Suggestions:
set up "lab hours" - or some kind of buddy system- during which someone
will be on hand to assist the students in accessing or learning to access
this stuff.
Be sympathetic. Explain to the students that you've taken their concerns
seriously and what you've done to investigate and that things seem okay.
good luck.
At 03:31 PM 9/10/99 -0400, ANN MUIR THOMAS wrote:
>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
>
>
