Online Professors

I have dealt with 4 online professors in my time at DBU and have encountered 3 lazy ones. I think the professors are lazier than the students. Three weeks into this winter term and I have now had my first official “run-in” with my online professor. It all started as my fault but I just realized it got worse. Apparently, during the week of December 26 – January 2, the class was supposed to complete 2 chapters and do 2 online discussions plus 2 homeworks. Let me make something clear to you before I continue. This is an extended winter term and equates to the same length of a regular class, but takes advantage of the month during the holidays. Secondly, there is no other week listed on the schedule that asks for 2 chapters to be completed so why would you choose this week?

Let me continue on with this saga. Well, I emailed the professor after I completed the homework and made a couple posts on the discussion question for Chapter 4 (the second chapter I was oblivious to). In the email, I stated that I didn’t realize we had 2 chapters and did the work anyway. I made sure I let him know it was my entire fault and that I would watch things closer. I knew I was in the wrong for not catching this, but I sent the email to kind of feel him out. At best, he would cut me some slack and give me full credit for the assignment, but at worst; he would know I’m not lazy.

Well, 2 days later I get an email back saying that there was no problem and he said he would watch everyone to make sure know one gets too far behind. Ha! He sent another email to everyone saying he worked on grades and you could click on your grade for your quiz to see what you got wrong. Quiz!?!? Let me explain something further. With online courses, you have a certain time to take quizzes and tests and a link is only available during these times. Ok, well, that was a chapter 4 quiz which I got an egg on. I said to myself, how did I miss this quiz? Well, there is no place on the schedule for any quizzes and we got no heads up email on it. Since I didn’t read the online lecture (the place where the link for the quiz would have been)until Jan. 3rd I missed my opportunity to take the quiz.

Now I have a problem. Here is the catch. Had I known about the quiz I would have known about the entire chapter. Oh, from what I said earlier about what he required of us to do the week before New Years and the day after Christmas, now add a quiz. This did not sit well with me, especially the fact that I didn’t get an email response until 2 days later. Here is the email I sent to him in response to the bullet hole he put on my grade book….

“I'm not sure when this quiz was available and sure I missed the time window. However, it would be nice if the schedule reflected quizzes. The only indicator I think we had that there was a quiz could have been the link and maybe the spot allocated on the gradesheet that one would have to scroll down to see. I know I didn't realize we had 2 chapters last week, but I would have caught that had I known from the schedule that a quiz was going to be available from such date to such date. At least that would have been a prime indicator. Might I suggest a copy-all email at the beginning of each week to outline objectives to ensure everyone is in the know. Judging from the class average (44/100), I know I'm not the only one that missed it.”

It’s on….