• Tuesday, May 29, 2012
May 29, 2012, 08:10:46 AM *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with your Chronicle username and password
News: Talk online about your experiences as an adjunct, visiting assistant professor, postdoc, or other contract faculty member.
 
Pages: 1 [2]
  Print  
Author Topic: Dealing with poorly performing online students.  (Read 5110 times)
giacomo
Member
***
Posts: 241


« Reply #15 on: February 14, 2011, 06:15:32 PM »

I have an email that I send students who score low on exams. It outlines the things that they should be doing to prepare for the exam and lists the supplementary course materials that are available. Many of my students when asked do not know about the course materials available to them. Your course management system may allow you to set up an automatic email from you when students score low on an exam.
Logged
octoprof
Member-Moderator
Distinguished Senior Member
*****
Posts: 32,747

Dérailleur-in-Chief (nominee)


« Reply #16 on: February 21, 2011, 04:17:20 PM »

Another online assignment due today. A one page problem on the current module.
35% failed to turn anything in
29% earned a perfect score
The rest ranged from 9/10 to 2/10

How's that for a bimodal distribution?
Logged

Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things... Mark Twain
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. Professor Dumbledore
polly_mer
Distinguished Senior Member
*****
Posts: 30,222

hiding out from my grading. Shhh!


« Reply #17 on: February 22, 2011, 09:49:07 AM »

Another online assignment due today. A one page problem on the current module.
35% failed to turn anything in
29% earned a perfect score
The rest ranged from 9/10 to 2/10

How's that for a bimodal distribution?

If it makes you feel better, I often have that same result from my face-to-face science for teachers classes, even when we did the work in class in groups and I stood at a couple of the tables prompting, "And what comes next?"  Failure to turn in papers that I did everything but move their hands on the paper for them is my most annoying issue (dude, I am trying to give away points here!).  Second most annoying is leading a group of 4 people step-by-step through the entire assignment only to have 3 perfects and 1 near zero.

If you have a 29% perfect score, then I would say you're doing ok.  Although, perhaps a mass email to the non-turner-iners is in order.  When I do those emails, I mention the failure to turn in recent assignments, explain what a making-progress grade in class currently is, and exhort students to check their current course grade against that standard.

As we come up on the final withdrawal deadline, I send personalized emails with current grade in class compared to the minimum likely-to-pass grade for those who should withdraw.  Doing so doesn't do a lot for the students, but it makes me feel better that I've done all I could.
Logged

If you haven't got either the anatomical or metaphorical balls to post your own question on a pseudonymous internet forum, then academia is the wrong job for you.
octoprof
Member-Moderator
Distinguished Senior Member
*****
Posts: 32,747

Dérailleur-in-Chief (nominee)


« Reply #18 on: February 22, 2011, 10:28:54 AM »

If you have a 29% perfect score, then I would say you're doing ok.  Although, perhaps a mass email to the non-turner-iners is in order.  When I do those emails, I mention the failure to turn in recent assignments, explain what a making-progress grade in class currently is, and exhort students to check their current course grade against that standard.

I did send an email to the non-turner-inners! Excellent idea. If only they would now read it...
Logged

Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things... Mark Twain
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. Professor Dumbledore
polly_mer
Distinguished Senior Member
*****
Posts: 30,222

hiding out from my grading. Shhh!


« Reply #19 on: February 22, 2011, 10:33:19 AM »

If you have a 29% perfect score, then I would say you're doing ok.  Although, perhaps a mass email to the non-turner-iners is in order.  When I do those emails, I mention the failure to turn in recent assignments, explain what a making-progress grade in class currently is, and exhort students to check their current course grade against that standard.

I did send an email to the non-turner-inners! Excellent idea. If only they would now read it...

I can't help you there.  I have students who will look me dead in the eye and tell me that I never told them something even when I can point to notes in their own handwriting in their own notebooks and say, "How odd.  Then how do explain it being right there?"  If I can't get those students to admit that I told them something, I'm at a loss on how to make people read something that they can plausibly deny.
Logged

If you haven't got either the anatomical or metaphorical balls to post your own question on a pseudonymous internet forum, then academia is the wrong job for you.
notaprof
Not a
Distinguished Senior Member
*****
Posts: 11,084

This space for rent


« Reply #20 on: February 22, 2011, 11:02:11 AM »

If you have a 29% perfect score, then I would say you're doing ok.  Although, perhaps a mass email to the non-turner-iners is in order.  When I do those emails, I mention the failure to turn in recent assignments, explain what a making-progress grade in class currently is, and exhort students to check their current course grade against that standard.

I did send an email to the non-turner-inners! Excellent idea. If only they would now read it...

I can't help you there.  I have students who will look me dead in the eye and tell me that I never told them something even when I can point to notes in their own handwriting in their own notebooks and say, "How odd.  Then how do explain it being right there?"  If I can't get those students to admit that I told them something, I'm at a loss on how to make people read something that they can plausibly deny.

Our email system allows me to track whether students opened an email or not, (I don't use it myself but my assistant does) but even then, we don't have proof that the student actually read the message.  I know there are tools that allow marketing researchers to track eye movement to register what people look at on a webpage.  Perhaps we could get that to see if student eyeballs ever really look at the text in an email message.

Logged

"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone.
"When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."
Pages: 1 [2]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.9 | SMF © 2006-2008, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!