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

[the_geneticist]

How can I get my students to read the damned directions?

Please please please PM me your solution when you find one! =p   Nothing I've tried works very well.

I'll let you know if I discover some kind of trick. I set up automated email to annoy the hell out of them until they take the quizzes. But, it they don't check their email, well, I'm not sure what to do.

Well did you TEXT them? /sarcasm

How about a short video on TikTok?  Checking email is so old school.

[Caracal]

How can I get my students to read the damned directions?

Please please please PM me your solution when you find one! =p   Nothing I've tried works very well.

I'll let you know if I discover some kind of trick. I set up automated email to annoy the hell out of them until they take the quizzes. But, it they don't check their email, well, I'm not sure what to do.

Students who claim to not know what's due are usually engaged in self delusion, I think. They don't know things are due because they are checked out or overwhelmed. Its a symptom of larger problems.

[mythbuster]

The best luck I've had is making reading and following the directions worth points. For example students in My Intro Bio course get points for properly bubbling in their student ID on the exam scantron. I then make a big deal after the fact about the number of students who lost the totally free points! I report how many their were after each exam to the class. Not who they were, but just how many.

[FishProf]

Students who claim to not know what's due are usually engaged in self delusion, I think. They don't know things are due because they are checked out or overwhelmed. Its a symptom of larger problems.

Huge difference between didn't know and couldn't know.

[apl68]

The best luck I've had is making reading and following the directions worth points. For example students in My Intro Bio course get points for properly bubbling in their student ID on the exam scantron. I then make a big deal after the fact about the number of students who lost the totally free points! I report how many their were after each exam to the class. Not who they were, but just how many.

Sounds like a good Jedi mind trick.

[Biologist_]

The best luck I've had is making reading and following the directions worth points. For example students in My Intro Bio course get points for properly bubbling in their student ID on the exam scantron. I then make a big deal after the fact about the number of students who lost the totally free points! I report how many their were after each exam to the class. Not who they were, but just how many.

I need to start doing that when we are back in person giving print exams. It's a real pain when they bubble in the wrong ID number, especially when the wrong number happens to belong to another student in the class.

[mamselle]

The best luck I've had is making reading and following the directions worth points. For example students in My Intro Bio course get points for properly bubbling in their student ID on the exam scantron. I then make a big deal after the fact about the number of students who lost the totally free points! I report how many their were after each exam to the class. Not who they were, but just how many.

I need to start doing that when we are back in person giving print exams. It's a real pain when they bubble in the wrong ID number, especially when the wrong number happens to belong to another student in the class.

Or...are they trying to take that person's exam for them...?

M.

[Chemystery]

The best luck I've had is making reading and following the directions worth points. For example students in My Intro Bio course get points for properly bubbling in their student ID on the exam scantron. I then make a big deal after the fact about the number of students who lost the totally free points! I report how many their were after each exam to the class. Not who they were, but just how many.

My college physics professor had a policy that if you forgot to bubble your ID, the only way you could get credit for the quiz was to come to his office and identify your quiz.  I forgot once.  His office, it turned out, was inside a secure building on campus.  If you walked in the front door, you were immediately greeted by a receptionist who asked your name and why you had entered the building.  The receptionist then verified that my professor was, indeed, in his office, gave me specific directions on how to get there, and watched me to make sure I did not go elsewhere. 

I left mildly curious about what was housed in the building besides my professor's office, but I did not forget my ID again.

[the_geneticist]

The best luck I've had is making reading and following the directions worth points. For example students in My Intro Bio course get points for properly bubbling in their student ID on the exam scantron. I then make a big deal after the fact about the number of students who lost the totally free points! I report how many their were after each exam to the class. Not who they were, but just how many.

My college physics professor had a policy that if you forgot to bubble your ID, the only way you could get credit for the quiz was to come to his office and identify your quiz.  I forgot once.  His office, it turned out, was inside a secure building on campus.  If you walked in the front door, you were immediately greeted by a receptionist who asked your name and why you had entered the building.  The receptionist then verified that my professor was, indeed, in his office, gave me specific directions on how to get there, and watched me to make sure I did not go elsewhere. 

I left mildly curious about what was housed in the building besides my professor's office, but I did not forget my ID again.

I had a colleague who would deduct points for incorrect or missing ID, only to have the same students miss points for it on every exam.

[Biologist_]

I need to start doing that when we are back in person giving print exams. It's a real pain when they bubble in the wrong ID number, especially when the wrong number happens to belong to another student in the class.

Or...are they trying to take that person's exam for them...?

M.

No. Just copying the wrong number from the list.

We have learned that we can't expect students to remember their 9-digit student IDs, so we provide a list of 3 digit exam IDs they can enter on their exams. In a large class, there are always a few students who enter the number incorrectly and there is usually at least one student who copies the wrong number from the list. The latter is worse because their score ends up counting for another student and then that student's exam doesn't get scored at all.

We also get a few on every exam who write the numbers in above the bubbles and then don't bubble them in. As much as I want to make each offending student come to my office and bubble in the number properly, that would be a hassle for me to schedule and it would delay the rest of my grading workflow so I just fill them in myself.

We do have assistance with grading in the large classes but some of these issues come to light after the handoff from the student assistant when I download the data.

If bubbling in the correct number counted for a couple of points, I wouldn't mind as much.

[marshwiggle]

We have learned that we can't expect students to remember their 9-digit student IDs, so we provide a list of 3 digit exam IDs they can enter on their exams.

Really? Here they're expected to include it on pretty much every assignment, paper, etc. in every course, so by a few weeks into 1st year it should be burned into their brains.

[Biologist_]

We have learned that we can't expect students to remember their 9-digit student IDs, so we provide a list of 3 digit exam IDs they can enter on their exams.

Really? Here they're expected to include it on pretty much every assignment, paper, etc. in every course, so by a few weeks into 1st year it should be burned into their brains.

Really. I used the 9-digit student IDs for a few years but I always had a printed list for students to check when they turned in their exams. Only a few of them actually knew their student ID's. My sample included freshmen through seniors.

Our campus runs a lot of small classes and lab sections and not very many large lectures. Perhaps that explains the difference in ID usage for exams and assignments?

[Juvenal]

I gave up the Student Number ID for exams--saved a couple of minutes of fumbling in bags and wallets.  Very little effort for me to pencil in 1, 2, 3, etc. And I put the same number on the Blue Books and exam, assembled the individual bundles, and ready to go.  You might say, "You are wasting your precious time," but it saves some time for the student and should a name get forgotten on Scantron or Blue Book--the duplication was a fail safe in one or two cases a semester.

[teach_write_research]

Well I guess I will keep answering your questions even though my answers are pretty much, yes that is what the instructions say, you understand correctly. I get it, it's a pandemic, you are a first year college student, but maybe let's have more confidence in your basic sentence comprehension skills and consider some better coping strategies for your (apparent) anxiety...

[Langue_doc]

Students were required to upload a Word document for an assignment. Students were given a formatted Word template along with the directions for this assignment. The template was also included in this week's module.

Student A emailed a PDF attachment after the deadline complaining that Canvas wouldn't accept Stu's assignment. The directions are very clear about uploading a Word document and only a Word document. Course policy is very clear about submitting assignments (only on Canvas, in the assigned format, and by the deadline) and about emailed attachments (will not be opened or graded).

Email from Student B who failed to submit either of the two assignments for the week, which I will open/read only on Monday (I can guess the content as students who did not submit their assignments by Friday PM were given a score of zero with a comment that the assignment was not submitted.)

Students, you had all week to review the directions for the assignments and also complete them.

ETA: Subject line of Stu A's email: Submition

Head bang!

Very often though, students need only one warning/zero to understand the importance of reading directions and keeping track of deadlines. These are low-stakes assignments.