134
votes
How do I email other students in my online classes, to make friends, without appearing creepy?
Why not email all of them together in one email? Considering that they are taking the same (remote) course as you, they might be sitting in the same boat (not having any contact with the other ...
- 21.8k
72
votes
My professor is not teaching his online course himself, but uses publicly available videos instead. Is this appropriate?
If your instructor is available for questions, comments and discussions, then you can learn a great deal this way, potentially.
I recommend that you try to do just that. If, after at least ten days ...
- 39.2k
70
votes
Accepted
How can I deal with claims of technical difficulties for an online exam?
Unless we somehow want students' grades to reflect the quality of their home Internet connection, the quality of their hardware, and their tech savvy (or their families'), there is not a sane ...
- 90.4k
59
votes
Accepted
How can I deal with students who try to steer a course (in the online setting)?
The game is: you listen, but then, you decide. Just because students don't like something, you do not have to do what they ask. Check whether what they say has merit, if so, you can promise to change ...
- 50.4k
49
votes
Accepted
Is it a bad idea to use other professors' Youtube videos as lectures?
The answer depends on your goals.
If you have plans to work in academia, eventually you might find yourself on a track to becoming a professor yourself. In this role, you are expected to teach. Hence, ...
- 56.1k
43
votes
My professor is not teaching his online course himself, but uses publicly available videos instead. Is this appropriate?
Your question is stated as "is it an issue". In this form I believe the right answer is "no, there are no issues". In some fundamental subjects like calculus or linear algebra I don't even expect for ...
- 2,936
40
votes
Accepted
Why are online lecture notes usually not accessible to non-students?
Surely 'cuz you're not paying the tuition for the class... To put it bluntly, that's what tuition is for: to give you access to class material and instructor time.
I doubt having coursework material ...
- 27.5k
38
votes
Accepted
What methods can be used in online exams to genuinely test the students' knowledge and capabilities?
First, a two hour time limit might be difficult to enforce or to guarantee, especially if it uses a real-time clock. At some level of scale you may start to find that some students didn't get the exam ...
- 384k
38
votes
Should live sessions be recorded for students when teaching a math course online?
I do provide recordings. At my former university it was a policy to do that, but I had started it already before when I didn't have to. Where I am now I can decide whether I want to do it, and I do.
A ...
- 11.8k
36
votes
Accepted
Moderating online education forums: delete, snip or leave rudeness?
Snip the last part out, send a private message to the poster reminding them of the behavioral standards expected in the course forum.
I don't see any reason to remove the whole post, if there are ...
- 109k
33
votes
Should live sessions be recorded for students when teaching a math course online?
I'm going to address this from a student's point of view. I was recently a mathematics student and I was involved in department meetings on this exact subject. I have little in the way of a direct ...
- 443
32
votes
Accepted
What do I do if my professor doesn't give me an extra credit assignment that he promised?
It's probably best just to send him a politely worded email, short and to the point. You (and we) can't know what the professor's reaction will be but your request for clarification seems legitimate. ...
- 1,579
31
votes
Using Discord to support online teaching
Answer to "How do I log onto discord? How do I invite my students?"
Head to https://discordapp.com/ and follow the quick directions to make an account. You should then see a screen that looks like ...
29
votes
Accepted
Can the university force me to share my courses publicly online? I want to use my course material to write a book in the future
Can I rightfully refuse to use the school's platform?
TL;DR: legally, probably not, but you are still more or less in the right according to the norms of academia.
Longer answer:
This isn’t so much ...
- 196k
28
votes
Is it a bad idea to use other professors' Youtube videos as lectures?
I am wondering if it would be appropriate for me to assign Youtube
videos as lectures? Or would this be considered unprofessional/frowned
upon/likely not allowed?
My short answer: No, this is not ...
- 1,305
28
votes
Should I not ask my students about their hometown?
I thought it would be good to edit my answer to start with a link to an article written from the perspectives of people who have had the question "where are you from?" asked repeatedly and ...
- 126k
27
votes
What methods can be used in online exams to genuinely test the students' knowledge and capabilities?
I think a lot of us are dealing with this right now. Here's what I and some of my colleagues are doing.
Open book exams: As a lot of people are saying, there's no practical way to police students' ...
- 1,676
27
votes
Should live sessions be recorded for students when teaching a math course online?
It may well be that some students cannot attend the “live” lectures.
International students who could not travel on-site may face a significant time-zone difference. There might be bandwidth issues: ...
- 27.5k
27
votes
How do I email other students in my online classes, to make friends, without appearing creepy?
Your classmates who don't turn on their cameras may still be interested in making friends and discussing the course material. But perhaps they would be more comfortable doing this in a way which doesn'...
- 2,307
25
votes
Does dropping a Coursera course look bad in a PhD application to the university offering the course?
AFAIK Coursera is not for credit, thus should not impact your phd record in any way.
- 1,505
25
votes
Does dropping a Coursera course look bad in a PhD application to the university offering the course?
Certainly not.
I highly doubt any university even has a mechanism for looking this up easily (since it isn't public info), or if they are even allowed to do so (might be against their privacy policy)....
- 19.2k
23
votes
Why are online lecture notes usually not accessible to non-students?
In my observation, this change is a recent epiphenomenon that is tied to the widespread organizational deployment of learning management systems (LMS).
Thirty years ago, course notes were not ...
- 190k
23
votes
What do I do if my professor doesn't give me an extra credit assignment that he promised?
Double check with yourself that you don't miss anything obvious/Are looking in the right place.
Double check with a fellow student (if you know them/are in touch)
E-mail the professor that you have ...
- 4,805
21
votes
My professor is not teaching his online course himself, but uses publicly available videos instead. Is this appropriate?
What you've described sounds like a very standard online class. The only thing missing is some kind of method for direct communication with the professor. Usually this would be accomplished through ...
- 986
21
votes
Accepted
How feasible to learn undergraduate math in one year?
I see that this question is being voted down for being interesting, so let me blacken my own reputation by addressing it.
Mathematics undergraduates do not study mathematics. They study studying, they ...
- 2,124
21
votes
Accepted
What value does self-learning a course (or several) have in graduate admissions?
Does it carry any importance? (to admissions)
Little to none. Anyone can claim to have studied something independently. If you want to increase your chances of admissions, you need to provide ...
- 99.8k
20
votes
Should I not ask my students about their hometown?
I see two issues here:
The first issue is that you don't even need to know about the students' hometowns - your query is actually about their language proficiency. In an attempt to make your question ...
- 301
20
votes
Am I experiencing discrimination from my professor, and if so, how can I safely go about this?
To give you a brief and direct answer - if you think you're being treated unfairly (which in the context of school means being treated substantially differently than other students, in a way that ...
- 9,494
18
votes
How to compensate students who face technical issues in online exams
I guess this answer won't be popular, but my strong suggestion is that you rethink student evaluation from the start. Exams aren't the only way that you can assess student learning and they are a poor ...
- 384k
18
votes
Why are online lecture notes usually not accessible to non-students?
In practice, the decisive questions for an instructor posting their notes online are:
Are you, as a writer, sufficiently proud of your own notes that you won't be embarrassed to see them circulate ...
- 6,842
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