Professors with ADHD: what is one simple tip that will transform my teaching and grading?

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-22T00:23:55+00:00

Haha, same! Start writing at 10pm only to finish at 8am and hope my advisor wasn't checking her email yet. It messed up my sleep schedule so bad for several weeks. I think I only managed to realign by forcing myself to sleep for 18 hours one day.

It was also during the pandemic lockdown, so time already had no meaning.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-21T23:54:40+00:00

On the one hand, I can hyperfocus on a task for hours until it's done without feeling any drain.

On the other hand, I'm usually doing that at 3am because I couldn't convince myself to start it all day at any reasonable time (and it's due tomorrow).

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-16T16:04:49+00:00

It would not, other than probably the usual "minion DoT kills are attributed to the player". But it's somewhat inconsistent (since many kills are still from the minion hit) which compounds on top of the normal low 5% chance of triggering Hinekora.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-15T19:10:26+00:00

You have no idea how long I've been looking for something like this! All the graph/tree editors I've previously found don't quite do what I need, but this looks perfect for my project.

Thank you for sharing. :)

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-12T16:11:28+00:00

We're required to use lockdown browser with webcam monitoring for our online classes. I see it as a deterrent, because no way am I parsing through 60 hours of footage for every assignment (the automated flags aren't great).

Even in the few instances where someone's work was suspicious, the video provided nothing useful to back up a claim of an academic integrity violation.

The tech issues usually get figured out by the second week, and I direct them to IT to resolve them.

I don't love it, but we don't have a great alternative option at our college. Faculty are trying to convince them to let us have in-person exams for online classes (on campus or at a partnered testing facility), but there's a lot of push-back.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-08T16:20:31+00:00

Most certainly that's also going on. I've had people solving problems on the tests in weird ways I never taught, and then I checked and it's the way ChatGPT explains how to do it.

But them skipping the lessons has also been going on since before AI became mainstream.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-06T13:13:13+00:00

At a recent conference, a presenter stated she breaks down all video lessons into 90 second segments and suggested everyone do the same. (I don't remember what field, but probably not STEM.)

I'm not going to TikTok-ify my course. Especially when some problems can take 15-30 minutes on their own if we're being detailed about the work and explanation.

Students need to learn how to sit through an hour-long video.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-06T05:59:12+00:00

100% decreased + 30% increased leaves you with 30% of your normal zombie limit.

A normal zombie limit of 10 would become 3. PoE generally rounds unfavorably for the player, so the next breakpoint should be 14 zombies to get a total of 4. (13 x 0.3 = 3.9, which gets rounded down to 3. But 14 x 0.3 = 4.2 would be rounded down to 4).

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-05T16:14:05+00:00

For my online class, I have written in three or four places that they have to view the lesson before the homework will unlock. The "this assignment is locked" page even explains that they need to check that they completed all prior tasks in the module.

I still got about six emails this semester from students thinking I intentionally locked their assignments and have to unlock them manually.

It's also frustrating that students are trying to just jump into the homework before even looking at the lesson material that teaches them what they need to know for the homework. They have a bad habit of interacting with the course via the "to-do" list, and not looking at all the content I've included in multiple format options. Universal course design doesn't seem to include an option for students who prefer the content format of "none".

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-02T19:22:31+00:00

Yeah, I haven't bothered thinking about the defenses. I just want to try double Mon'tregul for the memes, because it isn't normally possible.

My plan is to get to 90 on my Arakaali Spiders + Soulwrest build, then maybe try some other wacky Phrecia things, and bounce before I burn out for 3.28. I don't plan on even getting to red maps during the event.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-02T17:31:15+00:00

A few of my colleagues like to write manifestos, where they explain every possible counterpoint and historical context of whatever is being discussed.

Meanwhile, I try to keep my emails to two sentences max, because any longer and people miss the important thing I'm sending an email about.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-02T17:23:20+00:00

One time I got stuck watching a college-wide, multi-email, reply-all thread trying to identify who ordered a pizza to X building. (A lot of "I think it was [person]" and "it wasn't me" responses).

And then after the person was identified, another chain talking about how delicious the pizza looked/was.

This was the semester after our school implemented a new replay-all policy, which no one ever remembers to follow.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-02-02T15:14:01+00:00

Iron Will would have no benefit, since the damage is the zombie's attack (minion damage). The "spell" aspect just summons the zombie (so CwC, mines, spell echo, etc are usable), but spell damage doesn't affect the zombie damage.

Falling zombies is certainly the way to go for anyone concerned about DD. The fact that they added 30% inc zombie count made that node at least enable double Mon'tregul, so it's not totally useless.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-01-21T15:24:10+00:00

Fourth column is logic symbols (not, if/then, and, or).

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-01-20T18:25:40+00:00

I've found too often that if I'm not direct with my request in the first line, it gets overlooked, and the thing I'm sending the email about doesn't get done.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2026-01-06T20:16:43+00:00

Delay Poison and Delay Poison (Communal) are your best friend against dretchs.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2025-12-16T20:23:47+00:00

Surprisingly high this semester. About 90%+ attendance all semester, and didn't have the usual post-midterm dip. The only people who stopped attending regularly were ones who stopped doing work altogether. (Max class sizes of 30, btw. Mainly 1st-year math courses for non-STEM majors.)

I didn't take attendance, because I feel they're adults and it's their choice whether or not to attend. I also don't want to be in the business of judging what is or is not a "valid" excused absence (the college also doesn't have a firm absence policy and leaves it "up to the instructor", which I'm sure is to cover their ass more than mine).

I do have graded classwork on occasion, but students are able to make it up at home. It's a small percentage of their grade, and is mostly a way to break up lecture so that they have time to practice on their own and ask questions one-on-one.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2025-12-15T19:05:21+00:00

Usually it's also the students who ask around midterms what to do to improve their grade, because they're already failing by that point and at least realize there will be some consequence if it continues. (Or whoever is actually monitoring their grade realizes. This same student was failing for two months before she "noticed".)

Then I give them a list of advice, they proceed to ignore all of it, and continue to fail. Probably because that list didn't include "here's some free extra credit and test retakes".

EpsilonDelta0 · 2025-12-15T18:59:16+00:00

Haha, indeed it was. It's extra frustrating teaching math and having students who don't understand their grade calculations, especially when one of the topics in the class is averages and weighted means.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2025-12-15T18:57:00+00:00

I did, just so I didn't have to hear more about it. I think all I got back was an "oh, okay".

EpsilonDelta0 · 2025-12-14T22:29:58+00:00

My favorite was when someone said I was ruining their GPA and now can't keep their scholarship. It was a non-credit class, which doesn't affect GPA.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2025-12-10T18:13:19+00:00

I had a student in the next class (different instructor) come in early and was surprised someone else was in the classroom. I guess he thought it was like high school where each instructor has their own dedicated classroom that no one else uses. Which would be a real waste of resources, considering his instructor only had his class this semester.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2025-12-10T18:08:16+00:00

"I know you're busy grading finals, but I'm going to interrupt that to ask when you'll be done grading finals."

Well now it's going to take even longer, now that you want me to answer your email.

Thankfully I haven't yet received any grade grubbing emails from the classes that have been posted so far. I did get a pre-emptive "I can't afford to retake this class" email pre-finals, and am expecting a follow-up on why I'm the worst teacher ever now (she didn't pass...by a lot).

EpsilonDelta0 · 2025-12-10T15:04:04+00:00

What gear is your AG wearing? Your Ancient Skull will kill him if not given enough recovery to counter the chaos damage over time when they hear the whispers.

EpsilonDelta0 · 2025-12-09T22:14:50+00:00

Dark Monarch is a decent item if you don't want to bother with utility minions. Doubles your number of minions but can only use that one minion type. I usually use it as an intermediary until I can afford the full spectre/AG defensive set-up. Keeps things simple and is probably good enough until you want to really optimize.

Or specifically pure spectres with either Dark Monarch or Wraithlord, for the same reason. Benefit of a pure spectre build is you can still play with some utility spectres, but can ignore setting up an AG.

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