Favorite comment so far from the student evaluations of my spring semester online class, entered under the "what could have been improved" category:
The clarity and precision of her directions was sometimes overwhelming.
I do understand what the student is getting at; sometimes the sheer volume of prose I produce for online classes overwhelms me, too. But 'tis in the nature of the beast, I fear.
Don't worry. Just factor this in from my all-online comments harvest this spring"
"more clear explanations of how to submit documents and assignments"
Don't get me started on the level of detail included on each assignment on how to submit. Because it was excruciating...you know, to avoid confusion and ambiguity about the submission process:-)
I recently had an online student complain about the redundancy of information on the course site. The college dictates that we have checklists, content links that duplicate the syllabus, and information repeated in the discussion threads and other course links, all in addition to the syllabus.
When I started teaching online about a decade ago, the only resource for course information was the syllabus. I had FAR fewer problems with students missing deadlines and failing to follow instructions back when the information was in one simple place.
With the multi-layers of access in the average online course, invariably there will be a broken link here or there. I just had a student declare that a discussion question was missing because the convenience jump link opened a different week's question. (Student was too lazy to scroll down the page to the actual location of the forum.)
But then again, your reminiscence of the "just the syllabus" days presupposes students who had mastered actual reading comprehension, had at least an average level motivation, and a measure of self-sufficiency!
For the love of Dewey, I can't convince my flakes that the library's search engine works pretty much like Google and has the benefit of NOT returning hits like "I-know-everything.com". They'd much rather just grab a quote from [insert random local news outlet] and call it a well researched answer.
C'mon Surly, having to click more than once .. that's like work!
A&S said: But then again, your reminiscence of the "just the syllabus" days presupposes students who had mastered actual reading comprehension, had at least an average level motivation, and a measure of self-sufficiency!
Are you implying that students were more competent c. 2001? Because I've had that experience too!
I started teaching as a GA in Fall 2000. At the same school, the general student's ability to follow directions and do college-level work had PLUMMETED by 2005. I've worked at another school since then, and very few have the capability of the students I had in 2000-2002... and they weren't exactly experts at rocket surgery then either.
The_Myth asked: Are you implying that students were more competent c. 2001?
Of course ... because we were the students before 2001! :)
Seriously though, in 2005 I began teaching for an online program for, primarily, working adults looking to make that step-up.
A mere six years ago, the majority of these students, when they got some A&S-style Good Ol' Fashioned Smackdown®, responded with something along the lines of "Thanks for the feedback, I'm still trying to get my writing up-to-speed."
Today, however, I'm just as likely to get flamed with "How dare you criticize my writing! I have gotten nothing but As since I started my program (back in 1982!). Who do you think you are?"
Don't worry. Just factor this in from my all-online comments harvest this spring"
ReplyDelete"more clear explanations of how to submit documents and assignments"
Don't get me started on the level of detail included on each assignment on how to submit. Because it was excruciating...you know, to avoid confusion and ambiguity about the submission process:-)
I recently had an online student complain about the redundancy of information on the course site. The college dictates that we have checklists, content links that duplicate the syllabus, and information repeated in the discussion threads and other course links, all in addition to the syllabus.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started teaching online about a decade ago, the only resource for course information was the syllabus. I had FAR fewer problems with students missing deadlines and failing to follow instructions back when the information was in one simple place.
@Surly ...
ReplyDeleteI second your frustration.
With the multi-layers of access in the average online course, invariably there will be a broken link here or there. I just had a student declare that a discussion question was missing because the convenience jump link opened a different week's question. (Student was too lazy to scroll down the page to the actual location of the forum.)
But then again, your reminiscence of the "just the syllabus" days presupposes students who had mastered actual reading comprehension, had at least an average level motivation, and a measure of self-sufficiency!
For the love of Dewey, I can't convince my flakes that the library's search engine works pretty much like Google and has the benefit of NOT returning hits like "I-know-everything.com".
They'd much rather just grab a quote from [insert random local news outlet] and call it a well researched answer.
C'mon Surly, having to click more than once .. that's like work!
A&S said: But then again, your reminiscence of the "just the syllabus" days presupposes students who had mastered actual reading comprehension, had at least an average level motivation, and a measure of self-sufficiency!
ReplyDeleteAre you implying that students were more competent c. 2001? Because I've had that experience too!
I started teaching as a GA in Fall 2000. At the same school, the general student's ability to follow directions and do college-level work had PLUMMETED by 2005. I've worked at another school since then, and very few have the capability of the students I had in 2000-2002... and they weren't exactly experts at rocket surgery then either.
I once had a student complain that 'she is too interesting, you can't fall asleep in class even if you need to'
ReplyDeleteThe_Myth asked: Are you implying that students were more competent c. 2001?
ReplyDeleteOf course ... because we were the students before 2001! :)
Seriously though, in 2005 I began teaching for an online program for, primarily, working adults looking to make that step-up.
A mere six years ago, the majority of these students, when they got some A&S-style Good Ol' Fashioned Smackdown®, responded with something along the lines of "Thanks for the feedback, I'm still trying to get my writing up-to-speed."
Today, however, I'm just as likely to get flamed with "How dare you criticize my writing! I have gotten nothing but As since I started my program (back in 1982!). Who do you think you are?"
::sigh::
My favorite comment was "She deserves a pay raise." It would be nice! I'm sure that's true of you too, Cassandra.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite comment - "liked how she didn't feel like she had to use the entire class period every time & just let us go when the material was done"
ReplyDeleteFrom this year's batch: "She's like a one-woman production of "Chicago." My discussions of communications theory are Fosse-esque?
ReplyDelete