I have been out of school for a long time and for whatever reason I up and decided to go back. I'm doing it online. I have an associates degree, a ton of on the job training that is equivalent to a bachelors but I want that piece of paper. I'm not planning to change jobs even, I just want the piece of paper so I decided to go back to school. I'm taking an online class. According to the course, you can do it at your own pace and the professor generally grades papers within 3 days but can take up to 10. I trolled the forum where the students can ask questions but have not said anything. They are asking all these questions and ... crickets... so the students are answering each others questions right? Well I get this e-mail today that "says when submitting your essay be sure to follow the template provided to you on whatever tab". So I'm thinking that I did it wrong. I sit there and stare at the template then stare at my paper then stare at the template...
Finally I send back a response, "As far as I can tell, I followed the template. Can you please provide clarification". Well, then I realize she sent that not to the class and not me specifically but I couldn't find a recall feature on Yahoo! so she responds with "Make an appointment with me in the writing lab if you have questions". I e-mailed her back and said... "I apologize for my previous e-mail. It appears that you sent your note to the entire class and not me specifically as you have not yet graded my papers." She comes back with, yes - that was for the entire class but my response to you was to make the appointment in the writing lab if you need help.
Yeah... this is fun. I've been done with the class for 8 days. 8 days I've been waiting for her to grade the papers or send them back for corrections. I can't move forward until she grades these papers. Is this normal or did I just happen to get lucky in my first class back?
OH... and ... I sent my transcripts over. They took 10 classes from my associates and then they are STILL reviewing my 40 credits from my community college. Sigh....
Welcome back to the education world I guess... WAIL!!!!!
Having done my fair share of online schooling, you'll find that some professors are engaged and savvy with communicating in that format...and some are just padding their wallets. You sound like you have the latter, with the canned responses and students not having their questions answered promptly.
One thing I found helpful is that if you get a lazy prof, make sure you keep track of your syllabus, your due dates for all projects, and get them in well ahead of time. If you don't see grades within the posted timeframes, follow up!
Pretty standard. I have a class from last semester that I never got the marks for two programming projects. Passed the class, but no idea of the grade, never mind feedback. Most of my classes are 1-2 projects behind. Just assume you did fine and move on to the next.
Hopefully you just got a disorganized and late teacher. I've had some experience with online classes and teachers. I'm the mentor (practically, the on-site teacher) for a group of students taking online high school classes. Most of the teachers I've dealt with have been good about grading and giving feedback in a reasonable time frame. Others... take their time.
Also, my husband got a masters degree online a few years ago. His experience was similar to my high school experience. Most profs were good, but a few were flakes.
What kind of school is it? A traditional brick and mortar university that also offers classes online, or a purely online for-profit school? In my experience, a brick and mortar school is better, even if you never set foot on campus. The staff should also be easier to contact with predictable office hours.
What degree are you getting? Good luck getting your credits to count.
Back when I went back to school I took one online class. I will never do it again!! At one point we had to do "group projects". You had to get with your group (three people each) to complete this project. The assumption was made that everyone taking the class was college aged and would just meet up at the school and talk it over. Not in our case. I'm older and work full time. And this was an accounting class so we basically had to communicate through emails, and the main spreadsheet was set up in some program the school had and we would each go in there and make changes. This was a huge part of our grade. After a week or so, one of our members stopped responding and never did their "part".
Luckily part of the grade was also a survey she did afterwards asking each member how much input each of the other members had. You basically got to "grade" your teammates. I passed...but I hope the third phantom of our group didn't!!
The professor was good though. I just found the online thing very difficult. Besides, when I'm left to work at my own pace things just don't get done
It's an online school that is nationally accredited. Had I done my research I would have gone to a regionally accredited one. The way they set the classes up, I can not move forward until this one is completed. I called the school to see what the maximum turn around time is for grading assignments. They said a maximum of 10 business days which means Friday should be one and the others should be graded by Monday. But a friend of mine took the same class and she said the professor kicked her papers back twice before accepting them. She received a 74 on the paper. I will be really irritated if I have to wait 10 days for a resubmission (if she makes me do that).
I read this ladies bio and it looks to me like this is a part time gig for her. She appears to be completing a masters and working for a fortune 500 company... Ugh... She's also not friendly.
PLEASE tell me I didn't just blow it... I finally posted in the "ask the faculty" section. All I said was "Good Morning, How long does it generally take to receive feedback on an assignment".
I'm telling you, this chick is a witch. I googled her on rate my professor and her ratings were horrid. Everyone says she is short and rude. Sigh...
Nah, you didn't blow it. You asked a reasonable question on a forum (aka place to ask questions!) The other faculty members don't want her laziness giving the whole school a bad name. Consider this a learning experience -- next time look up the professor on rate my professor before signing up for the class.
Speaking from experience, I can tell you rate my professor isn't the most reliable source.... You get a student who gets PO'd at the prof and that's the first place they go, whereas the ones that enjoyed the class typically don't say a lot. The best thing would be to talk to students who have had the various teachers.
FarmPony, kudos to you for going back to school because it's something you wanted to do...to complete. Online classes can be "taxing".... please know there are really good teachers (as well as bad) for online courses just like regular classes.
And as far as professors "slipping" their ideas into assignments: an ethical prof will present both sides, as it's their job to get students to think critically. That being said, they are human like everyone else and have their own views. That doesn't necessarily mean they are trying to influence anyone's ideals....
A friend of mine took the class before me and said the professor was a wicked witch and told me that her papers got kicked back several times. That is one of the two required courses and so I had no choice but to take it. I'm not sure if I could have requested a different professor or not. She graded my papers without kicking them back. I received and A and 2 B's. I ended the course with a B+. Not the best but good enough to move on to the next. I'm still waiting for them to review my community college transcripts. 11 (I think) classes carried over from my associates but I have some courses that need to carry over from my community college. Starting English Comp II now. Yeah me...
I had no idea how much college professors slipped their personal views into the work assignments and the reading materials. It's interesting the way they are attempting to influence ones ideals...
It wasn't until recently at I realised just how like my father I am. He would argue that black was white and when you agreed with him he would say "Don't be silly, how can black be white?"
I got my BS in Computer Science through an on-line college that was truly self-paced... to the point that there weren't even "mentors" to ask questions of (or if there were, I never got answered). I did like it though. Easy classes were generally done in a couple days, and a few of the 'semesters,' which had a minimum of 4 classes (12 credits) were done in a week or two. Sure made getting my degree faster. Of course, the two classes that kicked my butt (calculus and Java) I ended up having to find local tutors to get me through to a passing grade - and it took me the entire year allowed (both classes the same semester - worst for last) to get through those classes!
If I were to do it again (not likely at my age) I would again go on-line and self-paced, but this time around I would want there to be someone I could reach out to for help or answers to questions regarding the material.
I don't even know why I'm doing it. I have a good career and make decent pay... I guess it's just something I wanted, to complete it. It is self paced and I have a friend doing the same, she's blowing through the classes a lot quicker than me but she's just getting the passing grade and moving on because she wants a pay increase that she can't get without the degree. I'm going for the grades, but I'm not sure why? Because I can I guess? It's still going a lot quicker than a traditional school would take. I do find it odd that some of the stuff they have you study is not in the texts or the online tutorials. I've had to do a ton of research on my own to find things...
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