Favorite student emails

[Katrina Gulliver]

I received this yesterday:

It's so p p the app  imagine mynah

Get Outlook for iOSllm


Look mmm bff

---
I replied: "OK"

[apl68]

I received this yesterday:

It's so p p the app  imagine mynah

Get Outlook for iOSllm


Look mmm bff

---
I replied: "OK"

Are you sure that wasn't a Windows error message?

[FishProf]

"Hi Fishprof,
I wanted to let you know I had to drop out of your class. I can't keep up with the amount of work, with my daughter's school and sharing one computer.  I think this is an unreasonable amount of work in such a short time.

Thanks for your time,"

Thanks for your useless feedback.  Taking a course in the summer is faster (6 weeks vs. 16, go figure).

[dr_codex]

"Hi Fishprof,
I wanted to let you know I had to drop out of your class. I can't keep up with the amount of work, with my daughter's school and sharing one computer.  I think this is an unreasonable amount of work in such a short time.

Thanks for your time,"

Thanks for your useless feedback.  Taking a course in the summer is faster (6 weeks vs. 16, go figure).

Hey, that Stu is also taking my spouse's course! Or, maybe the daughter is.

Our compression is even worse -- 15 into 5. Which is really less, since it's only 4 weekends.

[onehappyunicorn]

"Hi Fishprof,
I wanted to let you know I had to drop out of your class. I can't keep up with the amount of work, with my daughter's school and sharing one computer.  I think this is an unreasonable amount of work in such a short time.

Thanks for your time,"

Thanks for your useless feedback.  Taking a course in the summer is faster (6 weeks vs. 16, go figure).

Hey, that Stu is also taking my spouse's course! Or, maybe the daughter is.

Our compression is even worse -- 15 into 5. Which is really less, since it's only 4 weekends.

Our is 8 vs. 16 so it's not as bad. I had one student this summer send this one about one of our part-time faculty after she dropped the course:

"I was so unhappy with the changing workload, added assignments, and aggressive communication from my instructor that I felt I had no choice but to withdraw from this course.
I didn't mention it to (the advisor) before, but he emailed me on a Sunday night about work that was not due until July 15th. Again on Memorial Day. Then he suddenly added more assignments due within days, and the museum requirement.
I will have to try this course again, but not with him. Now I understand why there were so many openings for his classes, but waiting lists for other instructors."

Students in online classes receive notifications when assignments become available, the assignments are on release schedule. I can only assume this students hasn't taken an online course before. I do have to admit this is the first time in 7 years here that I have had a student complain about an instructor communicating too much.

[the_geneticist]

We offer several short-session classes.  Students in the non-majors "basketweaving + lab" are sometimes upset/surprised that they are expected to do just as much work as the 10 week class in just 5 weeks.  Yes, labs do meet twice a week.  No, that does not mean you only need to go to one of them.  I think some of them are hoping that they have found a magic way to get the same credits for 1/2 the work.  Nope, that's not how this works.

[Biologist_]

I received this yesterday:

It's so p p the app  imagine mynah

Get Outlook for iOSllm


Look mmm bff

---
I replied: "OK"

I sometimes take my phone out of my pocket and find that it has opened the messenger app and entered some text or opened some app that I haven't used in weeks. It is always a bit disconcerting. Sometimes it seems to open apps when it is just sitting on a desk and I'm in the other room.

My guess is that the student's phone went one step further and hit send.

[Caracal]

I get an email from a student who is confused about what is going on with the class,  he'd like me to give him a "quick rundown" of what is going on. It is an online class. All the communication with students outside of individual emails has been through the CMS. There's no separate place I've been secretly explaining how the class works..

[RatGuy]

Hey, I don't know if its just me or what, but your lecture videos go online a day later than they're supposed to. I can't watch the lectures before I do the assignments and now I don't know how to do the midterm.

So no other student has had problems accessing the video. I upload a week's worth of material -- lectures, assignments, links to submit assignments -- on the Sunday before. I just have the CMS make visible the material on a schedule. He should see the lecture and the assignment at the same time. I ask our faculty learning folks why he'd see a document and not the video, or that the video would be visible 24 hours later. Their response:

Not only is there no reason why he'd be unable to see the videos, but logs show he's been accessing the videos on the day they were made available.

[marshwiggle]

Hey, I don't know if its just me or what, but your lecture videos go online a day later than they're supposed to. I can't watch the lectures before I do the assignments and now I don't know how to do the midterm.

Fixed that.

[FishProf]

"Hi Fishprof,
I am really stuck with the [Classifying Baskets] lab. I don't know what to do next.
Thank you,
Committed but struggling"

I don't know what you should do next either.  Perhaps you should tell me where you are stuck.

[onthefringe]

"Hi Fishprof,
I am really stuck with the [Classifying Baskets] lab. I don't know what to do next.
Thank you,
Committed but struggling"

I don't know what you should do next either.  Perhaps you should tell me where you are stuck.

In person version of this from the first time I ran labs as a TA — I finally announced that from that point forward anyone who asked me a question like "should I add X to my tube now" without telling me what step they were on would get the answer "yes".

[the_geneticist]

I've had a handful of emails like this one:

Hello,

I hope all is well with you.

I am in [TAs] lab section that is at 11am on wednesdays. I emailed him first and he told me it would be best to explain my situation to you.

I just checked my grade for the lab section and noticed that it was very low. I didn't realize that we had to do quizzes every week along with the worksheets, so I have zeros for all of them.

I understand that this is my fault because I didn't check my grades, and forgot about the quizzes after the first week. I had a hard time keeping track of everything because this quarter was very overwhelming for me as I had some family members get sick with the coronavirus.

I was very active in discussion and would have completed these assignments if I was aware of them but I don't think you mentioned them because we only went over the worksheets (which I completed every week) I'm not trying to excuse my mistake but I was wondering if you could tell me how much this will affect my overall grade. I currently have a 59% in discussion because of this and a 82% in lecture.

Thank you for your time,

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I've had a handful of emails like this one:

Hello,

I hope all is well with you.

I am in [TAs] lab section that is at 11am on wednesdays. I emailed him first and he told me it would be best to explain my situation to you.

I just checked my grade for the lab section and noticed that it was very low. I didn't realize that we had to do quizzes every week along with the worksheets, so I have zeros for all of them.

I understand that this is my fault because I didn't check my grades, and forgot about the quizzes after the first week. I had a hard time keeping track of everything because this quarter was very overwhelming for me as I had some family members get sick with the coronavirus.

I was very active in discussion and would have completed these assignments if I was aware of them but I don't think you mentioned them because we only went over the worksheets (which I completed every week) I'm not trying to excuse my mistake but I was wondering if you could tell me how much this will affect my overall grade. I currently have a 59% in discussion because of this and a 82% in lecture.

Thank you for your time,

Was it in the syllabus and did you have a syllabus quiz? I'm betting that the answer is yes to both.

[Caracal]

I've had a handful of emails like this one:

Hello,

I hope all is well with you.

I am in [TAs] lab section that is at 11am on wednesdays. I emailed him first and he told me it would be best to explain my situation to you.

I just checked my grade for the lab section and noticed that it was very low. I didn't realize that we had to do quizzes every week along with the worksheets, so I have zeros for all of them.

I understand that this is my fault because I didn't check my grades, and forgot about the quizzes after the first week. I had a hard time keeping track of everything because this quarter was very overwhelming for me as I had some family members get sick with the coronavirus.

I was very active in discussion and would have completed these assignments if I was aware of them but I don't think you mentioned them because we only went over the worksheets (which I completed every week) I'm not trying to excuse my mistake but I was wondering if you could tell me how much this will affect my overall grade. I currently have a 59% in discussion because of this and a 82% in lecture.

Thank you for your time,

Was it in the syllabus and did you have a syllabus quiz? I'm betting that the answer is yes to both.

Is this going to cause him to fail? Does your school have a pass/fail option this semester? I mean, he screwed up and it can't be fixed retroactively, but losing focus during a global pandemic in which all of your classes got moved to a different format than the one you signed up for is pretty understandable. I wouldn't really want to send this student a lecturey email about the syllabus.