Open Thread Wednesday!

If I sent in a job application a few days ago, it shows up in my profile as submitted, but did not get a confirmation email should I call HR to make sure they got it? It’s been about three days.

Where IS ProfHacker HQ, anyway? I still don’t know. :)

I tell them, over and over, to make sure they are starting their work early so, at the last minute, if there is a problem with Blackboard, etc there is no excuse.

I can’t believe, with the emails problems we’ve had on campus, how many students don’t contact IT when they have problems.

I like the idea of a resolutions post, Courtney. It’s something I’ve been reflecting on during my outrageous commute after finishing my last class today before finals.

As campuses adopt (and encourage) the use of various digital tools for our teaching, this is becoming an issue for more and more of us, isn’t it?

Check out this thread from last month on emailed assignments. I especially like this part of what Brian says, “I make it clear to students that technology has been known to fail and that they shouldn’t count on it working at the last minute…”

I think Nels has written before that he gives students a narrow range of dates during which students can submit their work electronically. In other words, the assignment sheet might read, “Students should email me their completed essay at any point between Wednesday at noon (at the earliest) and Friday at noon (at the latest).”

And I seem to remember some language from Jason telling students to expect 2 emailed responses from him: the first to acknowledge receipt of the assignment, and the second with his comments and grade.

Maybe something like this would be good:

Students must email me their completed essay at any point between Wednesday at noon (at the earliest) and Friday at noon (at the latest). Of course, technology has been known to fail from time to time, so don’t count on it always working at the last minute. When I receive your email, I’ll send you a brief acknowledgment of receipt to let you know it’s made it into my inbox. If you don’t receive such an email within 12 hours of sending me your assignment, that probably means I didn’t get it. If you’re having problems with any of the technology used for this course, your first step should be to contact the campus IT help desk to assist you in solving the problems. It’s your responsibility (not mine, not the held desk’s) to submit your work using the required methods and by the deadline.

That’s just my first-draft attempt at such language, though. Any thoughts?

Oh, PS–thanks for the encouragement on my dangerous student situation, everyone!

I also like “resolutions for next semester,” and I have been thinking about them, too. It seems to me that now’s the time to look back on what worked and what didn’t this past semester–not just with regard to teaching but also with regard to research productivity, service responsibilities, and having a healthy and reasonably happy life–and put that knowledge to work in planning next semester.

As for “dangerous students,” that’s something I’ve been mulling over myself for a few years after an unusual experience with a student in a class I taught in grad school. I’ll see what I can do…

Very helpful ideas, all! Thanks!

I use Turnitin rather than email for submitting assignments, which requires students to log in to our Blackboard system. That’s where all the “but I really did submit this even though the file is nowhere to be seen” and “my login suddenly doesn’t work” issues come in. And then there are the “my laptop exploded and I can’t retrieve my files” type things… but I think that the language above can be easily tweaked for my purposes. Again, thanks!

Can anyone recommend some wording to include in my syllabus that covers technological “breakdowns” and other issues that students claim interfere with their ability to turn in assignments online? It seems that especially at the end of the semester, many students suddenly experience mysterious technical difficulties–computers get fried, files get lost, they can’t log in to the college computer system, the software for turning in electronic files stops accepting their files, you name it. (Of course, some of these are legitimate issues and some are probably outright lies.)

I already have something to the effect of “it is the student’s responsibility to save and keep backup files of all assignments.” What I need now is something to that addresses the “I can’t log in all of a sudden,” or “Blackboard wasn’t working for me (even though everyone else in the class had no problem with it)” kind of issues–basically the kinds of issues to which, when I ask “Did you contact Tech Support for help?” the answer is “Uh, no…”