The SF class is a complete and utter delight. Hot damn, they're good. Not only are we getting into great ideas with some real meat to them, they've already started talking to each other without bouncing things through me. Already! It's only week 3! And this was without a couple of the best and brightest--but there are enough of the best and brightest that they're lifting the tone for everyone. I am a little worried about one student in particular--he's completely out of his depth, bless his heart, and when I see him on Thursday, I'm going to recommend that he come in to talk with me--and there are a few who are looking a little like they've been hit upside the head with a 2X4, but some of the students who are less sparkling are starting to get a little gleam from their classmates, waking up to potentialities of thought that are possible.
For instance: students were batting back and forth some debate about aspects of Frankenstein. On two occasions, a student asked me what I thought, and both times I said, "What I think isn't what matters: what do you think? How would you answer your own question?" And then I explained that, although there are areas that are pure speculation, without enough textual evidence to support a strong answer (such as whether the creature would have turned out differently if Frankenstein hadn't abandoned it at the beginning), there are a lot of other areas where there is no definitive answer: if the text provides enough evidence to support an interpretation, go for it. "This is why essay writing can be fun. Well, OK, not fun, but this is why essay writing can be exciting. If you're tracking down an idea that you think you can support, and you're finding the evidence for it, it can be exciting." And a bunch of them were nodding in agreement, not just to brown-nose the teacher (they weren't even looking at me) but because they suddenly got a whiff of the possibilities.
Now, I am not expecting their essays to actually be good: I should make that clear (and remind myself). They're getting good ideas, but almost invariably those ideas fall apart when the actual writing takes place. But I almost don't care. I know that's easy for me to say now, as I'm not grading any essays right now, but really: what matters most to me is that they're getting jazzed about the ideas. And that's really the point. Literature isn't some horrible thing that they're being forced to contend with: they're getting the sense that it can actually be pretty interesting--and that the deeper they dig for ideas, the more interesting it gets.
Although there isn't quite the same rush in seeing what's going on with the students in the online course--because that thrilling class chemistry thing can't occur in cyberspace--it's still pretty cool to see a lot of their ideas, too.
On the other hand, before I went to class today, I was grading the first quiz, and here's what I got from one student:
Question 1
How do you demonstrate that you have truly learned something in any discipline, not just in a literature class?
Selected Answer:
You sceptics and z show hers. If I as disinclined to take.  O it eve eh ay. I'll write it down and practice and. It so I get usedto it 
Uh, OK...???
The student's answers to other questions clearly showed that he had not read the handbook that the quiz is about: he's just BS-ing answers ... apparently that he has tried to translate from Martian hieroglyphs.
But really, the quizzes are nothing: no big whoopee at all. It's the responses to the readings that matter. Some students are AWOL; others are clearly out of their depth--but some, a happy few, are knocking the top off, as I said before.
Man, it's almost like being a real college professor. I'll probably keep saying this, repeating myself ad nauseam, but if every semester were like this, I could keep teaching a lot longer.
Now, however, I want to get out of here. I've got a few little bits and orts to tie up before I toddle off, so I'm ready to head to Advisement in the morning, bright and early, but mostly, Tuesday is a wrap.