Question for those that teach graduate classes online

Okay, I am teaching with a DETC online school. They provide a Rubric, a style guide, a sample paper, and require the APA format.

Over half the papers I get have basic problems, like misspelled words, problems with punctuation, and misinterpreted or missing citations.

I go in and correct these by hand on each paper, and return them to the student with a lot of comments and suggestions. Probably half my feedback is on basic grammar, passive verse active writing, punctuation, and spelling. The other half is on content. I also provide the model that I am looking for in each paper and/or for each topic, which I tell them up front and each time they do not follow it.

My question is, what do the rest of you do? Because from about 1/3 of my interactions, you would think that I am Satan asking them to cook puppy stew and eat it. And like it.

 

David,

Each school is different and has different level of students. I tend to be more lenient when the level of the class is low, you cannot expect the same level for every school. My suggestion is to monitor (if possible) other classes within the same school and see how other professors interact with their students. If your expectations are higher than the average professor, you are going to look like Satan and get bad evaluations, you need to know what other professors are doing so you can set your expectations at the same level.

The safest way to go is to low your expectations for the first class you teach and then raise them based on your feedback, you are less likely to get bad evaluations if you are lenient at the beginning and then adjust them once you know where you stand in the school. The reality is that some students get really nervous when they get negative feedback from the instructor and some of them can go and complain claiming that you are not being reasonable. If you are new in the school, the manager is going to think that is your fault and never give you a chance to teach again.

 

Is it an undergraduate or graduate level course? Regardless, it's simply unacceptable, and utterly lazy, to not use spell check before turning in a paper. How much effort does that take?

Professors, sadly, are often as guilty of poor writing as their students. I just completed a graduate business course from an AASCB accredited course and the professor's lecture notes were strewn with spelling and grammatical errors. I found it necessary to rewrite his lecture notes to untangle his thinking -- a needlessly time consuming and annoying task. I said nothing until he returned one of my assignments "correcting" my spelling of the possessive form of it -- he crossed out "its" and replaced it with "its'". Oy!

 

These are graduate classes.

95% of grammar that I correct could be found with the Word spell/grammar checker, 5% is cause by it..

I agree, if it has a squiggly red line under it, well come on..

 

That is awesome. The idea that it is unreasonable to identify misspelled words, or when the student uses others ideas and does not give them credit, could result in loss of teaching opportunities.

Well, I’m riding the ship all the way to the bottom then and holding my breath on the way down!

 

At the start of term did you identify what your expectations were for grading papers? For many of the classes I ever took it was stated that poor grammar would result in a lower grade.

Even in business you will find the same poor writing - I never had a problem correcting grammar - after all my approval is on the reports/memos and that is what readers often look for.

 

Well some word processors do make errors in flagging words as misspell when in fact the word is spelled correctly according to the dictionary. Once the course finishes perhaps you can take your compilation of grammatical errors and suggest to your superiors a basic grammar guide be created for students. I agree at the graduate level spelling errors are unacceptable and frequent grammatical errors are indicative of either reliance on the grammar checker built into many word processors or a fundamental misunderstanding of proper grammar. Microsoft Word is notorious for making bad grammatical suggestions and students often accept the suggestion as gospel.

 

That is exactly how most of the courses I have taken were set-up. The course syllabus clearly stated the grading rubic and explicitly mentioned poor spelling and grammar would result in a lower grade. The weekly discussion board postings were frequently riddled with spelling and grammar errors and even worse paragraph structure. How can a 400 word response to a discussion topic possibly be written as a single paragraph when that response addressed at least three separate thoughts?

 

In the vast majority of graduate-level classes I have taken, the professor would not even accept a paper containing poor grammar and spelling (sometimes even style). Usually, this was stated on the syllabus. I would do the same.

 

I teach undergraduate classes, which is a bit different than grad courses. I would hope that by the time students reach graduate school they are able to write. I typically will mark up the first paper and be more forgiving with the grading with the understanding that the reduction in grade will be more severe for the future papers.

One thing that I have noticed with the younger generation, is the use of "texting" language in both their threaded discussion posts and the papers that they submit. I warn them upfront that they must spell out their words and not use the shortcuts that are so common. It's driving me crazy because some students just don't want to accept the fact that they can't write that way.

 

I teach at a for-profit RA online school, which shall remain nameless; and I'm horrified at the poor grammar of most of my online students. I expect this kind of substandard writing from 8th or 9th graders, but not from college students. I feel like an English teacher. It is sooooooooo time consuming when I get too many of these kinds of substandard students, which is most of the time. It's even more frustrating to take the time to correct a substandard paper, which can take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how bad it is and how long it is -- only to have the same student repeat the same mistakes in a subsequent paper. Those kinds of students will never rise above a grade of C, but frankly, it appears that many of them simply don't care.

So whose fault is it? It's a combination of their family life (their parents obviously weren't capable of tutoring or mentoring them in this area), their educational system -- and the federal government. What? The federal government? But how so? Welllll, the feds offer these substandard student loans and the for-profit schools enable many substandard students to enroll -- and it puts a tremendous amount of work on the online instructors. Instead of teaching about the class, I end up spending hour after hour on basic English. Many of these substandard students would washout of a rigorous English class.

 

Anything less than a 'B' in undergraduate English composition (averaged over 6 credit hours) should disqualify an applicant to a graduate degree until they complete a remedial English course (spelling, grammar, etc.). In fact, at AMU/APU the first course we had to take was a combination English grammar and career planning courses in which we had grammar assignments as well as essay writing related to career goals and educational plan to achieve those goals. Then came the 6 credit hours of English Composition though they were not mandatory as the second and third courses as long as the English composition courses were completed by the end of the degree.

 

Writing is not my thing and I refuse to blame anybody for it.

 

Do you use Turnitin to check if they have copied line-by-line from internet?

 

I post before the start of each class.

Acceptable written assignments-
When submitting work, homework, teamwork, or posts, it must be written in proper English. Below is an example of what is not considered acceptable:
"could someone be the leader 4 this team cuz i still dont understand how this work. i am confused - LOL"
This really needs to be written at a college level.
1 Capital letters must be used
2 Spell check your work
3 Punctuation must be used. During this college course you need to write everything in proper structure including comments.


It makes me sick how lazy some people are. In the discussions I will openly refer them to this reminder and in the homework I will deduct points. A college paper is not a text message...don't get me started!

 

Isn't it the job of admissions to prevent candidates who need remedial English from entering the class and disrupting the learning experience of those capable of college level work?

I thought it had to be at least a slight exaggeration anyone with a pulse would be signed up. But, I suppose if students are doing academic writing in text message style, I was wrong.

 

Hold the line David. Hold the line.

 

Slightly off topic, but is there some type of pay service (i.e. online English tutor) that will review your papers and give you suggestions for improvement? My problem has never really been spelling or grammar. However, sometimes my writing comes off sounding a bit too colloquial.

I have not taken any online courses yet, but I plan on starting later this year. I know that some professors like big words and fancy style. My typical writing usually equals 13.2 on the Flesch-Kincaid scale. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but there's always room for improvement.

 

It does not surprise me that the OP is running into these problems.

A few of my coworkers are all taking distance education/ adult schedule courses at a graduate level. All are taking them at varying programs-- one of my coworkers at UMUC, another at a local non-AACSB MBA program (private college with a good reputation) for adults, others at State public universities, and my finally at Univ of Phoenix.

My coworker who is going to the Univ of Phoenix has tremendous issues with her written and verbal communications. She went to a lower tier college (I believe in the past they lost some of their accreditation, but re-gained it) and unfortunately has always had tremendous problems with communication. I feel for her because she has really stalled in progressing in her career due to her problems.

However even at the Univ of Phoenix, I feel that is terrible that regardless of how poorly written her papers and participation has been (due to grammar, spelling, etc) she is still continuing to make high Bs and As. It as if no one will call out that, "Hey! You really could benefit from a remedial english grammar courses before you take graduate level courses."

I think it is a disservice to her because even with a Masters she is not going to be able to progress in her current roles because of how bad her communication is (we are talking very basic grammar mistakes-- she writes just like she speaks in an almost ebonics-style). It is even more of a disservice that her professors do not grade her at the appropriate level or even call out the pink elephant standing in the middle of the room.

I help her while at work, but there is only so much that I can do to help her.

 

Something I just noticed that's a bit off topic but I found amusing.

http://www.bgse.uni-bonn.de/ - "Call 4 Papers"

And this is, at least according to another forum on the subject, the best economics department in Germany.

Looks like the bad habits are spreading!