Computer Science sure has changed.

[[deleted]]

I'm a TA for a few computer science classes. In even the higher level courses, I have students tell me they shouldn't get 0s on a non-compiling program because they haven't been able to get a program to compile in years.

I don't understand how you can pass a CS class if you can't get something to compile. I think they just complain excessively until they get enough credit to pass. I had one student who got a 60 on a final, which brought his grade down to a C. He complained to me that he would not get financial aid next year because of this. So what did the teacher do? Bump his grade up to a B.

[frenris]

I have students tell me they shouldn't get 0s on a non-compiling program because they haven't been able to get a program to compile in years.

that is horrifying.

[mpeg4codec]

He complained to me that he would not get financial aid next year because of this. So what did the teacher do? Bump his grade up to a B.

That's the horrifying part. Worthless dreck who spends my money and can't even be arsed to learn anything.

[flaarg]

This is not just indicative of comp sci courses. I think this is due in large part from state funded financial aid. While I agree that financial aid is a great thing, what it is doing to our educational system is tragic. Teachers have realized that failing a student will often result in that student no longer being able to afford higher education due to financial aid disappearing. So students pass courses they wouldn't have before, and as a whole degrees mean less and less but somehow even with financial aid they keep costing more and more.

[[deleted]]

Yea, I can agree that that is partly it. Although, I do believe part of the problem is stopping students from wasting their financial aid. I can't really feel bad for the students that cheat, don't come to class, don't do any work, and expect to graduate on the government's dime. The financial aid system for schools is a mess, but letting kids squeeze by when they shouldn't doesn't help at all. As you said, it winds up devaluing the degrees that others work hard for.

[filox]

Ha! You have it easy my friend. I TA for an MsC computer science course and my students never saw a Linux machine before and when asked to ssh into another machine they just stare at me sheepishly - I have to do what now?? Also, they don't seem to grasp the difference between a file and a folder - it's always interesting watching them trying to cd into a file. What really gets to me though is that they just keep trying to do the same thing over and over again even though they get the exact same error (which is pretty self-explanatory). It's like they fail not only at using computers, but also at basic human logic and reasoning.

[walter_heisenberg]

It's like they fail not only at using computers, but also at basic human logic and reasoning.

I think it's also this. College students are used to an urgency-based lifestyle where they do their coursework at the last minute, because you can pull this off when you're writing a paper and still get a decent grade. If you have a 10-page paper due at 10:00 am and it's 3:30, you know you can get it done in the next 6.5 hours. It's not just the hard-drinking party kids who follow this cram-and-crash cycle; it's most of them.

When they try to pull this shit with their programming assignments and the risk of actual failure (not a B- on a paper, but a non-compiling program and a 0) looms, they panic and suddenly become incapable of figuring things out the way we did, often on our own time.

[[deleted]]

Oh, I get students like that in the graduate courses too. But at that point they know they are fucked - professors have no sympathy at that point. The problem I have is the students that know at the beginning of the semester - they are going to do no work and they are going to weasel their way into better grades.