Favorite student emails

[the_geneticist]

Many of my students have maxed out their student loans and other financial assistance.
Some are the ONLY source of income for their household (e.g. parents are unemployed and not eligible for unemployment).
I have students that have to decide whether they get to eat that day or put enough gas in the car to not risk running out.

I'd give them an alternate exam time.  At least they asked in advance.

That would open up a can of worms since work schedule would be a common reason cited for special accommodation if it were to become general course policy (which it should be as a matter of fairness to all students). If work is their overriding priority it is probably best to withdraw from the course.

Or set up the exam to be available for X hours during a 24 hour time.  That way everyone can choose when to take it during that time block.
Or if it's a final exam, offer to give them an Incomplete.

[Anon1787]

Cheating renders even a 24 hour time window impractical (there is no easy way of creating a large test bank of comparable questions). In my experience, the vast majority of students here do not finish an Incomplete (or do poorly because they forget most of the material by the time they get around to it), so it is usually better to withdraw, get a partial refund, and re-take the course.

[Hegemony]

I'm not sure what "there is no easy way of creating a large test bank of comparable questions" means. That's what I've done for all my classes. You also vary the order of the answers, and you don't have to make every single test completely different from every other.  For instance, if the test has 20 questions, you can make up ~70 questions, or even 50, and add some more every year. Then set a timer for answering each question (I allow 90 seconds for a multiple-choice question). And don't let them see the correct answers until the test window has closed for everyone. The grades my students get suggest they are not finding it possible to cheat.

[the_geneticist]

Cheating renders even a 24 hour time window impractical (there is no easy way of creating a large test bank of comparable questions). In my experience, the vast majority of students here do not finish an Incomplete (or do poorly because they forget most of the material by the time they get around to it), so it is usually better to withdraw, get a partial refund, and re-take the course.

You would rather a student lose money, retake a class, and get behind on their path to graduate than write a better exam?
I hope your student complains to your department chair.

[Puget]

Got this one late on Friday:

Hello!

I'm in lab section [123] for [Basketweaving 101] and I was just wondering if there was any way to gain points back from the lab by fixing the things I lost points on?

Thank you,
Hopeful Student

Who wants to guess their current grade?

Ha, I don't need to guess, I have enough "background research" to make a prediction.

F. Big Fat F.

Actually they have an A.  As in, they have missed 1.5 of the possible 100+ points

Wow. I haven't had this particular scenario occur since at least 2016. I don't feel bad that my prediction has been demolished.

I get this sort of thing quite frequently. I get to have lots of conversations about perfectionism with students who think a B+, or even A- is the end of the world as we know it. Actually a bit less of that recently, now that they have some perspective on actual world-altering events.

[Anon1787]

You would rather a student lose money, retake a class, and get behind on their path to graduate than write a better exam?
I hope your student complains to your department chair.

I would rather students makes themselves available to complete their exams and other coursework as scheduled rather than expect instructors to craft individualized coursework to maximize convenience, which is not my department's policy (and I don't expect it to change except perhaps for an online version of the intro class that they may decide to offer regularly). More specifically, if a student takes a job whose work hours regularly conflict with a class that is not asynchronous it is my belief that it is the student who needs to make the necessary adjustment.

[the_geneticist]

You would rather a student lose money, retake a class, and get behind on their path to graduate than write a better exam?
I hope your student complains to your department chair.

I would rather students makes themselves available to complete their exams and other coursework as scheduled rather than expect instructors to craft individualized coursework to maximize convenience, which is not my department's policy (and I don't expect it to change except perhaps for an online version of the intro class that they may decide to offer regularly). More specifically, if a student takes a job whose work hours regularly conflict with a class that is not asynchronous it is my belief that it is the student who needs to make the necessary adjustment.

What would you do if the a didn't show up to the exam (regardless of the reason)?  I assume you have a plan - weight their other exam higher? offer a retake? etc.

I'd hardly call a one-time request for an exam reschedule a "regular conflict".

You can only teach the students you have, not the students you wish you had.

[Aster]

Stu Dent: "Professor, I noticed that there's a Study Guide posted to the LMS, but it says that it's for a different course. Should I use that to study for the exam?"

Me: "Thank you for notifying me about this. I have identified the error and corrected it. You should no longer be able to access the study guide for a different course."

Stu Dent: "So can I still use that study guide from another course to study for our exam? I've been using it for days."

Me: "I am not sure how you can be completing the study guide from another course, as nothing on that study guide is taught in your course nor available to reference from course materials or the textbook."

This covid semester will be a landmark moment for most bizarre and nonsensical student behaviors...

[Charlotte]

Stu Dent: "Professor, I noticed that there's a Study Guide posted to the LMS, but it says that it's for a different course. Should I use that to study for the exam?"

Me: "Thank you for notifying me about this. I have identified the error and corrected it. You should no longer be able to access the study guide for a different course."

Stu Dent: "So can I still use that study guide from another course to study for our exam? I've been using it for days."

Me: "I am not sure how you can be completing the study guide from another course, as nothing on that study guide is taught in your course nor available to reference from course materials or the textbook."

This covid semester will be a landmark moment for most bizarre and nonsensical student behaviors...

I am new to teaching but in my limited experience I have noticed that some students seem to view class material as being small pieces of information that they do not need to think about or connect to other material. I'm not sure they even notice if something is unrelated to the class because they are on autopilot, memorizing individual pieces of information, and not trying to see how it relates or if it relates to the overall picture.

I just had an email from a student asking about an assignment in which they are suppose to compare and contrast two readings from class. They wanted to know if they could use the same reading for this assignment. Instead of using two readings, only use one reading. I'm not quite sure what the thought process behind this request might have been.

[downer]

I just had an email from a student asking about an assignment in which they are suppose to compare and contrast two readings from class. They wanted to know if they could use the same reading for this assignment. Instead of using two readings, only use one reading. I'm not quite sure what the thought process behind this request might have been.

That's where I would be tempted to give my favorite one word reply email: No.

But if you are new to teaching, you may have more invested in treating it as a teachable moment.

[mamselle]

I just had an email from a student asking about an assignment in which they are suppose to compare and contrast two readings from class. They wanted to know if they could use the same reading for this assignment. Instead of using two readings, only use one reading. I'm not quite sure what the thought process behind this request might have been.

That's where I would be tempted to give my favorite one word reply email: No.

But if you are new to teaching, you may have more invested in treating it as a teachable moment.

Yeah, something that conveys the basic fact that the words "compare" and "contrast" require at least two objects to be compared and contrasted, you can't perform those functions with just one object.

Minus the snark, of course...

M.

[apl68]

I just had an email from a student asking about an assignment in which they are suppose to compare and contrast two readings from class. They wanted to know if they could use the same reading for this assignment. Instead of using two readings, only use one reading. I'm not quite sure what the thought process behind this request might have been.

That's where I would be tempted to give my favorite one word reply email: No.

But if you are new to teaching, you may have more invested in treating it as a teachable moment.

If students are having that much trouble doing any sort of joined-up thinking, it sounds like they need a lot of those teachable moments.

[histchick]

Got this one late on Friday:

Hello!

I'm in lab section [123] for [Basketweaving 101] and I was just wondering if there was any way to gain points back from the lab by fixing the things I lost points on?

Thank you,
Hopeful Student

Who wants to guess their current grade?

Ha, I don't need to guess, I have enough "background research" to make a prediction.

F. Big Fat F.

Actually they have an A.  As in, they have missed 1.5 of the possible 100+ points

Wow. I haven't had this particular scenario occur since at least 2016. I don't feel bad that my prediction has been demolished.

I get this sort of thing quite frequently. I get to have lots of conversations about perfectionism with students who think a B+, or even A- is the end of the world as we know it. Actually a bit less of that recently, now that they have some perspective on actual world-altering events.

I get this all the time from students who are aiming for the nursing program.  The problem, as I always remind them, is that they have failed to read the syllabus which explains that there are no makeups. 

[downer]

I just had an email from a student asking about an assignment in which they are suppose to compare and contrast two readings from class. They wanted to know if they could use the same reading for this assignment. Instead of using two readings, only use one reading. I'm not quite sure what the thought process behind this request might have been.

That's where I would be tempted to give my favorite one word reply email: No.

But if you are new to teaching, you may have more invested in treating it as a teachable moment.

If students are having that much trouble doing any sort of joined-up thinking, it sounds like they need a lot of those teachable moments.

Maybe.

Actually I am getting to the point where I refuse to answer questions about the course or about assignments by email.

I have open discussions on the LMS where students can post questions about the course and questions about assignments. I tell students to put their questions there.

This may have the effect of reducing the number of dumb questions, because students don't want to appear dumb in front of their peers.

It also means that I have more motivation to provide helpful answers to questions, since the whole class has the capacity to learn from the exchange.

[Aster]

In my experience, the few "A"- level performers in my courses have memorized the syllabus. They know exactly what the grading policies are, down to the decimal points. But they may ask for flexibility anyway. I get so very few "A" level students nowadays at my current open-enrollment institution that I'm starting to forget that I hardly ever see those communications anymore, but it used to be much more common when I worked at the R2 and R1 level.

I purchased a "It's on the Syllabus" t-shirt today. It's supposed to arrive on Sunday.