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

[OneMoreYear]

Are other people seeing this?-- I think I'm seeing the consequences of pandemic schooling on this crop of first and second year-- there seems to be about a quarter of them that never learned how to study for an actual, closed-materials in-class exam.

Colleague teaching a grad class ran into this problem this semester unexpectedly. Colleague decided to give a closed-materials, written (paper/pencil) exam, and the students freaked out b/c all of their exams had been online/open everything or they had taken classes with papers/projects/presentations. Ours is an applied grad program, so it it not that unusual for a class not to have a traditional closed-materials exam at the graduate level, but colleague had not expected this level of anxiety/unpreparedness (particularly at the grad level). Colleague (who is exponentially nicer than I am) added a review session in class in which students practiced answering the types of questions that would be on the exam. Everyone settled down and did well.

[Zeus Bird]

Are other people seeing this?-- I think I'm seeing the consequences of pandemic schooling on this crop of first and second year-- there seems to be about a quarter of them that never learned how to study for an actual, closed-materials in-class exam.

They are just bombing the exams in my class, in a way I've never seen before. I even have a study strategies video and resources on the CMS for them, but of course this group of students is not using those, even after their first failed exam.

They seem much more helpless than previous classes-- often leaving answers entirely blank rather than attempting anything, and quite a few didn't even do the extra credit (make up a question you wish I had asked and then answer it-- so everyone should be able to come up with something!).

I do offer the opportunity to take a "second chance exam" during finals to replace one of the earlier grades, so I suspect on this past one some of them decided not to study and just count on taking the second chance exam, but that's a pretty bad plan since now they will have to study for 2/3 rather than 1/3 of the course material along with all their other finals.

In my experience these past two years, at root is an ongoing tug-of-war over the class format.  The course catalog may state that the class is in-person, but many of my students think that I will offer them substitute online assignments with different due dates for any reason whatsoever.  We need to hold the line and make it clear that in-person is in-person and online is online.

[Larimar]

In my experience these past two years, at root is an ongoing tug-of-war over the class format.  The course catalog may state that the class is in-person, but many of my students think that I will offer them substitute online assignments with different due dates for any reason whatsoever.  We need to hold the line and make it clear that in-person is in-person and online is online.

+1 to this.

[fishbrains]

In my experience these past two years, at root is an ongoing tug-of-war over the class format.  The course catalog may state that the class is in-person, but many of my students think that I will offer them substitute online assignments with different due dates for any reason whatsoever.  We need to hold the line and make it clear that in-person is in-person and online is online.

+1 to this.

Yes. Where is the petition to sign?

[RatGuy]

In my experience these past two years, at root is an ongoing tug-of-war over the class format.  The course catalog may state that the class is in-person, but many of my students think that I will offer them substitute online assignments with different due dates for any reason whatsoever.  We need to hold the line and make it clear that in-person is in-person and online is online.

+1 to this.

I find it fascinating the different cultures of student bodies in this discussion. In my case, students are so overwhelmingly "in-person" that many of them would rather take a makeup quiz in my office than an "alternative assignment." Even for students who have been sick. I try to be flexible, especially during the flu/mono months, and my policy is students who miss due to illness can submit alternative assignment if they miss any in-class graded activities (all my quizzes are unannounced). This term I got "can I come to your office when I'm better and take a makeup in person?"

[teach_write_research]

I'm buried under overdue feedback for student projects and student writing and feeling April-levels of fatigue and it's only Fall. I've been teaching a long time and none of my usual tricks are working. Probably because I'm older and tenured now and the urgency is not as motivating as it used to be. Please post survival tips.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I'm buried under overdue feedback for student projects and student writing and feeling April-levels of fatigue and it's only Fall. I've been teaching a long time and none of my usual tricks are working. Probably because I'm older and tenured now and the urgency is not as motivating as it used to be. Please post survival tips.

Caffeine, chocolate and comics.

[the_geneticist]

Simple rubrics for scoring (Excellent, Good, Poor).
Write a list of common feedback and give a decoder list (e.g. C = missing citation) rather than writing long comments.

[mythbuster]

I have a Word document that lists all of my common comments. Then I just cut and paste them onto the documents. I use this together with a rubric I created in the Canvas speed grader. It greatly speeds things up.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I have a Word document that lists all of my common comments. Then I just cut and paste them onto the documents. I use this together with a rubric I created in the Canvas speed grader. It greatly speeds things up.

I do this as well. It helps quite a bit!

[Langue_doc]

I have a Word document that lists all of my common comments. Then I just cut and paste them onto the documents. I use this together with a rubric I created in the Canvas speed grader. It greatly speeds things up.

I do this as well. It helps quite a bit!

I also give them a checklist, one for each of the assignments. The checklist includes content as well as formatting rubrics.

Speedgrader is your friend! I hope your institution uses Canvas.

[apl68]

I'm buried under overdue feedback for student projects and student writing and feeling April-levels of fatigue and it's only Fall. I've been teaching a long time and none of my usual tricks are working. Probably because I'm older and tenured now and the urgency is not as motivating as it used to be. Please post survival tips.

Caffeine, chocolate and comics.

Manga or western?  Just curious.

[the_geneticist]

There is also the if needed by sheer desperation "grade until it matters".
Stop when either the student has earned their A and more points don't matter OR there is no way the student can score higher than the C or B no matter how many more points they earn.  Put in a letter grade instead of a point score.  If it's mathematically impossible for a student to earn a passing grade, don't score at all.
This assumes no one gets their assignments back.

[mythbuster]

The last assignment of the semester never gets feedback from me. If they want feedback, they can make an appointment after finals are over. I think I've had ONE student ever make and actually show for that appointment.

[Istiblennius]

I finally reached critical mass on the number of students emailing me to tell me they are missing class today that I felt compelled to cancel. I just couldn't run the activity I had planned with less than half of them gone. Which is too bad because it was supposed to be fun. But we'll do it when they come back next week and they'll just have less project work time. Which they probably weren't going to use much anyway.