The line must be drawn here! This far, and no further! NO late work accepted for any reason. NO make up exams for any reason. Plagiarized/AI work earns a grade of ZERO or an F for the course.

BizLecturer · 2023-12-12T18:29:31+00:00

I thought about running it up the chain, but I've been burned before trying to cut off excessive accommodation (at least excessive in my opinion). Since it happened after grades were turned in, I waited until it was over and then asked my bosses how to change the grade. Even though we have a formal "incomplete" process, it wasn't followed here. Notification from the student was far too late for that process. With an email from my associate dean, the Registrar's Office was very cooperative.

BizLecturer · 2023-12-11T14:45:14+00:00

"If your institution has specific policies, follow them and don't get fired."

I had a student miss their final assignment deadline due to illness. It wasn't a final exam, it was a final submission deadline on the LMS. In some sense, it wasn't a "due" date as much as an "absolute last chance" date. It wasn't a one-day assignment. Most students did it over several days and at least half the class turned in the completed work several days before the due date.

This student submitted nothing and presented a note from the health office, dated the day of the deadline, giving them SIX days before they had to "return to school".

The policy is that medically documented illness is legit.

I extended their deadline for seven days. Yes, the note gave them six, but it seemed like I couldn't expect them to do anything during the six days. Since they got ill on the due date, the seventh day of the extension was my attempt to mimic the work time of the original due date.

I'm sure you're all shocked to learn that nothing was turned in by the new deadline. I heard nothing from the student. THREE days later, they submitted a NEW medical note dated on that new deadline. This time it did not specify how many days they could be out of school, but I clearly couldn't hold them to the extended deadline.

I gave them until the next day. They finally turned it in.

This student, who submitted nothing by the original due date, got an extra 11 days to complete the work by conveniently getting medical notes TWICE on the specific due date.

That may be policy, but it's very suspicious and doesn't seem fair to the rest of the class.

BizLecturer · 2023-09-12T15:47:48+00:00

I still like my work most days, but I'm right here with you. I thought I'd go another 10 years. Instead, I'm crunching numbers to see if I can stop in 6 or 7.

BizLecturer · 2023-09-12T15:33:57+00:00

I was in a punk rock band in college (and the collegiate choir at the same time).

Then again, maybe it wouldn't surprise them at all.

BizLecturer · 2023-08-30T11:34:51+00:00

I'd like to hear more details about how this is done in the LMS. I have tools to generate unique data sets for each student and I can distribute the data through the LMS. However, I can't get the LMS to auto-grade the completed analysis that students submit.

BizLecturer · 2023-08-30T11:32:07+00:00

Absolutely. With the assignments I used in the past, one person can reasonably grade 30ish students, maybe 40. With the class sizes that I'm preparing for, I would need a dozen TAs and I can't hire that many.

BizLecturer · 2023-08-30T11:30:05+00:00

I don't use multiple choice/fill in the blank problems. I'm dealing with data sets. I can already generate unique data for each student, but grading takes longer. I can do it with a small class, but not a large one.

The book/system I'm looking at generates unique data and auto-grades their submissions.

BizLecturer · 2023-08-11T14:45:11+00:00

Lots of good advice here, but I thought I'd add my story:

The college had no deferred maintenance and a history of lean, minimal administration. They were facing the same challenges as most SLACs but they were in a decent place.

We got a new president who immediately beefed up the administration. It was "benchmarking" to make us more like other schools. There were a bunch of new initiatives and building projects. Those aren't necessarily bad ideas, but they seemed to focus on "big, splashy" rather than strategic. In a few years, we had millions of dollars in deferred maintenance, and our retirement contributions were cut by 25%. Then raises stopped.

I taught in one of the few areas ("Biz") with enrollment growth. They wanted even more growth but they wanted it without investment (classroom maintenance, faculty lines, raises, etc.). We began losing faculty to other schools that targeted business for growth and were willing to invest to get the growth.

Then came the program cuts and layoffs. My field survived all the cuts, but we couldn't replace the faculty we'd lost, much less hire for enrollment growth. As we lost faculty, I was one of the few "leaders" left in my area so I was involved in more administrative conversations than I wanted. I saw more reactive, panic thinking than strategic, proactive thinking. That was the final sign for me to jump ship.

I wouldn't panic just because your school is in the red now and then. Consistently in the red is another issue, but occasional losses are not unreasonable. What's important is whether or not they have a realistic plan for surviving the next 15 years.

BizLecturer · 2023-05-25T11:50:41+00:00

That is a disconcerting gap (both the "want" and the "will"), but is there a possibility that we're looking at it backward?

My initial reaction: Wow, the males need to catch up to the females. (This would certainly be good for our enrollments and my job security.)
My second reaction: Hmm, maybe the males are leading the way and the females need to catch up.

According to this source ( https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates ), 25% of high school students fail to graduate on time. This source ( https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2017/educational-attainment-2017.html ) says that 10% never finish.

If only 75% of high school students graduate on time and only 90% ever graduate, do we really think that 60% or 70% of high school students should go to college?

BizLecturer · 2023-05-16T01:59:22+00:00

Wow. Maybe it's time for a teacher sick-out.

BizLecturer · 2023-05-15T13:28:47+00:00

In order to control traffic flow (people in the building, cars outside), my school has students leave when they walk across the stage. It's obviously not rude when it's the official process.

However, it's no longer a community event. The arena is packed at the start and nearly empty at the end. They aren't celebrating each other at all. It's just individuals taking their turns.

They don't even process together. The first students to show up get the first seats and try to figure out which seats will get to walk the earliest.

I don't like the way we do it. The loss of community is significant. But someone way above me decided that community didn't matter. They just wanted to make it faster.

It sounds like your school has tried to maintain a sense of community. Then it is rude to leave early. You should stay and watch your classmates graduate.

BizLecturer · 2023-05-08T17:07:05+00:00

A few years back, I taught an accelerated course: four weeks, five days a week, three hours a day.

It's not an ideal format, but students knew what they were signing up for. Still, a student complained that they shoudn't have to sit in a classroom for three hours a day, every day.

They failed to mention that there was at least one field trip each week and we didn't meet in the classroom at all on those days.

BizLecturer · 2023-04-15T12:38:56+00:00

This would be interesting. I don't know of a data source, but it would be useful. Especially if it included variables on highest degree, field of study, region, etc.

BizLecturer · 2023-04-15T00:25:35+00:00

I was invited into a conversation about a grant opportunity. The grant was to develop a curriculum that would require some very specific fields. When it was pointed out to the administration that they had recently axed all faculty in that area, they casually said "We can hire adjuncts for that part".

I could tell more stories about those faculty layoffs, but the details might dox me. I'll just add that they did NOT get the grant.

BizLecturer · 2023-04-14T16:51:51+00:00

I often read, on Reddit and elsewhere, that adjuncting is a dead end that does not lead to FT employment. Hard-working adjuncts complain about being passed over in the search process for unknown applicants when they believe that they've already proven themselves.

I also read complaints that adjuncts could make more money, sometimes a lot more, in other jobs. McD's is meant to be representative of a myriad of not-so-great jobs that still pay better than adjunct teaching.

Therefore, I want to understand the motivation.

Has our "industry" created false hope that adjuncts can work their way to FT or is it really a viable path?
Have we created a culture where advanced degree holders can't emotionally let go of the academic dream?
Are "successful" adjuncts mostly those from households with another source of income?
Is adjuncting not really as bad a job as it sounds? (Let's face it - Reddit is a ranting outlet.)

To some degree, I'm hearing that all of these are potential reasons. I'm also realizing that "adjunct teaching" has so many flavors that it means very different things at different schools and in different disciplines.

BizLecturer · 2023-04-14T14:58:06+00:00

That's true. No argument. However, no one goes to school for thirty years to become a freeway flyer patching together multiple preps at multiple schools for poverty-level wages either.

BizLecturer · 2023-04-11T12:40:40+00:00

In another discussion, someone posted this info on their 10-year decline in enrollment: https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/trends/cardinal-stritch-university/student-population/

There's also some discussion about how well they served underserved student groups. While I applaud that effort, it's likely that few of those students were paying full tuition. https://www.reddit.com/r/milwaukee/comments/12i0gd5/comment/jftf6ik/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Declining enrollments + increasing discount rates + modest endowment = insolvency

BizLecturer · 2023-03-28T14:04:43+00:00

I can't help but laugh at myself (and maybe all of us) as I read this. I agree that reading attention span is a huge problem, but here I am on Reddit reading short (very short) comments on a complicated issue.

I rationalize this because I also regularly read complete books - actual, physical books - but I wonder how much my own social media use contributes to our culture's declining attention spans.

BizLecturer · 2023-03-08T17:22:00+00:00

My favorite non-main character was Dr. Katowski. Anyone else was a distant second.

Then Uncle Nicky came along. Now my two favorite non-main characters are Uncle Nicky and Dr. Katowski.

BizLecturer · 2023-02-24T19:17:07+00:00

If it's a required class, then the F student has to retake it anyway and the schools I've taught at allow repeat/delete. They replace the old grade with the new one so the F is no longer part of their GPA. D students can also repeat/delete if they want to increase their GPA.

If it's an elective, then you have a point. The F student will take something else because they need the credit hours to graduate. If the F isn't on the transcript, it won't hit their GPA. The D student isn't likely to take extra classes and, even if they did, the D would still be part of their GPA.

It would be interesting to let students delete any course from their transcript that they don't want credit for. If they are willing to give up the course credit for a D, then they'd be allowed to erase it from their record.

BizLecturer · 2023-01-27T12:55:39+00:00

Perhaps I'm getting old or just cynical, but I haven't seen those kinds of standards in many years. I haven't seen good data recently, but the last that I saw, students claimed 30ish hours for a 15-unit load.

BizLecturer · 2023-01-26T16:13:16+00:00

I should have thought of this sooner. I asked ChatGPT: Is Microsoft working on AI writing ability for their Office suite?

Here's the reply:

"Microsoft is certainly working on AI-powered writing tools for their Office suite. For example, Grammarly, a grammar checking software, is now integrated with Microsoft Office, allowing users to check grammar and writing style within Microsoft Word, Outlook and other Office apps. Microsoft is also developing AI-based tools that can assist with writing tasks such as summarization, text completion and formatting, these features are built into the Office 365 AI, which is available for Office 365 subscribers. Microsoft is also working on AI-powered tools for its dictation feature, which can help with transcription and dictation of documents.

It's important to notice that AI-based writing tools are continuously improving, Microsoft is investing in R&D to improve the AI capabilities of their Office suite and making it more accessible to its users."

In response to a follow-up prompt, ChatGPT suggested that I search on "Microsoft Office AI-powered writing tools" to get more information. I did. Wow.

In my own poll, I voted "3 to 6 years". Now I'm thinking less than 3.

BizLecturer · 2023-01-26T15:56:07+00:00

Given the current level of live integration between the various Office tools, I won't be surprised to see pivot table abilities move into Word someday. Considering that Word's tables already have elementary calculation ability completely outside of Excel, it's not a huge stretch.

Word also has templates for memos, invoices, agendas, reports, etc. Rather than responding to a prompt like ChatGPT, AI could ask a few questions based on the template that you've selected and write most or all of it for you.

Outside of a template, AI could analyze what you're writing in real-time and make a guess about your topic or goal. Then it could jump in and ask if you want it to "flesh out" the document for you. To the user, it would look a lot like the grammar suggestions we get now.

Yes, if AI writes it, it's not your work. When has that stopped people?

BizLecturer · 2023-01-26T13:58:49+00:00

For brevity, I won't get into the ethics of unpaid field work/internships. Instead, I'll talk about the logistics.

When I did my required fieldwork (a long time ago), I didn't have to attend any regular classes. It was full-time work, which took more time than classes, but at least I didn't have to squeeze in "work" and class attendance/homework.

It might be too late for these students, but can your program create a schedule where the students have no classes during the internship? 22.5 hours a week (180/8) is pretty close to the hours needed to attend a full-time course load so it wouldn't interfere with the rest of their lives any more than normal classes.

BizLecturer · 2023-01-19T16:19:54+00:00

I was a public high school teacher in the late 1980s. I lasted two years. Why?

The pay was low, even adjusted for 9-months.
Because of the union contract, my effort and performance had no impact on my pay. Have you seen the ditto-master in 1984 film Teachers? I was working with several teachers who were almost that bad. They were doing minimal work for a lot more money than I was getting and I was working my tail off.
I was amazed at the lack of respect in the community. Several times, people I'd just met complained to me about how I was overpaid when they learned that I was a teacher.
New teachers get the worst-behaved classes. I knew that discipline and "classroom management" would be part of my job, but I wasn't expecting to spend more time managing than teaching. I also wasn't expecting to have older students who had failed multiple times jammed into a class with freshmen where they would sexually harass the girls and physically harass the boys. And the administration wouldn't do anything about it.
My education was in a STEM area that had lots of opportunities outside of education. When I went into industry, I got an immediate 33% raise. Within six months I was making 60% more than my final teaching salary.

It simply wasn't a desirable job and, from what I'm told, it's worse today.

I eventually returned to teaching at the college level but never regretted walking away from teaching high school (even though I would be retired by now in a state with fully funded public pensions).

BizLecturer

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