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

[kaysixteen]

And, what happens to the prof who refuses to insert these bureaucrats' musings into their syllabi?

[Chemystery]

Today was the third day of classes.  We are still getting emails from various offices with statements they want us to put in the syllabus.

I would like to thank all the admins for helping students understand where the school stands on deadlines.

Aren't you required to hand out/post online the syllabus on or before the first day of class?

Yup.  In answer to Kay's question about consequences: Probably very dire warnings.  If anyone ever notices.

[dismalist]

When I was still working, I'd get e-mails from admin to put such and such on my syllabi. I'd ignore them. Having studied the Fora since, I'd suggest putting links to all the garbage on the syllabi, you know, a section on administrative links, or some such. Then, the students could ignore it without effort. Might even get a 404 occasionally.

[FishProf]

So, after discussions here, and with my work colleagues, I made a change to my online course. 
Previously, everything was up on day 1, and due at the end of the semester.  Without fail, I'd have students not take the syllabus quiz until well after the drop deadline (when I would have to open it up for them), and try to do all the work in the last week. 
So I made the change to have things due each week.  So, at the end of week 1, the numbers look like this.
22 students enrolled (4 have already dropped).  14 have attempted the syllabus quiz, but only 10 have met the required 100%.
2 students have completed the 5 assignments that are due today.  3 others have done some of them.
Monday morning will be interesting when a bunch of students get a bunch of Zeros automatically applied.

And yes, I have given them enough time, and DAILY reminders.  As well as Blackboard raising alerts for due items.

These numbers pretty much track what happens every semester.  So far, the due dates do not seem to be having an effect.

[mythbuster]

So I a have student who was added into my course at the end of week 3! Apparently our financial aid office is putting holds on people left and right with the FAFSA debacle and then taking their sweet time resolving the issues.

It's a lecture and lab combined course. The student won't be allowed into the lab until they complete a one on one session with the lab instructor since they missed the week of training in aseptic technique.
  For the lecture, I determined that you can set up Canvas modules with access limited to just the students you select. So I set that up and dumped in the recorded lectures from COVID times of the topics she missed. Because I'm so student success oriented. LOL. It's more like providing the proverbial rope.
The first midterm is in a week, and there is a hands on lab exam a week after that. We will see if this student can sink or swim.

[fishbrains]

It's more like providing the proverbial rope.

It would be interesting if our colleges tracked the success rates of late-adds to find the point where the students have a decent chance to succeed versus the point where we are simply committing fraud against them by taking their money.

[the_geneticist]

So, after discussions here, and with my work colleagues, I made a change to my online course. 
Previously, everything was up on day 1, and due at the end of the semester.  Without fail, I'd have students not take the syllabus quiz until well after the drop deadline (when I would have to open it up for them), and try to do all the work in the last week. 
So I made the change to have things due each week.  So, at the end of week 1, the numbers look like this.
22 students enrolled (4 have already dropped).  14 have attempted the syllabus quiz, but only 10 have met the required 100%.
2 students have completed the 5 assignments that are due today.  3 others have done some of them.
Monday morning will be interesting when a bunch of students get a bunch of Zeros automatically applied.

And yes, I have given them enough time, and DAILY reminders.  As well as Blackboard raising alerts for due items.

These numbers pretty much track what happens every semester.  So far, the due dates do not seem to be having an effect.

It's a good way to scaffold, will help students that need this sort of structural guidance, and a good CYA for any student that claims they "had no idea" they were missing anything.

[Puget]

So, after discussions here, and with my work colleagues, I made a change to my online course. 
Previously, everything was up on day 1, and due at the end of the semester.  Without fail, I'd have students not take the syllabus quiz until well after the drop deadline (when I would have to open it up for them), and try to do all the work in the last week. 
So I made the change to have things due each week.  So, at the end of week 1, the numbers look like this.
22 students enrolled (4 have already dropped).  14 have attempted the syllabus quiz, but only 10 have met the required 100%.
2 students have completed the 5 assignments that are due today.  3 others have done some of them.
Monday morning will be interesting when a bunch of students get a bunch of Zeros automatically applied.

And yes, I have given them enough time, and DAILY reminders.  As well as Blackboard raising alerts for due items.

These numbers pretty much track what happens every semester.  So far, the due dates do not seem to be having an effect.

It's a good way to scaffold, will help students that need this sort of structural guidance, and a good CYA for any student that claims they "had no idea" they were missing anything.

Give it a little time -- I have strict weekly deadlines and students either quickly get with the program by week 2-3 or drop the course, either of which is a good outcome so far as I'm concerned. Much better than them *thinking* they can still pass until it is too late to drop.

[kaysixteen]

This brings up an interesting point-- what exactly is being done wrt schools' trying to deal with/ ameliorate/ fix/ etc., students' difficulties associated with the royal FAFSA clusterf*ck-- penalizing a kid by not letting him into a class until three weeks into the semester does not sound like a good answer.

[sinenomine]

I gave my writing class a low-stakes homework assignment to get them engaged in the course topic; they get full credit for turning it in, regardless of how well they do, since it's meant to kick off a discussion from a common starting point. One student who didn't turn it in commented after I inputted the zero that he "couldn't come up with anything." Not a promising start to the semester...

[MarathonRunner]

When I was still working, I'd get e-mails from admin to put such and such on my syllabi. I'd ignore them. Having studied the Fora since, I'd suggest putting links to all the garbage on the syllabi, you know, a section on administrative links, or some such. Then, the students could ignore it without effort. Might even get a 404 occasionally.

Our chair told us we had to have all the extra information on our syllabi, in addition to links, as students had started bringing lawyers with them to grade disputes, academic integrity hearings, etc. That's all at the end of my syllabi. The stuff most students care about (assessments, weekly schedule, required materials) are up front. Everything else is there only because it has to be, but I'm sure most students ignore it. But it covers our butts in some circumstances and may occasionally help a first gen student who doesn't know what resources are available, etc.

[sinenomine]

When I was still working, I'd get e-mails from admin to put such and such on my syllabi. I'd ignore them. Having studied the Fora since, I'd suggest putting links to all the garbage on the syllabi, you know, a section on administrative links, or some such. Then, the students could ignore it without effort. Might even get a 404 occasionally.

Our chair told us we had to have all the extra information on our syllabi, in addition to links, as students had started bringing lawyers with them to grade disputes, academic integrity hearings, etc. That's all at the end of my syllabi. The stuff most students care about (assessments, weekly schedule, required materials) are up front. Everything else is there only because it has to be, but I'm sure most students ignore it. But it covers our butts in some circumstances and may occasionally help a first gen student who doesn't know what resources are available, etc.

I proposed that boilerplate legalities that the powers that be say need to be on all syllabi be embedded in the LMS for all courses automatically. Now we no longer have to check that everyone's included them all, and all that verbiage no longer clutters up syllabi.

[the_geneticist]

When I was still working, I'd get e-mails from admin to put such and such on my syllabi. I'd ignore them. Having studied the Fora since, I'd suggest putting links to all the garbage on the syllabi, you know, a section on administrative links, or some such. Then, the students could ignore it without effort. Might even get a 404 occasionally.

Our chair told us we had to have all the extra information on our syllabi, in addition to links, as students had started bringing lawyers with them to grade disputes, academic integrity hearings, etc. That's all at the end of my syllabi. The stuff most students care about (assessments, weekly schedule, required materials) are up front. Everything else is there only because it has to be, but I'm sure most students ignore it. But it covers our butts in some circumstances and may occasionally help a first gen student who doesn't know what resources are available, etc.

I proposed that boilerplate legalities that the powers that be say need to be on all syllabi be embedded in the LMS for all courses automatically. Now we no longer have to check that everyone's included them all, and all that verbiage no longer clutters up syllabi.

Now that is brilliant!  It's the same boilerplate for all the classes anyway & not having to check if it's there is a win-win!

[Hegemony]

Stu claims that he made a "mistake" and turned in an essay written by AI. (He only offered this after I pointed out that his very poor essay was clearly written by AI.) He implies that he was just going to use AI for ideas (still not allowed), and then write his own essay from scratch (hahahaha, as if!). "We all make mistakes," Stu points out casually. He offers to write another essay and turn it in (thereby giving me the extra work of reading it) after the summer semester ends (thereby giving me the hassle of giving him an Incomplete).

Maybe my mistake is failing him for violating the clearly stated policies of my course. Oh well, it's a mistake I'm willing to make.

[FishProf]

Assignments update:  I have had about 1/3 of my classes drop as they started racking up zeros (that is a win).  I've also had most of those seats taken by late adds, so that's a new problem.  What do I do with those?

Some added, then did nothing.  Others added, then emailed me immediately, so they are on the ball (not counting adding late).  Seems like different solutions are warranted.