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

[downer]

That's another sort of issue that I sometimes find having a "Problem Solving" discussion forum on the LMS helps with. The students help each other out. I just tell them that they will get an email saying their assignment has been successfully submitted from the LMS when it is successfully submitted. They need to watch the help videos and go to the help desk if they have trouble. Or get help from other students. I am not the help facility.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I really didn't think it would be this complicated. Oh how I underestimated my students. A 2nd student emailed me work because it was 'too difficult' to enter work in the quiz. Now, I'm not asking them to integrate anything, they just have to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Each problem states that they must enter their work in the quiz box. It's also on the first page of the quiz in capital letters and bolded. Maybe I'll grade their emailed submissions with a 20% penalty. What irks me is that they're trying to make up their own rules instead of following mine.

I get so many emails saying that the LMS wouldn't accept their essay so here it is.

The LMS wouldn't accept their essay because it only accepts PDFs. I say so on the syllabus, on the assignment instructions, in class, and in bold caps right under the link to the folder.


It drives me nuts, too. But: shrug. You can only do so much!

Yep. Same. All lab assignment templates have required info at the top, but they still forget to include it. Tests have instructions in bold, capital letters. It's in the syllabus. It's in multiple places. It just boggles the mind when they don't follow directions.

[spork]

I think I give up on allowing students to see their cumulative score to date. Too few understand what they're seeing or how the math works.

Yep. I once had a student not show up for the final exam (worth 20% of the course grade) because he already had a 92% average and didn't want to blow it. He wasn't so happy with that "C." [sigh]

This is the only thing about Canvas that bugs the hell out of me. The course grading scale is in the syllabus. There are questions in the quiz on the syllabus about how the course grade is calculated. The Canvas gradebook shows the number of points earned, which is what determines the course grade. No matter how many times I tell students "any percentages you see in the gradebook are meaningless," they willfully remain ignorant.

I might have discovered a work around -- setting the point value in Canvas for every assignment as "0" but continue using rubrics in Speedgrader that generate points. Need to figure out for the fall semester if this destroys Canvas's default.

[ciao_yall]

My homework is due, uploaded before class, each week. We are now almost finished with the semester. It's a pretty standard routine by now.

A student is claiming he needs an extension because the Canvas app didn't notify him that the homework was due.

[teach_write_research]

I think I give up on allowing students to see their cumulative score to date. Too few understand what they're seeing or how the math works.

Yep. I once had a student not show up for the final exam (worth 20% of the course grade) because he already had a 92% average and didn't want to blow it. He wasn't so happy with that "C." [sigh]

This is the only thing about Canvas that bugs the hell out of me. The course grading scale is in the syllabus. There are questions in the quiz on the syllabus about how the course grade is calculated. The Canvas gradebook shows the number of points earned, which is what determines the course grade. No matter how many times I tell students "any percentages you see in the gradebook are meaningless," they willfully remain ignorant.

I might have discovered a work around -- setting the point value in Canvas for every assignment as "0" but continue using rubrics in Speedgrader that generate points. Need to figure out for the fall semester if this destroys Canvas's default.

I turn off the Canvas total grade as it does bizarre meaningless things. I use a straight point scale. They can look in the Grades and see the list of assignments, their Score, and how many points it was Out of <those are the Canvas column titles>. When students freak out about not knowing their grade I would get super exasperated at what I thought was math avoidance. Ok, some is still that. Some is wanting a quick answer when they look at the mobile app. But most of the time it's just that they didn't realize I'm using a regular cumulative point scale. They think I have some more complicated percentages system. Of course it's in the syllabus but in the middle of the term when they are staring at the mobile app and it shows a grade for three classes and N/A for mine, I get it, they aren't thinking about navigating through however many clicks to get to the syllabus.

[marshwiggle]

I might have discovered a work around -- setting the point value in Canvas for every assignment as "0" but continue using rubrics in Speedgrader that generate points. Need to figure out for the fall semester if this destroys Canvas's default.

"Treat all unassigned grades as 0" is an option in our LMS; I just can't figure out if or how I can have that the default for all of my courses. That's general frustration I have - I'd really like to have all kinds of defaults like that that would automatically get used for any courses created for me, or that I could globally copy from others.

[Puget]

Not exactly teaching, but it seems to go here. I'm once again in charge ("since you did such a nice job with it last year"-- that will teach me!) of putting together the giant powerpoint for our online department diploma ceremony (100+ grads).

So I send out an email with a google form link for them to provide their preferred name, pronunciation guide, and upload their photo. Both email and form specify the required dimensions of said photo.

I'd say only about a third of students have uploaded a photo in anything like the correct dimensions, so I've been spending lots of time I don't have cropping and resizing them.

About 25 students did not respond at by the deadline, and I have to try to track them down to give them one last chance.

Another three emailed saying they didn't have permission to access the form and I had to give them directions for switching from their personal to campus google accounts, which after FOUR YEARS of having to be logged into their campus account for nearly everything I just don't comprehend.

You are graduating seniors, follow the freaking directions!

[spork]

I think I give up on allowing students to see their cumulative score to date. Too few understand what they're seeing or how the math works.

Yep. I once had a student not show up for the final exam (worth 20% of the course grade) because he already had a 92% average and didn't want to blow it. He wasn't so happy with that "C." [sigh]

This is the only thing about Canvas that bugs the hell out of me. The course grading scale is in the syllabus. There are questions in the quiz on the syllabus about how the course grade is calculated. The Canvas gradebook shows the number of points earned, which is what determines the course grade. No matter how many times I tell students "any percentages you see in the gradebook are meaningless," they willfully remain ignorant.

I might have discovered a work around -- setting the point value in Canvas for every assignment as "0" but continue using rubrics in Speedgrader that generate points. Need to figure out for the fall semester if this destroys Canvas's default.

I turn off the Canvas total grade as it does bizarre meaningless things. I use a straight point scale. They can look in the Grades and see the list of assignments, their Score, and how many points it was Out of <those are the Canvas column titles>. When students freak out about not knowing their grade I would get super exasperated at what I thought was math avoidance. Ok, some is still that. Some is wanting a quick answer when they look at the mobile app. But most of the time it's just that they didn't realize I'm using a regular cumulative point scale. They think I have some more complicated percentages system. Of course it's in the syllabus but in the middle of the term when they are staring at the mobile app and it shows a grade for three classes and N/A for mine, I get it, they aren't thinking about navigating through however many clicks to get to the syllabus.

I use a straight point scale also. And on my end, I set the gradebook's right-most column to "display as points." But students don't pay attention to that; they fixate on information in the adjacent Assignments column, which shows a percentage. I would really like to render that percentage invisible to students but as far as I know it's not an option.

[apl68]

I know you guys see this all the time, but I just got my first-ever case of an author (of an academic article) being called 'the narrator'.

At least they didn't call it a novel...

Students are often incredibly confused in intro level courses about academic articles. Weird things they do:

1. Call the author by their first name.
2. Assume the author is arguing for the thing they are writing about. "Stephanie really thinks it's terrible how everyone is drinking so much and wants it to stop." Well, no she's an academic writing about drinking habits in the first half of the 19th century.

Repeatedly, despite reminders to refer to authors/writers by their full name or last name.
Refer to short stories as novels. Course specifically and repeatedly refers to the former as "short stories". What these students were doing in their high school English classes is a mystery.

Their high school English teachers may have been just as puzzled by those students.

[EdnaMode]

I just spent 45 minutes replying to emails that came in over the weekend, every single one of which contained questions that were answered with some version "refer to the assignment instructions..." and "refer to page X of the syllabus..."

[spork]

Not exactly teaching, but it seems to go here. I'm once again in charge ("since you did such a nice job with it last year"-- that will teach me!) of putting together the giant powerpoint for our online department diploma ceremony (100+ grads).

So I send out an email with a google form link for them to provide their preferred name, pronunciation guide, and upload their photo. Both email and form specify the required dimensions of said photo.

I'd say only about a third of students have uploaded a photo in anything like the correct dimensions, so I've been spending lots of time I don't have cropping and resizing them.

About 25 students did not respond at by the deadline, and I have to try to track them down to give them one last chance.

Another three emailed saying they didn't have permission to access the form and I had to give them directions for switching from their personal to campus google accounts, which after FOUR YEARS of having to be logged into their campus account for nearly everything I just don't comprehend.

You are graduating seniors, follow the freaking directions!

Forget the photos. Just create a list of names. No photos in the presentation because students didn't follow directions. Same for those who don't respond at all -- not included in the list. Or maybe next to an asterisk: "*did not respond"

[the_geneticist]

Not exactly teaching, but it seems to go here. I'm once again in charge ("since you did such a nice job with it last year"-- that will teach me!) of putting together the giant powerpoint for our online department diploma ceremony (100+ grads).

So I send out an email with a google form link for them to provide their preferred name, pronunciation guide, and upload their photo. Both email and form specify the required dimensions of said photo.

I'd say only about a third of students have uploaded a photo in anything like the correct dimensions, so I've been spending lots of time I don't have cropping and resizing them.

About 25 students did not respond at by the deadline, and I have to try to track them down to give them one last chance.

Another three emailed saying they didn't have permission to access the form and I had to give them directions for switching from their personal to campus google accounts, which after FOUR YEARS of having to be logged into their campus account for nearly everything I just don't comprehend.

You are graduating seniors, follow the freaking directions!

Forget the photos. Just create a list of names. No photos in the presentation because students didn't follow directions. Same for those who don't respond at all -- not included in the list. Or maybe next to an asterisk: "*did not respond"

Or swap in a picture of the school mascot for the missing student pictures.

[Puget]

Not exactly teaching, but it seems to go here. I'm once again in charge ("since you did such a nice job with it last year"-- that will teach me!) of putting together the giant powerpoint for our online department diploma ceremony (100+ grads).

So I send out an email with a google form link for them to provide their preferred name, pronunciation guide, and upload their photo. Both email and form specify the required dimensions of said photo.

I'd say only about a third of students have uploaded a photo in anything like the correct dimensions, so I've been spending lots of time I don't have cropping and resizing them.

About 25 students did not respond at by the deadline, and I have to try to track them down to give them one last chance.

Another three emailed saying they didn't have permission to access the form and I had to give them directions for switching from their personal to campus google accounts, which after FOUR YEARS of having to be logged into their campus account for nearly everything I just don't comprehend.

You are graduating seniors, follow the freaking directions!

Forget the photos. Just create a list of names. No photos in the presentation because students didn't follow directions. Same for those who don't respond at all -- not included in the list. Or maybe next to an asterisk: "*did not respond"

Or swap in a picture of the school mascot for the missing student pictures.

Their picture gets replaced with the university seal if they don't submit one. I can't mess with anything--all departments have to use the exact template.

[the_geneticist]

I caught yet another student posting questions from the exam of Chegg DURING their exam.  Even with cheating, they barely passed the exam.  Now, they are going to fail the course.

[spork]

I caught yet another student posting questions from the exam of Chegg DURING their exam.  Even with cheating, they barely passed the exam.  Now, they are going to fail the course.

I see this as too light a punishment. Is there a process that can lead to expulsion?