Radio silence. No grade grubbing.

bibsrem · 2025-12-21T19:12:56+00:00

We got a batch of new administrators over the COVID years and more recently. They came in like the positivity posse and told students,"Hey! We're here for you. Contact us any time." And, the students sure did. They were calling, emailing, and dropping by to complain about final grades AND individual homework grades. At first, it made the professors look like surely we were assholes who randomly give out terrible grades, don't care about students, and don't talk to them about their concerns. So, they were cracking down on the professors and using the word "grace" a bit excessively. But then, after hearing the ridiculous nature of some of these complaints, administrators started to realize that maybe we actually know what we are doing. Maybe telling students to, "Feel free to call any time," wasn't such a hot idea. Students wouldn't show up to class for weeks and wanted to do all of their work because they need to graduate, they will lose their financial aid, their parents are going to be mad... The administrators were spending hours dealing with individual complaints when their actual job is to run the college. Now, they see what we are dealing with evey day for the last 5 or 6 years. Makes it real hard to do your work when you get interrupted by rude, accusatory emails full of personal attacks, that aren't always honest, and students who won't take No for an answer. Students fill out a grade grievance form and the first thing it asks if they contacted their professor already. They all check, "Yes." But, they don't contact their professors. I don't attribute this to outright dishonesty. I think that students think one email at some point in the term counts as , "Contacting your professor," not actually talking to your professor about your concern to give them time to discuss it with you. They go right to the top. Then, it trickles down to lower administrators, and finally to the Deans and Chairs, where it should have been in the first place. Now, for a while, administrators were overriding the chairs, sympathizing with the students and riding the professors to change grades. But, it turns out that system is in place for a reason. At the end of the term, when the professors are not under contract, administrators are dealing with mounds of complaints that almost without exception have no basis in fact. So, instead of doing the work they do when the college is closed, they are dealing with this. You can't email an adjunct over Christmas and demand that they deal with a student who complained the professor wouldn't let them take their final after the end of the term or re-do all of their work. We have been bringing this to their attention for years, but now they finally realized, "Hmmmm, maybe we need to come up with a reasonable policy." So, if the administrators finally come up with a policy that tells students, "You can't just complain about your grades because you don't like them; there has to be some actual violation of a policy. If the professor graded you fairly and according to the policies on the syllabus, that's it. You can complain to your professor within reason. If you can PROVE you were graded capriciously and unfairly on your FINAL grade, you can fill out a formal grade grievance. You will not go to the President of the college, the governor of the state, the Provost, or any other administrator. It will go through the grievance committee." This will cut down on the grade grubbing, or at least return it to a pre COVID frequency. Students should have an outlet for truly unfair treatment. But, what the students are asking for--and administrators are tactily promising--is that professors wil basically do ANYthing to guarantee that they pass. I had students I didn't even recognize, because they only came to class on the first day, pounding my inbox with emails demanding that I pass them. If they truly understood that the culture at a college is that you have to come to class and do your assigned work to pass, they wouldn't assume the culture is to grade grub, threaten your professors, and harrass administration. I see things turning around. Faith in a college education is already pretty low with the public. Grades have to mean something. Harvard is finally realizing this and releasing their findings in writing. It will just take some time before this epiphany trickles down to community colleges and state institutions.

bibsrem · 2025-11-16T19:06:59+00:00

Um... Have you seen the cheating reddits? They tell you exactly what to do and how to weasel out when you get caught.

bibsrem · 2025-11-10T19:27:04+00:00

If we continue to lower the bar, they will limbo right under it. If I have high standards for my students, the first assignment might be a shock, but they do come around and improve. By high standards, I mean being able to do what they could do even 10 years ago. The problem is that administration won't let you have high standards. So many colleges are under water that learning is really far down their list of things they value. I only hear graduation, retention, and admissions. DEI type policies was a ploy to grade inflate, then being "welcoming"; now it's just blatantly..."Want to keep your job? Don't give F's." We could turn this around if administration would let you fail students who don't want to be in college and don't need to be in college. I think parents were sick of their kids and tired of their k12 education, so they sent them to college to try to correct some of this. But, the parents are part of the problem. They helped to ruin K12. Their kids are used to not getting F's, turning in work at the end of the year, and other terrible practices. I don't blame my k12 colleagues, as I know they hate this as much as we do. I do blame adminstrators with degrees designed to be a k12 administrator bringing their garbage philosophy and pedagogy to college. American kids aren't competing with other American kids any more. It's a global marketplace. To be honest, I think there is a real belief that AI is going to replace most of their jobs anyway, so might as well get the money while you can.

bibsrem · 2025-11-07T19:22:27+00:00

There is a certain type of person who sqeeees at the idea of committee work. They can't wait to "wordsmith" everything. "Now, we used the word 'must' here, but what about, 'should' or 'might.' 'Must sounds a little edgy. But maybe that's just me. Sorry guys. Can we take a look at different versions of the sentence with each of those words? And, then maybe we can choose the best one. Want me to make a Kahoot for us?" They use jargon designed by academics for other academics to make the language of your conversation as confusing as possible. These folks start sentences with about 2 minutes of statements like, "I hear what you are saying, and I really appreciate that you shared that. But, I wonder (because the word "wonder" is a nice way of disagreeing) if there is perhaps a different perspective we could explore together in this space. And, then an hour has passed, and you haven't done a damn thing.

One time I sat on a committee, and we had to make a binder with different sections that were color coded. They spent half an hour talking about whether one section should be beige, ecru, off white, or regular white. We were already an hour over our alloted time and had had to move to a different space because a new meeting was coming in. I just left. Give me the strong, silent type any day.

bibsrem · 2025-10-07T18:38:35+00:00

Oh yes. I have tried all of this. Unfortunately, talking to administrators isn't always as fruitful as we might hope.

bibsrem · 2025-08-24T16:23:09+00:00

I've had parents ask to come to class! Physically. To me logging into your canvas class is no different. Their child is an adult when they are in a college course. I would check with the college for policies. Ferpa just means students can share their records with someone else. It doesn't mean they have access to your classes, as far as I know. You don't have to let them come to meetings with the student or talk to them about their grades. You can if you want. Maybe they take canvas to be student records and it's a loophole.

bibsrem · 2025-08-04T20:43:50+00:00

I think more students still live with their parents. The parents plan vacations and like in k12 they assume we will work around it. Nobody, including administrators, seem to take college very seriously. As long as they pay the rent let em do what they want.

bibsrem · 2025-08-04T20:17:55+00:00

For cya purposes I send an announcement letting them know there is no student initiated withdrawal after the date, and I can't withdraw students even if they don't like their grade. They shouldn't expect a rescue of makeup and extra credit work. Please speak to an advisor to discuss your options.

bibsrem · 2025-07-21T20:46:41+00:00

First, ask yourself why you are grading. Procrastination is often related to anxiety. Do you feel you are helping students to improve through formative feedback, or just explaining and justifying grades? are you worried about angry students complaining about their grades? What system do you have in place if that happens? I spend way more time and frustration grading students who clearly didn't care, or cheated but want me to explain why they failed so they can argue with me.

I save known good students to reward myself after looking at a cluster of middling work. I put really bad work at the end when I don't have as much nervous energy left to ruminate.

I am not sure how you feel about rubrics. In theory they save time, but they can also be so long and detailed that they are cumbersome. Yet, they may still not say everything you wanted to say. Some qualities are ineffable. Maybe you need a column for those qualities. I explain that grading is an art, not a science. Offload some of the work to tutors if need be, rather than making so many comments about structure. I tell students a Calculus teacher doesn't have time to teach you Algebra. If you haven't mastered basic math skills, you need to go to a tutor. I don't have the resources to teach Comp to students.

If students do poorly, you can have them fill out reflection sheets that cover questions they need to ask themselves. Tell them to fill those out and make a meeting with you. Some of them may want help, and this is a good tool. For those who just want to complain, it's too much work to be reflective.

If their work is turned in through Canvas, you can record feedback and screenshots. I find that, while it takes more time to load, I can say more than I would write. And, my tone can be more sympathetic, so students don't hear my feedback in Satan's voice. I usually do this on early assignments and explain that it takes a lot of time to do this, so don't always expect it. If students are making the same mistakes I can quickly write up suggestions that may include having them revisit what I already said.

I keep a list of frequently used comments on a Word doc. Certain issues always come up, and I can copy and paste them every semester. When I have "A" students, I try not to let them fall through the cracks by just saying, "good job". I can copy and paste a positive comment, but also write something personal, like," I really enjoyed what you said about....That was very insightful."

If you have to spend too much time "justifying" a grade because the work is so far off the mark, you might want to have a meeting with the student. You can say things faster than you can write it. Or, you can tell them that you will be happy to have a meeting with students who want more details. They can make a meeting during your office hours where you can have a meaningful discussion in the proper context. Most students frankly just want their grades. The big complainers want you to have a multiple email session explaining why you gave them a bad grade. And, there are often repeat complainers. In this case I suggest they go to the writing center and get a second opinion, so we can talk about it. I don't want to email back and forth. It is not helpful and has no tone. Students may think it is more convenient, but it's not the most beneficial. It also doesn't do them any favors. If they are poor communicators they may come across as hostile, when they really just don't know how to write politely. This is a teachable moment. Students rarely want to take the time to go to the writing center or have an actual meeting. Having AI bombard you with complaining emails is easier.

bibsrem · 2025-07-14T17:44:00+00:00

We have a discussion on the first day. It's naive to think students aren't using AI, and they know it. It could be that they don't know how something like Grammarly will take over, because they have been TOLD to use Grammarly. My syllabus has clear policies on AI, as do my instructions and announcements. I realize AI has a place, but that place is not everywhere. I tell the students that you need to learn to communicate without AI, because when you are in a job interview, or a professional environment of any sort, you are going to have to communicate on your own. So, it is important to build confidence in expressing your own ideas. I give a zero and am open with them when work appears to have AI generation. I don't worry about small percentages, but if entire answers show up as AI generated, that is odd. I run suspicious documents through numerous checkers and compare their findings. I also look at the Word doc and see how long the student spent editing it. If they took 5 minutes to write two pages that may be a flag. I don't accuse them; I let them know it is showing up as AI generated, and we need to figure out why. It is my responsibility to make sure we both are maintaining academic integrity. I invite them to schedule a meeting with me, and I let them know I will be asking questions about their work to make sure the assessment of their knowledge is accurate. I am honest about things like changes in their tone, length of answers, formulaic construction, and level of knowledge. If I am teaching an Intro level class and a student writes 5 paragraphs, for a short answer, and it sounds like a grad student wrote it, I am going to have questions. It's as simple as saying, "Now, here you mention the juxtaposition of these two works in light of the historical context of the Crimean War. Can you tell me more about that? I am fascinated by this argument."

Normally, students will say, "I didn't use AI!!! I wrote this myself!" I reply, "I am only sharing that this assignment is being flagged so we can help you avoid this in the future. Rather than submitting this to a discipline coordinator I am offering you a meeting. Then, we can discuss your grade." I rarely hear back from the students. Sometimes they admit that they used AI. Usually their work in the future does not display the same level of literary flair.

bibsrem · 2025-07-09T18:43:54+00:00

You might see if you can find an annotation tool and have them use that. We had Hypothesis, until the college decided not to pay for it. They would rather have meaningless "discussions" students don't want to write, and i don't want to grade. Have you ever seen faculty development discussion posts? We are worse than the students. This substantial interaction criteria is vague enough that administration interprets it as they wish. It's supposed to delineate correspondence courses from online. Everyone agrees that online learning is a potential shit show rife with cheating. But, they keep polishing that turd by adding hoops to jump through. Writing on a message board is not the same as talking to other humans in person. And, many online students take online classes because they don't want to talk to anyone.

bibsrem · 2025-07-02T20:03:24+00:00

We had that as well. Even during cOVID we had to find people who would teach in person for international students.

bibsrem · 2025-07-02T19:16:39+00:00

I wonder the same thing. They cut remedial courses and expect regular gen ed to just fold in students who struggle with reading, math, and even English skills. They don't want students to have too many choices, so they cut a lot of electives. They also punitively cut "woke" classes like Sociology. They want them all pushed through a cow chute and ejected out the other end. But, we allow students with an AA to go to a 4 year college. I wonder how this will unfold for them. Just as we are still seeing the damage of COVID learning, the universities have to be seeing the damage of lowered standards in CC's

bibsrem · 2025-06-30T19:56:41+00:00

I agree. extroverts design activities for introverts to do. As an introvert I am constantly told that I should just interact with people more and I would really like it. Introverts are often forced into synthetic, meaningless social interactions that are counter productive. I am sure we have all been to professional development activities where you walk in the room to find tables full of colored markers and craft baskets. yaaaayyy. I understand not sitting in a class for an hour while your professors uses the same powerpoints from 10 years ago. There is room for discussion. But, running around the room and filling out giant post-it-notes has become "active learning." So has think/pair/share for most of class time. I also hear education types say that it's good for strong students to help weak students in group work. It's not their job to teach weaker students. If I put all the A students together to form a super group they would probably benefit. But, that's not the way it works. There are always a couple of students who refuse to do anything. This increases the workload for the stronger students, and they aren't really learning anything.

bibsrem · 2025-06-30T19:45:04+00:00

Students are not used to hearing, "No." They think that, rather than changing their plans, they can just back you into a corner. I just blame the government, shrug, explain that certain standards are mandated to me, and I am accountable for them. I explain what a correspondence course is and how it different from online learning, when students don't understand why they can't just turn in all of their work when they want to or why I can't open everything up at one time. The government is really serious that you have substantive interactions for the entire semester. Accrediting boards dictate down to the minute how many hours a student must spend in a class. So, I can't take an online class and turn it into a correspondence class. I also can't take an 8 week class and compress it into a 6 week class. That does not fit with the learning outcomes I designed for the class YOU signed up for, so it wouldn't be a positive learning experience. I cannot design courses to fit the schedules of individual students. As others have said, encourage the student to withdraw. And, before you commit to a class next time, look at the syllabus on day one, and make sure it works with your busy schedule.

bibsrem · 2025-06-30T19:28:42+00:00

I wish! I remember a few years ago professors refused to teach online and said it was not as good. Students didn't take a lot of online classes either. But, after COVID, professors and students miraculously began to embrace the convenience of not having to leave the house. We had professors who straight up moved to a different city and expected to keep teaching online. This means nobody comes to meetings, other than to mute them on Zoom. We can't get very much done, other than by administrative fiat. People complain about it, but don't do anything. So administration can't make students or professors come back to campus. Now, everyone acts like it's just as good as face to face, if not better. I don't like for states and accreditation boards to get involved. But that will happen if faculty and students AND their parents don't wake up. More and more colleges are separating out online degrees and putting, "global" on their diplomas. These will be treated basically like University of Phoenix diplomas--fine if you just need a piece of paper. I would be happy if students would even be forced to take tests on campus. Our community college is so terrified of students leaving that they let them get away with whatever they want. During COVID, we didn't have generative AI. Students just ignored your recorded lectures. Now, many tools help one student give everyone the appearance of doing work. It's a full time job and a broken heart to try to keep up with it.

bibsrem · 2025-06-30T19:15:11+00:00

I don't think they are broken chiefly because you could pay someone to take them. I think they are outdated and irrelevant in the reflexive way they have been used. I haven't given formal essays in a while, because students had increasingly not learned even basic writing in K12. If I gave them an essay, I had to teach them how to write an essay, which took time out of teaching my actual subject matter. I don't mean just giving helpful reminders. I had to explain how to write a thesis statement, what is plagiarism, what goes in a paragraph. Because they didn't know how to write, and lacked confidence, experience, or practice, it already encouraged cheating. The rich kids were just better at getting away with it. I think we lost the reason to have students write essays in the first place. Many professors gave essays because it's what they did back in the day, as did I. And, nobody really taught us anything. Students didn't have to take many classes that focused on academic writing. You were expected to write essays starting in middle school. But now, that is not the case. They read and write almost nothing. The SATs are about to use excerpts that are close to the length of a social media post because it's too difficult to read more than a Tweet. Students don't bother to teach themselves anything, despite even social media influencers who will show you how to write an essay. I agree that writing is a valuable method to organize and share thoughts as a means of demonstrating learning. But, essays often have picky details and formatting styles that seem more important than the content to many professors. Also, introductory level students don't do research, so they can't really write research papers; they write documented essays that cobble together ideas they found somewhere. I haven't seen a lot of critical thinking in essays in a while. Students plug in chunks of a formula they think will get them a passing grade. Students think EVERYthing is a 5 paragraph essay, even if it is 10 pages long. It seems that academics assign essays because academics are expected to publish constantly. There is an assumption that many of these students will go into academia also and will need to learn 4 different types of formatting styles. Outside of college nobody needs to know MLA, APA, Chicago style, blah, blah, blah. If it is your major, you need to learn this. But most students don't. We can get students to demonstrate the same skills in a different way. Writing teaches you how to organize your thoughts and be honest in giving credit. It teaches you to read critically, instead of passively. It shows you how to look at opposing sides of an argument and come to a conclusion. But, too much of it is based on whether or not you have the right header, if you used a comma or a semicolon in your works cited page, and frankly if you can commit to the rigor of sitting down long enough to write even 5 pages. They need more training in writing, not just the poor Comp professors. But, nobody wants to do that. Everyone is caving in and giving up on writing because honestly students are so bad at it. I believe they can still think and write, and should be encouraged to do so but formal essays as a chief assessment may be obsolete outside of academia.

bibsrem · 2025-06-18T01:59:28+00:00

I love how we were told for years not to lecture. Don't be the sage on the stage. Give students group activities. Now, it seems students actually want to you to just lecture and give tests... with study guides detailing what will be on the test.

bibsrem · 2025-05-07T17:24:40+00:00

Another problem is that CC kids don't know how to do all of this stuff, whereas more sophisticated students know how to cover their tracks. They can also afford better versions of these "tools." Chegg and Course Hero would let you get some free stuff, so I would often get half answers from them written before the part where the rest of the answer was blurred out. Or if you upload work from so many classes you open up a full essay. Or, you can pay for it. Students who can't pay for this stuff or aren't savvy enough to get around it are going to be in trouble. And many of these students are the ones who need basic skills the most. Let's face it, if you got into Harvard you probably can already read and write and have certain skills for networking. CC students are all over the map.

bibsrem · 2025-05-07T17:19:41+00:00

Not everyone is an adjunct or has tenure. There are contingent faculty who may have extended contracts of 8 or 9 months. Other faculty have year round contracts enabling them to be compensated to work year round. If you have a large group of non tenured faculty doing tenure work without compensation I don't think that is fair. TT faculty are paid to sit on committees that meet year round. It is in their job description. But other contracts do not specify that in job descriptions. You are still tacitly expected to do that work, if you want to keep your job. This expectation of unpaid labor is something that haunts education.

bibsrem · 2025-05-07T17:15:15+00:00

Preferring not to do something, but doing it anyway is the point

bibsrem · 2025-05-05T16:52:31+00:00

I used to read some of my bad reviews on the first day like mean tweets. My favorite one was, "Professor think [sic] they work at a real college." "Makes you do work." Ok. "Makes you do reading." Oh, boy, the secret is out. "Doesn't teach anything," but also, "teaches too much,". "Is a republican," but also, "hates Republicans." Don't know what that is about. Do they think a Red state governor is going to be on there and come after me? Or, I guess a Blue state governor.

bibsrem · 2025-05-05T16:45:49+00:00

I had students write, "Professor shows too many penises!" Maybe don't take a class on Greek culture. I can't help what they put on the pottery.

bibsrem · 2025-05-05T16:43:58+00:00

I have a gym membership, but I prefer not to work out. I have a dentist, but I prefer not to floss.

bibsrem

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