What I Learned at Today’s Student Success Webinar

Or: Why should I keep all this misery to myself? 1) Students are our customers. You don’t go into a store and expect the cashier to tell you what to do. Similarly, who are we to tell students what to do? 1a) We need to take our students in hand and teach them time management. […]
from What I Learned at Today’s Student Success Webinar

Novelist teaches freshman writing, is shocked by students’ inability to construct basic sentences

Higher ed has problems. Is it bad enough to quit?

Oliver Lee Bateman, who penned last year’s widely read defense of grade inflation, has finally had enough. On September 8, he published a piece titled I have one of the best jobs in academia. Here’s why I’m walking away.

His reasons:

1) Too many people go to college

…not out of any particular interest in the field, but in order to receive raises at work or improve their position in a crowded job market.

2) Online education isn’t the solution

…a grader for one of our online courses supervises approximately 30 to 50 students for an entire course. The grader typically makes $700.

3) Tenured professors pity adjuncts. But we can’t help them.

It’s not that we full-timers don’t care; it’s that we can’t.

4) “Alt-academia” isn’t a solution — it’s surrender

…when it comes time to pay it off with a real job? Sorry — best look somewhere “alternative.”

5) The students and professors aren’t the problem; the university system is.

I have my own ideas for fixing higher ed, and many of them don’t have anything to do with higher ed. Also all of them cost money.

We’re talking about it over at Higher Education’s Premier Online Publication.

Come join us!

 

Filed under: College Misery, Higher Ed Tagged: College Misery, context matters, Higher Ed, misery, politics
from Higher ed has problems. Is it bad enough to quit?

Today on College Misery: You Won’t Believe This One Weird Trick to Raise your Graduation Rate!

1. Don’t let teachers give failing grades

Read the whole post on College Misery

 

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THE MUSUBI MURDER Amazon / B&N /Powell’s /Audible / iTunes

 

Filed under: Author Interviews, Buy, Fun, Knaves and Dunderheads, Reviews, Writing Tagged: Chicago, College Misery, grade inflation, grades, graduation rate, misery, students
from Today on College Misery: You Won’t Believe This One Weird Trick to Raise your Graduation Rate!

Study: Fat Cat Professors Not Responsible for Rising Tuition, May Not Actually Exist

Between 78 and 79 percent of the tuition hikes at public universities -- which averaged $3,628 per student at research universities and $2,463 per student at nonresearch colleges -- was due to declining state appropriations, between 5 and 6 percent was due to increased administrative spending, and another 6 percent was due to construction costs.

Report says administrative bloat, construction booms not largely responsible for tuition increases | InsideHigherEd.

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BE THE FIRST TO LEARN ABOUT PROMOTIONS, EVENTS, AND NEW RELEASES: 

THE MUSUBI MURDER August 2015 Amazon / B&N /Powell’s /Audible / iTunes

Today on College Misery: This is why my syllabus is seventeen pages long

Join me over at Higher Education's Premier Online Publication. Or simply read on: SCENE 1: Second Week of the Semester

Student-AthleteAthlete-Student:I have to miss class because my team is traveling to the mainland for two weeks. I know the syllabus says no makeups, but I don't have a choice about going on the trip. Can I make up the in class quizzes? Professor B. (that's me!), Unknowingly Stepping Onto the Slippery Slope: Sure! Because you have to travel as a condition of your athletic scholarship, just write a short reflection paper on the week's topic and get it to me when you come back.

SCENE 2: Third Week of the Semester

Scammy Sammy: I heard you can make up the in-class quizzes. I had to miss last Wednesday for a very important family funeral event. Professor B.: Well, OK, I guess you can make the quiz up by writing a short reflection paper. Scammy Sammy: When is it due? Professor B.: Just get it to me by the last day of class.

SCENE 3: End of the same semester, the day after final grades are submitted

Email from Scammy Sammy to me:

Professor, Please expect my makeups this evening or tomorrow morning. I just finished finals and now wrapping extraneous assignments up. [That's right. "Extraneous" assignments.]

Email from me to Scammy Sammy: I already submitted the final grades. These were supposed to be in by the last day of class.

Email from Scammy Sammy to me, the following day: I'm so sorry, I thought you meant the end of finals week. Thank you for being so understanding! [Attached to Scammy Sammy's email: FIVE makeup essays, rather defeating the purpose of requiring students to attend and participate in the class exercises and discussions.]

And because I had allowed this unwritten loophole, I took Scammy Sammy's makeup essays. Scammy Sammy's grade went from a C to a C-plus. Of course this was my fault. I implemented an informal makeup policy that wasn't written down anywhere. But I learned my lesson. What's the big deal, one might ask? Is it the end of the world if one pushy student gets a probably-undeserved half-grade bump? No, it's not.

  However.

 Once word of Scammy Sammy's gambit gets around, next semester will be Scammy Sammy to the nth degree. It is not unreasonable to anticipate an entire semester of dead classrooms, culminating in an eleventh-hour avalanche of makeup assignments. So, new on the syllabus for fall:
An elaborate, scammer-resistant makeup policy, yet to be formulated, that somehow manages to be fair to everyone, including those whose obligations to the university require travel. No makeups, no exceptions, and if you don't like it, go pick another major.

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  BE THE FIRST TO LEARN ABOUT PROMOTIONS, EVENTS, AND NEW RELEASES: 
  THE MUSUBI MURDER August 2015 Amazon / B&N /Powell’s /Audible / iTunes

Study: Fat Cat Professors Not Responsible for Rising Tuition, May Not Actually Exist

Between 78 and 79 percent of the tuition hikes at public universities — which averaged $3,628 per student at research universities and $2,463 per student at nonresearch colleges — was due to declining state appropriations, between 5 and 6 percent was due to increased administrative spending, and another 6 percent was due to construction costs. […] http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

BPS Research Digest: 10 hellish psychology studies you’ll be glad not to have participated in

BPS Research Digest: 10 hellish psychology studies you’ll be glad not to have participated in. And in case you’re wondering why  Zimbardo and Milgram aren’t on that list, BPS has them here: The 10 most controversial psychology studies ever published  Frankie Bow’s first novel, THE MUSUBI MURDER , is available at Audible.com, Amazon.com, andiTunes. BE THE FIRST TO LEARN ABOUT PROMOTIONS, EVENTS, AND […] http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

All persons and events are really, really fictional I swear: Self-Published Novelist Defamed In-Laws in €53k Payout Case | The Independent Publishing Magazine

All persons and events are really, really fictional I swear: Self-Published Novelist Defamed In-Laws in €53k Payout Case | The Independent Publishing Magazine. “Brígida was portrayed as a loose woman who was unfaithful to her husband, António. It was said that Floro had done his son out of his money, visited prostitutes, had extra-marital affairs […]

All persons and events are really, really fictional I swear: Self-Published Novelist Defamed In-Laws in €53k Payout Case | The Independent Publishing Magazine

All persons and events are really, really fictional I swear: Self-Published Novelist Defamed In-Laws in €53k Payout Case | The Independent Publishing Magazine. “Brígida was portrayed as a loose woman who was unfaithful to her husband, António. It was said that Floro had done his son out of his money, visited prostitutes, had extra-marital affairs […]