Questions tagged [teaching]
This tag is related to the role and duties of a teacher, an academic instructor, tutor or a teaching assistant.
6
votes
1answer
167 views
How should I plan my course schedule given that my wife is due to give birth during the semester?
I have been teaching for a few years at my university,
and have mostly gotten into the rhythm of teaching and doing research.
This semester, I am teaching two courses.
What is different this semester ...
1
vote
1answer
85 views
Experiences with Gradescope?
I'm teaching my first class this semester, and was quite happy with Gradescope when I used it as a TA last semester. Does anyone have experience using Gradescope with large (100+ student) classes for ...
3
votes
1answer
116 views
How and when do departments decide who is teaching which course?
How and when do departments decide who is teaching which course?
I am a graduate student at a state school in the U.S. The process has never seemed clear to me, as it seems that when none of the ...
10
votes
5answers
2k views
As adjunct faculty at four-year university, with no PhD, what should I have my students call me?
I will be teaching at a four year university as adjunct faculty. Is it okay to have my students to call me Professor LastName, even if I do not have this title formally? If not, what other options do ...
48
votes
15answers
15k views
Is it unreasonable to expect students to read the lecture notes before attending the first class?
The new semester will be starting in a few weeks,
and I will be teaching a course which starts on the first day of the semester.
The goal of the course is to teach students
how to use the R ...
1
vote
2answers
170 views
Is there an efficient way to give a large class of students feedback about their assignments?
I am the course lecturer of a large undergraduate course
with about 700 students in the course.
One of the challenges of teaching such a large course
is grading the assignments and giving students ...
4
votes
2answers
407 views
Why do professors use course-buyouts?
I am confused about how course buyouts work in the United States and about how the incentives play out for professors and the university. I will use a constructed example to frame my confusion. Please ...
30
votes
5answers
6k views
Telling where I am originally from at the first lecture?
I am going to start teaching next year in a university in the UK. One common question I get with students in one-to-one conversations is about my origin. I certainly have an accent, and they are ...
6
votes
1answer
903 views
Is this rejection rude? Should I apply to another position in the same University?
I applied for an adjunct position and never heard back from the school. I emailed them to learn about the status of my application and this is the response I received: Your resume is competitive but ...
2
votes
2answers
300 views
Can auditing students attend consultation hours?
Assume a university allows students to audit classes informally, so they're not enrolled and don't pay, but they attend classes anyway. Obviously, no one has obligation to allow these students to ...
2
votes
5answers
231 views
What do you call a “practice” class that accompanies a lecture?
In my country it is very common for courses to consist of two types of classes: lectures primarily focus on theoretical aspects of a topic and then after each lecture comes a corresponding “practice” ...
4
votes
1answer
181 views
How do I apologize to my teacher for cheating?
In my Chemistry class, we had a quiz and I helped another student cheat by showing him the answers on my paper but the teacher caught us. I know what I did is wrong and I know I deserve punishment, ...
9
votes
5answers
292 views
Assignment extensions for no apparent reasons (USA)
I recently started teaching activities in an American institution.
I have had a couple of students asking for extensions for problem sets / project deadlines for medical or family reasons, which is ...
3
votes
3answers
379 views
How to encourage students to attend and participate in class?
I have seen a shrinking trend in the number of students coming to my classes and suspect that it's due to the large number of digital tools that are available to students.
What techniques can I ...
68
votes
8answers
24k views
As a course lecturer, should I excuse late assignment submissions if I wrote the assignment deadline slightly wrong?
I am the course lecturer of an undergraduate course.
For a recent assignment, I had written the assignment deadline as 23 November 2018 (Saturday). Unfortunately, 23 November is actually a Friday, and ...
13
votes
3answers
989 views
Interviewing for an academic position after abusive department chair in previous academic position
In my faculty job, I was bullied for a long time by a chair of the department (at a US state university on the West Coast). This included:
Giving me bad schedules and classrooms
His secretary ...
20
votes
7answers
2k views
Giving a test lecture, what should I keep in mind? [duplicate]
I hold a PhD in computer science. I've been travelling to conferences presenting my papers and sometimes as part of my teaching assistance duty, I had to give some very simple lectures to students.
...
-4
votes
1answer
3k views
My professor who doesn't let me use my phone to read the textbook online in while I'm in class. What should I do? [duplicate]
I'm currently taking a course where I acquired the textbook as an e-book. Physical copies were available too, but I find kindle-versions far more convenient as I can read it wherever, whenever, using ...
1
vote
1answer
157 views
How to teach students to ask Polya-type questions
I've recently read "How to Solve It" by Polya. In that book, the author basically explains the method that I use in my own teaching - asking relevant, prompting questions to get students to reason ...
7
votes
1answer
351 views
How should I feel about a professor using an entire online course for his own course?
I'm taking a machine learning class at a school in South Korea. I've heard some good and bad things about this professor in particular, but I didn't really know until I actually took his course.
I've ...
23
votes
3answers
5k views
How do Universities deal with poor teaching?
At one school I worked at the strategy for dealing with poor teaching was to get feedback from students around midterms. If the students criticism was strong enough the teacher was pulled from the ...
5
votes
3answers
156 views
Including cartoons in lecture notes?
I would like to include some cartoons in my lecture notes, just to spice up things a bit and relax the atmosphere before moving to serious stuff. However, I am not sure if there is any issue with ...
2
votes
0answers
45 views
Website for scheduling and submitting homework [closed]
I'm looking for a website where I could publish homework at a scheduled time to a group of students and also allow them to submit their answers through it.
The homework is a single PDF file, and the ...
1
vote
1answer
127 views
Sharing set of exercises in a textbook (the morally right way?)
This is possibly a more general question about copyright, but I think I can specify this question into question about teaching, especially on STEM subjects. I don't know exactly whether I should post ...
9
votes
3answers
934 views
Preparing lecture notes and references?
I am a new teacher/lecturer in science, and I am preparing lecture notes for my module. I am putting together a lot of material coming from textbooks as well as borrowing material from other lecture ...
38
votes
7answers
12k views
Can I say no when my principal investigator asks me to help cover lectures next semester?
I'm a postdoc at a US university, and my principal investigator (PI) asked me to cover some of his lectures next semester. I do not want to do any lecturing as I want to focus solely on my research. I ...
1
vote
1answer
119 views
How to teach to an adult person that is not used to study? [closed]
I'm trying to teach some basic things to my mother, such history, basic math and basic physics so she can attend a test.
But because of my mothers personality this has become pretty hard , since she ...
5
votes
4answers
305 views
Teaching using bad material
This semester, due to an increase of students enrolled, I was assigned to teach an introductory course. The course had been previously taught by two lecturers, who taught a different half of the ...
2
votes
2answers
169 views
Where else are teachers not paid for prep time?
Last spring I did some teaching at a university. It was my first time. It was a temporary position. I was there 1 semester only. I was paid by the hour.
A couple of things caught my eye about the ...
58
votes
20answers
20k views
What should I do when my students use their phones in class?
On the first day of class, I told my students that they are not allowed to use their phones in class. However, a lot of them use their cell phones and don't pay attention in class. How should I deal ...
38
votes
11answers
8k views
Is it common to have exam questions 'peer reviewed'?
How common is it that exam questions, after being designed by the instructor and before being given to the students, are checked by a colleague in one's same institute, to make sure that they are ...
70
votes
7answers
27k views
Dating former student?
Here's the situation: She was an undergrad, I was a grad TA. At that point, our interactions were totally professional and limited to the classroom. However, she and I both since graduated and left ...
4
votes
2answers
941 views
Changing from 100% research to 20% teaching and 80% research: Seems like a raw deal, would you do it? [closed]
I'm a named researcher (but basically a Postdoc) on a funded project in the UK which pays my salary. I've got a good CV and currently do 4 hours of teaching per year.
The principal investigator (PI) ...
49
votes
10answers
14k views
What to tell students who want to know how to succeed in your class
Setting is math in the US.
It's quite common for a student who is not doing super well or is worried that they might not be to approach me and ask how they should be studying/what they should be ...
-3
votes
3answers
786 views
Has the student responsibility for not cheating?
If a student is cheating, he can be caught or not caught.
If he is caught, it's not obvious what to do.
There are options with different strategies:
The students are themselves responsible for not ...
0
votes
2answers
199 views
Is there a full-time job with variety and academic rigor but also 2+ months annual vacation? (don't care if vacation is unpaid) [closed]
I've had one full time job in my life. It was a teaching job and I got about 2.5 weeks of annual vacation. I had a great time my first year, learned a lot, and I think I improved quite a bit as a ...
-3
votes
1answer
228 views
Forgot to lock bathroom door, teacher saw me with my pants down [closed]
As the title says, this happened in a college environment. For some unknown reason, I forgot to lock the bathroom stall's door. He saw that the door wasn't locked, so he opened the door, saw me and my ...
2
votes
3answers
141 views
A free tool that is capable of selecting questions from a pool and shuffle them randomly? [closed]
I will be conducting exams, and I need a tool that can let me shuffle and select random , small questions from a pre-defined question pool. My questions are typically matched and complete.
It would ...
56
votes
10answers
14k views
Asking a professor to teach better
In my mathematics program, one of the qual prep courses is being taught by a professor who, put bluntly, is not putting in the effort.
He is essentially reading from the book (which I don’t ...
2
votes
4answers
250 views
What is an acceptable failure rate in an entry level programming course? [closed]
I'm teaching an entry level programming course at a local college. About 2/3 of the class is getting a b or higher. The last 1/3 are getting f's. I attribute most of the f's to failure to do ...
2
votes
1answer
200 views
Can a teacher to refuse to follow their late work policy? [closed]
My teacher handed out a syllabus at the beginning of the year, claiming to have a late work policy where he only reduces the max percent you can get on an assignment for every day it's late. The ...
0
votes
3answers
449 views
Failing students: Avoidable or not? [closed]
One college lecturer often does not care about failing his students, another does. Say we are talking about a Calculus I class.
A. One fails students because they simply do not achieve the minimum ...
0
votes
2answers
88 views
What is the term for intended consequences of an activity other than intended learning outcomes?
Question might be a bit strange. I am looking at a series of activities that we run every year. These activities have some intended learning outcomes (ILOs), but these outcomes are stated in terms ...
0
votes
2answers
310 views
What is the best way to see if students understood?
I am teaching classes of a size of 20-25 persons.
During a class, what is the best way to get feedback from students? Concretely, I would want to get the following questions answered every ~15-20 ...
6
votes
4answers
403 views
How widespread is the use of “last author = teacher” on student papers?
In our lab (at Nankai University, in China), students often write papers where they are first author. However, we use a convention where the last author signifies the student's teacher. I feel that ...
2
votes
1answer
56 views
How to teach law to multinational classes?
I am professor in an internationally oriented university, meaning it was created to have students from half a dozen different countries. It doesn't offer any law-related degree, but some degrees do ...
2
votes
2answers
106 views
Conflict of interest/collusion in academic scenario
I know somebody, let’s call him Joe, who had been a good student. Being a good student, other students asked help from him to understand the class materials. In the meantime, our university started ...
2
votes
2answers
109 views
As an instructor can I use previous work history as examples?
I teach computer science (USA - graduate level). I am teaching a software design course, and for a lecture I am to give on software anti-patterns I would like to use a real world example from an ...
0
votes
1answer
58 views
How to get a tutoring position in Melbourne, Australia?
I'm starting my PhD in neuroscience next month at the University of Melbourne and I've been told that graduate research students often work part time as tutors. I've been trying to find this ...
21
votes
5answers
2k views
Is the “okay” hand gesture now unacceptable to use in class? [closed]
While teaching a class last week, I made the widely-recognized hand gesture (an open circle with the thumb and index finger, with the other 3 fingers loosely or sharphy extended... I'm not sure ...
