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

[Caracal]

Student writes me last week right before class asking when the final exam is. In class that day I pull up the exam lookup sheet from the registrar's page and we all look at when our final exam is. I don't respond to student since I figure the question has been answered. Student writes again asking same question before class on Monday. I'm busy and grumpy about this and don't write back right away. In Monday's class another student asks about the final and I pull the thing up again and show them when it is. Yesterday same student writes me with the subject line "no response?" and complains that the final time is not on the syllabus and I haven't written her back. I went back and looked at the attendance. Student hasn't been in class for the last two weeks. Really?

[FishProf]

I'm grading essay questions.  The students had the question on Wednesday for a Friday exam.  An open-note exam.

And yet, they write nonsensical sentences, often misspelling words that are in the question itself.

How is this even possible?

[fishbrains]

Student writes me last week right before class asking when the final exam is. In class that day I pull up the exam lookup sheet from the registrar's page and we all look at when our final exam is. I don't respond to student since I figure the question has been answered. Student writes again asking same question before class on Monday. I'm busy and grumpy about this and don't write back right away. In Monday's class another student asks about the final and I pull the thing up again and show them when it is. Yesterday same student writes me with the subject line "no response?" and complains that the final time is not on the syllabus and I haven't written her back. I went back and looked at the attendance. Student hasn't been in class for the last two weeks. Really?

Last semester, our student advising adminicritter sent an email to all students suggesting they email their instructors to learn their final times. All the students. That was fun. Note: We aren't allowed to change our final exam days or times. When we asked her why she didn't simply attach the final exam schedule to her email, she just sat there blinking.

To her credit, she's good at what she does; but that email won't go on her highlight reel.   

[Hegemony]

"And yet, they write nonsensical sentences, often misspelling words that are in the question itself. How is this even possible?"

I wondered this until I had a child with some ADHD and some dyslexia.  He is now 18.  He spells his own name wrong a good deal of the time.  He can also quote reams of Shakespeare and tell you a good amount of subtle details of ancient history.  Yet his spelling remains completely wonky.  So as to how it's possible, I'd say that some people's brains are constructed differently from ours.

[Thursday's_Child]

Student writes me last week right before class asking when the final exam is. In class that day I pull up the exam lookup sheet from the registrar's page and we all look at when our final exam is. I don't respond to student since I figure the question has been answered. Student writes again asking same question before class on Monday. I'm busy and grumpy about this and don't write back right away. In Monday's class another student asks about the final and I pull the thing up again and show them when it is. Yesterday same student writes me with the subject line "no response?" and complains that the final time is not on the syllabus and I haven't written her back. I went back and looked at the attendance. Student hasn't been in class for the last two weeks. Really?

Next semester put a line on your syllabus to the effect that all students must have/find/make at least one pal in class with whom they have shared basic contact information, such that when they have to miss class they can get notes & find out other important information.  Then, if and only if they don't understand it, they are allowed (and expected) to ask you questions for clarification.

[FishProf]

"And yet, they write nonsensical sentences, often misspelling words that are in the question itself. How is this even possible?"

I wondered this until I had a child with some ADHD and some dyslexia.  He is now 18.  He spells his own name wrong a good deal of the time.  He can also quote reams of Shakespeare and tell you a good amount of subtle details of ancient history.  Yet his spelling remains completely wonky.  So as to how it's possible, I'd say that some people's brains are constructed differently from ours.

A reasonable hypothesis, and likely true in some cases.  In these cases however, it is ONLY the technical term in the question that gets butchered.  In some cases, it is clear that a few students studied together because they butchered the same word in the same way.

Today I learned that the hormone that affects masculinization/feminization in the embryo:  Testostrogen.

[polly_mer]

Student writes me last week right before class asking when the final exam is. In class that day I pull up the exam lookup sheet from the registrar's page and we all look at when our final exam is. I don't respond to student since I figure the question has been answered. Student writes again asking same question before class on Monday. I'm busy and grumpy about this and don't write back right away. In Monday's class another student asks about the final and I pull the thing up again and show them when it is. Yesterday same student writes me with the subject line "no response?" and complains that the final time is not on the syllabus and I haven't written her back. I went back and looked at the attendance. Student hasn't been in class for the last two weeks. Really?

Next semester put a line on your syllabus to the effect that all students must have/find/make at least one pal in class with whom they have shared basic contact information, such that when they have to miss class they can get notes & find out other important information.  Then, if and only if they don't understand it, they are allowed (and expected) to ask you questions for clarification.

This seems like an antiquated faculty way of thinking to insist that everyone exchange contact information in case of missing a class instead of using the CMS (out here it would be a wiki/Slack channel/Confluence page) to have any member of the group post useful information that the group needs to know  so that missing one day or having one overfull brain during crunch time is a minor thing.

Modeling effective communication is something we employers would very much like faculty members to take seriously and promote.

[Caracal]

Student writes me last week right before class asking when the final exam is. In class that day I pull up the exam lookup sheet from the registrar's page and we all look at when our final exam is. I don't respond to student since I figure the question has been answered. Student writes again asking same question before class on Monday. I'm busy and grumpy about this and don't write back right away. In Monday's class another student asks about the final and I pull the thing up again and show them when it is. Yesterday same student writes me with the subject line "no response?" and complains that the final time is not on the syllabus and I haven't written her back. I went back and looked at the attendance. Student hasn't been in class for the last two weeks. Really?

Next semester put a line on your syllabus to the effect that all students must have/find/make at least one pal in class with whom they have shared basic contact information, such that when they have to miss class they can get notes & find out other important information.  Then, if and only if they don't understand it, they are allowed (and expected) to ask you questions for clarification.

This seems like an antiquated faculty way of thinking to insist that everyone exchange contact information in case of missing a class instead of using the CMS (out here it would be a wiki/Slack channel/Confluence page) to have any member of the group post useful information that the group needs to know  so that missing one day or having one overfull brain during crunch time is a minor thing.

Modeling effective communication is something we employers would very much like faculty members to take seriously and promote.

Of course in this case, all the information the student needed was a google search away so there was really no need to be contacting anyone. I just always find this kind of thing a bit perplexing. Before I would even think about writing my chair or an administrator or anyone with some logistical question, I'm going to see if I can find an answer myself because I don't want to have to wait for a response and I also don't want to be bothering someone with a dumb question.

[Aster]

Is there some reason why you can't just put the final exam date on the course syllabus?

Does the university not notify all faculty the final exam scheduling times for all courses before the term begins?

[Parasaurolophus]

Is there some reason why you can't just put the final exam date on the course syllabus?

Does the university not notify all faculty the final exam scheduling times for all courses before the term begins?

Our exam schedule is determined about a month before the exam date.

[onthefringe]

I am at a place where final exam schedules are finalized well in advance of the beginning of the semester, and I do put, the date/time/place of the exam on the syllabus. And announce it in class. And on the syllabus. And still people ask.

That said, I sympathize with the generalized annoyance of multiple email questions that make me want to reply "Yes, I can find the answer to this, but you have access to the exact same internet that I do."

Tragically, in the last two weeks, 70% of email triggering this response came from faculty colleagues, not students...

[xerprofrn]

Is there some reason why you can't just put the final exam date on the course syllabus?

Does the university not notify all faculty the final exam scheduling times for all courses before the term begins?

Our exam schedule came out just last week.  One prof was scheduled for two of her final exams at the same time!  She sent out an email requesting other faculty to cover because we do not have TAs.

[Aster]

Is there some reason why you can't just put the final exam date on the course syllabus?

Does the university not notify all faculty the final exam scheduling times for all courses before the term begins?

Our exam schedule came out just last week.  One prof was scheduled for two of her final exams at the same time!  She sent out an email requesting other faculty to cover because we do not have TAs.

What. The. Hell.  That is clear-cut administrative incompetence. Is this a public university? A regionally accredited university?

[EdnaMode]

Is there some reason why you can't just put the final exam date on the course syllabus?

Does the university not notify all faculty the final exam scheduling times for all courses before the term begins?

I too am at an institution that does not post a final exam schedule until late in the semester. Also, we have to request to have a final, it's not automatically assumed you will be giving one. As soon as the exam schedule is posted, I add the date/time to our CMS - but the students don't always bother to read it so I ask them a couple times during the last weeks of class, "When is our final?" "In what room is our final?" because I teach mutiple sections of a single course and all their finals take place at the same time in one of the big lecture halls.

At my undergrad institution, the exam schedule was fixed, for example, all MWF 8 AM classes will have their final on Tuesday from 10-11:50 AM. My graduate institution did something similar to what we do here, faculty requested to have an exam, and at some point during the semester, the schedule was posted.

[Aster]

I too am at an institution that does not post a final exam schedule until late in the semester. Also, we have to request to have a final, it's not automatically assumed you will be giving one. As soon as the exam schedule is posted, I add the date/time to our CMS - but the students don't always bother to read it so I ask them a couple times during the last weeks of class, "When is our final?" "In what room is our final?" because I teach mutiple sections of a single course and all their finals take place at the same time in one of the big lecture halls.

That is extraordinarily generous, not requiring college courses to have final exams, or even final exam dates. This is the first time I have heard of such a practice, defaulted across an entire institution. Is this a U.S. university?

I've worked at three public universities and one private across four different states, and final exams were expected and assumed at all of them. For the three public universities, faculty were even harangued by the senior administration to ensure that they at least met with students for the final exam date. 

At Big Urban College, our final exam schedule for NEXT SPRING was posted back in early October. We needed that date so that we could put it onto our Spring syllabus schedules.