All about students

First, it seems that it's likely I will get these late-start, online classes in future semesters, as long as I remember to submit my availability. Which, despite the problems with the classes, is a good thing. It's a reliable revenue stream, while the semester lasts, and I can sure use that.

But I will have to check a lot of my philosophical frustrations with online teaching in general at the door. I really am a much, much better teacher of 101 when I can do it face to face--largely because of the psycho-social needs of many of the students. That said, the students who last to the end of the semester in an online class are most likely going to be only the best and brightest, which isn't a bad thing. As of right now, there are three who never attended--and I'm not counting the little boopsies who did just enough to be considered "present" but have otherwise done no work (or, in the case of one little boopsie, one quiz and nothing else). I'm pretty sure that those two plus three others are gone for sure. One student who needed a disabilities accommodation only got extended time with tests--which, as I explained to the student and to the counselor in the Center for Students with Disabilities, won't do the student any good in my class as there are no timed exams. I got an email with the student's stated intention to withdraw. One student shouldn't be in my class in the first place, so I'm hoping she withdraws. And another three were AWOL the week before the break and haven't shown up since, though they'd been doing OK up to that point. That leaves me with thirteen students who are hanging in there so far.

Paul and I talked about the process of leaving comments on their discussion board posts, and he said he thought it was a useless endeavor. I wondered, so at the end of my comments for each student on one forum, I said I'd give two points extra credit if the student responded by email and said something about my comments. One always checks--and follows up--so she got the two points automatically. Three others responded. I'm on the fence now. I can either not provide comments to anyone except those four, or I can (after their essays) send out an announcement explaining that I'm not going to waste my time commenting for students who aren't paying attention and see if that jolts anyone into starting to read my comments. (Doubtful, but one never knows.)

And meanwhile, I got an email from a student asking what he was supposed to do for the forthcoming essay. At first I thought, "Well, start by reading the assignment handout." Then I thought, "Oh, shit: did I maybe forget to post the assignment handout?" So I went searching for it and at first I didn't see it; I was all set to send out a huge apology--but then, no: there it was, first thing in a folder a few weeks ago. I posted it there thinking it would help students keep the essay in mind as they did their reading. So, back to first response for that student. "Read the assignment handout. Here's where to find it. After you read it, let me know if you have questions." Then I sent out an announcement: "OK, some of you apparently missed the assignment handout, so here's where to find it."

This experience, of course, identifies one of the problems with online teaching: I am not sure where to put things so students will actually see and pay attention to them. With that in mind, I have posted handouts about the elements of their revisions in two places. My hope is that the people who are the "let me do this now" type will find it in the first location and that the people who are the "I need to clear my head of this other stuff first" type will find it in the second--but that everyone will find it somewhere.

And I've graded everything from the week before the break, so now I can turn my attention elsewhere and wait for a new bolus of work to be ready for me on Sunday (really, Monday morning, as I won't be checking late Sunday night for the last-second submissions of work). I am on tenterhooks about their essays. Please, please, please let them at least have understood the assignment.