College Life

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

Planning Backwards

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I had some students ask me recently how to plan their group project. I would suggest that they begin at the end result and then plan backwards.

For example, let’s say you have a group project due in one month. Today is the 1st, in this example. When do you want to have the document finished? (I suggest at deadline of two or three days before it’s due, to give you time to let the dust settle). Now, instead of having a due date of the 30th, you have given yourselves a deadline of the 27th.

When do all of the team members need to have their part of the document ready for the person who is putting it together?  Let’s day that you want to give the compiler three days to do that, so now your due date for your own part of the final draft is the 23rd.

When do individuals need to have their research completed? So that you all have plenty of time to discuss what you have found (and because everyone is busy with work, family, and school projects), let’s say that you want a one week lead time for that. Your due date for that part of the project is now the 16th.

When should you begin to look for research? It may take you two weeks to look down rabbit trails and ask the professor for clarification, so now your personal due date is the 2nd. That is in two days, so you better get to work with your partners and figure out what it is you are going to talk about. You only have two days to decide, so start work on this today!

Would this system work for you? What suggestions could you add to it?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

When you do what you do, make sure you do it right

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

As you know, I teach at three different colleges. My students range from first year freshmen to graduate students and everything in between. No matter their year in college, they sometimes share a common problem: they don’t follow the directions.

One thing about college, and about work life, it is important to give your boss what he or she is looking for. It’s kind of like being a wedding planner. If the bride wants pink carnations and the planner delivers orange roses, the bride is not going to be happy. If the groom wants everyone in black tuxedos and they show up wearing purple shorts, things are not going to go well. If the couple wants chicken and steak at the reception and the caterer delivers fish, that is not a good thing.

Likewise, when your professor gives you specific instructions, why do some students decide to “to their own thing?” Before you begin an assignment, read the directions. Then read them again. Do not wait until the night before an assignment is due to do this reading, or nothing will make sense (see a previous blog on this topic). Read through any announcements your instructor has made, to see if things have been clarified (some announcement postings are predicated upon the professor being asked a question repeatedly because things are not clear to your classmates).

As you complete an assignment, check through your document to make sure that you did everything that was required, and then post it.

Have you run into a situation where you did not follow the instructions? What happened?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

When the end of the semester comes and you are so close to the next grade

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Sometimes you find that you have worked SO hard all term long and here you are at the end with a grade that is SO close to the next higher grade. What do you do?

Well, if you have taken every extra credit opportunity all semester long, you might talk to the professor about his or her willingness to curve your grade. You might offer to do additional extra credit (this does not work in graduate school, by the way, because there is no extra credit after undergraduate classes).

I suggest that you write a very nice, non-threatening email to your professor. Do not kiss up to the professor (absolutely NO Eddie Haskell here). Discuss how much you learned from the course and that you feel it will be helpful in your future academic or professional endeavors.

The result MIGHT be that your professor MIGHT curve your grade…..or not. In any case, be gracious and do not tell the professor off. In the past, I have curved an occasional grade or two, but do not expect me to curve and give you a letter of recommendation if you are mean.

Have you ever been in this situation? How did you handle it?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

I Can’t Post My Assignment: What Do I Do Now?????

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Every once in a while, it is difficult or impossible to post an assignment to your online course. What are you to do?

The first thing is to email the professor a copy of your assignment BEFORE the due date, even if it is just a few minutes before the due date. That way, the instructor will know that your assignment is ready on time. Do not email me a blank document, hoping to buy more time. (The student then claims, ten hours later, to have sent me the wrong document and here is the final paper….which he or she just started writing after the original email was sent. Don’t try this; I have seen it before.)

Next, contact the IT department, to see if it is a problem with the course itself (I have known this to happen). Be prepared to capture and send a copy of the screen shot of your email and any response you get to your professor. You are covering your…….well, you know. We will give you the benefit of the doubt, most of the time, and not mark you late if we see that you really are trying to submit the document on time.

Finally, ask us if we can override the system and grade your document from the file exchange, if your course has one. (Again, I have seen this and I have done this.)

The important thing here is DO NOT WAIT. This type of thing does not get better with time and it generally does not fix itself. Do not wait until I am in a grading marathon at the end of a course to “remember” that you never got the grade from the first assignment. If you do, I am likely to grade you lower (not higher) on the assignment because I am ticked off that you waited so long to say something. The key is to jump on this immediately so we can get it taken care of.

Keep in mind that your professor is not an alien from another world who does not care about your grades. We are usually willing to work with you, if you show yourself to be a reasonable, intelligent person who cares about his or her grades. To that end, keep track of your grades and let the instructor know immediately if something seems out of whack.

What has been your experience with posting an assignment? Any horror stories you would care to tell?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

My college’s website is down. What do I do now??????

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Yep, it happens. College websites crash, leaving online students in the lurch. You have deadlines and limited time available to do your work, so what do you do now?

Well, do not panic, for one thing. Do all the work you can without the website. Write essays and discussion boards that are due (hopefully, you did not wait until the last minute to look at the instructions) and prepare to copy and paste them into the class page, once the website comes back up.

Unless it is the middle of the night, your instructor probably knows that the website is down because he or she can’t get online either. Because we understand your situation, we are probably going to adjust the due date of an assignment accordingly (this is not a guarantee, so don’t procrastinate on doing the assignment, feeling that you have a few days leeway- your instructor might only give you the number of hours that the website was down and where would that leave you???).

Once the service is restored, write a very nice (and calm) note to your instructor, stating the issues that you faced and asking for an adjusted due date. Students who fly off at the handle are less likely to get the desired extension. Do not pull an Eddie Haskell on the instructor (this is a cultural reference to the television show Leave It To Beaver); we can see right through false sincerity, even on a computer screen.

How have you handled a crashed website in the past? Was the result you attained the one you desired?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Help Me Help You

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I was contacted by a student recently; she had a question about an assignment. The challenge was that I teach multiple, different courses and she did not identify which course she was taking. She asked for insight into an upcoming assignment, but did not say which assignment she was talking about.

Another student had a query about a discussion board assignment. She asked me to clarify the assignment, without specifically saying what she didn’t understand.

Folks, please help your instructors help you. When you send us an email, specify what class you are taking with us and what assignment you are talking about and what it is that you don’t understand.

In the first student’s case, I guessed at what the problem was and answered her email. I may not hear from her until tonight, but I don’t answer my email at night so she won’t get her answer until tomorrow afternoon (instead of this afternoon). By the time she figures out what is expected, her assignment may be late.

In the second student’s case, she was online at the same time I was. I answered her email and she was able to turn the email around at once and explain exactly what she didn’t understand. I was able to respond immediately and she had her answer.

Have you found that some of your classes need assignments clarified? Keep in mind that I am not a mind-reader. You need to tell me what you don’t understand so that I can guide you. How do you handle your own interaction with the professor?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

But professor, I intend to write a good paper

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I got a very interesting comment from a student lately. The assignment was to write an outline for the paper that would be the major assignment for the whole semester. I gave an example of the proper format for a sentence outline, using Roman numerals and 1,2,3 and a,b,c. I did not give a specific example of the words to put in the outline, just a sample for formatting purposes.

One student, who is in graduate school, turned in a 3/4 page document with things like the following:

I. Introduction: I will write an introduction that introduces my three main points.

II. This is my first main point, where I will quote from the articles I read.

1. This is sub-point one.

2. This is sup-point two.

3. This is sub-point three. I will have three sub-points for each main point.

III. This is my second main point, where I will cite some additional articles.

IV. This is my third main point, where I will quote some more articles.

V. This is my conclusion, where I will summarize what I said in the paper.

Folks, I am not kidding. After this wonderful excursion into Outline Hades, the student attached a Reference page with 15 articles that were not mentioned once in the outline. When I flunked the assignment, the student emailed me to say that she/he (I know which sex the student was but chose not to share this information) had intentions of writing an excellent paper and that I should have seen that when I read the Reference page. Really? What grade do you think the student deserved on this document?

What examples of student-understanding challenges have you heard about or experienced?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Asking for grace versus making excuses

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Life happens. Sometimes we have to work late, have a sick relative, or experience some other life emergency. As a college professor, I see it happen all the time.

What happens when you simply haven’t planned ahead well enough? Like to old saying kind of goes, “Failure on your part to prepare does not constitute an emergency on my part.” I had a student recently who wanted an extended deadline because he was working full time, taking several classes, and wanting to attend his sister’s birthday party. For this reason (which he somehow thought was my fault), he wanted a one-week extension on the due date for an assignment. After all, he couldn’t miss his sister’s birthday party, could he?

Well, I assume that she has had other birthdays in the past, so he knew it was coming. He probably also knew that he worked full time, so that shouldn’t have been a surprise. He also had access to his classes before he signed up for them, so he knew what the work load would be.  I’m still trying to figure out why I should cut him a break.

This week alone, over three classes at two colleges, I have had students whose bosses made them work overtime, a brother in an accident, and a sister-in-law who went into labor because her hubby had an accident. The last two issues were something out of the student’s control, but we all have to work overtime from time to time.

How do we prepare? Well, knowing the kind of boss you have before you start the class means that you work ahead so that you are prepared for the overtime he or she will probably insist you do.

Last semester, I had a student whose baby was due shortly after the class began. What did she do? She got the book early, looked at the syllabus as soon as she could, and began doing the research and preparing the documents she had to write. The baby was born at some point in time, but her work never suffered at all because she was so far ahead (I release discussion board topics one week ahead of time, so that a business trip or baby won’t keep you from getting behind).

As grace is concerned, I usually give my students one excuse per semester. After that one, you better be prepared or get ready to fail because you have excuseitis, probably not a legitimate problem.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Negotiating a Grade Change

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

A former student of mine needed to pass her math course in order to graduate from college. She had a job all lined up, the family was preparing to move across the country so that she could start the job, but ….she was apparently failing her math class….or so it seemed. No degree would equal no job……

She wrote a very impassioned letter to me (I teach public speaking at that college), asking me for help. Rather than  correct the letter itself, I suggested that she submit it to the professor as-is because it wasn’t a bad letter and her situation really shone through in the letter exactly it was. I also suggested she contact the department chair and the head of academic affairs, if she could not get satisfaction from the instructor. The good news was that he responded to her plea, realized he had not counted her extra credit that she had done throughout the term, and adjusted her grade to a C.

Keep in mind that most professors do not get joy from flunking a student and teachers sometimes forget to add in extra points. We are human, so write that impassioned letter and you might just get the results that you are seeking. (Or not, if you messed up all term and waited until the last minute to ask for extra credit……..I had a graduate student recently who lazed around the whole term and then asked for an extra assignment on the last day of class. That did not happen, folks!)

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Making sure you meet the assignment’s requirements

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Have you ever worked on an assignment, only to discover at the last minute that you did the wrong assignment? Maybe you wrote a wonderful treatise on the role of tiddly winks in today’s culture. Perhaps you waxed eloquently on the job of belly button lint in the overall scheme of life. Perchance you discussed Shakespeare’s wife’s personality as it related to his writing in a Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.

Then, just as you got ready to hit the “submit” button, you realized it was the wrong assignment. What do you do now? Go ahead and submit the document, hoping against hope that the instructor will not notice????? Bad news, folks, unless we have just been hit by a tidal wave, we will notice that you wrote the wrong document.

I actually had this happen to me once (I wrote the wrong assignment, not that I got hit by a tidal wave!). What did I do? I went back and looked over the instructions and then I took a deep breath and re-wrote my essay so that it fit into what was required. Fortunately, I always prepared my essays with enough time for one more look-see, so I had 24 hours to fix it. It worked about just fine, though I did do some major league scrambling!

Sometimes students write a discussion board posting that does not meet the requirements of the forum. For example, my writing classes  always have to post two five-sentence paragraphs on every single discussion board for the entire semester. This is a MINIMUM requirement that is mentioned in the syllabus and in the individual discussion board instructions. Just today, I had a student who posted two replies: a three-sentence and a five-sentence posting. Does she think I don’t care or that I won’t notice? Hint: I do notice and she got very low grades on those discussion boards.

So, the point here is to always, always look over the instructions more than once and to write the correct document. Do you have any special times when you messed up? What was your solution to the problem? I look forward to hearing from you!

Best,

Dr. Sheri