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

[EdnaMode]

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.

Yes, it is a US institution, mid-sized and private. Most regular courses do have final exams, but not all. For example, in my senior level engineering elective course, there is no final exam because they have an intensive project that they present in the last two lab sessions of the semester. Some of the "welcome to college" type courses for freshmen don't have final exams. I know some of our other engineering courses have projects instead of finals. My freshman course has both a project and a final. I think they phrase it as having some sort of "meaningful activity" at the end of the semester, but it doesn't have to be an exam.

[Aster]

Oh. I misread you. I thought you wrote that your entire institution defaulted to opting out of final exams unless the professor intervened.

Yeah, for certain course types and disciplines (e.g. creative writing, project courses), it is normal to not have a final exam (or if there is one, it's completed earlier to allow grading time).

[EdnaMode]

Oh. I misread you. I thought you wrote that your entire institution defaulted to opting out of final exams unless the professor intervened.

Yeah, for certain course types and disciplines (e.g. creative writing, project courses), it is normal to not have a final exam (or if there is one, it's completed earlier to allow grading time).

Well, we do have to specifically request a final. It's simple to do though. We receive a message during the semester that says basically, "Are you giving a final, yes or no?" We click a link, insert any special requests (such as if you teach multiple sections of a course, do you want multiple exam times, or do you want all sections to take the final at the same time), and then several weeks later the class you requested a final for shows up on the final exam schedule with a date, time, and location.

[downer]

I'm thinking that I should make all the final due date, including the final exam and the final paper, for 2 weeks before the end of the semester.

Then when all the students email me about how desparately they need to pass, keep their scholarships, or get their lives together, then there will still be time for them to do something about it.

[Aster]

I just had the "You are not passing and now you are not graduating" talk. Bleah.

Stu Dent failed three of five major assessments and ended up with a high D. But not a borderline D. Not that anyone has any obligation to bump-up borderline grades, but that wasn't even a situation in this instance.

Explaining that "needing 1.5% percentage points" is not at all the same thing as "needing just 1.5 points" should not be something that professional educators at universities should be doing. Not when the course is made up of several hundred points and each point bears only a fractional amount to a course percentage point. It is also peculiar that certain students only exhibit confusion and ignorance of percentages at the end of an academic term, and only when a letter grade approaches the next higher tier of letter grade.

No, there is no more extra credit. And you still failed most of your major exams. Heck, two of the exam grades were F's. Yes, I double-checked your final exam for scoring errors. Heck, I was generous in grading your final exam.

I am very sorry, but I am still not changing your grade to passing.

This was a very painful conversation. Stu Dent literally fell down on his knees and squeezed his head with both hands. All of his friends passed the class and are moving on.

I wonder if Stu Dent will magically receive a passing grade from a benevolent Dean. The pressure on our college to crank out graduates is pretty high.

[Caracal]

I'm thinking that I should make all the final due date, including the final exam and the final paper, for 2 weeks before the end of the semester.

Then when all the students email me about how desparately they need to pass, keep their scholarships, or get their lives together, then there will still be time for them to do something about it.

Yes, I got a raft of those before I turned in grades. Inevitably they were all from people who had missed tons of class. Is there anything I can do, can I get extra credit? No, the extra credit is the 15 percent of the grade that you get if you just come to class and do the reading responses. Also we did have extra credit. It was in class, you probably weren't there. Perhaps you could take up all of this with your past self.

[downer]

I'm thinking that I should make all the final due date, including the final exam and the final paper, for 2 weeks before the end of the semester.

Then when all the students email me about how desparately they need to pass, keep their scholarships, or get their lives together, then there will still be time for them to do something about it.

Yes, I got a raft of those before I turned in grades. Inevitably they were all from people who had missed tons of class. Is there anything I can do, can I get extra credit? No, the extra credit is the 15 percent of the grade that you get if you just come to class and do the reading responses. Also we did have extra credit. It was in class, you probably weren't there. Perhaps you could take up all of this with your past self.

I might try it as a one off, and see what happens. Although it might cause some consternation that I'm ending the semester 2 weeks early, so maybe at a time when I am ready to let go of that job. If I also tried to cram the same amount of work into the semester as usual, it would be a bit hard on the students since each week would be harder than usual, until we finish 2 weeks early. My guess is that failers are gonna fail, whatever I do.

[KiUlv]

I want to beat my head against the wall. Grades just posted for the quarter and I've already gotten the first email questioning my grading ability and how many points were taken for formatting. But if you do one essay and I'm lenient about the grading but make TONS of specific comments about how to format in this particular style for next time AND provide examples and links, I really do expect you to make changes for next time. Not get "Oh, I didn't realize how serious you were." I'm pretty transparent. I explain things in class (also on the powerpoint handout you get), provide rubrics so you can see how many points for each aspect, and give specific comments on earlier papers. *sigh*

(This is a GRADUATE class, by the way)

[FishProf]

Well I just got my first "offer" email.

"...is there anyway I could possibly get it up to an 87 to boost my grade to a B+ or is there anything that I could do for you before 4 o'clock today."

Yikes.

[Liquidambar]

My friend got a course evaluation complaining that he is too "nick picky."

[Economizer]

 Well, it was the first really cold day of the year.  As usual I was filling in for a regular teacher at a high school.  In one of the class periods [block style] a female asked if she could keep warm by sitting in a small alcove behind the teacher's desk that had a little space heater there.  In a proximate block I fell, evidently, into a deep sleep and was video recorded as being such, and this was recorded on "SNAP CHAT", and was available for viewing by the entire student body and faculty/administration.  An, in my opinion, young dependable, upperclassman remarked at a time proximate to the my sleeping/student taping event, that, when I yawned, the yawn was so deep and large that he "felt" it!

Now, this would not normally be note worthy, as I certainly have nodded off a little bit in classes previously during my 15 years of teaching; however, there was a report on National Public Radio in late November or early December which gave me the idea of a connection between the experience of a middle school school bus driver and my sleeping in school incident.  It seems that the bus driver felt overwhelmed by noxious fumes which he (or she?) attributed to a newly popular deodorant which students [also at schools I have taught in] slathered on themselves (I believe it is called AXE). To encapsulate the event by accusation, I think the students that videotaped me gassed me with the stuff by heating it in my desk area.  And, this caused me to be rebuked by my supervisor in front of the High School Principal!  I might be reaching, but I felt that I should make others aware that they might possibly have something similar happen them.

This was reported during a NPR humor show.  The panel members on that show did keep things light by remarking that the bus might have even become more noxious had the middle school students on board not been wearing that deodorant.

[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.

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

Small, upper-division, private specialty school that has been around more than 100 years. On top of that, the registrar sent an email about room changes to some final exams at 6 p.m. on the day before finals were to begin.  Faculty were then responsible for ensuring their students were in the right place.

[0susanna]

Tuesday:
Stu Dent [strolls into class a few minutes early]: "What are we supposed to do today?"
Me [having distributed the syllabus in print & on the LMS last week]: Did you check the syllabus?
Stu: No.
Me: There's a reading assignment and some questions in your book.
Stu: I left the book in my room.
Me: Uh-huh. Well, do the best you can.

In class Tuesday, I give the class a writing assignment for Thursday that does NOT require reference to this book. This writing assignment is posted on the LMS.

Wednesday night:
Stu [email]: Hey professor 0susanna it turns out I don't actually have the book because it's on backorder. How can I get it so I can write the essay?
Me [receiving this email Thursday AM, and after banging head on desk]: politely sends lying, clueless Stu the necessary info, urging him to read his syllabus.

Thursday: Stu is absent.

The rest of the students in this class seem pretty good, and I'm happy to be working with them. I'm worried about Stu, though.

[the_geneticist]

Tuesday:
Stu Dent [strolls into class a few minutes early]: "What are we supposed to do today?"
Me [having distributed the syllabus in print & on the LMS last week]: Did you check the syllabus?
Stu: No.
Me: There's a reading assignment and some questions in your book.
Stu: I left the book in my room.
Me: Uh-huh. Well, do the best you can.

In class Tuesday, I give the class a writing assignment for Thursday that does NOT require reference to this book. This writing assignment is posted on the LMS.

Wednesday night:
Stu [email]: Hey professor 0susanna it turns out I don't actually have the book because it's on backorder. How can I get it so I can write the essay?
Me [receiving this email Thursday AM, and after banging head on desk]: politely sends lying, clueless Stu the necessary info, urging him to read his syllabus.

Thursday: Stu is absent.

The rest of the students in this class seem pretty good, and I'm happy to be working with them. I'm worried about Stu, though.

Wow.  You know, I hate it when I confuse the books in my room with my books that are on backorder.

[Cheerful]

I'm worried about Stu, though.

If you're lucky, he'll drop the course soon.  If not, don't worry much about him as long as you're upholding standards and doing your job.  One student like this can consume far too much of your time if you let that happen and are hyper-responsive to his emails.  Maybe he has personal problems, have the Counseling Center number handy.