Hi all,
This may be a rant rather than something you can help with, but.... I set
up my intro. students with a web-based quiz system and discussion group.
So far, it's been a disaster -- students say they can't get into the site
[which is password-protected], or they could get in earlier this week, but
now they can't. Other professors here who are using the same system have
not reported any problems. I've had some very good tech people working
with me on this, and we are pretty sure that the problem lies with the
students, not with anything I am doing or with the technology. But the
students are all *blaming me* for the problems, and I am really freaked
out about it. I am "on probation" this year and if my student evals don't
improve, I won't be allowed to continue on the tenure track, and will be
out of a job at the end of A.Y. 2000-2001. I feel jinxed -- like I have
already poisoned this class, so why even *try* to make things better?
[BTW, I used the discussion group system last spring in an upper-level
class with relatively few problems, except for a student impersonating me
and announcing class was cancelled when it wasn't, before I
password-protected the group...]
WRT the students, I just sent them an email saying that their web-based
work for this week and next is cancelled, so they don;t have to worry
about it affecting their grades. But then, what happens when suddenly I
am making them do it again? Won't this just make them even more upset
with me?
Argh.
------------------
Ann Muir Thomas, Ph.D. http://erebus.bentley.edu/empl/t/athomas
"The Accidental Jewess"
Bentley College, Waltham, MA
"You aren't belittled by being little. Only by acting small." --- Red
