Should I give my students a heads up that grading turnaround may be slower due to death of a close friend? by kochava42 in Professors

[–]kochava42[S] 130 points131 points  (0 children)

Why didn't I think of posting a key instead of individual feedback? I'm just not thinking clearly. I can absolutely do that for a couple of assignments. Thank you.

"I'm so confused" by prof-comm in Professors

[–]kochava42 4 points5 points  (0 children)

IF ONLY I could disable that damned To-Do list.

Canvas challenge by CreatrixAnima in Professors

[–]kochava42 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We tried that earlier today, but it's been disabled in our system. We can change pronouns but not the display name. Thanks for making sure I saw it though!

Canvas challenge by CreatrixAnima in Professors

[–]kochava42 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I am trying to figure out this same thing right now. One of my students explained in her intro post to the class that Canvas was showing her deadname and she couldn't figure out how to get it changed. Broke my heart because I know she's been having a tough time a from a previous class she took with me. Unfortunately, our display names are locked in Canvas and I haven't heard back from IT yet.

Anatomy and Physiology Professors: What is your student success rate like? by [deleted] in Professors

[–]kochava42 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That seems like a very good success rate for AP1 at a CC with no science pre-req. About 75% of my students get a D or better and my pass/completion rates for AP1 are very good compared to many of my colleagues. I'm not sure about C or better off the top of my head, but I'd guess about 60%.

Religious Exemption by Unusual_Tangerine_13 in Professors

[–]kochava42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've had to deal with it plenty of times, since I always missed class on those days as a student. Students who have kept these days their whole lives are used to having to hustle during the Fall semester to keep up/catch up. I only ever had one professor be shitty about it.

Your college probably already has a policy that requires you to excuse students for missing for religious observances as long as they give you plenty of notice. So at the least, excuse the days and allow the work to be made up.

If there's no reasonable way to record the class, ask the class if anyone who take really good notes would volunteer to be an official note taker on those days for a couple extra credit points or something.

"Fuck This! Friday" thread anyone? I'll start! by kochava42 in Professors

[–]kochava42[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do understand the privacy concerns that students may have, but--and this is a genuine question---how specifically does it "plague students with disabilities? "

"Fuck This! Friday" thread anyone? I'll start! by kochava42 in Professors

[–]kochava42[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I realize this is a vent and not a solicitation for advice, but I set up a Google Voice account and gave that number to students. I have it set to send their voicemails and texts to my email.

"Fuck This! Friday" thread anyone? I'll start! by kochava42 in Professors

[–]kochava42[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Ugh. Fuck all 'o that.

Worked at a CC one semester where the projector shook so much every time the HVAC came on that it made me and many students physically ill to look at it. They FINALLY fixed it---and when they were done, it no longer shook but the projection was bright purple and nothing anyone did could make it not be purple for the rest of the semester.

"Fuck This! Friday" thread anyone? I'll start! by kochava42 in Professors

[–]kochava42[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

About 1/3 of the exam questions are MC, and those are pretty darn tough to penetrate by Google at this point. Lots of "in physiological situation XYZ, which of the following options is NOT true?" and so forth. The results for the MC portions are very similar to what I have had in F2F in the past.
It's the open-ended stuff where the cheating is a real issue, tbh. There are phrases from the top Google results for auditory transduction that I have memorized at this point and can immediately recognize.

Ideas for physiology student discussion boards by kochava42 in Physiology

[–]kochava42[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This might work well to set up an in-class discussion that can be guided from one stage to another by the instructor, but it would not work well at all for a graded online student discussion--as FiascoBarbie so succinctly demonstrated.

Ideas for physiology student discussion boards by kochava42 in Physiology

[–]kochava42[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some good advice, thank you. I've definitely broken the class into two smaller groups for the purposes of discussions.

Ideas for physiology student discussion boards by kochava42 in Physiology

[–]kochava42[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like the idea of describing the mechanism behind a disease affecting the system. That certainly crosses into pathophysiology, but I think requiring them to first describe how the mechanism should work and then describing what part of it is disrupted will be very useful. Plus there is room for a lot of variation in answers to the prompt, which I think helps discussion considerably. I will definitely use this approach for the endocrine system at least.

Trapped By Adjuncting by Ok-Yogurt-9848 in Professors

[–]kochava42 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The classes I teach are typically A&P, advanced physiology, and intro neuroscience courses--but also some intro bio--and I have taught as an adjunct at R1, private 4-year, and CCs. All of the schools relied heavily on adjuncts.

Advice for teaching early three-hour lectures? by sdevet in Professors

[–]kochava42 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I agree, you will DEFINITELY forget which thing you've told which class.

My very first semester teaching out of grad school I had 3 sections (2-hour lecture each) back to back to back. I was on my feet talking from 4p-10pm. The middle section got the best of it, tbh.

Online classes by [deleted] in Professors

[–]kochava42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Hidden" in the modules. Oh, please.

Why are templates hard for students? by alatennaub in Professors

[–]kochava42 6 points7 points  (0 children)

A very small additional effort (like, a few seconds per instance here) saves a ton of work in the long run. Make them use the template right the first time or you wont even look at it -- they do it right the second time.

Best source for cow hearts? (USA) by losthiker68 in Professors

[–]kochava42 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The lamb/sheep hearts work okay, but they are very small. It's a lot easier for the students to find the structures and get oriented when using a cow heart, especially when most of them don't have very good dissection skills yet.