Students!!! AAAAAGH!

[sangel4you]

Which accident was it? The one on 11/15? There were a LOT of accidents on major interstates that day. Where do you teach at? Anyway, where I go to school, every major is passing at I think 65, but noooooo all the allied health careers their passing grade is a C or a 75% so....at least we know some of the workforce in the future won't be right only 65 or 70% of the time! Lol

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

This is coming from a little bit of a different point of view, so bear with me!

I will be a junior in college next year. I *just* finished my semester yesterday. Typically I am VERY busy with all my classes. I am a biology/pre-med major and if I'm not in class, I am doing homework, or working at my job to make the extra money I have to spend on essential things like groceries and cleaning supplies for my apartment.

Honestly, if a professor of mine did not show up for a scheduled exam, I would probably be pretty upset. I have to plan my week very carefully so that my classes and my labwork/classwork do not over lap. I am very understanding that situations do come up, but if a professor expected me to take a "take home" final within 24 hours, I would probably have a difficult time doing so. Then again, this is coming from a student who takes fairly difficult classes in which take home tests are no easy task! For me, 24 hours is not a very long time to complete an entire test, especially after I had already planned to take the test at the scheduled time.

I did have one professor who showed up late to a final last week. She was almost 20 minutes late. When she got to class, she said she was late because the copy machine was not working properly. I have to say I was pretty upset that I had to wait 20 minutes because a professor waited until the last minute to copy her tests! (I'm not saying that it was your fault you were not able to make the class at all...just offering a story so you can understand where I am coming from.)

Granted, I probably would have emailed you ahead of time to state that I would have scheduling conflicts, but I would still be somewhat upset about the extra work I would have to do at the end of an already crazy semester! Things happen and we can't always control them. I would definitely be more understanding in this situation if my professor emailed me with an apology and explained the situation. I realize some students are just plain lazy, but not all of us are! As I said before, 24 hours is not that long for us busy college students (Even if there are only a few of us!).

Hopefully you won't have to fail too many students over this. I know most of my finals don't really count for all that much, so a low grade on the final doesn't really affect the overall grade providing the student did well enough on the previous tests.

 

[CityChicker]

I totally agree, Chickerdoodle. My husband and I are both full time students too. If I showed up for a final, the professor was not there to administer it, and I was then given only 24 hours to take it home and get it submitted- I would be *beyond* furious. Why should my life come to halt for something that I had no fault in? That is just so ludicrous. What if these students have JOBS? families? other commitments? How is it their problem that the professor was not there to give the test?

I am a good student. I have a 4.0. I also have a life. I would understand that things sometimes happen and I would not be upset with the professor for having an obviously legitimate excuse, but let's get real here. We all have lives. I work. My husband works. We spend a small FORTUNE on school. Going to school and maintaining a roof over our heads is very difficult. We simply do not have time to, at the last minute, be required to clear our schedule to do a take home final that was already scheduled for that day (and was missed because of the instructor). We barely have time to breath as it is.

Why should the students be penalized when THEY were there and the INSTRUCTOR wasn't?

 

[aberfitch]

wow what a strange situation! Why should this take home test be any different than home work? If you took the test at school you should be done in 1 hour to 2. If it is final exams you are surly not doing any homework at home. So If you are instructed to go home and take the test and send it in then it is an ASSIGNMENT. Just like if you had to go home and write a paper and turn it in the next day. If you showed up and and gave any poor excuse you would get a big fat ZERO. This should be no different. If 14 student could do it then everyone else could as well. You are given the chance to take a final test at HOME!!! What an easy opportunity to make a good grade in the class. I would give all who didn't complete the assignment a big fat zero. If they didn't email it back. why didn't they bring it in the next day? LAZY!

 

[CityChicker]

I'm sorry- this is not high school where you go to school, are given a homework assignment, and hand it in the next day. None of my classes even meet more than twice a week. You are given a syllabus the first day of class that outlines all assignments and certainly all tests for the entire semester. I plan my schedule accordingly. I am an adult that has adult responsibilities. I generally go to work directly from school as do many of my fellow classmates.

This situation is THE INSTRUCTOR'S FAULT (legitimate excuse or not). If this happened in one of my classes, I would expect the instructor to absolutely bend over backwards to accommodate the class. The students fulfilled THEIR commitment. The instructor didn't.

I work very hard in my classes and this is reflected in my grades. I also spend about $15,000 a year on books, tuition, and expenses. My husband's school is even more expensive. If a professor tried to fail me for something they are at fault for, you best believe I would not accept it and, at my school, I would win. Hands down, no question.

 

[CityChicker]

I should also disclose that- in addition to my regular job, I also work at the college I go to school at. I have seen plenty of disputes between professors and students (most of them ridiculous on the part of the students actually).

I work for a department chair. All professors are evaluated by their students at the end of the class. If an instructor failed students, at my school, for something like this- they would certainly get a number of negative evaluations. These evaluations are taken *very* seriously because the students are basically our customers. They pay our salaries. If a professor gets even a modest amount of *legitimate* negative feedback reports, they are out the door in swift fashion (most are adjuncts). I can't even begin to imagine my school siding with the professor in a situation like this.

 

[aberfitch]

sounds like you got it all worked out! Thats awsome!

 

[country lady]

I have to agree with several of the points that CityChicker and chickerdoodle made. I took a language class on my lunch hour and showed up only to see a note on the classroom door. Several teachers were gone on a recruitment trip! I was livid.

As a department secretary my office was often stressed because faculty didn't do as expected. I was very happy to see them get their own computers and be responsible for tests and exams. A few were always late getting these to me to be copied, not a small thing when the entire campus faculty took work to the copy center at the same time. Over the years I posted many notices on classroom doors saying the teacher was out for the day. Where else can one skip work for a sometimes trivial errand? I must say, though, that much depends on the chair and department. Recruitment and numbers do play a large role. I've seen and had many dedicated, caring teachers.

So, there are two sides.

 

[SpringChickens]

Chickerdoodle and CityChicker made some excellent points. What I am unclear on, is whether the test was altered to make into a take home test?

In my experience, take-home tests tend to be MUCH harder than in class tests, so I would be thrilled to have the opportunity to take home an in-class test. I do realize that people's schedules can be packed tightly, however, during finals week, schedules are typically a little looser. Yes, you need to spend your time studying, but you just got an extra few hours of studying time by class being cancelled.

Yes, it's always inconvenient to get to class and find out it was cancelled, however, this was out of the instructor's control. It is really unfortunate the OP was not able to e-mail the test to the secretary who would distribute it.

I can see giving the students 48 hours as opposed to 24 hours, but much more than that would be excessive. I have a hard time believing that they couldn't fit 1-2 hours in to take a test, regardless of how busy they are. You're saying you're extremely busy, but you're on here, aren't you?

 

[jonathansenn]

I would have to say you are a nice professor. Most of mine just gave me a failing grade. I turned in a research paper one time and the professor failed me because he couldn't open the email. I actually had to print it off and mail it to him. Come to find out it was his mistake!

I tell my students excuses are like butts, everyone has one and they all stink!

and I'm still employed. Heck! I was star teacher this year!