Bring it forward, people!

[Sapphire Silk]

One of the required "texts" my students are required to buy is access to an online resource. All students in all courses in the program are required to buy access to this resource EVERY semester, because this resource is integrated into how we teach the program. They are told this in the first semester. It's in the current syllabus as well.

So when do I start getting the emails from students claiming they "didn't know" they had to pay for this resource again for this semester?

Sunday. Less than 48 hours before their first assignment using this resource was due.

The most recent just came, 12 hours after the due date, "I didn't know I had to . . . "



And I had just talked to these guys about not doing a "data dump" from the previous course, and about how they needed to be working on these assignments well before the due dates.

[Android Kaeli]

This reminds me of the students that were in one of my classes a few years ago. Professor told them that there was a research paper due near the end of the course, that it was in the syllabus, and that he'd give one more reminder in the middle of the course. It wasn't a big paper, five to seven pages, 12-sized font, and the professor said that he didn't care if the paper didn't reach five pages so long as it was within a half of a page.

How many people threw a fit when he asked for the papers on the due date? Out of the 20-some students in my class, all but three [including myself] were screaming that he never said anything about it. Us three that turned it on time? We pretty much could've just skipped the remainder of the course without having to do anything.

[Andara Bledin]

And I had just talked to these guys about not doing a "data dump" from the previous course, and about how they needed to be working on these assignments well before the due dates.

Alas... You can lead a student to knowledge, but you can't make him think.

^-.-^

[Geek King]

Alas... You can lead a student to knowledge, but you can't make him think.

^-.-^

No, but negative reinforcement (say, a failing grade) can change habits even among single-celled organisms.

[EvilEmpryss]

Not Panacea's students. They've figured out that if they whine loud enough and long enough to enough people, they'll eventually get one who says they can try it again. I've seen them do this on final exams where they've known from day one that failing the final will get them kicked out of the nursing program.

To get the full effect of what happened, imagine that guy from the Drive time commercial reviewing their requests for retakes.

"Approved."

"Approved."

"Approved."

I guarantee that these poor misguided slobs will be given a second chance at the assignment and Panacea will be over in Morons in Management having another conniption.

[Kristev]

What's truly scary is that some of those people will, in fact, become nurses.

[shadowpanda]

We used to have that sort of problem. Assignment deadlines were in the handbook for each module we studied and the lecturers would confirm twice that the dates were correct (or send an email and then verbally confirm a change in date if that was the case).
People would ALWAYS panic and be like 'I didn't know this 2000 word essay was due in 2 days! It's every body's fault but mine!'

[Sapphire Silk]

Alas... You can lead a student to knowledge, but you can't make him think.

Oooooh! This is good. Mind if I use this in my sig?

No, but negative reinforcement (say, a failing grade) can change habits even among single-celled organisms.

That's what these guys are going to learn. They're getting a 0 for the assignment (which is only worth 2% of their total grade anyway).

Not Panacea's students. They've figured out that if they whine loud enough and long enough to enough people, they'll eventually get one who says they can try it again. I've seen them do this on final exams where they've known from day one that failing the final will get them kicked out of the nursing program.
<snip>
I guarantee that these poor misguided slobs will be given a second chance at the assignment and Panacea will be over in Morons in Management having another conniption.

Not if I can help it. I've put my foot down on that kind of crap specifically because I am so sick of it. I haven't had a successful challenge of a test score in 3 years. Wish I could say some of my colleagues were as successful.

I expect some complaints on Thursday when class meets, but I'm not bending on this.

What's truly scary is that some of those people will, in fact, become nurses.

I know.

Last night in clinic, we got back to the floor from dinner. I told three of my students they needed to get their patient documentation into the computer while I went to L&D to check on two students who had skipped dinner to observe deliveries. When I got back, I found all three sitting at the nurses station going through the paper charts (they have data to collect for written assignments).

Me: Is your charting done?
Student: No, not yet.
Me: I told all of you to get your charting in the computer when I left (15 minutes ago!) You need to stop what you are doing and get that done.

They were falling over themselves to get to computer stations. They still didn't do it right. We had to stay late to get it done correctly.

I've reserved a computer lab for today . . . we're going to spend some training time on charting so this doesn't happen again.

[Andara Bledin]

Oooooh! This is good. Mind if I use this in my sig?

Have at. I'm sure I'm not the first to use that particular permutation of the old phrase.

^-.-^

[BeeMused]

Bah that reminds me of a class of vocational students.
One day I gave them an assignment, shortly before lunchbreak, telling them they could start their break once they were done with the assignment. I had to leave the room for some other task. When I came back they hadn't even started the assignment! Lets say I didn't mince words when I told them what I thought of that behaviour. The next assignments went a lot better!
That class thought they could avoid learning their SQL, when I pronounced the next written test to be open book. Uh... they got that wrong. The grades were abysmal. Again I told them in very clear words what I thought of that. <mutter> The next test was closed book and the grades got up! Ha!
Funily enough the other teachers told me that the class praised me Looks like they realised that I wasn't hard about things just to be mean, but to help them to succeed! But only after kicking their arses multiple times.