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

[mythbuster]

Just caught a student in my GRAD class who used AI to outsource their annotated bibliography. None of the papers actually exist, and the DOI codes go to random other scientific papers on totally different topics.

I congratulate myself on good Spidey sense when reading the paper titles- couldn't tell if they were research or review papers, so I spot checked.

But the irony- this a student in our combined BS/MS degree who is co-enrolled in our Responsible Conduct of Research Course! D'OH!

[FishProf]

Just caught a student in my GRAD class who used AI to outsource their annotated bibliography. None of the papers actually exist, and the DOI codes go to random other scientific papers on totally different topics.

I congratulate myself on good Spidey sense when reading the paper titles- couldn't tell if they were research or review papers, so I spot checked.

But the irony- this is WAS a student in our combined BS/MS degree who is WAS co-enrolled in our Responsible Conduct of Research Course! D'OH!

FTFY, I hope.

[the_geneticist]

Dang, let's hope you're allowed to kick them out of the program.

[spork]

Yes, we need a name for those times when we see that a student has dropped the course and we feel relieved and kind-of happy.

[...]

I've been trying to generate that happy feeling for the last six weeks and haven't succeeded yet. In a F2F undergraduate course with 19 students, 2 have no chance of passing, 3 are at a D level, and 2 others are currently at a C-. My "You should withdraw" emails have not had any effect.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

An online student emailed me THREE days after the Midterm exam to say that stu missed it because stu didn't know. What the hell do I have to do to get them to READ the syllabus, or even the announcements I post and emails that I send?

[Chemystery]

I had an in-person student miss the first midterm exam because she thought class was at 11:00 am. 
Class starts at 10:00 am.  Prior to the exam, the student had successfully attended class at the correct time for four weeks.

[Parasaurolophus]

Midterm grades were due on Friday 2/28, but our exam was the previous week. Student emailed yesterday (Saturday) asking why he got such a low grade because he's a Dean's List student and this never happened before. I had to tell him that he'd missed 2/3rds of the class days, and the only day he attended in Feb was the day before the exam. He'd missed all but the first quiz and hadn't done any of the homework. How'd he think it was going to go? I also pointed out that he missed every class since the midterm as well. Part of me hopes his parents are reading over his shoulder when he receives the email.

A phenomenon I can't understand, but have seen first-hand, is the student who does great in high school, and then completely blows off college.  Apparently some students have absolutely no self-discipline at all about elementary stuff like attending class, once they're out of the parental home and it's all up to them.  They just crash completely when it's time to start doing the whole adult thing.

Or they were like me and high school was easy, so I never really had to learn how to study, manage my time, etc.

College meant I was surrounded by other students who were just as smart as I was. And some also had study skills! Maybe they weren't that smart so had to learn?

It was the opposite for me. I went to a very, very fancy private boarding school, where students must be occupied at all times. As a day (i.e. non-boarding) student, I started school at 07h30 and finished my compulsory sports and activities at 21h00, at which point I had two to four hours of homework to complete (though in fairness, I usually managed to do a bit in between compulsory activities).

University was a breeze in comparison. So, naturally, I blew some stuff off that first year.

[Parasaurolophus]

An online student emailed me THREE days after the Midterm exam to say that stu missed it because stu didn't know. What the hell do I have to do to get them to READ the syllabus, or even the announcements I post and emails that I send?

Make a blood sacrifice?

[sinenomine]

I had an in-person student miss the first midterm exam because she thought class was at 11:00 am. 
Class starts at 10:00 am.  Prior to the exam, the student had successfully attended class at the correct time for four weeks.

Her personal version of Daylight Saving Time? :)

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

An online student emailed me THREE days after the Midterm exam to say that stu missed it because stu didn't know. What the hell do I have to do to get them to READ the syllabus, or even the announcements I post and emails that I send?

Make a blood sacrifice?

Nah. Too much effort on my part.

[the_geneticist]

Who says it has to be yours?

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Who says it has to be yours?

:D