I'm Depressed, Not a Good Start

[davewill]

... I never had a professor be MIA during a TESU class, nor would I ever expect that to happen.

Oh I have. One mentor I had rarely posted anything and would routinely ignore messages about assignments for a week or more. Grading also took FOREVER.

[rckola911]

Thats sad to see someone would write such a thing. However alot of people are on lockdown, maby they got the c-19 blues. Seriously though way to be transparent lol.

[Dan A Million]

This is so immature. Especially the mentor's response, wow.  I am on my 3rd TESU class and I haven't seen anything like that, just some broken English from students whose first language was not English. I took an Islam course where there were only 3 students including me but the forums were very engaging and the mentor was great. Everybody replied to each other with lengthy posts and even carried on old forums for weeks to come. Anybody with that kind of attitude is not going to get very far in life

[LevelUP]

I was looking into trying to get out of this class and get moved into a better class.

I called into TESU and found out that a bunch of people dropped this class shortly after it started and now only 3 of us are left.  (Mr. Sunshine, some other person, and me). 

Turns out this is the only active class so I could only switch to a different subject or stay in this one.  So I decided to stay even though nobody is posting at all on the forums, ghost town.

I like having an active forum because it reduces my workload since I can look at other posts and get some ideas about what I should write and not worry about going off in the wrong direction.  However, I only have 5 more forum posts so it's not worth worrying about. 

On the plus side at this point, I'm very happy with my choice to take Critical Reasoning.  Forum posts are going off the rails talking about swingers, assisted suicide, if we should physically hurt people if someone tells us to, global warming, and other controversial topics.  There are no books to worry about reading, this course has been pretty easy so far.  I might post a full review later.

[Seagull]

If there is a way to flag a post, I would suggest doing so. While it might be the student's honest opinion based on some experience, it can also have a negative demotivational effect on other students. I never had a professor be MIA during a TESU class, nor would I ever expect that to happen.

The art of debating has completely disappeared and colleges today do not teach that art either.

While it seems easy to flag all posts we do not like, our society teaches everybody to be offended rather than offer a valid opposite argument.

Society today also teaches people to silence opinions we disagree with rather than teaching how to disclaim the validity of a claim by using intelligent dialogue.

Those discussions should teach students the art of debate, instead students use it as a comment section of youtube, while those with opposed views want to silence freedom of speech.

And the course instructors should point out when students are off topic. They are too lenient especially on those who barely participate in them.

[a2jc4life]

Was that the totality of the professor's post?

I don't actually mind the honesty -- let's face it; some things aren't all that exciting, just necessary -- but I'd appreciate a "but" from the professor. "This isn't the most exciting material, but we'll try to make it as appealing as possible." "This isn't the most exciting material, but it will provide a good foundation for..." Etc. Otherwise, you're basically just telling the students, "this sucks." Not a good way to build morale!

[ARhead]

One of my classmates in SOS-110 wrote a completely insane introduction comment, way more so than anything here. But I think that individual was just having a bad day, as this person ended up being one of the people I liked and one of the few that made interesting, original comments.
More than a third of my classmates dropped out.

While the mentor was, in my opinion, quite overqualified to be teaching the course, this individual only commented on the introductory comments, and then that was basically it for interaction with students for the remainder of the course unless someone had a question. I would have appreciated some kind of pointers when points were deducted on writing assignments.

[jch]

Discussion board craziness isn't limited to TESU. I'm in an ASU EA course right now (FSE100) that has gone off the rails. Grading for a major project is broken, and the TA decided to "solve" the problem by giving everyone zeros on part of it with a vague comment. There also was absolutely no communication to us about it. Predictably, this resulted in many angry people. The discussion boards have broken out in revolt. The poor TA is belatedly trying to clean up their mess, but they still don't understand why everyone is upset. I'm abandoning the course, as this is far too much drama and effort for a two credit class that I don't need.

I put a ton of work into the first project, and it hurts to throw away something that I'm really proud of. I'm thinking about reworking what I've done towards PLA at TESU. I found a course description from an RA school that is an almost exact match for my project work, and I have about 20 pages of notes and writing already. As a bonus, that credit might actually be useful for my AoS.

This also reminds me of my other weird ASU EA discussion board story. They have an optional and ungraded course feedback discussion section at the end of their courses. In my intro to sociology class last year, I wrote a nice post wrapping up everything. Another student promptly came by and did a post that exactly copied most of mine. I'm clueless as to why someone would do that, as participating in that discussion was not required at all. I reported it, and the admin locked their post with a plagiarism warning. That episode still makes me wonder.

[innen_oda]

I'm in an ASU EA course right now (FSE100) that has gone off the rails. Grading for a major project is broken, and the TA decided to "solve" the problem by giving everyone zeros on part of it with a vague comment. There also was absolutely no communication to us about it. Predictably, this resulted in many angry people. The discussion boards have broken out in revolt. The poor TA is belatedly trying to clean up their mess, but they still don't understand why everyone is upset. I'm abandoning the course, as this is far too much drama and effort for a two credit class that I don't need.

That sounds horrific. When you say broken grading, do you mean students can't submit assignments through the system? And so they received zeros? Eesh. I had been thinking about taking that course next time it's on offer, although 15 weeks of work and 425USD for 2 credits isn't super appealing. But if students can't even submit work, I'll definitely be spending my money elsewhere.

I was in one of the Intro to Sociology offerings at ASU last year. One week's discussion involved sharing our opinions on gay marriage (or something like that). Unsurprisingly, there were a few students who opposed gay marriage due to their religious views. I can't say I hold the same views, but they weren't rude, so who cares, right? We're not in North Korea, people are allowed to have their own opinions. Sociology is all about being able to understand human societies, and the people that comprise them, and so I would have thought an open discussion would be welcome.

Silly me.

One student took it upon herself (theirself?) to mark all of those posts as 'off topic' and reported them to the TA, along with leaving sneering comments underneath each of those 'wrongthink' students' comments. Amazingly, the TA reacted by pinning a post admonishing those religious students for sharing their offensive views and to be mindful of the need to be kind to all the myriad gay and transgender students who were in the class, reminded us all that she was non-binary or somesuch and so was also personally offended by their opinions, and that if those students couldn't be kind (I think she meant 'compliant'), they may find themselves removed from the course.

It was such a shocking and - frankly - egregious overreach of power, in a situation that genuinely did not require it. Combined with the condescension offered to those poor students who dared to hold a different view, really made me reconsider what kind of tertiary institution ASU was.

[jch]

I'm in an ASU EA course right now (FSE100) that has gone off the rails. Grading for a major project is broken, and the TA decided to "solve" the problem by giving everyone zeros on part of it with a vague comment. There also was absolutely no communication to us about it. Predictably, this resulted in many angry people. The discussion boards have broken out in revolt. The poor TA is belatedly trying to clean up their mess, but they still don't understand why everyone is upset. I'm abandoning the course, as this is far too much drama and effort for a two credit class that I don't need.

That sounds horrific. When you say broken grading, do you mean students can't submit assignments through the system? And so they received zeros? Eesh. I had been thinking about taking that course next time it's on offer, although 15 weeks of work and 425USD for 2 credits isn't super appealing. But if students can't even submit work, I'll definitely be spending my money elsewhere.

The ASU EA courses with a lot of writing can be iffy. Many of their offerings just use automatically graded quizzes, cerego flashcards, word-count-based yellowdig discussions, and multiple choice exams. All of those are automatically handled by the computer, and the staff will quickly fix things if a bug arises. I'd highly recommend any of the courses set up like that.

The problems seem to increase as more writing assignments are added. First, there is a persistent unfixed bug with the ASU EA edX platform related to assignments requiring uploading a file. Sometimes the uploaded file is lost between selecting it and submitting. The system will then proceed with submitting the empty submission, which the student can't fix. Of course, the student then receives a zero for that item. When asked about it (often), the engineering course staff blame the students, even though this is a glaring technical bug. Because I always carefully check my submitted file after uploading, I've never been caught by this particular issue.
Next is the poor grading. These TAs aren't given enough money/time to complete their work, and consequently do a poor job. Twice this term, the grader completely missed a paragraph of my submission and gave me a zero for something I did. The FSE150 grader was apologetic about it and quickly fixed it, while the FSE100 TA did so begrudgingly. Even when grades are provided, the feedback is often lacking. ASU EA is structured with minimal interaction between students and staff. Often, this results in a lack of direction and expectations for the assignments.
Third is the rubric setup. This is what went awry in FSE100. The rubric programmed into edX for a major project wasn't the same as what was provided to us. To "resolve" the discrepancy, the TA gave everyone a zero for a section of the rubric with a vague comment. After many people responded incredulously to this, the TA then stated to us that it was fine because we might be okay without those points. This didn't go over well.
Fourth is a logic issue in the gradebook impacting courses with written assignments. Like all gradebooks, it assumes a zero when an item is past due. Unlike most sane gradebooks, it still assumes a zero when a submission is awaiting a staff grade. Combine this with grading that's a week or two behind, and it always seems that you're going to fail the class. Many students have asked about this over the years, but it's never been fixed.

Don't get me wrong, ASU EA is still one of the better sources out there for graded RA credits. They do have some faults that I've documented above, but don't let those deter you. The great part about their system is that you only pay the $400 after you pass. If a class goes off the rails, it's no problem to simply abandon it.

I do not recommend taking FSE100 for ASU credit. It is far too much time, work, and effort for just two credits. However, the materials do appear to be a PLA gold mine. They cover numerous areas of engineering during the course. Following along with the notes and assignments in your own way could get you mostly done with several PLA portfolios. This is something I'm planning to do with the work I've completed.