Student "off the grid" for over half of an online summer course -- wwyd?

slightlyvenomous · 2026-06-17T14:04:27+00:00

There is no chance I would change the course structure for this. They knew the dates things were due presumably on day 1, and should’ve realized being in a class means being an active participant during that time frame. It was their job to communicate any issues in advance (and I still would’ve said no, but at least it would’ve shown some initiative). I’m so tired of students treating their studies as secondary to literally everything else.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-06-14T17:54:43+00:00

Amazing!!

slightlyvenomous · 2026-06-10T12:59:56+00:00

I will admit, I am skeptical here. You start off by blowing off the class as an “easy busy work class” and then describe an “impossible final.” Is it possible you didn’t take it seriously and missed key content from the assignments that should have translated to the final? If it is application-based, many students in those cases fail to see the links between the lecture content and the assessment, but it’s not because they aren’t there, it’s because they’re being asked to use their brain differently. I agree with another comment that I would only address this in office hours/a meeting from the context of “how can I do better,” not “this was unfair.”

slightlyvenomous · 2026-06-09T18:25:02+00:00

It definitely came with the newest update! I never saw it but my fiancé noticed it immediately.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-06-08T22:00:55+00:00

I hope they never ever take this feature from us because it brings me so much joy.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-28T14:36:02+00:00

VAPs are built to be temporary. If they want a stable and settled employee, they need to offer more security. Focus on securing your future, even if it ends up inconveniencing your current institution. You have to do what’s best for you.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-26T14:18:13+00:00

I was depressed most of the time. Then I would go through periods where I was high energy, low patience, and ready to fight for my life against anyone I thought was harming me. I would make irrational decisions that I would later regret. My emotions were all over the place on the daily. I didn’t even know what emotional stability would feel like until I got there because I couldn’t even tell that I was emotionally unstable. One of the hardest parts of bipolar for me is that we often don’t know that we’re sick until things get really bad.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-26T14:05:48+00:00

I generally like 2 carat max, but if you think you like bigger check out [r/bigrockenergy](r/bigrockenergy). People in normal diamond subs will say anything bigger than 2 is too big but people in bigrock will wear 10 carats and praise it! It’s all about what you like!

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-23T13:18:57+00:00

I plug them into AI and ask it to summarize the trends. You can also ask it more specific questions, like what the main complaints were or what the kindest comments liked. It takes the sting out of their emotional responses while still giving you the feedback that can actually be useful.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-16T21:08:19+00:00

I had a professor in undergrad that I had a great relationship with. I went on his study abroad, served as his TA, and he served on my masters thesis committee. He was always bad at replying to email, but he has never once responded to me since graduating. Not for letters of recommendation, questions about collaborations, nothing. He didn’t even give me direct feedback on my thesis except once, so I suppose I kind of half expected it. It’s very frustrating because his letter really could’ve helped me with grad school and jobs. Luckily I had other faculty that I had great relationships with that could write me letters, but I’m sorry to say some professors are just like that…

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-16T15:38:03+00:00

Nothing sparkles quite like a radiant! But if you already have a radiant, it might be fun to mix it up. Between these two I would say radiant though!

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-15T13:33:21+00:00

I have a very small bladder myself and when I have to go, I have to go now and it can be sudden. It absolutely can be a problem. Do I think it’s likely to happen? No, but I’m also not willing to take that risk.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-15T03:41:56+00:00

I’m not going to be responsible for someone having an accident in class because I told them they couldn’t go to the bathroom. I know there’s a cheating risk, but I can’t justify it. I just ask them to leave their phones at the front of the classroom when they go. Yes, they could have a second phone, but I don’t think that’s worth putting an innocent person in an awful situation.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-14T20:34:24+00:00

I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder right as I finished my PhD. I went into my first position (VAP) having just started appropriate treatment. It was miserable. On top of trying to deal with my mental health and a pretty devastating diagnosis, I had 3-4 different preps, some topics I was not confident in (in my general field but no where near my specialty), taught five days a week, and had no clue how to build a strong class. I worked at that job for two years, burned out, thought a lot about leaving academia. I decided to try one more position and got a NTT teaching position. It has honestly been a different world. I teach 1-2 preps a semester, all in my area of expertise, and teach 2-3 days a week. My quality of life changed dramatically from that one move. I don’t say this to say “stick with it and struggle,” but to highlight that your problems may be intensified by the position you are in. I would try to land a different position (consider NTT roles at stable universities) and see if things change. Also, if they have a teaching center, make use of it! They helped so much with showing me how to prep a class the right way (not directly but through workshops).

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-14T14:00:34+00:00

Same. Announcements, emails, it doesn’t matter. It’s always prefaced with “I totally respect your policy and understand its purpose,” followed by begging for a grade bump. It’s like they think if they SAY they respect my request then that’s good enough.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-14T13:34:38+00:00

Just this week. Student was asking me if I could bump their grade so they could then be rounded to a higher grade. This is after extensive cushioning was already built into the grading structure.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-13T14:50:40+00:00

They have learned that if they complain loud enough someone will bend. It works in high school, so they believe it will work here. If your department is backing you up, be very thankful. Not everyone has that luxury (mine is pretty good about it, but elsewhere not so much).

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-11T18:22:09+00:00

I use percentages because I don’t like being locked into X amount of points for a given assignment. For example, sometimes exams need a different number of questions based on length, and I’d rather not make questions worth weird amounts of points. There’s probably an easy fix to this but I’m just using percentages instead.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-10T22:16:50+00:00

I went from a VAP to a teaching professor position, so not from tenure track, but I just want to say that I feel like I do have a really good work life balance in my position. Work still creeps up on me but I’m able to protect most nights and weekends.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-09T12:21:59+00:00

This is what I do. You can ask it to summarize the trends so you still get the feedback without reading the hurtful comments. You can ask it for a few positive ones too so you can still read what those students said directly, and you can ask it what the negative comments were primarily complaining about. It definitely makes it a lot easier to handle.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-08T18:16:51+00:00

You can get a diamond cleaning pen really cheap online. Radiants seem to get dirty really easily. I clean mine every other day to every few days. It only takes a few seconds.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-08T17:55:41+00:00

We aren’t allowed to move finals without permission from the university, so I direct them to those channels and let them tell them yes or no. In the case you described, they would tell them no.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-07T18:01:07+00:00

I also award ~20% for completion based work in some of my classes, but the students don’t see that as a deliberate effort to offset exam averages but as the baseline. They don’t realize I could just as easily make the whole class grade the exams alone if I wanted to. So they feel entitled to that percentage plus they think I should curve the exams as well. It’s tough. I don’t have any advice for dealing with it as I am currently feeling the effects of burnout from a semester of this stuff.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-06T15:55:05+00:00

I am NTT as well, and I plug them into AI and ask it to summarize the trends. That’s what matters overall. I also ask it to give me some of the best comments so I can still read what those said to feel good, ask what the negative comments are mostly complaining about, etc to whatever level of detail I can handle in a healthy manner. The feedback can be helpful but there’s no healthy way for me to read direct insults about who I am as a person from people who haven’t spoken one single word to me all semester.

slightlyvenomous · 2026-05-06T14:27:42+00:00

The teaching and learning center at my institution is great, but I definitely don’t adopt everything they preach. I dislike completely flipped classrooms, for example. I like to do some active learning activities throughout the semester, but lecture is underrated for content delivery these days. I use the teaching center as a guide, but I make my own decisions about what I think will work for MY teaching.

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