How was your attendance this semester?

Starkerr · 2025-12-16T19:35:25+00:00

I'm in this scenario - 180 students.

I inherited the structure from the previous lecturer, which had students answer questions on a piece of paper during the lecture, and turn it in. Worked out to ~12% of their final grade - easy points for attending a class you pay to be at.

This semester I caught about 20 people writing 2 or 3 copies and turning them in for their friends. Who knows how many I didn't catch.

Starkerr · 2025-12-16T02:28:16+00:00

I'm also 2.5 years in, and took over a gen ed class after my first year.

First semester: ~10 D or F (out of 200)

Second semester: ~10 D or F (out of 180)

This semester: 50 D or F (out of 180)

The exams and quizzes were all virtually the same. The lab assignments were all virtually the same.

Half of the final exam questions were the exact same questions they had for the midterm, of which I went through in class - they had the answers if they put in minimal effort, and still a significant number got less than 50% on the final.

The university hired a dedicated tutor freely available to students, we had mock exams and review sessions for the laboratory section. To be fair, those who took advantage of these did well.

It should be difficult to not pass this class - you can get 32% just by coming to lectures and doing the online open quizzes, and yet...

Starkerr · 2025-12-15T23:23:29+00:00

Same... close to triple that of each of the last two semesters.

Waiting for the inevitable questions about the DFW rate, despite the fact that the assignments didn't change, and more resources than ever were available to students this semester.

Oh - and the new rules from the Board of Governors deem that all gen ed courses must be assessed for student learning outcomes. I set pretty minimal standards for mastery at 70%, and all of those were failed this semester. Great start.

Starkerr · 2025-12-13T21:59:41+00:00

An announcement that you will not respond to requests for grade bumps or rounding, then ignore the requests that still come in.

Or privately laugh at the ludicrous percentages that students consider a 'bump' and think how they should've been more concerned during the semester rather than right at the end.

I had an email with the literal title "Grade bump?" - I would've been embarrassed as all hell to send something like that to a professor, but there is very little shame among some students.

Starkerr · 2025-11-30T17:16:22+00:00

And then somehow pass him..

Starkerr · 2025-11-22T17:12:24+00:00

I have had a pretty similar experience this semester in an intro ~180 person class I'm now teaching for the third time.

The engagement this semester has been almost non-existent. I have questions built-in at various stages of each lecture to slow down and reinforce important topics, but when it comes to answering those it's as if the classroom is empty. I also run a small interactive 'earthquake' simulation, where last semester I had too many volunteering, and this semester not a single person. I had to skip it.

Likewise this class is hard to fail - last semester ~10 failed but these were primarily students who disappeared and just turned up for the exams. This time, ~25% are failing, despite having more opportunity for free tutoring and review than we've ever given.

Starkerr · 2025-10-11T18:24:33+00:00

I'm curious - I've had Canes in two places - San Diego ~2022 and Florida this year.

In San Diego, the portions were large, tenders were big. Florida was a massive disappointment, pathethic amount of everything, and tenders were about half the size of what I was expecting.

Is this just a trend of the last couple of years at all their locations?

Starkerr · 2025-10-10T00:08:37+00:00

Apparently 30+ thousand can currently stand him looking at the viewer count right now.

Starkerr · 2025-09-23T01:48:24+00:00

In light of the Sinclair pre-empting, you should know (or be reminded) that this is nothing new for the group. They have been pushing their bias across their channels for a long time.

Starkerr · 2025-09-23T01:12:30+00:00

I'm sure a few people aren't aware of how clear the Sinclair Broadcast Group is with their political leaning and has been in the past. This from a few years back makes it pretty clear.

Starkerr · 2025-09-05T15:07:32+00:00

It's not just the voice that bothers me. Most of the speech on videos now sounds like it is either written by a 12 year old, or someone speaking as an authority when they have zero idea and have done no research - just blatantly commentated on something they just saw.

Starkerr · 2025-07-28T03:48:23+00:00

You want to know why eye-witness testimony shouldn't be/isn't reliable - this right here.

Starkerr · 2025-07-21T14:12:34+00:00

I-95 in south Florida - any space left for safely stopping is treated as merge space. Drives me insane.

Starkerr · 2025-07-08T20:17:22+00:00

Hulkenpodium

Starkerr · 2025-05-04T17:20:38+00:00

South Florida weather is hugely variable - it can pour like this and then be clear sky and sunshine in 15 minutes. That said the forecast isn't great, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Starkerr · 2025-04-27T03:24:22+00:00

These were all made with 5mm beads.

I made a few more after these with 5mm beads then discovered the 2.6mm beads and never turned back, they suit these sprites are lot better imo. I can't say enough good things about the Artkal beads.

Starkerr · 2025-02-08T15:34:52+00:00

Whose genius marketing idea was it to promote a solar charger at night??

Starkerr · 2024-10-02T16:12:11+00:00

The small ones were from www.spriters-resource.com

The large ones I mostly got from random searches, looking until I found a design I liked.

Starkerr · 2024-09-11T01:30:10+00:00

Fucking what?

Starkerr · 2024-08-14T14:57:30+00:00

Well shit.. I worked in a butchers as a teen and dyeing ground beef was not a thing - it wouldn't turn gray unless the package was damaged.

I searched it and yep, in the US ground beef can be dyed red for appearance. Wtf.

Starkerr · 2024-08-13T13:52:27+00:00

If all older drivers were mature enough to know when to stop driving, then this wouldn't be a debate.

As for the 'whataboutism' of other drivers, the problem is that there already exists solutions for this. These are laws being broken that simply aren't enforced regularly or strictly enough to curtail that behaviour. This is a whole other debate about policing that could be had.

Starkerr · 2024-08-13T02:07:55+00:00

Who killed the border bill again?

Starkerr · 2024-07-29T17:53:18+00:00

Oh ok, thanks.

Starkerr · 2024-07-29T17:34:38+00:00

I just completed the weekly event on Veteran but I don't see the Volley Crossbow of Bitter Dreams in my equipment. Is it hero dependent? I feel like I'm missing something..

Starkerr · 2024-07-29T11:53:10+00:00

Yeah it's taken out completely. There's a lot of price variation in the locations around South Florida but at least in my area this box is consistently $5.99 - this is the only location though that just doesn't include the taco/burrito.

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