11/19/2020 STAT 107 (135 unread) question @206 69 views Uploading 11.4 & 11.5 lecture notes?? When do you plan on uploading the lecture and notes for 11.4 and 11.5? It is now Thursday and they're still not posted. I am not able to complete the homework assignment or seek help from a TA because the material is still not available. It is almost the end of the week, and things are hard enough as-is. Thank you. hw9 Updated 13 days ago by Anonymous Mouse the students' answer, where students collectively construct a single answer Click to start off the wiki answer the instructors' answer, where instructors collectively construct a single answer Wow thanks for such a positive post! I'm working on them at the moment. I think you are aware that Tuesday was a holiday. So I have only had yesterday to work on the course material and I do have another course to teach, not just STAT 107. Maybe you can try to be a little bit more understanding? Or maybe I am expecting too much from my student. On another note, you have until next Friday (11/13/2020) to work on this homework. From today until that time, you will have a total 24 hours of office hours to go to and get help! Updated 13 days ago by Ha Khanh Nguyen followup discussions for lingering questions and comments Resolved Unresolved Ha Khanh Nguyen 13 days ago Also, 40% of the that homework assignment require NO WEEK 11 material! All 4 questions in the Simulations section are coming from Week 10 materials. If you have attempted to read these questions, you would know that they're not from Week 11 (which does NOT have simulation in topic list). good comment 0 Anonymous Mouse 13 days ago I understand that you have your responsibilities to your other classes, but you also have to understand that it is a lot on the students as well. I did in fact complete the "40%" of homework questions that did not require knowledge from the week 11 material-- that is why I asked. It is a little confusing to continue working on homework assignments from the previous week especially if we have new material every week. In addition, there are only so many TA's to help the many Stat107 students with their questions and I appreciate their hard work. That is why I do my very best to be proactive every week! https://piazza.com/class/kdvwk0ra5df12w?cid=206 1/7 11/19/2020 STAT 107 (135 unread) I was simply wondering when the material would be uploaded because it is MY responsibility to complete MY work. I'm sure you can respect that. I apologize if I came across as uncompassionate. These are indeed stressful times. helpful! 2 Ha Khanh Nguyen 13 days ago It is your choice to whether you work on the homework this weekend or next week. If you find that you cannot complete the homework assignment this weekend since the materials are not released early, then simply complete it next week. If you cannot complete it by the 100% deadline, then ask for an extension. All questions on Piazza have been answers extremely quickly by the TAs and me. Office hours have been empty at times. So there is no need to assume that you won't get the help you need. I respect you're taking responsibility for your work. I disrespect the fact that you disrespect me and the work that I put in STAT 107. good comment 0 Anonymous Mouse 13 days ago Wow, okay. I literally never disrespected your work ethic or the TA's (I just thanked them). I was just expressing my concerns with the course to you. I even apologized if I came across as disrespectful. Now I know to keep my questions and concerns to myself. helpful! 1 Olivia Luca 12 days ago @Ha, above you said that if we can't complete an assignment by the deadline, to ask for an extension, but when I asked for an extension (and had actual reasons as to why I needed the extension), you responded that it's not fair to other students which is why you couldn't give the extension. I'm confused.. I don't think the student above meant to be disrespectful, I think tone doesn't translate well via messages. We all appreciate your hard work in creating a course that teaches its content very well given the high scores, but consistently getting high scores doesn't reflect the struggles one encounters while trying to achieve said high scores. We may be getting 100s, but we may have to go to more extreme lengths in doing so if we have a harder semester with more classes or more difficult classes, or if we have jobs, research, mental/physical health issues, or other unexpected emergencies - not to mention the constant stress students and teachers alike have been feeling throughout this semester. Some may feel the need to sacrifice sleep and their mental and physical energies in exchange for continuing to keep up with the course and receiving the same grades despite busier weeks when other courses have multiple exams and essays, which is why we would benefit from more lenient deadlines in regards to the labs and homework assignments. I think what the student above was trying to say is that given the asynchronous nature of this course, having lectures uploaded later than the typical MWF schedule really sets us back because it interferes with time set aside for other courses, jobs, research, etc. I don't think the class is hard content-wise for those who have had previous experience with statistics, but when posting gets delayed it becomes very hard to manage the content given our other courses, which is why I think we would all appreciate it if you would be more lenient regarding deadlines when material isn't posted as timely as usual, because we understand that things come up, but even though we understand, it still sets us back so we would appreciate if you'd be accommodating in that respect. As you mentioned, you also teach another course which can impact your posting - which makes sense and we understand - but we hope you also remember that many of us have 4+ other courses on top of this one, and given the hectic nature of this semester, we would also appreciate if you'd be more understanding and accommodating. helpful! 2 https://piazza.com/class/kdvwk0ra5df12w?cid=206 2/7 11/19/2020 STAT 107 (135 unread) Ha Khanh Nguyen 12 days ago Olivia, you asked for an extension 2 hours before the deadline. Extension can only be arranged in advance with legitimate reason, which, by the way, I have made for you at least 2 times in the past. To be honest, I think my generosity has allowed you to think that I will grant extension whenever you ask. In this class, I have granted extensions fewer than 6 times, and we have close to 200 students. The majority of the students are able to complete the assignments without an extension. If there is a reason you need to get an extension for most of the assignments, perhaps you should talk to the Emergency Dean. I have made special arrangement for students in this situation before. If you can provide the required document, I would gladly accommodate. I believe the homework deadline is very lenient as you have the opportunities to receive extra credits, which you do NOT need to get an A+ in this class (let alone A). There is a 80% deadline, which accounts for cases where you forget to do the homework on time. If it wasn't for COVID, I would not accept late submissions unless for legitimate reasons. This has been my policy in STAT 400 and STAT 385 until COVID impacted the courses. Asynchronous nature means that you do not have to attend lecture at a set time. It does not mean you can completely choose to watch the videos at whichever time and date you want and put the pressure on the instructors to accommodate such request. I posted 11.1 video on Monday. I did not post video on Tuesday as it was a holiday. I did not post video on Wednesday. I posted the rest of week 11 videos on Thursday. Is that really off from the MWF schedule? I believe the decision to take 4+ courses besides this one is your decision. This is a 4-credit hour course, which translates to at least 12 hours of working on the course material. There is a reason why the recommended course load is 12 units, because it translates to 12x3 = 36 hours per week, which is almost a full-time job. If your decision of taking 5+ courses a semester is impacting your mental and physical health, I highly suggest that you talk to your advisor and adjust your work load to protect your health. good comment 0 Olivia Luca 11 days ago Wow, you talk a lot about respect yet fail to treat your own students with such. Read the tone of my previous post, now read yours...You have created an environment where students are afraid to reach out and communicate with you because they know that you will respond in an aggressive and defensive matter, as you responded to both me and the student above. I accidentally posted using my name, I tried to edit it and change to anonymous, but I wasn't able to after the initial post. I don't care if I have an A+ or C in the course, it doesn't give you the right to publicly announce my grades nor the subjects of my personal emails to you like asking for extensions. Not only that, do not lie and try to make me seem like a bad student just because you have no response to any of my valid points. I asked for an extension ONCE before (10/19), I was not given an extension "at least 2 times in the past" as you falsely and insultingly claim. And when I did ask for the extension, it was because my mom had just had shoulder surgery (I can email you documents confirming this since you seem to be distrustful of your students). I asked for a one-day extension for the lab because I had been switching back and forth between campus and the suburbs (a 4.5 hour journey) for the past three weeks leading to her surgery to take care of my mom, and I only asked you for the extension the week my mom finally had her surgery. Up until then, I had still completed all your homework assignments by the extra credit deadline and the labs on time. But after her surgery, she was in so much pain and couldn't do simple tasks because it was on her dominant arm, so I had to help her get dressed, cook for her, help her eat, clean the incisions, make sure she took her medication, make sure she did the exercises on her arm properly to prevent blood clotting, take her on walks & make sure she drank enough water to get the anesthesia out of her system, and many more tasks like this. Despite similar tasks taking up most of my days before the surgery, I still didn't ask you https://piazza.com/class/kdvwk0ra5df12w?cid=206 3/7 11/19/2020 STAT 107 (135 unread) for an extension, I asked you the day of her surgery when she was completely helpless and in need of care, and match that with an exam, 2 essays, and a quiz in other classes that same week - I reached my breaking point and asked for a one-day extension...yeah, I'm really taking advantage of you and your "generosity." You, on the other hand, have made a habit of posting lectures late or missing office hours without forewarning this semester: 9/7 - "something came up suddenly so I couldn't join the office hours today (11:00 AM - 1:00 PM)" 9/10 - "I'm coming down with a cold today so I couldn't keep my promise of posting the 2 Statistics videos for week 3" 9/30 - "I have not posted any lecture videos for week 6 yet. I'm sorry about this! I had some emergencies today and couldn't record the videos as planned" 10/21 - "I got really sick today so I couldn't record the lecture video. Sorry about that! I won't be able to work on the video until later tomorrow (Thursday night), but you will be sure to see them on Friday morning" 10/31 - Posted lecture late Saturday evening on a general holiday (Halloween) as part of previous week of lectures Shouldn't you be held to the same standards that you hold your students to? Or is your time more valuable than ours? Should we ask you for documents proving your illnesses and emergencies or does this seem excessive (and private/personal) during a pandemic that already provides constant stress? Moreover, I think it's highly unrealistic and unprofessional to suggest we take less classes to accommodate this class. The average amount of credits most students take a semester is 15, not 12 as you claim (12-18 credits to be considered a full-time student), and many students depend on aid and scholarships, some of which require at least 14 credit hours/semester for it to be aided to them, so many students would not be able to implement your suggestion. And by your logic, "if your decision of" teaching two courses affects your teaching effectiveness as well as the students in your classes since you're not able to handle teaching two courses, maybe you should only teach one. See how that seems like a rude and unhelpful suggestion? Don't ask for your students to be understanding if you're not willing to be understanding with your students. Just like with respect, understanding is reciprocal in nature. Furthermore, if we are expected to follow the guidelines of the syllabus, shouldn't you also? It clearly states on the syllabus that details for the project would be released in Week 8. We are now starting Week 12 and still have no information about what the project, which is worth 20% of our grade, will entail. Exam 2 is in Week 13, so as you mentioned in a previous Piazza post, you will be submitting after Exam 2 (11/17), so on or after Week 13, giving us only 3 weeks to complete the project until the last day of instruction (12/9). Last semester, students in STAT 107 had 5 weeks to complete the project (STAT 107 - Sp 2020 Syllabus). What I have been trying to emphasize to you is that the amount of work you assign and the content is not the problem, the problem is the limited time we have to complete it, especially given this hectic semester. We should be given as much time as possible in advance to work on the project, especially since the end of the semester will be full of finals, projects, essays, etc. for other classes. This is not our only course. Give us the time and tools to succeed in your class and to be able to dedicate the necessary amount of time to each class. This is why flexible deadlines would be so helpful. Just because not everyone is experiencing the same difficulties preventing them from completing assignments by the deadlines as others, it does not make it ok to invalidate the problems/concerns that other students in your class are experiencing. It makes me feel like you don't actually care about our problems or about us as students. Being rigid on deadlines encourages students to do the bare minimum to earn a higher grade, rather than actually taking the time to learn and understand the material once they have the time. So please post project details asap so that we have time to start working on it earlier if we know that we'll have things that will interfere with our time dedicated to the project in other classes later on. https://piazza.com/class/kdvwk0ra5df12w?cid=206 4/7 11/19/2020 STAT 107 (135 unread) What we are asking is that you: 1. stop posting multiple videos at the end of the week i.e. late Thursday/Friday evening, especially not Saturday if it's meant for the previous week of material maybe follow a more organized/set posting schedule like last semester's class (e.g. MWF) last week's posting was ok (even though two of the videos were posted Thursday after 10:30pm, so basically Friday), but there have been other weeks where it was not and it set us back later 2. post lecture notes at the beginning of the week so that we can print them out all at once so that we don't have to go to the Union or other public printing places multiple times a week and risk infection 3. post the project details asap please 4. consider more flexible deadlines for homework assignments - at least for the labs if it's no credit after the deadline, then there's no incentive to actually take the time to complete the lab after the deadline (e.g. an 80% deadline like for the homework) we are not missing deadlines out of laziness, we are here to learn, but some students have more obstacles than others. We are all different people 5. if you post late, then extend the deadlines for that week automatically it's only fair 6. be more receptive to constructive criticism don't take it personally, try to really understand where we're coming from encourage a safe space to communicate without judgement 7. be more understanding as we have been with you this semester we could all use a little bit more understanding in our lives, especially now I've attached a link to the definitions of 'respect' to demonstrate that neither the previous student, nor I, have disrespected you. Especially in my emails and my previous post, I was nothing but courteous. Constructive criticism is not an insult. I did not insult you as a person, I shed light on issues that multiple students have been having but have been too scared to reach out about given the way you respond to students who pose any concerns about the course. You responded with sarcasm and a hostile/defensive tone right away to a simple (and very valid) question about when lectures would be posted. A reminder: you are not entitled to automatic respect, you earn respect. You seemed very sweet in your lectures and you teach the content in a way that most students can easily grasp, but that is not all that goes into being an educator - you also need to be able to properly address students' concerns about the class and to foster an environment that encourages open communication. helpful! 1 Olivia Luca 11 days ago (Continued) You mentioned that in previous courses you have not offered extensions before. Well I think this is the perfect opportunity for you to re-evaluate your principles as an educator for the future. If a global pandemic and a semester of courses in a less than ideal setting, topped with added stressors that I've mentioned in my previous post, and possibly burnout, exhaustion, and a combination of mental & physical health issues have still made you unresponsive to students' concerns and unwilling to be understanding, then I suggest you stop asking students to be understanding with you when you can't match your own expectations in the course. Students, like educators, have lives and problems outside of your classroom. "Maybe you can try to be a little bit more understanding? Or maybe I am expecting too much from my" instructor. https://piazza.com/class/kdvwk0ra5df12w?cid=206 5/7 11/19/2020 STAT 107 (135 unread) https://piazza.com/class/kdvwk0ra5df12w?cid=206 6/7 11/19/2020 STAT 107 (135 unread) As you can see 9 people in the group chat have expressed similar concerns, 10 including Anonymous Mouse, and 11 including myself - it's not just 1 or 2 people. And the group chat includes less than 30 people, so I'm sure there are others who feel the same way in the class who are not in the group chat, but don't want to speak up so as to not get on your bad side. I encourage you to take an anonymous poll surveying all students on their thoughts on what I've covered here if you think that 11 students is still not enough to consider making changes to the course for this semester. I have written this in collaboration with multiple peers who would not like to have their names shared (for reasons stated above), but we hope you will really take into consideration the points that we have brought up, and put the same time and care into responding/creating a plan that we put into organizing our thoughts and concerns in this post. Sincerely, STAT 107 students helpful! 2 https://piazza.com/class/kdvwk0ra5df12w?cid=206 7/7
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