I told them that doing the assignment on the MacBook would produce an automatic A, generate a perfect ACT score for them, clear their acne, and give them a real live therapy kitten, they would try their phones first. Then second. Then third. Then complain. Eventually, they would walk the 15 feet all the way to the cart (and the 15 feet all the way back to their seat) to procure the device that worked.

I've chalked it up to something generational that I can't understand. One of the big student complaints about D2L is that it totally sucks to use on a phone.

Scary to picture these students in a few years at jobs like air traffic control. "You mean there ISN'T an app for that?????"

[Caracal]

esting to watch my dual enrollment students in the high schools always use their phones if at all possible. For one class, we had a cart of brand-new MacBooks in the classroom, but the students would always try to do everything on their phones. Even if I told them that doing the assignment on the MacBook would produce an automatic A, generate a perfect ACT score for them, clear their acne, and give them a real live therapy kitten, they would try their phones first. Then second. Then third. Then complain. Eventually, they would walk the 15 feet all the way to the cart (and the 15 feet all the way back to their seat) to procure the device that worked.

I've chalked it up to something generational that I can't understand. One of the big student complaints about D2L is that it totally sucks to use on a phone.

It isn't really that weird. By the time I went to college, you needed the internet to do lots of things and the internet came on computers. I didn't get a real smartphone till I was in my late 20s or early 30s. I'm just not a native user and it shows. I obviously do all kinds of stuff on my phone, but given the choice I'd usually prefer a computer. Sometimes I take these preferences to ridiculous extremes, like looking at twitter on my computer when it is obviously a platform built for phones. If you grew up doing most things on a phone and only using a computer to type things, it makes sense that you'd be more comfortable using a phone, even when you're doing something that would be easier on a computer. I'm sure lots of students start using computers more for various things during college and even more so when they get jobs where they need to use them. 

[fishbrains]

esting to watch my dual enrollment students in the high schools always use their phones if at all possible. For one class, we had a cart of brand-new MacBooks in the classroom, but the students would always try to do everything on their phones. Even if I told them that doing the assignment on the MacBook would produce an automatic A, generate a perfect ACT score for them, clear their acne, and give them a real live therapy kitten, they would try their phones first. Then second. Then third. Then complain. Eventually, they would walk the 15 feet all the way to the cart (and the 15 feet all the way back to their seat) to procure the device that worked.

I've chalked it up to something generational that I can't understand. One of the big student complaints about D2L is that it totally sucks to use on a phone.

It isn't really that weird. By the time I went to college, you needed the internet to do lots of things and the internet came on computers. I didn't get a real smartphone till I was in my late 20s or early 30s. I'm just not a native user and it shows. I obviously do all kinds of stuff on my phone, but given the choice I'd usually prefer a computer. Sometimes I take these preferences to ridiculous extremes, like looking at twitter on my computer when it is obviously a platform built for phones. If you grew up doing most things on a phone and only using a computer to type things, it makes sense that you'd be more comfortable using a phone, even when you're doing something that would be easier on a computer. I'm sure lots of students start using computers more for various things during college and even more so when they get jobs where they need to use them.

It is kind of amusing to see--kind of like watching someone try to take a nail out of a board with a pair of children's scissors, then pointing out to them that there is a claw-hammer hanging right there on the wall, then them looking at the claw hammer for a minute and then going back to trying to remove the nail with the scissors. And then them complaining about how the stupid scissors don't work.

They figure it out, though. Dual enrollment students always give me hope for the future. 

[bopper]

Have an 'assignment" where they send you a screen shot of the test date in their phone calendar :-)

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Have an 'assignment" where they send you a screen shot of the test date in their phone calendar :-)

I like this idea!

[polly_mer]

I just heard from one of those AWOL students, two full hours after the deadline had expired.

Stu Dent: "... is a way for me to make up the exam. Because I was at work and I tried taking it on my phone but it wouldn't allow me to."

Wow. You waited until the last minute... to take your major exam... at work... with your phone.

Isn't this a perennial issue with online classes (some people thinking of it as something they can slot around their actual lives, rather than something that demands the level of time/attention as in-person classes)?
No way in a F2F class it would fly "Oh I didn't sit the exam because I went to work that day instead".

You haven't taught far enough down the prestige chain if you haven't had students choose work over class meetings, even for final exams.

I don't miss the student crying upon learning that their semester was wasted because they put their effort into keeping their jobs to eat this week every week instead of doing enough in their classes to get a better, more flexible salaried job in a couple years.

[kiana]

You haven't taught far enough down the prestige chain if you haven't had students choose work over class meetings, even for final exams.

I don't miss the student crying upon learning that their semester was wasted because they put their effort into keeping their jobs to eat this week every week instead of doing enough in their classes to get a better, more flexible salaried job in a couple years.

My mother was in an MBA program. She was also working as an engineer, and her company paid for the MBA as long as she kept a certain grade.

They had a ruptured water main at work. She had a final.

She called the professor. He said "You miss the final, you fail my class."

Her boss said "You leave, you lose your job."

She chose the job. She failed the class and got kicked out of the program.

This was in the '70s. I like to think that she'd have a better chance now.

[Aster]

This gets better and better.

So the one student who asked for an extension because she tried to take a major exam using her cell phone, went home that night and tried a second time to take her major exam on her cell phone, even though she was expressly told not to.

So what happened? She managed to activate the exam, and that was all that she did. The exam ran out the entire time period, and zero answer responses were submitted. Now I've been running online exams for well over a decade, and I can't remember the last time that I've seen that happen before.

Fortunately, I picked up the suspicious-looking "0" on her exam and reset it for her, and granted a second extension, again repeating to use a proper computer. On this final attempt, Stu Dent emailed back that she had decided to use a proper computer this time.

She still ended up with a borderline D/F exam grade by missing over half of the exam questions, but at least now Stu Dent is a bit wiser about certain appropriate behaviors within the college environment. Like, follow the syllabus polices. Follow the posted instructions. Follow the professor's personal instructions.

[the_geneticist]

This gets better and better.

So the one student who asked for an extension because she tried to take a major exam using her cell phone, went home that night and tried a second time to take her major exam on her cell phone, even though she was expressly told not to.

So what happened? She managed to activate the exam, and that was all that she did. The exam ran out the entire time period, and zero answer responses were submitted. Now I've been running online exams for well over a decade, and I can't remember the last time that I've seen that happen before.

Fortunately, I picked up the suspicious-looking "0" on her exam and reset it for her, and granted a second extension, again repeating to use a proper computer. On this final attempt, Stu Dent emailed back that she had decided to use a proper computer this time.

She still ended up with a borderline D/F exam grade by missing over half of the exam questions, but at least now Stu Dent is a bit wiser about certain appropriate behaviors within the college environment.

I've been banging my head in despair for a year due to this issue, but for different reasons.  Many of my students simply do NOT own a computer.  Or if someone they live with owns a computer, their smartphone is still often the only internet connected device that is theirs and not shared with a household.  Our "student success" folks are shocked that students are attempting to take classes on their phones ("But they shouldn't!").  It's not that the students are being lazy.  A phone is really all they have. 

[marshwiggle]

I've been banging my head in despair for a year due to this issue, but for different reasons.  Many of my students simply do NOT own a computer.  Or if someone they live with owns a computer, their smartphone is still often the only internet connected device that is theirs and not shared with a household.  Our "student success" folks are shocked that students are attempting to take classes on their phones ("But they shouldn't!").  It's not that the students are being lazy.  A phone is really all they have.

I noticed this a few years ago regarding printers. There was a time when most students had their own printers, but then that declined so that students showed up the day they were to hand in some (paper) document, asking where they could print on campus. (It was weird that evn though they had apparently never owned a printer, they had never figured out how to get something printed. Did they never once have to hand in something on paper in high school?)

[apl68]

I've been banging my head in despair for a year due to this issue, but for different reasons.  Many of my students simply do NOT own a computer.  Or if someone they live with owns a computer, their smartphone is still often the only internet connected device that is theirs and not shared with a household.  Our "student success" folks are shocked that students are attempting to take classes on their phones ("But they shouldn't!").  It's not that the students are being lazy.  A phone is really all they have.

I noticed this a few years ago regarding printers. There was a time when most students had their own printers, but then that declined so that students showed up the day they were to hand in some (paper) document, asking where they could print on campus. (It was weird that evn though they had apparently never owned a printer, they had never figured out how to get something printed. Did they never once have to hand in something on paper in high school?)

This is the case with a lot more than just higher ed school work.  A substantial part of our work at our library is serving as printers of last resort for patrons who need physical paperwork of some kind (Yes, that's still a thing, even in a pandemic) for work, shipping, etc.

It goes to show that efforts to close the "digital divide" by providing areas with better internet access haven't closed the divide.  In today's world you have to have expensive electronic devices and services to do so many things.  Not everybody can afford them.

[the_geneticist]

I've been banging my head in despair for a year due to this issue, but for different reasons.  Many of my students simply do NOT own a computer.  Or if someone they live with owns a computer, their smartphone is still often the only internet connected device that is theirs and not shared with a household.  Our "student success" folks are shocked that students are attempting to take classes on their phones ("But they shouldn't!").  It's not that the students are being lazy.  A phone is really all they have.

I noticed this a few years ago regarding printers. There was a time when most students had their own printers, but then that declined so that students showed up the day they were to hand in some (paper) document, asking where they could print on campus. (It was weird that evn though they had apparently never owned a printer, they had never figured out how to get something printed. Did they never once have to hand in something on paper in high school?)

The students probably had either a printer in the classroom or the computer lab on their high school campus and time in class to send their paper to the printer in that room.

Our campus has a LOT of printing locations (computer labs, libraries, certain classrooms, etc.), but I still get the occasional student asking if they can print their paper on the printer in my office.  Nope, sorry.  But I will tell you where to find the nearest campus library.
I do let panicked students use my stapler.

[marshwiggle]

I've been banging my head in despair for a year due to this issue, but for different reasons.  Many of my students simply do NOT own a computer.  Or if someone they live with owns a computer, their smartphone is still often the only internet connected device that is theirs and not shared with a household.  Our "student success" folks are shocked that students are attempting to take classes on their phones ("But they shouldn't!").  It's not that the students are being lazy.  A phone is really all they have.

I noticed this a few years ago regarding printers. There was a time when most students had their own printers, but then that declined so that students showed up the day they were to hand in some (paper) document, asking where they could print on campus. (It was weird that evn though they had apparently never owned a printer, they had never figured out how to get something printed. Did they never once have to hand in something on paper in high school?)

This is the case with a lot more than just higher ed school work.  A substantial part of our work at our library is serving as printers of last resort for patrons who need physical paperwork of some kind (Yes, that's still a thing, even in a pandemic) for work, shipping, etc.

It goes to show that efforts to close the "digital divide" by providing areas with better internet access haven't closed the divide.  In today's world you have to have expensive electronic devices and services to do so many things.  Not everybody can afford them.

Affordability plays a part in some cases, but there's more going on culturally (i.e. smartphones) than that. I also remember, maybe early 2010's, when laptops were getting wider and wider to have bigger displays. Then, within a couple of years, the trend shifted in the opposite direction. Certainly the cost of a *smartphone is as high or higher than a desktop and printer, so it's that instead of a cheaper phone and a computer, people now just have more expensive phones (and change them every 18 months or so.)




*Yes, the price gets rolled into phone plans......

[Mobius]

I allow a few short  "no excuse needed" late passes each course. Helps students when they really are in a jam, but if students run out, then it's on them. You show compassion, while be able to instill time-management lessons.

[Caracal]

I've been banging my head in despair for a year due to this issue, but for different reasons.  Many of my students simply do NOT own a computer.  Or if someone they live with owns a computer, their smartphone is still often the only internet connected device that is theirs and not shared with a household.  Our "student success" folks are shocked that students are attempting to take classes on their phones ("But they shouldn't!").  It's not that the students are being lazy.  A phone is really all they have.

I noticed this a few years ago regarding printers. There was a time when most students had their own printers, but then that declined so that students showed up the day they were to hand in some (paper) document, asking where they could print on campus. (It was weird that evn though they had apparently never owned a printer, they had never figured out how to get something printed. Did they never once have to hand in something on paper in high school?)

I've never owned a printer. Of course, I've always had academic offices to print things in. I'm always vaguely contemplating whether I should buy one.. In theory, it would sometimes make my life easier, but I'm always worried that, in practice, I'd always be running out of paper and ink.