This is one reason why anonymous grading really does help.
This is one reason why anonymous grading really does help.
(I'm getting internal server errors and malicious comment warnings and various other sort of foul impediments to the posting of my comment.)
Would a marginal suggestion to borrow the notes for a particular date, or failing that to come to office hours to discuss the relevant lecture (Sure, you'd probably rather they didn't, but let's face it, they won't. Or if they do, they might be salvageable.) satisfy your need for snark safely?
The problem I have with student evaluations is that students are, by definition, ignorant, and they can't judge the effectiveness of a particular class until they have learned more than they learned in that particular class -- for instance, I can't judge how representative my lit survey class was until I study literature more extensively.
This is not that I'm trying to "silence" any "voices" or that I think that students should have no say in the educational process -- but it's just that in terms of evaluating their classes, there are structural issues that keep them from being able to do it (except for the extreme cases -- students are probably able to evaluate whether they have learned anything at all, for instance). Thus, I would argue that student evaluations should probably be collected, but not given very much weight unless they point toward a really extreme deficiency.
The thing that kills me, LB, is that the notes are online, and the question the author is confused about is explicitly answered in them.
AK, I sort-of disagree. Questions like "are these the right topics to cover?" shouldn't be answered by students, but other pedagogical issues can be covered by evaluations, e.g., "were presentations clear?"
Then passive-aggressive sweetness is your most satisfying snark response (or would be for me). "For some illumination on this point, see http:\www.FLU.Phil.comclassnotes.2343343.fgrwe3."
No one could possibly take exception to that, it makes your point, and the kid might, conceivably, learn something.
Hey, this reminds me of a question I had. I'm in a really, really horrible class this semester. I'm pretty confident I'm qualified to judge it so. I looked around on RMP to see if I could find a place to leave a comment about it, but it seems that none of the profs from my program appear there, because they're adjucnts, maybe (or maybe I should check to see if I could add them). I was thinking of starting a super anonymous blog, with the names of classes and professors as posts, and forwarding it around from an anonymous email and inviting people to comment. (What's wrong with old-fashioned talking to your classmates? you ask. It's not like undergrad, where you make friends and word travels fast. Everyone's living separate lives. I don't get a lot of info on good and bad classes.) But I'm worried about some kind of repercussions? Thoughts?
I'd be even more irritated than you, on the grounds that *not only* was the concept explained in class, *and* the notes online, *but also* students shouldn't be so fucking lazy that they can't engage material on their own even *if* it isn't explained in class, *and* the informality of bitching directly at the instructor in a formal paper is just wrong.
F?
>The problem I have with student evaluations is that students are, by definition, ignorant, and they can't judge the effectiveness of a particular class until they have learned more than they learned in that particular class -- for instance, I can't judge how representative my lit survey class was until I study literature more extensively.
Student evaluations are good on picking up on problems like communication dificulties and lack of teacher enthusiasm.
hook 'em FLU woo!
"Home of the Throbbing Cocks"
In a formal paper, the student shouldn't be referring to the classroom anyway. Tell the student to write a self-sustained argument on his or her own damned thoughts, wrong though they might be. (Then in the end-of-paper write-up you might mention the online classnotes.)
And Tia, if you think the class could be improved somehow, what about emailing your professor with specific recommendations after you get your grade? An adjunct professor is much more vulnerable to student criticism than any other kind--even grad students have more job security than adjuncts do.
Arms, you're definitely summa cum laude at my university.
JM, I'll do that, and I've even made suggestions in class when she's asked for them in much gentler terms than I've put them internally, but she's been teaching the class for twenty years, appears not to value keeping up with the literature, and I get the sense she's set in her ways, but her ways include giving the appearance of being receptive to criticism. I want the students in my program to have a resource so they know what to avoid.
Tia, I've been supervising a first-year course this year in which one of the instructors is exactly like this woman you're describing. FWIW, the entire faculty know it, and it drives us all nuts (and she pulls the same shit on me: "yes, that sounds good, I'll try that" and then goes on with her same old crappy pedagogy). She keeps getting assigned b/c she won't retire, and she keeps getting hired b/c her partner has tenure.
All of which is to say, I wish some of the students would complain to the department chair, so that we'd have some *grounds* for reconsidering her teaching assignment.
Tia, you can add people to RMP. Just click the "Add a Professor" link at the top of the name listings.
I vote for passive-aggressive margin comments:
http://www.flu.edu/~philos/philxyz/coursenotes/ohlookythey'reorganized bydatehowfuckingconvenient.html.
and then link him to Jim Pryor's how to write a philo paper site.