Open Thread Wednesday!

The process is probably different for different schools, but my guess would be that you’d submit–as Erin mentions–a syllabus, but then also some combination of the following:

a brief rationale for why the course is needed;

where the course would fit in fulfilling a student’s requirements for the major or for gen ed requirements;

a list of the faculty (maybe 2 or 3 people?) who could teach it;

how often the course will be offered; and

a statement of whether or not the library has the necessary resources (books, databases, DVDs) to support such a course.

You might not need to generate and submit all of these things, of course, but if you have the information ready for each of these then–in my humble opinion–you are ready to make a compelling case.

Hypothetical scenario describing the process from idea to actual course: If your department has a curriculum committee, then they’ll need to consider and vote on the proposed course. Then the department will need to consider and vote on the proposed course. And then, perhaps, the campus-wide curriculum committee will need to consider and vote on the proposed course. Your mileage may vary…

Would you feel comfortable asking your colleague for a little more information about the necessary materials and process?

Hi all. I’m still kicking around this grad student grading issue. I’m teaching my first graduate course (MA level) and I’m wondering how others grade graduate student writing. Technically, anything below a B is unacceptable for a graduate course, so do you stretch out your A-B scale so that a B- is like a D-? Or do you still use a full A-F scale? Also, this course has a handful of upper level undergraduate students (it’s not a split level course, technically; it’s a full grad course, but upper level undergraduates can take it with permission). Would you grade them differently? I don’t get too hung up on this, but it’s something with which I’ve been struggling and it’s something I’d like to hear from others about.

Hi Denise,

Doesn’t that just suck? Evaluations are awful in many ways; students don’t often use them for critical writing, but to vent or speak something inane; and you’re right that the worst ones stick in your head, don’t they, even though they are the minority. Sometimes I can manage to read behind a student’s comment to figure out what the real problem is, but that’s often just not possible. Often–it’s no coincidence–I’m convinced that the students who do their worst are the ones who have never come to ask for help, or even if they have, have just stewed in their own frustration for weeks. Who knew that they were in that much pain! You wonder why they wouldn’t take measures, but some just don’t want to do the work, or would rather blame you. I try to spot them during term, but in big or lecture classes (and even in small ones) that’s often not possible in 15 weeks, or it happens too late to matter. Remember that these especially are still children, who will take out on you what has often been their own fault. It’s awfully hard for a parent to try to stand back, and it is for us too, perhaps especially because we meet them and want to treat them as adults, though they are not yet, all of them. Like all good teenagers they are very good at finding just the right buttons to push, aren’t they. Try to look at the big picture, and remember that you reached a lot more than you didn’t, and that is all that any decent teacher can honestly hope for.

I did read it, and will go through it again and maybe absorb something more from it the second time. It’s awkward because my former specialty (Post Soviet Russian Politics) has nothing to do with my current specialty (US Government Documents). I can think of one or two, but I guess I’m just hoping to find something exciting and new and…when really I should just accept that tenure is painful and just push out my first publication as quickly as possible.

We just got our students evaluations from last semester. I taught two survey courses (Early American through Dickinson, a class which is supposed to be for majors but is full of people taking it as an elective). Before I read the evaluation comments, I was okay. They give us a grid, and since I had not taught the class in a while, I thought that my scores were okay and hoped to teach the course again. Then I read the comments. There were some really mean ones in there. I had been so proud of them and positive about the experience until I read them. It seems that students who are doing well in the class tend to write either really short comments or nothing at all. But the students who are unhappy–well, let’s just say I would never say to anyone the kinds of things they feel free to say to me. If we are teaching students to be responsible citizens, why are we allowing them to submit anonymous teaching evaluations where they feel free to do as much name-calling as they like? Maybe I should stop reading the comments and just look at the statistics? What do you think?

(2/3)

What do I do about pushy students about email? I am really wired in, of course, but I am growing tired of students who expect email replies instantaneously from me at all hours of the day and/or night. To try to deter this, I am pretty up front about the times that I am online/answering email, however, it still happens.

Is your email schedule in your syllabus? Some of my colleagues either list when they’ll be available or what their general turn around time is. How many students ignore your email announcement? It’s a little hard to give advice without knowing whether you mean half of a class bothering you daily versus one or two forgetful students who speak before they think.

Its a great talk – are the images/video available anywhere?

I’m afraid that I don’t have much to add on this topic as my college is so small, that course proposals are rather informal. New courses still need to be approved by our curriculum committee, but this basically involves submitting a syllabus.

I don’t answer any emails except those that are personal and can’t be posted on a blog (i.e., a medical condition or scheduling an exam time). All other questions about the course must be posted to the course blog to get an answer. And sometimes I will answer those questions late at night. I also let them know that a disrespectful email will not get an answer. I used to answer but I just found this ended up being perceived as an invitation to justify their email and engage in a debate about how/when they write emails. I figure, I have office hours that are mostly unattended, so if it’s pressing they will come ask me in person. -jkm