Is anyone else sick of cookie cutter discussion questions in your DL class?

I’m tired of cookie cutter responses from my instructors who post the same five comments over and over with the addition of my name.

 

Right on! If they can't put in the extra effort then they should not be doing it. Saying the same thing to different students is just plain lazy. And, it happens all of the time.

 

HAHA I do this too. My requirements are 150 words but it's still not difficult. I'm glad that at the master's level most people aren't like that anymore. At the undergrad level it drove me nuts. How hard is it to use a spell check?!?!

 

Do you feel it would help to voice this concern to the University? A thought.

 

At least your getting a response! My instructor this term has yet to reply to anyone's discussion post and we are in the beginning of week 5... don't think its going to happen this term

 

My daughter experienced this kind of threaded discussion at the community college she is attending. The instructor was AWOL for the entire class. Now granted, the class was probably huge and responding to 100 or more students is impossible, but what's the point of having a discussion if nobody looks at it. I got the impression that the instructor just counted how many posts a student made and graded on that.

 

I think there are about 34 students in this class so not sure why there is no response and its a University

 

Week 1 - Foundations of Project Management Discussion Questions - Brandeis University


Week 1 Discussion Requirements
1) Required by Saturday (midnight EST): Respond to one of the Week 1 Discussion Topics listed below. Post your response by replying to the discussion on this topic started by the instructor.

2) Required by Monday (midnight EST): Respond to another one of the Week 1 Discussion Topics listed below. Post your response by replying to the discussion on this topic started by the instructor.

3) Required by Tuesday (midnight EST): Post two substantive replies to the Week 1 posts of others.

NOTE: See the course syllabus for details about grading of weekly discussions, including expectations for original responses and substantive replies.

Week 1 Discussion Topics
Project Management Challenges
From your own experience and/or from the readings, describe 3 major challenges faced by today's project managers. Next, list what you believe to be the top 3 reasons why projects fail. Take a position on the following statement and defend it: "The abilities of the project manager contribute directly to a project's success or failure."

Project Manager Qualities
What are some of the qualities of the best project manager that you have ever worked with/for? What about the worst? What are the implications of these best/worst qualities? Have you ever worked with an individual who possessed 90-100% of the project management skills discussed in the Week 1 Topic Notes?

Organizational Structures
What type of organizational structure exists in your company (or division), or in the last company that you worked for? Matrix? Projectized? Functional? Elaborate a bit. Do you think it works well for the types of projects you support? How much authority do PMs typically have in this model? How would you change the structure to better meet your company's needs?

Life Cycles
What are the most common project life cycles used within your company? Are they effective, or would other life cycles be more appropriate? What are the consequences of ineffective choices? In general, who decides what life cycle should be used on a particular project?


Dave

 

I agree that, under proper circumstances, I would be irritated with this phenomenon. However, with my situation, I have grown to appreciate the "asleep at the wheel" discussion forums in most of my classes.

The administration at my current university has turned my quest for a degree from a fulfilling educational experience into a "take-whatever-classes-are-available-so-you-can-fill-up-credit-hours-and-oh-by-the-way-the-only-classes-available-are-bs-criminal-justice-classes" race for the finish line in May. In other words, I am simply taking classes that have absolutely no bearing on my background or future career or educational goals. It is simply a task to gain that magic piece of paper.

As such, I appreciate the opportunity to coast through as much of the classes as possible, because I have other things to do. Studying for CLEP's, studying for teacher certification tests for next summer, working, taking care of the kiddo's, etc...

Now, if I were studying relevant material, and the class was engaging, I would probably would have a different take. But if this were the case, we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?