One Prof's View on Late Work

So, you didn't read the email. Maybe you didn't check the calendar. Or maybe 6 weeks into the course you see that you missed something from week 2.

First, check the late policy on the syllabus. There may be a way to make up for it if there is something other than "No Late Assignments" written in there. Some professors have policies that let you turn things i n late, for a grade, for a partial grade, or maybe they actually drop a few of a student's low scores in the course. You need to read the Syllabus to know what your options are. 

There are a couple of perspectives on late assignments. Some faculty allow them, some do not. Why would that be?

So let's look at it from their perspective instead of the student's perspective. It really comes down to time, respect, work ethic, fairness, responsibility, and accountability.

There is no doubt that a professor puts a lot of time and thought into planning how assignments, timeframe, and expected learning fit together. They are mindful of the timing so that they maximize the probability of student success. They also take into consideration the workload for both parties and how much time there is to complete tasks If a student misses something, it can affect the next thing and then the next thing after that. Professors "scaffold" their courses so that students have the skills and knowledge that they need to proceed, learn, and to be successful. Their goal is to teach and guide their students and hope that they will learn the material and use it to their advantage.

The professor expects the student to respect their position. Typically professors went to school for a very long time and now they are sharing the knowledge that they attained through school and practical experience. It took time to get where they are now, or anyone could do it. So when professors ask students to complete an assignment, or task, there is a goal in mind. They are not just there for the paycheck, because let's be honest, it isn't that great. They are there because they WANT others to learn and to benefit from what they know.

Professors put great effort into learning how to teach. Mathematics professors went to school for and really love what? Math! It probably came easy to them and was the most interesting subject to them. Does that mean that they can teach it? Not really! Who taught them to teach it to students that don't think it is easy and don't think it is the most interesting subject in the world? The answer is probably: no one. They loved math, they learned it, it was easy for them (most likely,) and they enjoyed it very much. The professor then begins to teach and find that their students don't understand and the professor can't figure out why. They themselves didn't experience a whole lot of the confusion and difficulty because again, they love mathematics and they are good at it. So now the  professor has to learn how to teach mathematics, to think like a student, and to understand and address the confusion. That takes a lot more time. So when a professor puts a course together, the student can be assured that they gave it a lot of thought and tried to create a learning experience for the students that promotes success.

All of this goes to say that there is a plan. Some plans allow for late work, some do not. One reason for that can also be because they are on a schedule themselves. They are busy and they sit down to grade assignments that were due and they move on. They planned that time to grade and then they have ten other things to do, just like a student might. Why should they grade a group of assignments, just to have to schedule more time every time a late one comes in? Should a student's schedule force changes to the professor's schedule? What if the professor teaches two courses with 100 students in each one, and what if 50 lates of just that assignment trickle in the rest of the semester? What about 5 assignments with late assignments coming in all semester? They scheduled a certain amount of time to grade and now they find that all throughout the semester they are having to make more and more time for grading, to the point that they really have time for nothing but grading. I hope that you can see my point.

The professor has only so much time to plan, teach, and grade. As part of their job, professors are usually expected to conduct research, while providing committee and academic service work to the community, the college, and their department. Professors are also expected to write up their research and present it to their peers at conferences, as well as publish it in academic journals. There are endless meetings to attend on a regular basis.

These are only a few of the reasons why some professors allow late assignments and some do not. It is their choice based on their time commitments to their job and institution. When a professor has a "no late assignments" policy, it can be for many reasons. Time, respect, work ethic, fairness, responsibility, and accountability. The student's and the professor's. It applies equally.

A professor put time and thought into a course and its schedule. They have a "No Late Assignments" policy. A student forgets, misses, is busy, didn't check the schedule, or has four other reasons for why they missed it and want to make up the assignment. The student then asks for special treatment just this one time. This puts the professor in the position where they have to make a decision. The faculty member makes a decision that is fair to the class and to themselves and says no. The student's reason is no more valid or important than the professor's reason. The student agreed to the course timeline and requirements by taking the course and the professor laid out the rules in the beginning so there were no surprises.

I get why students want to fix their mistakes, who doesn't? But that isn't how real life works. And students should respect the contract and abide by the rules, whatever they may be, that they agreed to when they decided to take the course.

Artificial Intelligence - Robust or Robbery?

AI has been changing the world in innumerable ways for many years, but it has hit mainstream and is available to everyone everywhere. Students and professors alike use it to aid them in completing all types of work. It can help with research, creating assignments, writing assignments, grading assignments, and much more.

As with any technology, AI can aid in accomplishing your goals or it can quietly sabotage them. It all depends on what you, as a student, are looking to get from your educational experience. Professors are quite aware that students are using AI for their work and even encourage it. It can be very helpful if used as a tool to understand concepts and to correct assignments. It can save time and effort and there is immeasurable value in using such tools. Professors know this. The pitfalls come when AI is being used for everything possible and supplanting a student's relationship with important educational material. Educational robbery!

Using AI to perform duties that are instrumental in learning and mastering certain skills can cheat students out of their education and leave them unqualified for a career that they want. A student needs to be clear on what their goals really are. Where do you want to end up? Why are you going to college or university? Several typical answers are:

• to get a degree for a career
• to expand your mind and find yourself
• to experience what is out there in the world
• to meet many people your own age from similar and different backgrounds
• to do what is expected of you by others (family, parents)
• to provide for your family

As a professor, I see so much potential and incredible opportunity in education with artificial intelligence.  My reservations surface when someone is using it for everything they possibly can and missing out on opportunities for real learning and growth. When they bypass learning key skills and knowledge, what will happen when they are called upon in the future and cannot perform? Can a professor prevent that from happening? Not really. A professor can only present information and opportunities. We can not make you learn, but if you let us, we can be your guide!

Professors can be valuable resources for students by working to identify when AI can be helpful and when it can burgle you. Most professors will welcome the opportunity to guide you on your journey. Ask them!

Getting Every Last Point By Changing Your Point of View

 Alternate View of Your Assignments

When a professor assigns something, believe it or not, there is an actual reason behind it! Some professors are better at making the reasons known than others, but there definitely are reasons. Typically assignments are used to help the student learn and/or practice something important that the professor is trying to teach. Keep in mind that every time a professor gives out an assignment, they are obligated to grade the assignment...except there is an entire class of assignments to be graded. The professor must really believe that it will be helpful to the students because they know going in that they will be assigning themselves an enormous pile of student work. For every one piece you produce, they may have 75 more to grade. Knowing this, professors assign things that help you gain the knowledge, skills, and tools that you need to succeed in the course, your job, and at life. This is the professor's perspective. This is one window into the professor's mind.

As a student, you see an assignment as an obstacle to overcome and move on. A professor sees it another way altogether.  Professors see it as helpful and necessary for the students, but then also as a lot of time and work for them. This is where you can help yourself earn as many points as possible for your assignment. Complete your assignments so that they are easy to grade. And how might you do that, you ask?

The first step is to follow the directions. If the directions say to do things a certain way, then do them that way. Read the directions a few times to make sure that you are clear on what is being asked. Take the time to view the grading rubric if there is one provided.

Tips:

• After you have finished your assignment, wait a bit and then go back and read the directions again and look at your assignment. Did you follow the directions? If not, fix it.
• Are your answers easy to find?
• Did you answer everything?
• Is it clear which answer goes with which question if applicable?
• Is it easy to read, or is it jumbled or fragmented? 
• Did you use the correct punctuation so that the meaning is clear? A comma can completely alter the meaning of a sentence.
• Is everything presented in the same font and size? These things matter because they speak to your attention to detail, and strangely enough you may think, also to your respect for the professor. Different fonts and sizes can indicate that something is copied and pasted from somewhere else. Maybe that is ok, maybe it isn't.
• Did you highlight things? Was that asked for in the instructions? If not, get rid of the highlighting. It can make assignments look like a cartoon and annoyingly hard to read.

All of the above can make a difference in how your professor views you and your work. Even if just  subconsciously, an impression is made. Your aim is obviously for a favorable impression. If you did not turn in something that resembles what they wanted, there will be consequences.

Other tips that come to mind if you have the time:

• Proofread your work out loud. This helps find mistakes that you do not see when just reading through.
• Find someone else to read the assignment to see if they understand it (yes, this can be difficult to do).
• Grade your own paper based on the original assignment. How do you score?
• Use the tools that your software programs provide to catch grammar mistakes and misspellings.

If you try to think like the professor, or at least like the person that is grading your assignments, it may help you improve scores on everything that you do going forward!

Technical Job Training vs. Training to Think – Why Am I Really In College?

Why are you, as a student, in college? Take a moment to really think about your answer, because you may be surprised to know that your expectation for what college does for you does not match what college is designed to do.

If you said, “Well, I am in college to get the training I need to get a good job,” then I hope you are in a degree program that is technical in nature – nursing, medical assisting, graphic design, etc. This is because most degree programs are designed to give you background information about a particular field while providing a pathway for you to develop critical thinking skills. They are not, however, designed to give you direct job training so that you can begin your first “real” job with all the intricate details that go into completing the projects or tasks for that job.

If you said, “Well, I am in college to learn more about a particular field while I become an independent learner who can think critically about my field of expertise,” then you are much closer to what most degree programs at 4-year institutions offer you. This is particularly the case for degrees for the more “traditional” programs – biology, psychology, history, sociology, etc. In fact, any program labeled “pre-“ is going to be designed to give you that basic level of content while pushing you to develop critical thinking skills that will be important once you move on to more specific training (pre-med, pre-law, pre-vet medicine are just a few).

The distinction between job training and training to think is a very important one for students to understand. Job training involves teaching you how to use equipment that you will use every day in a particular job setting; training to think involves teaching you how to use one particular piece of equipment – your brain – in any job setting. Thus job training gives you lots of content knowledge for a very specific job, while training to think gives you the skills you need to apply a critical eye to many areas of study.

Only a handful of college programs are true job training programs (most of them I listed above), mainly because in the past, most of those job areas were filled with people who did not go to college, but were trained on the job. For example, it has only been in the last decade or two that we have seen a surge in veterinary technology degrees offered at colleges (these lead to veterinary assistant positions at animal hospitals, not to a direct route to become a veterinarian – that requires a traditional biology degree or equivalent). Before the recent development of these programs, all the training you were required to have occurred on the job – you were hired for the position, they trained you on site, and as long as you became proficient at your position, you kept your job. No college degree was required, because the skills you needed could be learned on site and were specific to the job at hand (you don’t need to be able to write a persuasive essay to give a dog a shot).

Most college programs are training-to-think programs – they require courses that have basic content information for any particular subject, but they also require courses that expand your critical thinking and communication skills, which often go hand-in-hand. It is presumed (and research with employers backs this up) that most companies and graduate/medical/dental/pharmacy schools are more interested in hiring or accepting graduates who are capable of critically evaluating information given to them, developing creative but realistic solutions to problems, and communicating their critiques and solutions to co-workers and superiors in an effective manner. Regardless of field, these three activities are the nuts-and-bolts of critical thinking, and they are typically the goals of most college programs.

This means that for most of your college classes, the ultimate goal is not to have you memorize a bunch of random information. The ultimate goal is to push you to think critically about that information. Let’s take a basic Introduction to Psychology class as an example. Yes, you need to learn some basic core content in that PSYC101 course, such as what areas of the brain are important for which behaviors and how the number of people in a room impact your willingness to follow the majority decision. But you also, based on the assignments and classroom discussions, are required to think critically about what that knowledge means for you and your family, place of employment, state, etc. If you have this knowledge about conformity in group settings, then you can critically evaluate the appropriateness of voting by show of hands vs. anonymous answers on paper when choosing a team leader for a project, or communicate by memo to your superior why company-approved nap time may increase productivity levels. Training you in critical thinking skills (evaluating information, developing creative but sound solutions, communicating information effectively) provides you with a skill set that can be taken to a wide variety of jobs, unlike job training that is specific to one place of employment.

As you move through your college career, you may occasionally ask yourself, “Why do I need this class? What is it going to do for me?” As a psychology professor, most of my students ask me that when it comes to the math requirements – lo and behold, taking math produces critical thinking skills in analyzing the results of research studies, a key component of being a good psychologist (clinical or research). Taking English composition allows you to develop persuasive writing techniques that are valuable from making that suggestion about nap times in a Fortune 500 company to winning a case in front of the Supreme Court.

These skills transfer across multiple positions at a variety of places of employment, which means the stronger your core critical thinking skills are, the more valuable you appear to potential employers. Once you can appreciate the value of the “training to think” approach, the more likely it is that you will come to enjoy those required classes your college makes you take and consider how you will use your new critical thinking skill set in the future.

Contacting Professors by Email

My job sure has changed since I began teaching in higher education in 1984.  There was no such thing as the internet, email, video conferencing, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on.  One of the biggest changes has been the way students contact professors. 

I would say that my contact with students is mainly electronic.  I do miss the days of students popping into my office for a chat or lingering after class to discuss ideas! 

So, let's explore better communication with your professors via email.  Remember, many of your professors are old school when it comes to new technologies (and yes, for many professor, email is a new technology).  I can remember when my  ex-husband and I first had our cell/mobile phones.  The only calls we made were to find each other when we went shopping! 

Here are some guidlines:

1. Use your school assigned email account.  Many professors will not respond to email that is not a school address.  You might find this ridiculous, but it stems from federal regulations on your privacy.  Anyone who is 18+ is covered by FERPA.  This means professors can only talk to you about your grades.  When you send an email from PARTYXXX@mail.com, a professor has no way of knowing whether it is you or some other student in the class posing as you!  By using your school assigned email account reduces this concern for professors.
2. Include your course name and section number (group name, if applicable) in the SUBJECT line of the email.   Professors have multiple courses and/or sections of course.  You will receive a speedier response, if the professor has this information.
3. Be sure you really have a question!  Often times students email professors questions that can be easily located in the syllabus or other course materials.  Before you email your professor, be sure you have read the course material!  There is nothing more frustrating to a professor than a student who has not read the material.  Professors have spent a number of hours anticipating student questions and try to provide clear direction in their course syllabus or other course documents.
4. If you do have a legitimate question, is it a question that can be easily answered in an email?  A good question to ask yourself is how long do you think it will take a professor to answer your question?  If you think the professor will be able to answer it in 2 minutes or less and/or 3-5 lines of email text, then email your question.  If it is a more detailed question, explaining materials -- concepts, equations etc., it might be wiser to make a face-to-face appointment with your professor.  Email is not an efficient means of asking detailed information.
5. Assume your professor has a life!  Professors are not chained to their email accounts.  You should expect a 24-48 hour response window.  If you are completing an assignment one hour before the deadline, don't expect a response to an email.  If you are taking online tests, be sure to start it long before it is due!  This actually shows initiative on your part!

Remember, email communication does not convey emotion!  If you are asking for a really big favor of your professor, ask in person!

About Learning!

Professors are sometimes frustrated with the amount of effort demonstrated in assignments.  I hear about the lousy test scores, students not reading directions carefully, students not proofreading papers, and the list goes on.  I think students underestimate the amount of time required to learn new ideas. 

I want you to think about a time that you were learning something new...how to play a musical instrument, how to play a video game, how to dance or sing, how to play football and the players and positions for the NFL....  If you think about your favorite past-times, I am certain it took you longer than a few minutes to understand and become proficient in the past-time.  How much time and effort is required for you to enjoy these past-times?  Even moving into a new work environment requires time for you to learn new information about the work you are expected to do.


A colleague once told me a story about her son.  She was watching him do his math homework and he was getting angry because it was taking so long.  When she looked at the clock, she realized he had the expectation that the answer should not take more than one minute to calculate!  If this is your thinking, it might be time to become more realistic in how long it takes to learn new things.  Yes, learning is hard.  Sometimes you will have to reread material, recalculate math problems, proofread, go to a study lab or group, or talk to your professor to be successful.  All of this takes time.

Learning and thinking is hard-work!  When I am doing intense thinking/learning, I am physically exhausted...in a good way.  I have a sense of accomplishment when I conquer a tough assignment.  When my students finish their degrees, I want them to be independent thinkers and lifelong learners..a true sign of an educated person.  Unfortunately, it take time and work to achieve!  I hope you approach your studies with the intensity and commitment you devote to your past-times!

Why Professors Assign Group Work

I hear it every term from students, "I don't like group work."  This does not come as a surprise to me.  Group work is more difficult because you have to interact with other people who might not share your ideas on how the work should be organized, commitment to learning or understanding of the assignment.

So, why do professors assign group work?  Many professors recognize that a college education is more then having students learn the content of their discipline, especially undergraduate.  This is one reason many Universities require students to take courses across many disciplines for their undergraduate degrees.  Professors understand that there are a variety of skills that are necessary to be successful in the workplace.  Certainly, assignments will relate to the content of the discipline and course, but other skills such as communication skills, critical thinking skills, conflict resolution skills are implicit in ALL group work regardless of the discipline.

In creating  group assignments, I think about the developmental opportunities for students.  In working in the private sector for some time, I realized the importance of excellent communication skills in the workplace.  If students are unable to communicate substantial ideas to other students, they will struggle in the workplace to do the same.  Many of the skills inherent in group work are the skills employers value.  You may one day be working with colleagues from around the world without everyone being physically present in one location. More and more work assignments require people who can complete projects online with virtual groups.   

We will address how to be an effective group member and what to do about non-participating group members, common issues when doing group work, in a  later blog.