My "semester" just ended, and it would seem there were no major casualties from that aforementioned grenade. Things were a bit tense, but the gentleman in question gave up emailing me after I gave him my final word on the matter (which was "It's my class, and if you don't like it, you can complain to the dean") and ended up with a decent grade despite his antisocial behavior on this point. I do think he's making some kind of complaint about me, or maybe just giving me a bad course evaluation, but frankly I don't much care; my dean already knows this whole story, and I have the entire conversation saved on my computer if I need to pull it out.
I'm just glad it's over. I felt guilty, because I know it could have been a better class than it was.... if I teach online again, I'll be far better at it. But there were some good elements to online as opposed to F2F lecturing, too. If I ever do the latter again, I may try to find ways to apply some of the discussion techniques I used in the online class (minus the crazy angry guy, of course.)
I'd go on further about little things, like how amazing the lightning bugs in my yard look tonight and every night in June.... But I'm tired, and I keep mistyping. So it's off to bed instead.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Please Shoot Me
Remember that online class I was teaching? The one I was trying to "figure out" a few weeks ago?
It has, in the space of 2 days, gone from a slightly boring but perfectly adequate short course in art appreciation to completely nuclear, red-zone flaming chat room. In the words of the immortal Han Solo:
"It's not my fault... It's not my fault!"
One dude basically took offense to what another student had said (which to me seemed completely inoffensive, I keep trying to understand and failing) and it was like someone pulled the pin on his personal grenade and dropped him into my foxhole. I have spent the better part of 2 days trying to diffuse the situation, with no effect. Now he is accusing me of not grading his work impartially (despite the fact that I've not actually graded any of his work yet) and I think I may have to email the dean of my school tomorrow just in case this gets any worse. Better to get the paper trail going. There's only 2 weeks of class left, dammit! All I want is for everyone to calm down and get along... but somehow I think that fleeting dream is already lost. Gah.
It has, in the space of 2 days, gone from a slightly boring but perfectly adequate short course in art appreciation to completely nuclear, red-zone flaming chat room. In the words of the immortal Han Solo:
"It's not my fault... It's not my fault!"
One dude basically took offense to what another student had said (which to me seemed completely inoffensive, I keep trying to understand and failing) and it was like someone pulled the pin on his personal grenade and dropped him into my foxhole. I have spent the better part of 2 days trying to diffuse the situation, with no effect. Now he is accusing me of not grading his work impartially (despite the fact that I've not actually graded any of his work yet) and I think I may have to email the dean of my school tomorrow just in case this gets any worse. Better to get the paper trail going. There's only 2 weeks of class left, dammit! All I want is for everyone to calm down and get along... but somehow I think that fleeting dream is already lost. Gah.
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