"Dear Prof,
"Unfortunately, I can never come to your Hamster Husbandry class so I don't know what happens in class, so I'm confused about the most recent announcement on your CMS. The announcement concerns one of your other courses, Advanced Topics in Gerbil Gestation. It has a course code and readings that are totally different from the Hamster Husbandry course I'm registered in. Do I have to know the material from the other course, too, the one I'm not registered in? If so, where do I find that material?"
Do you really think I'm making this up? Help me. Help me.
Am I reading that right? Not only do they never show up but they are actually registered for a totally different class than the one they never show up for?
ReplyDeleteWha???
No, the snowflake is seeing announcements and assignments for the wrong class, and is confused because s/he has some idea about the class s/he is enrolled in but never attends.
DeleteI've seen this before, back when I used to teach online. It's very tempting to just answer, "Yes."
Old School asked for help, but all I can do is pass along the Wisdom of Elvis:
I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused.
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ReplyDeleteIris, it's a matter of the student inexplicably confusing crystal-clear announcements for two totally separate courses (different names, codes, purposes, content, books).
ReplyDelete"It's very tempting to just answer, 'Yes.'" Now this is an idea, isn't it? Maybe I should throw in "additional requirements" from other disciplines while I'm at it.
Where do they come from? Who sends them to me? And why?
"Where do they come from? Who sends them to me? And why?"
DeleteAs no less than Ginger Baker observed:
"Because I was so wicked, God is keeping me alive, and in as much pain as possible."
Oh, ok... Our CMS only lets student see announcements for courses they are actually enrolled in, so I was confused.
DeleteAs to where they come from, they come from public schools that have become so terrified of the totally broken standardized tests that the students are taught only very specific things in very specific ways. The existence of a wider world is not required, so it's not on the test.
As Master Yoda might have noted:
ReplyDelete"AIIEEEE! Strong is the stupid with this one!"
XOXOXO
DeleteSaying "Yes" just opens up grounds for an appeal later. Much better to say something like, "I leave the choice of whether or not to actually read any given material to students. But, in my experience, many people have found reading that material is often a very worthwhile activity. That material can be found at X". It's truthful, and it's to the potential benefit of the student to learn something beyond the narrow confines of hamster husbandry (albeit not for credit). And it smacks them for being clueless at the same time.
ReplyDeleteYou sir or madam are fucking brilliant! :-)
DeleteI didn't say I said "Yes". I just said it's tempting.
DeleteIt seems to me that this is partly the fault of the CMS, which really ought to display announcements only to the students in the relevant class (ours, too, despite its faults, does this). But if this is the way your CMS works, I'd understand some confusion early in the term, but -- well, it's not early in the term anymore, is it?
ReplyDeleteIf it makes you feel any better, our CMS's grade book doesn't play very well with graded group work on its discussion board. The result is that students see multiple copies of each group assignment -- the one for their own group, and one for each of the other groups, which of course they don't need to complete. I've worked out a system for including the group numbers in the assignment titles, so they can tell which ones they actually were supposed to do, and most catch on within a week or two. But every semester I get an email or two around this time in the semester from someone who's panicking because (s)he has all these blanks in the grade book. And yes, the students who send such emails nearly always haven't been paying attention to other, more important (and less confusing) things, too.
As for where they come from, at my institution the answer is often "from the local community college, bearing an AA degree." But we also get some very good, on-top-of-things students from there, too, so I don't think the cc is responsible for creating the problem (just, perhaps, for failing to detect and deter such behavior -- and yes, I know they've got lots of other stuff on their plate, and are even more underpaid and overworked than we are, so I'm not really inclined to be too upset with them).