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

[mamselle]

Ye-ow.

Sending sympathetic vibes your way.

M.

[jimbogumbo]

Foxtrot fun: https://www.gocomics.com/foxtrotclassics/2022/02/22

[Langue_doc]

Stu enrolled in an online course writes in hu's essay:

Online courses can cause students to be less successful in their classes and do
not provide students with an overall college experience.

Stu, remind me again--why are you enrolled in an online course? Stu misses deadlines and seems to think that deadlines are optional because assignments can be sent as email attachments, right? Stu also thinks that discussion board assignments are optional, despite getting low or zero scores for the same. Aargh!!!

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Stu enrolled in an online course writes in hu's essay:

Online courses can cause students to be less successful in their classes and do
not provide students with an overall college experience.

Stu, remind me again--why are you enrolled in an online course? Stu misses deadlines and seems to think that deadlines are optional because assignments can be sent as email attachments, right? Stu also thinks that discussion board assignments are optional, despite getting low or zero scores for the same. Aargh!!!

I feel you on this.

I just got an email from an online student asking if the Midterm exam is open notes (this is not the first one I've received about open notes either). I have in bolded capital letters that the Midterm is closed book and no open notes in the testing rules (provided BEFORE the exam) and on the exam itself. Does anyone read the damn testing rules?

I swear I feel like I'm talking to a wall with this class. When I think of the number of times I have posted announcements and emailed them about labs, etc. and they STILL ask these questions.

[the_geneticist]

And one of my lab TAs just admitted that they "might have" turned off a piece of lab equipment that was essential to the protocol last week.   They want to know how to grade their students (how many points to subtract for no [baskets]).

Better to tell me late than never, we can have students share data across sections, but why on earth do you think it's fair to subtract points when YOU guaranteed they would get no data?

[Anon1787]

Stu makes it abundantly clear that Stu thinks that GE courses are a waste of time and money. Stu: you may prefer sleeping during class but you are still required to buy and read the textbook and take your own notes rather than expect me to provide them. And I pray that your future coworkers in the field of aerospace engineering are able to make sense of your word salads so that airplanes don't fall from the sky.

[FishProf]

I got a classic yesterday: "I don't know why I have to learn this.  I'm never gonna need this".

Was I teaching differential equations?  Archaic Urdu Poetry?  How to rebuild a steam locomotive?

Nope.  Viruses, Immune systems, and vaccines.

Why would ANYONE, much less a college student need to know anything about these topics?

SRSLY.  GenEds are so stupid.

[Aster]

I got a classic yesterday: "I don't know why I have to learn this.  I'm never gonna need this".

Was I teaching differential equations?  Archaic Urdu Poetry?  How to rebuild a steam locomotive?

Nope.  Viruses, Immune systems, and vaccines.

Why would ANYONE, much less a college student need to know anything about these topics?

SRSLY.  GenEds are so stupid.

I usually don't even respond to these messages. They go into my trash bin.
But when I do respond, it's something like... "College is a personal choice, that may or may not be suitable for everyone."

[waterboy]

Or, "You enrolled in this course, therefore you DO have to learn it."

[downer]

That student just seems to be performing dumbness as a method of voicing annoyance at being a student.

But there is a more general issue of when it is useful to explain the relevance of material. Sometimes I teach very abstract stuff and I do work at showing the relevance.

[OneMoreYear]

Warning, math-related head banging:

NO! NO! NO!
A regression analysis does not indicate causation. How many times do I have to say this? Your research design determines if you can make causal inference. Not the statistic you use. I swear I have said this eleventy billion times in the last 7 weeks. Why do you all not understand this at this point in the class?

And those of you who do not know the difference between a one-sample and independent sample t-test? GAH! The test was open-book! Seriously! It's t-testing! This is not that hard people!

I now return you to your non math-related banging.

[marshwiggle]

Warning, math-related head banging:

NO! NO! NO!
A regression analysis does not indicate causation.

What do you mean? It has "independent" and "DEPENDENT" variables right there!!!!

[the_geneticist]

Dear colleague,
You can't accuse students of cheating when you don't bother to write your own exam questions and are shocked, shocked I say, to learn that the questions from the textbook/quizlet/AP study help/etc you used are posted online.  Doesn't mean our students posted them.  Doesn't mean our students looked at them during the exam.  Not my problem to fix for you.  But you could always, you know, write your own d@mn exam questions.

[smallcleanrat]

That student just seems to be performing dumbness as a method of voicing annoyance at being a student.

But there is a more general issue of when it is useful to explain the relevance of material. Sometimes I teach very abstract stuff and I do work at showing the relevance.

Now I'm wondering if there is a way a student can directly ask "why do I need to know this?" as a polite question and not a whining complaint?

Even said in a polite tone and without the overconfident ignorance of statements like "I'll never need this." it seems like the question itself can still come across as rude.

How could a student convey the message "I assume the prof is covering this topic for a good reason, but I don't see what that reason is and I wish someone would explain it to me?"

I think the closest I heard was a student saying "um...not to be rude, but what is the point of memorizing all these details when in the real world we can look things up?" Don't remember the prof's answer but do remember student seemed satisfied with it.

[marshwiggle]

That student just seems to be performing dumbness as a method of voicing annoyance at being a student.

But there is a more general issue of when it is useful to explain the relevance of material. Sometimes I teach very abstract stuff and I do work at showing the relevance.

Now I'm wondering if there is a way a student can directly ask "why do I need to know this?" as a polite question and not a whining complaint?

Even said in a polite tone and without the overconfident ignorance of statements like "I'll never need this." it seems like the question itself can still come across as rude.

How could a student convey the message "I assume the prof is covering this topic for a good reason, but I don't see what that reason is and I wish someone would explain it to me?"

I think the closest I heard was a student saying "um...not to be rude, but what is the point of memorizing all these details when in the real world we can look things up?" Don't remember the prof's answer but do remember student seemed satisfied with it.

If the course is an elective, then I'm not sure the idea even makes sense.  (If a student chooses to take my course, then I'm going to try to provide as much "value for money" as possible. Anything I include is going to be, in principle, relevant to the topic.)

In that case, is there a non-snarky way for the prof to respond "I don't know; why are you taking this course?"