Question for those that teach graduate classes online

You've got to be kidding me! How about asking your students to actually learn how to spell (as opposed to using that gyawdawful contraption called spellcheck)?

 

I prefer that old-fashioned thing called a dictionary. I have found myself having to convert Canadian/British spelling to American spelling to avoid red-lining in whatever word processor, usually Microsoft Word, the instructor expects to be able to read any essays and reports.

Note: Even Ted's use of the word 'spellcheck' is being red-flagged by the forum software. This despite being a valid word and correct spelling according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary and the *gasp* Oxford English Dictionary.

 

I prefer that we improve our educational system to the point that every American child, in pursuit of the fullest development of his/her mind and skills, can become a Walking Dictionary by first grade and a Walking Encyclopedia by second grade ... just like a certain little boy who once attended Brooklyn Elementary School in Brooklyn, Michigan, back in the Sixties and Seventies.

 

The other darn thing is what spellcheck doesn't catch. Suppose you know (or think you know) something to be correct. Suppose you then write this sentence:

Eye no its write.

Does any of these get red-flagged by spell-check? I doubt it. All four words are indeed spelled correctly (although each is a homophone to the word our hypothetical writer intended to use).

 

I am encouraged by many of these posts. One of the things that I am surprised by is the challenges that come back claiming that 'this has never been an issue before' and that they are busy people with lots going on. I have been a student online for years now and it would have never occurred to me to try to get around things in this way. Heck, I had a flameout with a school as a student because the instructor did not give me any feedback, not that I got too much.

Anyway, I am holding the line and if this somehow means that opportunities evaporate, or my big fear, which is that I somehow have a high percentage of dropouts, then, so be it.

I do enjoy that this is an area where I seem to be constantly learning new things. I start teaching my first CC class on Monday, I am sure THAT will be a learning experience also!

 

No joke and the sad part is the example was an actual post from another class!

Example: "could someone be the leader 4 this team cuz i still dont understand how this work. i am confused - LOL"

 

Wow!!!!! you got a CC gig already? Good for you!

Abner

 

As a student I see such rubbish in weekly discussion board postings which are part of the academic content for purposes of grading. Sentence structure, grammar, spelling, capitalization punctuation, paragraphs or lack thereof and run-on sentences should be treated as more important at the university-level. Perfection is not necessary at the undergraduate-level but students should be expected to make an effort. Proofreading seems a lost art amongst many students and non-students alike. A typographical error (typo) is even forgivable if not a repeat performance. At least the current course I am taking has a notice in the syllabus that 1 line responses to other students will not be counted as meeting the participation requirement.

On a lighter note, my high school English teachers would be impressed they had such a lasting impact on my life. However, it felt more like a nightmare at the time.

Note: Edited to correct a spelling error: nightmare was originally mighmare. Oh, the irony!

 

I don't expect perfect (I am not perfect in my posts as I make mistakes also) but I do expect an effort!

 

I use spell check all the time in my work. I am a good speller so why do I use it?
Because I type with one finger and often hit the wrong key or not hit it hard enough.

If you are reasonably good at writing then spell & grammar check is a useful tool.

I also use the thesaurus tool often.

I note that this website has a spell checker that I will download and use.

 

Many adjuncts for fear of not getting offered any more classes because of a bad student evaluation, are afraid to give anything lower than a B. This is a trend not only at UoP, but anywhere that uses adjuncts that teach the bulk of their courses.

 

It doesn't hold me back...

I'm an adjunct and I have no trouble marking students down for bad grammar and after three years I've never had any push-back from the colleges. I always state in my syllabus that good grammar and professional speech are required. My rules for discussion board postings forbid "text-speak" like LOL but posts don't have to be written perfectly. However, I am very strict in research papers and refer people to the writing lab at the college where I teach. UoP has an online writing lab now, so I'll be referring folks to that too.

For my community college students, I require a graded draft paper mid-way. I find that kills several problems: 1) I'm able to spot those who can't write and need help, instead of dinging them at the final paper (thus improving their skills) ; 2) I catch plagiarism earlier; 3) it keeps students from frantically emailing me two days before the paper is due asking for help with sources or ideas. I do give a range of grades from A-F and have flunked students who can't write at the college level. In addition, I have recommended that students take a college-level research paper class before going on to take upper-division classes.

 

The question here is, do you actually fail students because of this? At regular face to face schools, I would normally fail students with very poor grammar and lack of basic skills and nobody would deny me courses because of this. Try failing some students at UoP and tell me after how this goes for you.

I work for few online schools (I will no mention names here) that require a minimum student evaluation score to keep getting work. This minimum evaluation score is about 80% so you cannot afford to piss so many students.

When I started teaching online for some profit schools, I had high expectations. I failed students due to low academic skills and academic integrity (many were just copying and pasting from internet sources). After few classes, I had a call from the manager telling me that my scores were below the minimum required and I was required to increase them otherwise I would be let go. I explained that I had to fail students due to academic issues, the manager agreed with me but he told me that higher management only look at the numbers. The solution was simple, low expectations and inflate grades, evaluation scores increased and still get work.

For profits claim that they look for academic integrity and quality, this is true for most of them but they value the students' opinion over anything. At the end, they need to get the business so the students have higher power than instructors and they know it and use it to their advantage.

 

We have no job security and we rely on students' evaluation to keep getting work. The problem is less of an issue at schools that have unions that protect faculty against money hungry managers.

As long as online adjunct faculty relies heavily on student evaluations, you will see grade inflation at online schools. Faculty should be evaluated based on quality of teaching and not only on student evaluations, giving the students the full power over the instructor future employment seems to contradict the mandate of quality of education that most schools have.

 

this is good info

 

I are is be getting ready for grad school. lmao

 

My point was that people ought to be so good at spelling that spell-check becomes irrelevant.

 

I think that is why the idea of for profit schools makes me very queasy.

I do think student evaluations can be important, but I don't see how a student can rightfully leave a poor professor evaluation due to the student's own academic deficiencies.

Conflict of interest n'est-ce pas?

 

A lot of my grammar mistakes come from editing the paper after the fact. ie "I am" becomes "They am" -- and I know better! It's an easy mistake to make and I'll admit that I rarely spellcheck because I am a good speller.

I would recommend that you send out a class-wide notice that includes instructions to spellcheck and that they will be held to the same standards as every graduate class. I'd then be a little more lenient on them without them really knowing it. I would still be pointing out all their mistakes.

In my current psyc class (undergrad!), we post most of our papers on the class's message board. I've had to hammer out papers at the last minute before, and thought they weren't that great -- but I still would rank them as being in the top-third of all submitted for that week. That's pretty bad. I thought he was being kind of silly when he put an upper-limit on pages for our research paper but after reading this I get it. If I had to read dozens of poorly-written 10-page papers, I'd have to check into an in-patient program.

I don't know if you noted it in your syllabus, but next class syllabus point out that points will be deducted for poor grammar and spelling. Also, I wouldn't expect a lot of good grammar with emails and class forum posts. They'll pretty much treat it like all emails and forum posts unless you state that you expect them to be professional

 

All posts in the discussion area must be posted properly; it is professional class. In the grading rubric it states 6 of 25 points will be deducted. Some people are just lazy and pitiful and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. They will be losers their whole life – not just in one class.