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

[the_geneticist]

I officially dislike the policy that students can register themselves for classes until the end of the 2nd week of classes* without instructor consent.  We are on 10 week quarters!
It's one thing if the student has been attending class, but just had a financial aid complication or other issue to resolve.  It's quite another if the student has NEVER attended and wants to be caught up/excused from 2 weeks of material.  I tell those students that they are not excused from the work and they should take the class another time.  I've been nicer in the past, but these students always fail. 

*The same policy is enforced in Summer when the class is compressed into 5 weeks.  I wish I was joking.

[kiana]

*The same policy is enforced in Summer when the class is compressed into 5 weeks.  I wish I was joking.

Tell me your college cares only about the tuition checks and not about the actual success without telling me ...

[AmLitHist]

I feel like I'm talking to a wall with this class.

Same here, with every class.  All my sections were doing OK until midterm (with, of course, the usual number of no-shows, no work turned in, and such students).  I swear, though:  we came back from spring break, and it's like 95% of them have never ever heard of ANY of the stuff we did earlier.  You know, the foundational stuff they need to know to finish out the semester strong.

RE;  the Canvas certification, our OE requires everyone to take training and pass two tests, one in best practices in OE, and the other in the LMS. 

I completely agree with the Not. My. Job. comment, not because I don't want to help (and have consistently refused to participate in those college-wide volunteer groups--I got my fill of that crap years ago), but because we have IT people running out our ears around here.  Not a month goes by that the BoT agenda doesn't have at least 2 or 3 new hires, from the most basic level up through Executive Grand Poobah of something we've never heard of.  The lowest of the low make about $10K more than I do, and so on upward through the $150K-range.  So let those guys do the training of faculty.

I envision a huge cluster--- come fall, because the new Canvas rollout hasn't been announced to students yet.  And it takes even returning students here a couple of weeks to get their footing in Blackboard, which we've used for 20+ years.  So something new?  God help us (and the so-called digital natives). I can easily imagine students a month into the semester saying, "I don't know how to use Canvas"!

[FishProf]

I officially dislike the policy that students can register themselves for classes until the end of the 2nd week of classes* without instructor consent.  We are on 10 week quarters!
It's one thing if the student has been attending class, but just had a financial aid complication or other issue to resolve.  It's quite another if the student has NEVER attended and wants to be caught up/excused from 2 weeks of material. 

I had a student who DEMANDED he be allowed into my online class after the add deadline.  It was granted by the administration.  He hasn't even done the syllabus quiz.

[the_geneticist]

I officially dislike the policy that students can register themselves for classes until the end of the 2nd week of classes* without instructor consent.  We are on 10 week quarters!
It's one thing if the student has been attending class, but just had a financial aid complication or other issue to resolve.  It's quite another if the student has NEVER attended and wants to be caught up/excused from 2 weeks of material. 

I had a student who DEMANDED he be allowed into my online class after the add deadline.  It was granted by the administration.  He hasn't even done the syllabus quiz.

I think some admin-critters need to be told that online =/= self-paced or no deadlines
Maybe if we forced them to take some of those online training programs.  Earn a certificate in [online basket teaching]!  Come to the synchronous meetings or watch the recordings!  But the deadlines are pretty gosh darned firm.

[lightning]

Filepaths, *sob* filepaths!

I was sort of thinking the same thing, but for me, it's filepaths you S.O.B.!

[Anon1787]

Stu emails me at 2:30am and starts the email with a 'Good morning.' Well, technically, yes... it's morning. Of course, I was asleep at the time.

Apparently, stu is having difficulty understanding the lab that was due two days ago. Despite, the video (where I explained how to calculate certain things), a video SHOWING me calculating these values on a CALCULATOR, a pdf showing step-by-step instructions of the calculations and detailed instructions in the lab, the student asked "I was wondering if you could go into more detail on the calculation?"

I don't know how to respond to this question.

Fortunately for me, my response would be: Dear Stu, I would be happy to meet with you during office hours to go over the key concepts of this activity. However, we do not accept late work in this class.  Signed: Prof I-am-relentless-about-deadlines

One of my students sent me a message @ 7am asking for an extension on a major assignment that was due at 12pm. Keep in mind that students had 5 weeks to complete the assignment and were reminded not to wait until the last minute to start.

Reason given for seeking an extension: Stu was too busy with other classes to start the assignment until one week before the due date (during spring break). Stu spent much of break celebrating Stu's 21st birthday and competing in a college athletic event and claims to have suffered an injury (unclear if the injury resulted from falling down drunk or the athletic competition though I'd guess the former), which prevented Stu from finishing the assignment on time.

[the_geneticist]

Wow.  "play stupid games, win stupid prizes"

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

*The same policy is enforced in Summer when the class is compressed into 5 weeks.  I wish I was joking.

Tell me your college cares only about the tuition checks and not about the actual success without telling me ...

Yep. Wow.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Wow.  "play stupid games, win stupid prizes"

I agree. I really wonder what some of them are thinking.

[marshwiggle]

Wow.  "play stupid games, win stupid prizes"

I agree. I really wonder what whether some of them are thinking.

Correction.

[the_geneticist]

Wow.  "play stupid games, win stupid prizes"

I agree. I really wonder what whether some of them are thinking.

Correction.

I have a student who is going to miss 2 weeks of class to go to an optional fun activity [sports training camp].  I warned them that since it's not a university-affiliated activity that their instructors have 0 obligation to allow them to make-up any missed work.  I told them it's not a good use of their time to miss that much in all of their classes (2 labs, 1 exam, 2 quizzes, etc. and that's just the ones I know about).  They are going anyway.
Congratulations student, you are going to have a hard time earning a passing grade in any of your classes.  And you'll have an exam the day you get back.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Wow.  "play stupid games, win stupid prizes"

I agree. I really wonder what whether some of them are thinking.

Correction.

Good point. I just got an email from a student who is questioning stu's Midterm course grade. Um, that was about a month ago- why are you emailing me now???

[Zeus Bird]

 I think some admin-critters need to be told that online =/= self-paced or no deadlines
[/quote]

Here admin-critters preach the gospel of "flexibility."  They mean "flexibility" for admin-critters and for students.  Flexibility for faculty in how to deal with the torrent of students trying to take in-person classes entirely online and trying to substitute unproctored assignments for in-class work?  Not so much.

[Larimar]

In one three-page paper, thirteen run-on sentences and fragments. This is two weeks after an extensive grammar lesson, a low-stakes practice worksheet, and having the PowerPoint I used uploaded on the LMS.

I believe Gandalf's most famous line from The Lord of the Rings applies here.

How do students like this graduate from high school?


Larimar