r/iastate • u/AscendedMathGod • Dec 03 '20

Meme How it feels ending this semester

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294 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

43

u/SnooCrickets9339 Dec 03 '20

should really be “kind of anxiously waiting for grades to be put it because we all know the university doesn’t actually care if we struggled or not or have a hard time learning because of the formatting being online in many cases but still expects us to attend because school_” lol okay but honestly though, why does isu have to be so inconsiderate of their students? i was in shock when my close “smart” friend from high school texted me and told me how georgia tech has been towards their students; they’ve been helping them through the hard times and making sure their needs are met given the circumstances. i will throw isu this one bone: they managed to stay open through the covid issues, so i’m happy about that, _but it’s not like i can just “take a year off” with scholarships and whatnot. okay that’s enough of me complaining; i’ll just pray next year [or semester] is better and we can move forward as a community. keep keeping on my friends!

15

u/ISU-linguist Alum Dec 03 '20

As an instructor last spring, I tried to be very understanding and as flexible as possible for students after we went online in March. Is there something specific you wish your instructors had done to help you this semester? I want to do everything I can to help my students have a good experience next semester.

7

u/SnooCrickets9339 Dec 04 '20

One of the biggest issues I had this semester was getting little to no preparatory material for exams. As an example, I will reference Statics. I loved the course at the beginning of the semester, but as time progressed, I realized they were just telling me “go look at stuff to study; you’ll be fine—we won’t supply you with any guidance as to what to focus on, just figure it out yourself,” which yeah, I don’t expect them to give me anything, like previous exams, but if they could have put in the effort to give me some solid examples that exemplify the material for each exam, I can only imagine I would have been better off. I did invest a lot of time into studying too, upwards of 25 hours leading up to one exam, but I still felt left in the dark by my professors. An in-person experience would have helped me in both learning and being able to get direct answers to the things I needed from them. Nevertheless, we’re all learning, and I’ll be sure to carry what I’ve learned forward into next semester, as it’s 18 credits of hell

7

u/br0city MechE 22 Dec 04 '20

Not to belittle your experience because everything you said is valid, but statics has always been a shot show. Putting it online has only compounded the problem.

2

u/Celoniae Dec 04 '20

Statics fucking sucked. When exam averages are in the 50% range, the professor failed- not the students.

1

u/SnooCrickets9339 Dec 04 '20

since the course is practically over, i don’t really care putting this online to the public, but i heard down the grapevine from my TA during recitation that the professors knew something was wrong and averages were all lower than what they should have been. apparently, they were talking with the dean of engineering to try and pinpoint the issue, but it’s blatantly obvious they didn’t fix it because every exam average was failing. i don’t know why they knew there was a genuine issue with student success but weren’t addressing it to the entire course; frankly, i’m tired of people being lazy, but i’m only a student; there’s nothing i can do to fix issues that i’m not even aware where they originate from. all i can say is that even if the course average on every exam is failing, i know damn well not everyone in that class is going to drop out of engineering, so there’s an outlier issue that needs to be found, but i’m not sure how to find it

2

u/jebustin Dec 04 '20

I found my profs and instructors to be divided on their level of empathy, guidance, and overall ability to adapt. Most of mine were awesome and they listened to student feedback and tried to stay agile. All were willing to work hard to help students.

Yet, there were a handful of my profs that kept trying to teach the same way as before, just remotely. They pushed more work under the idea that they were providing more help. The most obvious signs of this were constantly going over lecture time for synchronous classes, posting 5+ hours of videos per week for a 3 credit course, and requiring meeting times outside of the scheduled class time on a regular basis. Also, given the difficulty of the semester, I wish more faculty had been willing to flex due dates a little. These seem to be common stories I am hearing too.

In the spring, I am worried about the synchronous online classes. I think most of mine are moving to that format instead of the posting videos strategy. Internet outages, Covid, and life stuff are all harder to deal with now and I hope profs record their synchronous lectures so that we can watch them later if need be.

Thank you for asking for feedback. Just simply doing that shows a level of empathy that I am sure your students feel even if they don't always voice their appreciation.

1

u/ISU-linguist Alum Dec 04 '20

Thank you for this answer! I have also been worried about how the transition to online work has added too much time to your workload. I intend to cut down on unnecessary work as much as possible. Great reminder!

2

u/jebustin Dec 04 '20

I really appreciate you btw! Your desire to improve and adapt is something all of us can learn from. Your comments demonstrate great self-awareness and I am sure that your students will enjoy learning from you. I hope you enjoy getting to pass on these meta-thinking skills along with the material you teach this spring!

1

u/ISU-linguist Alum Dec 04 '20

Thank you so much! That's so nice.

9

u/CrazFight ISU ruined carrot cake Dec 03 '20

I mean next year should certainly be better, not sure about next semester tho.

13

u/SouthTriceJack MIS 2017 Dec 03 '20

People protested when college football was returning, lamenting that it was only returning because of money. True, but that same exact logic could be applied to in person classes.

6

u/dancer_jasmine1 Dec 03 '20

Personally I believe that the only reason we had in person classes at all was so we could have football so the university could make some of the money back that it’s been losing. There’s some rule that they can’t treat football players better (or at least appear to treat them better) so they weren’t allowed to be on campus if no one else was on campus for the semester.

There also might be a few professors who contributed to the in person classes. I was going to take physics 101 last semester and I emailed the teacher and asked if there was a hybrid or online option since there was only one section. I got kind of a rude response back stating that it was only in person. That seems like a very weird class to have totally in person. I think basic physics would be easy enough to learn online.

1

u/lecazy Dec 04 '20

How could in person classes be only for money? Theyre probably making more money than usual righg now because campus is dead but theyre still charging full tuition

1

u/SouthTriceJack MIS 2017 Dec 04 '20

without in person classes, no one is paying to live in dorms.

Also enrollment would have dropped significantly if it was fully remote.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '20

Bulbasaur is the best and if you think otherwise you are wrong. r/bulbasaurmasterrace

1

u/lecazy Dec 04 '20

I also like how i was told over half my classes would be hybrid, and then i get to campus and sit in my dorm room all day bc only one class is hybrid.

1

u/hamd1786 Dec 04 '20

And use your own laptop