Stupid Students, Part 148,509
During my first summer session, I had one class full of exceptionally bright and motivated students. I got a chance to see what it was like to teach students who were there because they wanted to be, not because their mommy and daddy told them it was either this or a job. Not surprising, the class average at the end of the session was one of the highest I've seen in years. It was an incredible pleasure to teach this fine young students.
This summer session I am making up for it.
Their first assignment was very simple. Take a quiz on Blackboard (the online learning environment) on plagiarism. It is a very common sense sort of quiz and I even provided them with a whole slew of information on the subject so there was no way they could fail it. The whole purpose of the quiz was to get them comfortable with taking an online assessment. An easy A, right? Well, over the past three days I have received a slew of e-mails from students that include the following:
Oooh. I got a good laugh out of this one. First off, they had unlimited attempts to take this quiz until Thursday in order to get a perfect grade so you could have just taken it again. Secondly, Blackboard is set up so that it warns you if you have not answered all of the questions and puts up a are you sure you want to submit pop-up before you finish it. I even showed this to you in class! If you didn't get either of those two parts, it's going to be a long summer.
Another good laugh. How the hell does using Blackboard knock your entire internet out? And while I would normally be sympathetic to this sort of scenario, e-mailing me the day after it was due is not going to help your cause.
Hmmm. Let me see. Could it be that the assignment was due on Thursday and today is Saturday?
Why do I have a feeling that it's going to be a long session?
To Bear Chick: Don't worry. I haven't given up. Well, I've given up about my current place but I am figuring out the future. There are a lot of options open to me and I'm just trying to decide which one to take. Either way, it looks like a PhD program is in my future, just a matter of which one and where.
This summer session I am making up for it.
Their first assignment was very simple. Take a quiz on Blackboard (the online learning environment) on plagiarism. It is a very common sense sort of quiz and I even provided them with a whole slew of information on the subject so there was no way they could fail it. The whole purpose of the quiz was to get them comfortable with taking an online assessment. An easy A, right? Well, over the past three days I have received a slew of e-mails from students that include the following:
I was not made aware that before leaving a question going to the next question that I have to save everyone of them first. Because of that mistake, I missed 100 good points. I'm wondering if you could give me another chance to redo the assesment [sic].
Oooh. I got a good laugh out of this one. First off, they had unlimited attempts to take this quiz until Thursday in order to get a perfect grade so you could have just taken it again. Secondly, Blackboard is set up so that it warns you if you have not answered all of the questions and puts up a are you sure you want to submit pop-up before you finish it. I even showed this to you in class! If you didn't get either of those two parts, it's going to be a long summer.
I tried to get into my Blackboard this evening and in so doing have managed to, a few hours later, knock out the internet for my entire house. (Which is why I'm emailing you from my phone.) It said my browser wasn't compatible, I called and was told to downloaded firefox 3.6.6 onto my antiquated macbook and disaster struck.
Another good laugh. How the hell does using Blackboard knock your entire internet out? And while I would normally be sympathetic to this sort of scenario, e-mailing me the day after it was due is not going to help your cause.
I was trying to access the quiz you put up on Blackboard but it's giving me some thing like this "The assessment is currently not available." Now I'm kind of lost so if you can help me I'll appericiate [sic] it. Thankyou!
Hmmm. Let me see. Could it be that the assignment was due on Thursday and today is Saturday?
Why do I have a feeling that it's going to be a long session?
To Bear Chick: Don't worry. I haven't given up. Well, I've given up about my current place but I am figuring out the future. There are a lot of options open to me and I'm just trying to decide which one to take. Either way, it looks like a PhD program is in my future, just a matter of which one and where.
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