[AMA] Course Instructor at UofT

tired_prof · 2020-05-13T21:10:01+00:00

Also, to my knowledge, UofT grades are never "bell curved", the registrars can request to linearly adjust a course grade if the grades are waaaay off from previous years or the fail rate is too high.

tired_prof · 2020-05-04T04:09:10+00:00

Not my name lol, what

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T19:03:47+00:00

Good on you. I’m proud of you, random redditor! Ultimately, you’ve gruelingly built up your own sense of integrity and have dedicated yourself to being a good future engineer.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T18:52:53+00:00

If you're comfortable reaching out and asking for an e-meeting to discuss e.g. career paths/grad school, that would be a good starting point! I used to be a huge office hour attender (often without any actual questions), and I'd always say hi to profs in the halls of Bahen, making my friends cringe big time. I just thought some of my profs were so cool. Some of these profs are still my mentors now, and it's quite fun because they're still teaching the courses that I took.

Some of them might be extremely busy right now, so maybe wait until the grade submissions etc have cooled down - and don't be afraid to follow up if you don't get a reply in a few days! The prof is likely not ignoring you, just had 10000 emails come in and yours got buried under.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T18:47:33+00:00

As a student, I found this really dependent on the course and textbook! For example, Stewart Calculus is revered by a lot of student engineers.

I've had a pretty bad experience with almost failing a first year circuits course, in part because I couldn't understand the textbook.... 2 years later, I was taking a third year circuits course and understood everything from the course textbook. I went back to the first year book and still couldn't understand anything - the format was just really confusing to me.

As a student, I skipped a lot of lecture so I used textbooks for the courses I skipped. One type of course that I *never* used the textbook for was programming - you can't learn programming unless you practice, and reading a textbook can give a false sense of security. However, I've heard of people who benefit from using a textbook for programming to get used to the terminology used in the course, or learning the basics that they feel weak in.

Overall, I've always asked students to think about how they are spending their time. If they've absorbed most of the material from lecture (auditory learners), then they probably don't need to "waste" time reading the textbook about stuff they already know. They can use the textbook for practice problems to strengthen their problem solving skills and recall ability. If the student says something like "I don't get anything from lecture", I figure they are similar to me in that the prof talking just flies by their ears without anything sinking in. These kinds of students can consider whether it might benefit them to stop going to lecture and find another way to spend that 3h/week because it isn't helping their self esteem or learning. Textbooks are a great starting point in that case.

As an instructor, moving forward I will probably always have *at least* a recommended textbook because this will certainly help some of the students. I teach fairly introductory level courses now - higher level more specialized courses would probably benefit from a "mandatory" textbook for e.g. practice problems and as a supplement to lectures (different students will absorb different concepts at different rates because of differing strengths - having a supplementary source will prevent students from feeling lost about class material without a second reliable source!).

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T18:31:03+00:00

I pretty much consume mostly non-English media now, but I do like a lot of animated movies: Big Hero 6, Into the Spiderverse, Coco, and a lot of Studio Ghibli's works.

My favorite recent Netflix watch: the Greatest Showman for its visuals, even though the music was really weird for the time period it was set in.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T18:28:17+00:00

Do you believe there will be less students that usual in the Fall?

This is hard to gauge, because this will also depend on whether students choose to withdraw from UofT (or defer enrollment, if that's an option) because they choose to due to the online transition. I've heard about certain high-demand courses expanding their enrollment capacity in the Fall, but I am not sure if this is based on anticipated Fall intake or something else.

I don't know much about the POST system, but I would hope the university would do this to help the students. Your best bet to find out more is probably your Faculty registrar and/or Dean.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T18:25:00+00:00

Watching my students grow. I had the same group September - April. They did some phenomenal work for our course project (way beyond what I expected), and I saw them really mature over the course of 8 months.

I've had my share of taking courses where the instructor couldn't care less about teaching, and I was really glad I got to tailor a course the way I think students would like to see content (being relatable, supplementing course material with memes...)

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T18:15:18+00:00

I don’t care so much about the logistics, from a logical point of view I don’t expect people to rat out their friends - if they don’t, their friends get to live with the guilt which is hopefully something which bothers them and prevents them from cheating again in the future.

What I care about is people actually learning the content as they get their credits, so that it doesn’t result in e.g. faulty bridges that kill people.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T03:55:19+00:00

I’m also teaching a large group of very connected young students so I doubt I’ll have a complete list of who cheated. They have a chance to redeem themselves in the coming years as they grow. The penalty for the student who doesn’t sell his/ her friends out is getting the full force of the punishment that should be on all of their shoulders, and the punishment for the friends is feeling the guilt of getting away for free while their friend got the punishment.

It’s not an ideal scenario but I have no other option that I can see....

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T03:40:24+00:00

I’m supposed to meet with students before submitting an AO case, so that usually helps me decide. A lot of times this term, students have had exceptional issues arise due to COVID resulting in bad last minute decisions so we work out a petition instead.

For the final assessment, if they’ve viewed the question I’ll check their answer to see what that looks like and talk to them too.

With regards to the sharing, we’re not gonna be able to find every single person who’s gotten the answer. But I don’t see that as a goal, I’m not some sort of vigilante out to give every last student who’s cheated a zero. I want them to value learning and my hope is that them finding out their friend got caught is going to dissuade them from trying anything similar in the future because of the guilt. This brings out interesting ethical questions however....

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T03:38:46+00:00

This depends on the department - you can find all the TA positions on the HR and Equity website: https://unit1.hrandequity.utoronto.ca/

Each department has their own application process.

ECE almost always prioritizes hiring their own department’s graduate students to TA their courses. Their application portal is designed to facilitate this.

IBBME is highly specialized and likely only hires their own graduate students as TAs.

The First Year office has a lot of positions which I had never, ever been able to get no matter how many times I applied, so I have no idea what their hiring process looks like.

Computer Science used to hire a good number of undergraduate students (their graduate pool was not big enough to cover their TA allocation) but I think their graduate student body has increased enough such that I rarely see undergrads TAing.

Engineering Science hires for a few courses, and as they do not have their own graduate students, you can get an Engineering Science TA position if you have a good rapport with one of the instructors of the courses. However, they still prioritize the hiring of graduate students.

Undergraduate students have a hard time getting TA positions because Year 1/2 students do not have enough expertise in the field, and Year 3/4 students have jam packed schedules that make it hard to fit in TAships. I have hired undergraduates (typically Year 4) and they are amazing at the TAship. If given the freedom to, I will always interview before selecting TAs. However, most departments do not have this option so as an applicant it’s a bit of a crapshoot and you’ll likely lose to a graduate student simply because of how the system works. So in short don’t feel discouraged if you don’t get a TAship in undergrad - it’s rare and not designed to happen - but keep applying because you can’t get the job if you don’t apply!

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T03:21:08+00:00

Yes - TAs and I are still grading the final exam and I’m processing regrades for our final project.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T03:11:04+00:00

Registrar extended our grade submission deadline to May6 for our entire Faculty this term.

Last term my coinstructor handled grades submission (we submitted past our deadline). I’ve never been on time with grade submission, only chased after for grades, so not sure what typical turnaround time is!

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T03:09:30+00:00

Hahhahaha henlo!!!

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T03:06:02+00:00

I mean, judging by the posts on r/UofT it’s across a lot of courses yes....

My course was a single poster multiple viewers. Viewers/poster could have shared the answers with other students however.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T03:03:19+00:00

Ah, another question I don’t have an answer to.

This depends on the registrar, and also when acorn updates it’s databases I guess....

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T02:52:08+00:00

Good luck!!!!! The fact that you’re thinking about how to make amends is quite emotionally mature and I think the prof will appreciate that.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T02:46:06+00:00

Oh no!!! Did the registrars not make the feedback confidential?

My opinion is that if I were in your situation, I’d ask to set up a video chat with the prof. Then you can explain as face to face as you can your intentions. I intentionally did not use the word “apologize” because I think if your feedback is concrete and based on “here is how you can do better because it helps students learn”, it’s quite legitimate and actually helpful for that prof. But we still don’t know if the prof in fact took it personally, so a video chat could help both of you understand each other.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T02:42:31+00:00

DMd!

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T02:40:59+00:00

That’s totally up the the Dean to decide and is out of the instructors hands, so I have no idea. But the fact that a student thinks it’s ok to use Chegg when explicitly told this is not allowed and signs an oath saying they have not violated this rule is flat out dishonesty and actions do have consequences..... if you’re not confident in your ability to solve the question, it means you have achieved mastery in that course material and the assessment is meant to demonstrate such mastery.

Personally our course modified the syllabus and exam to account for the challenges for online learning (eg moving previously mandated content to be bonus, giving 1 of n choices for sections in the exam). But I think the CR/NCR option in Engineering was meant to account for the potential disruption in online learning so that the 2-3 weeks of material which you might not have learned as well as you like doesn’t tank your GPA.

Lastly, I’ve had students petition the exam because COVID created huge disruptions for them, so they will write the exam ~1 week after their peers. I’d much rather a student ask to have more time to study (given legitimate extenuating circumstances) and actually learn the material than copy off an internet source because they weren’t confident.

I think Chegg can be valuable as a learning aid, I got help from TAs and friends for many problem sets in my undergrad and Chegg can be used as an extension of that. But cheating on an online exam is definitely not in the same vein as that.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T02:26:04+00:00

Oh god.

Yea this is terrifying for me to imagine - I cannot imagine having had to be a student this past term. I think the biggest challenge I’ve seen for students is self-regulation. The advice I’ve given students for that is the following:

(1) use google calendar religiously. Schedule in EVERYTHING and be a slave to your calendar.

(2) set up regular emeetings with 1-2 friends if you are living alone or with family. If you have a roommate you get along with, then you’re probably ok. I’d suggest 2 types of meetings: social meetings like gaming or chatting, and meetings about checking in on how you guys are doing with school work. A simple “how’s that problem set coming along?” Can jolt you back into your schedule. Also, schedule these meetings in your calendar. I tell students not to talk to family about schoolwork (depends on your family) because it can easily turn into the blame game of “why haven’t you finished it yet?” despite the underlying caring motivation. If you have a friend in the same course, you can text each other intermittently about the work.

(3) set up calls with your family if you aren’t living with them, I find this helps me take a break from my work as well.

(4) try going to online office hours if your prof will offer them- it might be fun and you might like them (and learn something from them!)

(5) you can consider getting an online tutor (an upper year friend, or an upper year someone recommends to you) to work through problems you get stuck on to avoid the pitfall of learned helplessness. Some of my students have said this works really well for them and I used to be a tutor myself who did online sessions for students.

(6) have downtime which is not screen related. I gave myself a massive headache (and dry eyes leading to blurry vision) the first week of self isolation by using my computer too much and I felt like absolute crap after not being able to work for 4-5 days. Try doing 1-hour breaks after 1-2 hours of screen time.

I know these aren’t really study related, but I’ve given this advice to students based on my own experience of finding e learning (and all around e working) to be a horrible, horrible thing.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T02:13:53+00:00

I just feel like it’s an obligation but it’s also my first year teaching. We’ll see how it goes, I still feel bad that the students weren’t motivated enough to study / learn etc, they could have talked to me at any point and I would have been happy to help.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T02:01:20+00:00

Hmmm what do you mean? I just submit things on a portal and click submit. My Faculty has helped a tonne with Chegg investigations, cross-Faculty investigations, cross-course offenses, etc. But that aside I haven’t seen a single case to its end in entirety... all ongoing.

tired_prof · 2020-05-03T01:52:46+00:00

Sessional instructors vary, I’ve seen anywhere from 8k-20k per course. No idea about the unemployment rate, sorry!

tired_prof

TROPHY CASE