Spring Time Students

[lwb]

Write it very carefully if you want it to be taken seriously. When I get my comments at the end of a semester, I can usually tell who wrote it, even though grades are already in, and the name is hidden. I can also spot comments that are sour grapes.

Include suggestions to make handing in papers easier, don't just complain.

Very true here! When I get my comments, I can always tell which ones are legitimate and which ones are the "he didn't give me my A!!!!!!!!!!11111one!!!" complaints. And trust me, if the suggestion is a good one and presented well any teacher/instructor/professor will, at least, read it.

[Sapphire Silk]

Very true here! When I get my comments, I can always tell which ones are legitimate and which ones are the "he didn't give me my A!!!!!!!!!!11111one!!!" complaints. And trust me, if the suggestion is a good one and presented well any teacher/instructor/professor will, at least, read it.

And take it seriously. I encourage my students to give me constructive criticism: what can I change to make my course better? What should stay the same? I've made changes based on student comments worded constructively, and will do so in the future.

[Magpie]

We went to Moodle recently, and a lot of those woes went away; I can post an online assignment, and the students upload the work directly to Moodle, rather than emailing it to me. Best part is, Moodle tells me exactly how late they are, and I can grade it online in a snap.

A lot of my computer engineering courses were just still using the same hand-in setup that was in place before the university got around to implementing an easy way to do it. You just uploaded your file to the designated "hand-in" folder. They looked at the time stamp. Projects were all due before midnight on the due date. Fairly simple system, and nice for the students, because you could hand in as many versions as you wanted. Not sure you'll get more done? Hand in a version that almost works. Got some more done? Overwrite it was a better version!

Write it very carefully if you want it to be taken seriously. When I get my comments at the end of a semester, I can usually tell who wrote it, even though grades are already in, and the name is hidden. I can also spot comments that are sour grapes.

Include suggestions to make handing in papers easier, don't just complain.

The people at my university who write the best angry evaluations are the ones who have helped with screening. They know EXACTLY what will and won't be kept for the professor's review, and for them to read later.

[draftermatt]

I had the "suck it up" part happen to me today..

Similar thing happened to my sister. She was trying to log into Blackboard for two weeks prior to the class, but it wouldn't let her enroll (early stages of blackboard where you had to find your class and enroll in it yourself). She kept e-mailing the professor who ignored her. By the time she got enrolled she had missed the first assignment, so she dropped the class and never did go back to school.

Partly her fault for not going into the school office and requesting help though.

It will help you pass this class.

Thank-you! I told this to many a person during highschool and college who wanted to know where'd we use it before they'd consent to learn something.

Scariest moment I ever had in college was during Health 101. I wrote a big research paper (APA format) on new forms of birth control. Day we were getting them back I didn't get mine. Professor came to me and said "they're making copies of yours"

My first thought was I forgot to cite a source properly and was going to be dinged for plagiarism.

Turns out I got a 100% and other Health Professors were making copies to pass out to future classes to show a well written, and proper APA formatted paper.

[Miss Fatale]

My hubby attends an online university... ALL the instructors teach only online, they have no physical offices, live all over the US, and the only time something is mailed to them is if the file will be too big (such as video interviews sent on DVDs). If the internet is down at home, I've gone so far as to drive to a Mickey D's or Panera Bread to send files from my iPod. It's getting hard to come up with excuses in a wireless age.

Yup, that's how I teach. And I've done work from Panera and other places when the internet was out at home....

As for those students with the annoying habit of asking "How will this help me in the real world?", I have one answer that I have taught my children:

It will help you pass this class.

If they need clarification, feel free to add: Passing this class will help you pass this school term. Passing this term will help you graduate. Graduating will help you get that mega-money job you're dreaming of.

Ha, so true. I did have one class where it was clear everyone thought it was a joke, so I had to bust out, "You might think this is unimportant, but if you don't pass this class, you can't move on to your other classes or graduate...." They did better after that.

[Miss Fatale]

Very true here! When I get my comments, I can always tell which ones are legitimate and which ones are the "he didn't give me my A!!!!!!!!!!11111one!!!" complaints. And trust me, if the suggestion is a good one and presented well any teacher/instructor/professor will, at least, read it.

Yeah, good students seem to like me, bad students seem to hate me, and I can usually tell which is which in the comments.

I actually appreciate it when people let me know if there's a problem with an assignment. "Miss Fatale, Assignment 3 is confusing because....." It's a little less helpful when people say, "Miss Fatale, I hated Assignment 3!"

Last semester, I had several students say (during the final week) that the discussions questions from Week 3 were boring. Fair enough. So I wrote, "I appreciate your feedback. What would make them less boring? What would be more interesting to discuss in that week?" No one replied. Sigh.

[RedRoseSpiral]

Write it very carefully if you want it to be taken seriously. When I get my comments at the end of a semester, I can usually tell who wrote it, even though grades are already in, and the name is hidden. I can also spot comments that are sour grapes.

Include suggestions to make handing in papers easier, don't just complain.

Will do, not that I always don't. I've become pretty good at the end of semester survey for the class.