College Life

Posts about college life, students, professors, and grades.

Plagiarism is Dead, Or So Some Would Say

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Plagiarism, in my opinion, is alive and well in college classrooms across the world. However, not everyone agrees.

Take, for example, an online college where I have taught for many years. When I first arrived, virtually speaking, I was told that plagiarism would not be accepted in any way, shape, or form. Great! We’re on the same page. Stealing someone else’s work and calling it your own is exactly that: stealing. Students who do this aren’t getting an education in anything except thievery. I am right on this with you, administration. Alleluia!

Then, a couple of years ago, the college told us that we could not longer accuse anyone of plagiarism (apparently, it hurt the students’ feelings when they got caught), so now we were going to rename it “a teachable moment.”

Come again???? Seriously? And, to top it all off, a student was allowed three such moments in a single class. Okay, let me understand you. A student can, without any deduction in points, steal three papers per term and that will be fine. Buddy, there are only four writing assignments in my class. If a student has presented three documents that are not his or hers our of the four assignments, why would I bother to report him or her at that point in the term? Because of due dates, there would only be one day left of class.

So much for their “teachable moments.” I told a survey that I had to take from the school administration that I would no longer report any plagiarism because it wasn’t worth the hoops they made me jump through to document the plagiarism. They stumbled a bit, but I still teach for them. (Please note that, previously, I had won 100% of the cases I brought before the Honor Council. I guess they have disbanded that group!)

The latest is that “teachable moments,” as of a few weeks ago, have now become “text similarities.” I wonder how many the student can have, since it is no longer stealing. And it’s definitely not plagiarism. Apparently. I didn’t bother to ask.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

P.S. I just wanted to add a brief note that I am so grateful to be working full time for a university that still has an honor code and takes plagiarism very seriously. In the time I have been there, I have not found a single student cheating on even one assignment. Students are held to a very high standard and they respect that. That is a relief and leaves me feeling that the future is bright as these young people prepare for positions of leadership in our nation and in the business world.

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize: Hang in There!

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I had the opportunity recently to talk to one of my students over the phone. She was having some challenges with scheduling her life around online graduate school. Then I found out why.

This gal had plenty of reasons to give up and drop out. But she has some really good reasons to keep on trucking and stick with the program.

Physical aliments would have been one excuse and learning disabilities would have also provided a very convenient way for her to back out. I’ve seen students drop out for fewer excuses than she has. Instead, she chose to talk things over with me. That was a very good decision.

You see, this gal is very bright- one of the top students in the class. She writes very nicely and has made great strides in her writing abilities this term. Quite frankly, it would be a shame if she left the program. I have every confidence in her ability to complete her studies, even though she is just getting started in the program.

Yes, she was having some challenges with fitting school into her schedule but we talked through some ways that she could make things happen. I may have shared with you in the past about my Dollar Store oven timer. It’s hard to think of yourself studying all afternoon, but what about hitting the books for 45 minutes (or whatever works for you?).

Set the timer for 45 minutes and work very, very hard for those 45 minutes. Then take a break. Not a long one, but just enough to fluff your pillow, go to the bathroom if need be, grab a drink of water, and then get back to work. Set the timer for another 45 minutes. Another break and then maybe a final 45 minutes, or maybe just 30 minutes.

I wrote a 400-page dissertation in 12 months because of my 45 minutes at a time approach. I promised myself that I would do 2 hours a day, every day, to move me towards completion of that weighty tome. And I did it consistently for 12 months and got that 400-page book done in record time. [My dissertation, which is called “House, M.D. and Indirect Communication: A Close Textural Analysis,” is available on ProQuest.]

So I will encourage you, just like I did my student: Keep your eyes on the prize and get there, 45 minutes at a time. After all, some day you will be X years old. Do you want to get there with or without that degree? It’s your call. And your 45 minutes.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Why You Can’t Resubmit a Document Until You Get the Grade You Wanted

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

It happens all the time. Students submit a document without paying attention to the instructions or my supplemental announcements and think, somehow, that they can resubmit the document until they get the “A” they wanted.

Nope, it doesn’t happen. Not in this woman’s classes. Let’s take a look at the situation.

You are in a class. You waited until the last minute to do the assignment, which means that you have put yourself under PRESSURE!!! This is a major assignment that can make or break your final grade in the course, but somehow “I work better under pressure.”

No, you don’t. Sorry Charlie, but that is an excuse you give yourself to wait until the 11th hour to do your assignment. At that point in time, you read the directions fast and furiously and then believe that you are going to do your best work. And then you email me and say that my instructions are unclear. No, they aren’t.

Here’s what to do instead: Read the instructions as soon as possible and well in advance of the due date. Read them again. And again, if you need to. Read all of the announcements that the professor has posted about the assignment. Now go back and read the announcements again.

If you have any questions about the assignment, email the professor, but don’t wait until the last minute. Ask for a phone chat, if you still don’t understand. Most of us are willing and ready to talk to you, and are happy to help you get on the right track.

Understand that we want you to succeed and will help you towards your academic goals. What we won’t do is hand you a grade you did not earn.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Keeping Cookies Soft and a Great Fruit Pizza Recipe

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hi folks:

If you have a sweet tooth, we are siblings, for certain. Cookies are a delight when they are soft. When they are hard enough to draw blood, crack a tooth, or require extensive dental work, not so much.

So how do you keep them moist and soft? A piece of bread will do the trick. Here’s how: Put your cookies in a Tupperware-type container and add a piece of bread. Seal the container and there you go. If your cookies have gotten concrete-like, it may take a couple of days to soften them up, but this works like a champ. [Please note that you do not want to reuse the bread. it will become as hard as a rock. When rigor mortis has set in on the bread, replace it with a new slice (if any cookies remain; at my house, the chance of cookie leftovers is slim to none).]

On to the fruit pizza recipe. You need to make a batch of your favorite sugar cookie recipe, rolling out the dough and placing it on a pizza pie pan. If you are in a hurry or don’t have a favorite sugar cookie recipe, you are a more lazy cook than I am- or time efficient. The ready-made cookie dough works just as well, if you can roll it out. Bake as directed. Chop up your favorite fruit, such as strawberries, grapes, kiwi, blueberries (don’t chop the blueberries; leave them whole), and the like. Set them aside.

As the cooked cookie cools (say that three times fast!), heat one bar of Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese in your microwave until it gets soft. When you are able to stir it (usually after 1 1/2 to 2 minutes in the microwave), stir in one box of confectioner’s sugar.

Once those ingredients are totally mixed, spread the mixture onto the cooled cookie (leave the cookie on the pizza pie pan or you will regret it).

While you are decoratively putting your fruit on the fruit pizza, heat up one small jar of apricot jam in the microwave (about one minute). When you have your fruit arranged in a pleasant way (circles work best, here, but be creative), stir the apricot jam and then spread it on top of the fruit pizza. (Note: The apricot jam cuts the feeling of too much sweet in the fruit pizza). Refrigerate your fruit pizza until you are ready to eat it.

Please note that you cannot make this a day ahead or it will become soggy. You must eat it the day it is made, so either eat a lot of it or send it home with friends. It does not keep well overnight. It should be refrigerated, even if you try to beat the odds and eat it over two days. It will be very wet the second day and following, but it is still edible.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

It’s the Little Things That Count

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

You know, it’s the little things in life that matter. Take, for example, a recent visit I made to my local food store.

They want you to buy their food, right? I was walking into the store on a Saturday morning, having noticed that one of their workers was scrubbing the sidewalk outside the front door (which also serves as an exit, since they closed the other entrance due to the corona virus). [Wouldn’t it be better for social distancing if they made one door an entrance and the other an exit? But I digress.]

So this young man had a bucket of soapy water and he was really going to town on that sidewalk. There weren’t going to be any germs there, once he was finished. Soapy water was going to be carried in on the feet of the shoppers, however. He was trying to clean things up, obviously.

So I waded in past him to do my shopping, as did everyone else who was entering. Others had the opportunity to track the soapy mess across the parking lot and into their cars. Oh joy.

Once in the store, I walked around, picking up one item after the other and placing them into my cart, when I got to the frozen food section of the store. I received a text and, as I looked down to answer it, I noticed that the frozen food counters had about three inches of absolute filth underneath them. Dust bunnies were everywhere! It seems that the store cleaners only clean what they expect you to see and leave the rest of the store a mess. What Disney World would call the “backstage area” was absolutely horrid.

The takeaway on this is that you should do more than expected in college and in life. Under promise and over deliver, rather than the other way around. Don’t worry so much about the sidewalks outside when the interior (where the food is, I might note) is what is really important. Do your work, do it well, and don’t let the dust bunnies take up residence in your work.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

How in the World Do I Get Organized: Drowning in a Sea of Assignments

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Students ask me all the time about how in the world can they get organized and be disciplined enough to finish their degree. Let me let you in on my personal organizational secrets to finishing two degrees at the same time while running a business, being active in my church, and making time for family. It really isn’t complicated but it isn’t always easy.

First, get yourself a month-at-a-glance calendar and keep it with you at all times. Get a variety of colored pens and mark things up as follows:

Enter all of your work hours on the squares. Add in all I-better-not-miss-this family events (like your mother’s birthday or your anniversary).

Pen in all of your class meetings, if you have face-to-face classes. Add all of your course assignment due dates, color-coding each class accordingly by using the different colors of ink in your pens. Highlight major assignments.

Okay, now take a look at things. What time are you going to set aside for doing homework? When I was writing my dissertation, I blocked out two hours a day to write. Keep in mind that they were not the same two hours every day; I had to make adjustments for personal scheduling. The important thing was that I was consistent.

For the record, I wrote a 400 page dissertation in 12 months, by keeping to my two hour a day schedule. If I had to miss a day, I made it up over the next week. I literally set an oven timer for 45 minutes at a time. I would work for those 45 minutes and then get up to fluff my pillow, going back to work for another 45 minutes. After another very brief break, I would write for another 30 minutes, and I would be done for the day.

If someone came in to talk or I had to leave the computer, I turned off the timer. Distractions sometimes happened, but they didn’t count towards my two hour time. (My dissertation, which is available on ProQuest, is called “House M.D. and Indirect Communication: A Close Textural Analysis,” in case you want to read it.)

Keep track of assignments, checking them off (do not cross them off because you need to see what you have done) as they are complete. You can do this, but you must be organized and disciplined enough to do it.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Attitude is Everything: Or “Can You Help Me Understand” versus “My Bad Grades are all Your Fault”

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

In my in-box this morning, I received two emails. One was from a student who had gotten some less-than-desirable grades on some recent assignments. The other was from another student who had failed miserably in all the assignments he turned in so far.

Student number one was very polite and asked for some clarification on why she had done so poorly. Her attitude was one of respect, humility, and good will. She was determined to do better, to earn good grades, and she wanted to know how she needed to improve her work, so that she would have success in the course. It is a pleasure to help folks like her. I responded quickly and offered her the chance to talk one-on-one via the phone, going over her work a line at a time, so that she could improve her writing skills. Quite frankly, her writing is holding her back from doing her best. It will be a pleasure to work with her and I look forward to helping her achieve her goals.

Then there is student number two. His email was angry, and had a “how dare you grade me low” attitude. Thirty minutes after launching his first email, he had sent me a second one, telling me that he would be reporting me for unfair grading. He cited chapter and verse from the student handbook (with no citations, interestingly enough) and told me he was reporting me asap.

Here’s the deal: both students had the same kind of problems with their writing: poor grammar, little to no punctuation, sentence structure that would make my mother squirm (a once-upon-a-time high school English teacher), and incorrect in-text citations. One student wanted to learn; the other student wanted to game the system (aka getting grades one does not deserve by threatening the instructor).

One of these students will, in all likelihood, improve her writing and feel terrific at the end of the semester. She will take the transferable skill into all of her future classes, where she will excel because she was willing to learn in my class. The other student? Well, he will probably threaten his way through his degree, focusing not on learning but on manipulating others. And that is really a shame. You see, attitude is really everything.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

When the Professor Offers to Help, Don’t Stand Her Up

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Sometimes students struggle in college. Maybe they are a first generation college student and have no idea of how to study. Perhaps this is their first semester of online classes and are lost at how to navigate the course material. It happens. The key to success in a time of stress is to reach out the professor. And then don’t stand her up when you have an appointment.

There have been times in the past fourteen years of my academic career where some students could have really benefited from a little course adjustment. Perhaps it was as simple as making a little change in how they were writing papers or citing sources or …or…or… You fill in the blank.

I reached out to them, trying to arrange for a phone call to get them on the right course, only to have them make an appointment and then not show up.

This week was one of those times. I had appointments with eight at-risk students this week. Four of those appointments actually happened and I offered to meet with those students weekly, if necessary, over the next seven weeks. I think all four of them will have success, not only in this class, but in the rest of their degree program.

Four of those students never showed up. What a pity. What a waste. One of the students who had already stood me up once earlier in the week actually made her not showing up my fault. Well, the good news, is that this is “two strikes and you’re out.”

A few minutes with your professor can be a gift. Don’t turn it down.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Quitting Before You Cross the Finish Line

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I have students who do well all term and then, for no apparent reason, blow off the last assignment or two. No explanation, no excuses, they just disappear or, worse yet, they do a half-baked job on the final work for the class.

Why in the world would someone do that? I read every word of every assignment, so I don’t just say “Oh, he or she meant well. I’ll give him or her the grade….” Nope, it doesn’t happen. Not in this woman’s Army.

Let’s crunch some numbers here. Let’s say that you have an 88 and are sooo close to an 90, which is an A. You have a quiz or small assignment left to complete. It’s nothing particularly mind-bending so it seems that you have said, “She’s a nice lady. It doesn’t matter if I do well or not. I’ve got this.’ Or perhaps you tell yourself, “She’ll give me the A or I will torch her with the end-of-class survey.”

Not so fast here. I might curve the grade of a very good student who started off slowly but understands the topic at hand towards the end of the class, but only if the person is less than a half a point from the next letter grade. Sorry, Charlie but you are two points away and that 88 you have is not an A.

The translation here is that 88 does not equal 90, so do the best you can on the last assignment. Show an effort here. Do not write a three-sentence answer where the instructor has required two five-sentence responses to a question (an all-time favorite but somewhat annoying habit of mine) and think you have made it.

You might say, “Well, this class doesn’t matter. I don’t care if I get an A or a B.” A few years down the pike, you might find yourself applying to graduate school and you might just need that A. Why blow it off? Or maybe you decide to get into education and your potential boss wants to see your transcript. What excuse are you going to make for that B-that-could-have-been-an-A? Blame the instructor? Yep, that will go over well….

So here’s the thing: Do well all the way to the end. That way, you won’t have later regrets over the fact that the curve you were hoping for just didn’t materialize.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Adventurous Professor Seeks Better Instructions

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hi everyone:

I had an adventure today, putting together something that was lacking in the instructions department, though the directions came in five different languages. I wonder if everyone had the experience I did. Here’s the link:

If They Say “No tools necessary” Why Do the Directions inside Show the Dude Using a Sledgehammer?