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Old 04-25-2020, 08:11 PM
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Default The Semester is Almosst Over

Thank the nonexistent gods!




This is a semester that I DO NOT want to repeat!

So, we were informed during Spring Break that the students would not be returning to campus, and that the rest of the semester would be conducted online.

At this meeting, the Dean flat out told us that they didn't expect the students would learn anything from online coursework, and that we shouldn't expect them too either. And, we were told, we shouldn't try to enforce any kind of standards: "They will cheat," he told us, "and there's nothing you can do about it. So abandon any thoughts you might have had about maintaining academic integrity." Our goal, he emphasized, is to simply go through the motions and get them through the remainder of the semester.


Well, I am NOT going to just give up and abandon any pretense of trying to teach my students anything. Most of my colleagues did though, it seems. Apparently, quite a few of them just posted their notes online, sent the students a message saying some variant of "Good luck; the Final will on [date]", and left it at that.


Anyway, I set up an online class, using Google Classroom. My plan was to record my lectures and post them to the students, giving them the opportunity to send me any questions they might have, which I could answer on the website. A few of my colleagues decided to just have a couple of set "meetings" during which they would "meet" with the students using Facetime. I thought about that, but decided to go with recorded lectures. My reasoning was that I could record a lecture in which I thoroughly discussed the subject matter, trying to anticipate each question that might arise [I even hired a Teaching Assistant to read the chapters and submit questions she thought the students might ask], and give that to the students. That way, the students could watch/listen to each lecture on their own time, and as often as they liked.

I also arranged to have the various quizzes and exams given online. The idea was that I would post each quiz or exam to the website at the appropriate time, and the students would have a certain amount of time to complete the assignment and return it to me. I figured that if they were given only an hour to complete and return the exam, for example, this would make it harder for them to cheat.

Well, it was a good idea … it didn't work so well in practice.


The first discovery was that a shockingly large percentage of them simply can NOT manage the complex task of clicking on a "Word" document, downloading it to their computer, editing it to answer the questions, saving it, and then attaching the saved file to an e-mail document and returning it to me.

The first exam, which was supposed to take only an hour, was an utter disaster, because more than half the students in the class simply could not manage to download, edit, and return the test. Or at least, such was the common refrain. This, despite the fact that I'd posted instructions regarding how to do so on the website, and had sent no less than three blanket e-mails with specific instructions.


Then there's the amount of work involved. Sure, I could have just sent out my notes and said "Good luck!", as some of my colleagues did. I could have set up Facetime "meetings" in which I talked for an hour or so and hoped they got it.

But no … I wanted to be sure that I did everything I could to ensure that the students got the education they deserved. So I'd spend hours a day -- pretty-much every day -- recording lectures (while trying to anticipate and answer every possible question), editing the resulting video files into something resembling a coherent lecture, and then posting them to the website.

Last Wednesday night/Thursday morning, I was preparing an especially lengthy lecture, and wanted to do a good job of it. I was here 'til 7:00 in the morning recording, editing, and finally posting. Then I went home, grabbed 4 hours' worth of sleep, and came in to start on the next. So, 12-, 14-, 16-plus hour days have been the norm for the past few weeks.

Then we had a major storm. The power was out for almost a week. After it was restored, we've had sporadic outages almost every day since. The power company said that some places might not get their power restored for weeks.


Yesterday, I gave the last "regular" exam for one of the classes. I had announced it -- both through e-mails and announcements on the website -- weeks in advance. I had repeatedly stressed that they would have one hour to complete the assignment.

The test was scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. I received the final paper at 9:30 p.m. Several students sent me messages in which they insisted it had taken them literally hours to figure out how to download and answer the questions, and then e-mail them to me. Others insisted that power outages were responsible for them taking so long. Several flat-out insisted that they hadn't known about the exam, and wouldn't have if they hadn't been contacted by friends.

*Sigh*

One student -- the one whose exam didn't arrive 'til 9:30 p.m. -- insisted that she hadn't known about the exam, and didn't happen upon it 'til 8:30, when she happened to check the website. This, despite the fact that my visitor log showed that she'd accessed the exam at 2:00 p.m., shortly after it was posted.

And yes, it's obvious that many of them cheated. Students who, in class, were never capable of anything more sophisticated than "Birds have feathers; Reptiles have scales" are writing stuff like: "The Reptilia, as commonly defined, is clearly a paraphyletic taxon and thus not a true clade; this is clear because cladistic analyses consistently place the Birds (Class Aves) within the Diapsid taxon Archosauria, along with the Crocodilia and the Dinosauria; thus if the Reptilia are to be considered a true clade, then the Birds must be considered members of the Class Reptilia."



Well, the Final Exams are next week, so it will soon be over.

I actually received three lovely messages from students yesterday. All three of them said that they missed me, and my classes. All three thanked me for actually trying to maintain some academic integrity and for trying to actually teach them (unlike most of the rest of their professors) -- and for going out of my way to make things as easy for them as I could, under the circumstances.

So that, at least, made me feel better.


I'm thinking that, over the Summer, I'll take the time to pre-record my lectures, in anticipation that the next semester may well be online as well. If I record my lectures over the Summer, I can take the time to do them properly, and to do a better job of editing the sound and video quality. (I have video- and audio-editing software on my home computer that's much better than the crappy stuff available here at the college.)

Plus, two students have told me that they'd like to have videos of my lectures for themselves, that they could refer back to, from time to time.


This is one semester that I will definitely be happy to see the end of!
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  #2  
Old 04-25-2020, 09:27 PM
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Kamilah Hauptmann Kamilah Hauptmann is offline
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Default Re: The Semester is Almosst Over

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger View Post
At this meeting, the Dean flat out told us that they didn't expect the students would learn anything from online coursework, and that we shouldn't expect them too either. And, we were told, we shouldn't try to enforce any kind of standards: "They will cheat," he told us, "and there's nothing you can do about it. So abandon any thoughts you might have had about maintaining academic integrity." Our goal, he emphasized, is to simply go through the motions and get them through the remainder of the semester.
*lengthy mocking rant about conservative small town Christian authoritarianism*

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger View Post
And yes, it's obvious that many of them cheated. Students who, in class, were never capable of anything more sophisticated than "Birds have feathers; Reptiles have scales" are writing stuff like: "The Reptilia, as commonly defined, is clearly a paraphyletic taxon and thus not a true clade; this is clear because cladistic analyses consistently place the Birds (Class Aves) within the Diapsid taxon Archosauria, along with the Crocodilia and the Dinosauria; thus if the Reptilia are to be considered a true clade, then the Birds must be considered members of the Class Reptilia."
*sounds of me eating my hat*

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger View Post
I actually received three lovely messages from students yesterday. All three of them said that they missed me, and my classes. All three thanked me for actually trying to maintain some academic integrity and for trying to actually teach them (unlike most of the rest of their professors) -- and for going out of my way to make things as easy for them as I could, under the circumstances.
*some faith restored at realistic assessment*

~~~

You have a site with log records, I suggest an informal Discord server since all the kids are using Discord these days. It allows a chat hangout and a voice chat server. Many of each, actually. You could have a text chat where you drop class notifications only, while another for an Ask The Prof, and yet another for jokes, memes, and other buffoonery. Classmates can help classmates with Word docs etc with the voice chat in real time or post guides in the text chat, whatever. Hey, large game guilds coordinate over that app, I bet a class of any level can find that of use too.

Organize students into groups so you can tag with an announce:
@Bio Class 1
@Everyone

Possible Layout:
Professor Ecks Discord Server
^Announcements
#Bio Class 1
#Bio Class 2
#Bio Class 3

^Text Class Discussion
#Bio Class 1
#Bio Class 2
#Bio Class 3

^Voice Class Discussion
#Bio Class 1
#Bio Class 2
#Bio Class 3

^Misc
#Jokes
#Photography
#Support
#Stuff
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  #3  
Old 04-25-2020, 10:52 PM
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Default Re: The Semester is Almosst Over

Aaaaaand I just received the last exam.

So, question: What's more suspicious?

1.) The fact that it was turned in 26 hours late with no explanation?

2.) The fact that he somehow mis-spelled his own name?
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  #4  
Old 04-26-2020, 12:36 AM
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Default Re: The Semester is Almosst Over

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Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger View Post
The fact that he somehow mis-spelled his own name?
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  #5  
Old 04-26-2020, 10:22 AM
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Default Re: The Semester is Almosst Over

I really really hoped that the double s in Almosst was deliberate and this post was going to include interesting snakes you've spotted. Which, you must admit, is not at all unlikely!
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Old 04-26-2020, 10:32 AM
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Default Re: The Semester is Almosst Over

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger View Post
The first discovery was that a shockingly large percentage of them simply can NOT manage the complex task of clicking on a "Word" document, downloading it to their computer, editing it to answer the questions, saving it, and then attaching the saved file to an e-mail document and returning it to me.
There are lots of jokes and memes about school education not covering things like "doing your taxes" and too much stuff like calculus. (Insert here SMBC "no but one of the smart kids might" comic.)

There aren't any memes about "they never taught us how to download, edit and email a Word doc" and yet this is such a fundamental skill - that the smart kids don't think about because "it's obvious" and the less smart kids don't think about until asked to do it.

We (by which I mean most of the world) should do something to address this. Some basic computer/internet skills tutoring. :chin: I've done some maths tutoring face to face; have thought about but not had the energy to resume that in an online form (partly because I'm not sure how many kids and parents are focused on possibly-not-happening exams this summer). But some kind of screen-casting / screen-sharing would be needed for that and it would (could) also be a good vehicle for basic online literacy.
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  #7  
Old 05-05-2020, 05:17 AM
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Default Re: The Semester is Almosst Over

True that. It is generally expected that "kids these days" are "digital natives" who totally know how do everything on a computer. I have found that while some of high school students are, many are fairly lost if asked to do more than send a text message, open up Netflix or share a Vine or a TicToc.

That said, TLRs students are just playing dumb. Before switching over almost entirely to Google docs last year, in about 10 minutes I used to teach my grade ten students "how to click on a "Word" document, download it to their computer, edit it to answer the questions, save it, and then upload the saved file" to the LMS page (Canvas). Kudos TLR for trying to teach this bunch of mostly slackers and cheaters. And like you, amidst a sea of the uninterested and incurious, I have do a small (and to me, significant) number of students who are taking my efforts seriously to teach them during this crisis, to put forth some actual effort and learn stuff, students who trouble themselves to turn on their mics and answer questions that I post in the daily agenda for class warm-up and exit activities in class Google Meets, and to say hello and goodbye to me at the beginning and end of each class... Given that most days the entirety of my interpersonal interactions are with those few students and my (mostly indifferent) cat, I am grateful for them!

I am also going to predict that most of my more well-off students with multiple pieces of technology at their disposal beyond the laptop provided by the school district are going to totally cheat on their Civics Test and other "distance assessments" by entering their answers on their laptops while having computer #2 or some other device open to the answers. And maybe they'll text the answers via their cellphones to their less well-off peers, but somehow I doubt it. Income and wealth inequality has found yet another place to screw the poor.

June 17. That's my last day. I haven't started a countdown yet, because when I do it's going to be in huge |||| marks on the wall in sharpie...
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