What frustrates you as an online student?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by jam937, Mar 30, 2014.

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  1. jam937

    jam937 New Member

    I was just curious what I have in common with other online students in regards to frustrations with online classes.

    Here's my list:

    * Confusing assignment instructions
    * Long instructions full of unnecessary information
    * Instructions in multiple places (syllabus, assignment, rubric)
    * Conflicting instructions (assignment and rubric differ)
    * Waiting on instructors to clarify instructions (losing time to work on assignment)
    * Group assignments (I do most of work, team gets grade)
    * Waiting on instructors to post grades
    * Waiting on instructors to answer questions
    * Confusing quiz/exam questions

    What's on your list?
     
  2. lawrenceq

    lawrenceq Member

    I think you covered all my gripes but I'll list my top three.

    Group assignments
    Silly busy work
    Waiting on grades and feedback

    These same things apply to face-to-face and online.
     
  3. graymatter

    graymatter Member

    How about what things are frustrating to online faculty about online students:
    1. Want instructions clarified before they bother reading.
    2. Expecting instructors to respond to email inquiries within minutes.
    3. Expecting instructors to grade 20+ papers within hours.
    4. Blaming instructors for poor instructional/curriculum design.

    :)
     
  4. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    In my limited experience with online classes, I had the same problem in multiple places: large walls of black text on white background. There is only so much of that that I can read at a time before I start hallucinating that the letters are line dancing and forming mosh pits.

    (Yes, I sometimes have the same problem on this very site. Unless you break the paragraphs up a bit, it is very hard for me to read longer posts. It does help that the text is actually a bit gray rather than pitch black- or at least, that's how it looks on my screen.)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 31, 2014
  5. lawrenceq

    lawrenceq Member

    Not here!

    You need to start your own thread. :lol:
     
  6. jam937

    jam937 New Member

    1. I'm talking about confusing instructions even after you've read the material. When the "ask the instructor" section of the discussion board is filled with questions about assignments then something is wrong.

    2. Let's say I have time today and tomorrow to work on an assignment, but I need clarification on the instructions. If the instructor doesn't get back until tomorrow night then I have lost my available time. Now I am in a much tougher situation and risk getting a worse grade. I understand an instructor may no be able to get back within minutes but I would think a few hours would be within reason given smartphones. If the instructions were better (see #1) then this is a non-issue.

    3. I would simply like my assignments to be graded before (or while) I start learning new topics that are dependent upon me understanding the first topic. I would like to make sure I am on track. It would be nice to have assignments graded within 4-5 days. I've had instructors take 2-3 weeks. Totally unacceptable to me.

    4. Having been an instructor myself I understand a lot of curriculum is provided to instructors so the instructor is the last person I blame. In fact, the best classes I have taken as a student were those in which the instructor created the curriculum.
     
  7. nyvrem

    nyvrem Active Member

    1. Buying E-textbooks from schools online provider that only accept a US credit card.
    2. Confusing exam instructions
    3. TAs that take 1 week to reply to your concerns.
    4. time zones
    5. 12:00AM datelines. People get confused over when that is. Sometimes the TAs do as well.
    6. Lack of constructive feedback from work done
    7. 12847129847981274981247 requirements to fulfill before you can graduate. (Students should get a cert. in Degree analysis just for understanding degree/graduation requirements)
     
  8. ProfTim

    ProfTim Member

    The requirement to read and respond to the posts of your fellow classmates. Some of that stuff that gets posted is absolutely dreadful and I have struggled with how to respond with something meaningful.
     
  9. jhp

    jhp Member

    • Assignment text is not consistent with syllabus or required video - because the instructor scraped it from some site and did not bother to update it
    • Not responding within a week to weekly assignment question - specially if the contact information is not even valid
    • Required to buy books that are not used - at outrageous prices
    • Group assignments - have to depend on a crack head to finish the portion that is crucial to my grade
    • Assignments in discussion forums where responses to others are required - incoherent, collection of letters with spaces interspersed; and I am supposed to come up with substantive challenge to the post . . .
    • instructors who are wrong, shown to be wrong, yet refuse to acquiesce and give credit
    • Instructed not to use Wikipedia, while see all the references by the instructor to ... Wikipedia
    • Instructor not understanding and knowing (there is difference) the material they teach
    Otherwise I love it.:squareeyed:
     
  10. jhp

    jhp Member

    I believe you can set the fore- and back-ground colors in Firefox and maybe even Chrome to a preferred colors, and suppress site specifics. Such preference is stored under "userChrome.css" file. I do not know how it behaves with background images, and such, but might worth it if you do not like line dancing or mosh pits.

     
  11. graymatter

    graymatter Member

    Me too. As a prof, I'd like the "smarter" (or at least those with more insight) to post early because I have to post more than students - and sometimes there's not a lot posted to work with. :)
     
  12. jhp

    jhp Member

    I just want to find post that contain a coherent thought. I will even forgo grammar, spelling and punctuation - just let me tease out at least an inkling of sense so I can respond to it!

     
  13. phdorbust

    phdorbust New Member

    100 %

    It's the unclear online instructions. I once took an online class at Nebraska. The instructor was an ex-college president and had an ego that couldn't even fit in an online classroom with no walls, let alone a brick-and-mortar one. He routinely gave out really convoluted assignments that had numerous, ticky-tack requirements and conflicting information between syllabus, emails, and website. This was bad enough, but faced with his own conflicts he refused to concede that anything he did could be possibly confusing.

    In an email to me he said he refused to "spoon feed" students which is "what I really wanted." It's beside the point that this was an idiotic statement. What he didn't realize was that his course wasn't measuring academic achievement/learning, it was measuring our ability to figure out at a distance what he really meant in his assignments. It was a really bad experience for me.
     

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