Continuing education, part deux

[magid]

Thursday evening I did all the animation quizzes for my course. I haven't read all the chapters of the text yet, but these quizzes don't require that, since they include pretty much all the information in the animation/interactive graph/whatever. Unfortunately, I remain underwhelmed.

I sent this email to the professor:

Hello, $Professor,

I have a number of issues with the animation quizzes with this course.

1. The quizzes on Chapter 2 are all about the Food Pyramid, not myPyramid; they seem not to have updated the ancillaries when they changed the topic of the chapter in this most recent edition. I do not think that these quizzes are an accurate reflection of whether students have absorbed the knowledge in the revised Chapter 2.(Similarly in Chapter 14 with the Children's Food Guide Pyramid.)

2. Why do so many of the animation quizzes repeat?
[I'll note here that there were multiple quizzes for most chapters, and a lot of them were exact repeats, not even different questions, which would have definitely been possible. The third, fourth, and fifth times I took these I just filled in the correct answer rapidly (they're multiple choice) and went on to the next; totally a waste of time, though.]

3. Also, on the web site, Chapter 9 has Animation Quizzes 1, 2, 3, and 5. Is 4 missing, or is 5 misnumbered?

4. In Chapter 16, Animation Quiz 2, I believe that two of the "correct" answers are, in fact, wrong.
Question 1 currently asserts that "How common are food spoilage microorganisms? B) almost none of our foods contain them" is the correct answer.
Question 2 currently asserts that "The most common organisms causing
food spoilage are bacteria, D) insects and parasites."
Neither of these are correct. This is why my quiz grade for that quiz
appears to be 60%, when in fact I have answered the questions
correctly.

Thank you,

[Me]

As promised in course information, I did receive a reply within 24 hours:

Dear [Me],

I am not sure what you are referring to, but I have received all of your quizzes and you received a 100% on all of them. If that is not acceptable or what you are experiencing, and you would like to retake them, please let me know.

$Professor
$ContactInfo

This seems to me to be a wholly inadequate reply to my reasonably detailed list of questions. This makes me Not Happy, especially as a reflection of what I can expect from this teacher (so far: nothing). I'm not sure whether to bother replying, and if so what to say. *grumble*

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

ugh. how much and how are you paying for this? Is there a way to complain up the ladder a little bit, to maybe get this prof's attention.

Teaching community college has got to be a pain in the ass job, but it seems like a little more forthcoming personal answers would at least make you feel less ignored.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Bunker Hill, a bit over $400 for the course, and about $130 for the paperback textbook.

I'm sure it's not an easy job, but if you sign on, at least pretend to do the job. It's not like this guy is giving lectures, and all the quizzes are graded automagically. The only things he's to do is grade the lab activities, the midterm, the final, and possibly a 5-page paper.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

The resident online programs expert recommends contacting someone in charge of the overall program, since different people may be in charge of maintaining the course, depending on how it's set up. Someone, somewhere, would appreciate this. Forward the correspondence, and ask who you should contact in the future for future quality concerns. They should be grateful for the feedback, and if you find someone interested in it, you should ask if they would like you to continue doing this for a discount on the course.
ROPE (resident online programs expert ;) ) says that you are basically doing QA testing, which editors find themselves doing wherever they go.
ROPE says hi, as well. ;)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Hi to the ROPE!

Thanks for this; I will have to look up who to contact at all (since the only school affiliated person I know the email of is the not-so-clueful prof). I just wasn't sure whether this was the level of things I should expect or not; so ROPE's opinion is very much valued.

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

This seems egregiously unresponsive, certainly unacceptable teaching. It is possible that on-line courses are generically this bad; I admit I've never had any experience with them, on either end. I'd like to think not.

I would agree with FW's advice to contact the person in charge of the online learning program, quoting the exchange above, and expressing the sentiment that this quality of instruction barely counts as such.

I would also write directly to the chair of the department where $Professor holds a (I can only hope relatively junior) faculty position, again quoting the exchange. This can be in the guise of, say, asking for recommendations on which professor's names to look for in the future if you hope for an instructor more responsive to students' interests. If everyone there knows that on-line courses are a joke, this may be useless, but if not, $Professor's embarassing behavior shouldn't escape the department's attention.

—Professionally Affronted

[magid.livejournal.com]

I haven't taken an online course before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, really (though there were vague ideas of videos of lectures, with the attendant concern for me of how to view them, given my antiquated computer setup). I'd like to think that this is atypical, too.

The position this guy holds is an assistant professorship; I'm not sure exactly how low on the totem pole this makes him, though I assume it can't be that high.

I have no idea whether the department thinks online classes are useless; I get the impression that the college doesn't, since they have a number of them, as part of their goal to make education an option for thems that wants it, whatever their work/whatever schedule.