[ae4azns]

This is regarding an online math course I'm taking this semester.
I have an appt this Fri. with the Dean of the Math dept to discuss this issue,
so I just wanna get some opinions in before I meet and talk with her.

I guess I'll start with how the online class works.
Each day one hw assignment is due, it must be submitted by 11:59pm.
Once at the end of a chapter the teacher posts up a quiz.

So far the schedule went like this:
Monday 1/22 P1 Hw due
Tuesday 1/23 P2 Hw due
Wednesday 1/24
Thursday 1/25 P3 Hw due
Friday 1/26 P4 Hw due (extended to Monday)

Monday 1/29 P5 Hw due
Tuesday 1/30 P6 & Quiz 1 (postponed to 1/31)
Wednesday 1/31 Quiz 1

So for the first two assignments P1 & P2 I was able to get those done without a problem. (Started on them early over the weekend)

This is where the bad chain reaction begins...on Wednesday I come home from class after 7pm and start working on P3, I had a headache so I lay down "for a bit" but end up waking up at around 3am. So for that assign I had only like 30% done. I think...oh it's no biggie just one assignment.
The next day I get online and try to start on P4 but the site gives me an error saying I need at least 70% on the previous one first.
This isn't possible because the hw assignment was already submitted. So I e-mail the teacher and patiently wait all weekend for a response....which I never get.
I stop by his office on Monday and he says "Oh, I posted an announcement on Saturday, I had changed the settings, you're no longer req. to get the 70%. Due to that setback I extended the due date for the P4 to today, so both P4 & P5 will be due tonight."
I ask him why he didn't reply to my e-mail and he says because he doesn't check his e-mail over the weekend.
I get back from class at just about 8pm and get as much hw done as I could and that ended up being only 80% of p4, so I didn't get to P5 at all...
I try not to think about it....things happen, so next day comes around and I try and start on P6...website gives me a different error this time, says I need to submit P5. This once again isn't possible because P5 was due yesterday and because I didn't have time to get to it at all it wasn't submitted.
Okay, so it was 11am and I e-mailed the teacher.....surprise! he doesn't reply yet again but finds the time to update the site and say that "Sorry due to tech. difficulties the Q1 will be posted tomorrow instead." Well, that's not a bad thing but still....11:59pm comes around and I still wasn't able to work on P6.
All throughout today I've been checking my e-mail whenever I could in between my classes and still no answer from him on my problem.
I get home check the site and see that he posted Quiz 1 at 10am today and says it has to be taken by 10pm.
So I had like...take or give 2hrs to study/take the test. Point is...b/c of all of the above, my grade is so bad right now esp since it's only been a week of class.

I admit it was my fault for oversleeping but that should've only affected that one assignment?
Maybe the other was that I didn't check to see that he posted an announcement on Saturday, this in part was due to the fact that
I assumed he didn't because I was waiting for a reply e-mail the whole time which I never got.

Well, what I thought I'd complain to the dean when I meet with her is that his availability to students is horrible,
this is an online class which means most of us will be communicating by e-mail. The other thing would be
his way of scheduling the quiz. Posting a quiz from 10am-10pm doesn't seem fair because I for example have class
9am-7pm and get home at about 8pm so that doesn't leave much time to study and take the quiz.
I'm not too sure about that one because one could argue that it wouldn't be a problem and he's the teacher so he's allowed
to schedule things how he wants to.

Yeah anyway I'm not sure about who's at fault so I'm having second thoughts about bringing this up to her on Friday.

[`faded]

If this is online..he should really check his e-mail since it is an online course anyways. Cause I used to homeschool and I would communicate with my teachers..my teachers would always reply from the next minute to the next hour unless they have something to do. However if you could have you should've called your teacher asking what the problems were. I know online courses are really hard to handle especially tech issues..so ya there are some miscommunications in there I don't think there's a right or wrong..maybe both of you are wrong *shrugs* but ya if it's online teachers really need to check their e-mails..hopefully you'll get it resolved o_O..OH and you should also talk to your dean about your class hours and maybe they will understand the situation better

[dwc]

If this is a course that is part of your semester, then there is definitely merit to complain. While balancing your other courses in class, you should not be expected to finish assignments every night, and be given only 24 hours to complete them.
However, the teacher also has to follow a strict timeline to get all the material he has to get done.
If you explain that you don't get home until 7 in the evening at night, and you are balancing other classes to the dean, he/she'll certainly understand your dillemma, and I'm sure you're not the only one.
If the dean is stumped as to solutions (compromises between the students and the teacher), suggest that the teacher open all P1 - P6 at the beginning of the week, and make them open all until the end of the week, until the quiz on that section. This will give you the convenience of doing the work when the student is free, and give students a 24 hour window to work on the quiz. This way, the student gets the same amount of work accomplished, but can do it more at his convenience, yet the class doesn't fall behind schedule. Also, it doesn't make sense to run a course online, if the teacher never comes online! But that's beyond anyone's control..., really.
However, the control of the dean over the teachers may not be all that great, and the dean may only be able to merely give suggestions to the teacher. But, its still worth a try. A teacher would probably feel more obliged to listen to a dean rather than a student. You have obviously gone through a week of the method, and you have found that it doesn't work. So, this is your hope!
Good luck.

[MaryMagdalin]

both are at fault
but its more his fault than your
you are only guilty of that one assignment
what a crappy prof not to answer your emails
they should check at least once a day

[Crispy]

If this is online..he should really check his e-mail since it is an online course anyways.

Word.
He's teaching a course online where the only way to communicate with him is through email... it's his job to check it often.

[i/boss/top]

i say its the fault of both, because in my experience with online courses, the instructor normally lists office hours, and the when they check their email. for example one of my instructors listed on their syllabus that they dont check their email on the weekends so if there's any questions to call etc. So i think you're instructor should have stated that they dont check their email on the weekend. on the other hand, your responsibility as a student is to do your assignments on time, and falling asleep and not turning it in on time is the responsibility of the student.

[ae4azns]

Calling is hard because of schedule conflict he is only available in his office for the times he put in the syllabus.
Seeing how he doesn't reply to any of my e-mails I'm not sure if he would return phone calls.
This being an online class I would think contact is geared more towards e-mailing and office visits would be a second option.
I agree with you dwc I was thinking the same thing about that type of schedule.
My previous online class I took had a schedule just like that.
He also mentioned at the orientation this is his first online class and he kept bringing up the fact that he doesn't know anything
so bare with him.
What gets to me most is that he seems to be very tech illiterate, can't blame him for that but it does affect us students.
The main cause of all of this is the settings that keep me from being able to even do the HW and also that he's impossible
to contact to help resolve it. Setting aside time to do the hw, not being able to do it, then getting marked down for it is not cool.
I really hope it won't be like this the rest of the semester...most likely will drop it if the Dean can't help me this Friday.

Thank you for everyone's input, much appreciated.

i say its the fault of both, because in my experience with online courses, the instructor normally lists office hours, and the when they check their email. for example one of my instructors listed on their syllabus that they dont check their email on the weekends so if there's any questions to call etc. So i think you're instructor should have stated that they dont check their email on the weekend. on the other hand, your responsibility as a student is to do your assignments on time, and falling asleep and not turning it in on time is the responsibility of the student.

Actually I've e-mailed him 3 times since the first day of class and that included week days and none of them have been replied to.
Yes I did fall asleep for that one assignment but for the rest I wasn't able to do it because of the website settings.
I dunno it's quite a confusing situation...

[justwildbeat]

My call is both, but you can always argue about the exact percentage of blame to put on your professor lol. It sounds like you are willing to take responsibility for some of this, espeically with the P3 homework so that's good. My opinion is that the professor really should be more timely in his email responses, but you also should have realized that emailing him over the weekend isn't the best time to do so.

In my experience rarely if any professor will repsond to you so quickly on a weekend and you'll get a response on the first business day. So with that in mind you should've prepared the other homeworks regardless of his reply, because they're still due no matter what day no? That way you have leverage in saying that you still prepared the rest of the homeworks but the system wouldn't let you submit them, because right now it sounds like a bunch of excuses. I'll give you this though, the professor really should rework this submitting program because it seems to create a lot of hassle and he should've at least replied to you.

[sulfuric_ACID]

i know from experience how frustrating it is to wait for an email that never arrives. one assignment shouldn't sscrew up all the other ones...

[<3LeeDongWook]

professor's fault. WHY IS IT SO COMPLICATED? good thing i don't have those types of assignments or quizzes. but really, i think it's all in your favor. even the professor does not seem to know the quiz/assignment system too well.

[December23rd]

Your fault no matter how unfair the system is.

Syllabus is a written contract between you and the instructor. Instructor tells you everything you need to know about the class and you've accepted it by taking the course.

Besides, this could have been easily avoided if you hadn't overslept.

You can't blame anyone but yourself here.

Sorry, this is college and you're responsible for everything that happens even if it's out of your control as long as it's your job, which in this case was.

Your story reminded of this news article I read earlier today about this new employee at a major company who's mom came to talk to the management because she thought her son was better than another new employee who was hired for the competting job.

My point? You're old enough to be responsible for the things that happen under your watch.

Talking to a dean? Lame.

[sunshine4ever]

I think both you and your teacher are at fault. I seriously think, though, that your teacher is more at fault because he's not flexible!

will be back to edit more gotta run

[sphynkter]

This is where the bad chain reaction begins...on Wednesday I come home from class after 7pm and start working on P3, I had a headache so I lay down "for a bit" but end up waking up at around 3am. So for that assign I had only like 30% done. I think...oh it's no biggie just one assignment.

this part is obviously your fault. but everyone has their bad days.

The next day I get online and try to start on P4 but the site gives me an error saying I need at least 70% on the previous one first.
This isn't possible because the hw assignment was already submitted. So I e-mail the teacher and patiently wait all weekend for a response....which I never get.
I stop by his office on Monday and he says "Oh, I posted an announcement on Saturday, I had changed the settings, you're no longer req. to get the 70%. Due to that setback I extended the due date for the P4 to today, so both P4 & P5 will be due tonight."

well he said that he posted an announcement on saturday so you should have checked for the announcement. when i experience a technical difficulty for online assignments I usually check back as often as I can to see if the status has changed. It is your fault here for not checking back on the assignment to see if the status had changed.

I ask him why he didn't reply to my e-mail and he says because he doesn't check his e-mail over the weekend.

this part is his fault because he should definitely check his e-mail if it is an online course.

I get back from class at just about 8pm and get as much hw done as I could and that ended up being only 80% of p4, so I didn't get to P5 at all...

so even if you had already finished part 4 the day before, you probably still wouldn't have fully completed part 5. seems to me like you need to work faster.

I try not to think about it....things happen, so next day comes around and I try and start on P6...website gives me a different error this time, says I need to submit P5. This once again isn't possible because P5 was due yesterday and because I didn't have time to get to it at all it wasn't submitted.Okay, so it was 11am and I e-mailed the teacher.....surprise! he doesn't reply yet again but finds the time to update the site and say that "Sorry due to tech. difficulties the Q1 will be posted tomorrow instead." Well, that's not a bad thing but still....11:59pm comes around and I still wasn't able to work on P6.

this part is his fault because he should have fixed that problem. there's no way for anyone who had missed part 5 to have done part 6. he should take into account that tech difficulties will arise and should check that students aren't having any problems. it's understandable that students may have missed one assignment so missing one assignment should not impede your ability to do the next assignment.

All throughout today I've been checking my e-mail whenever I could in between my classes and still no answer from him on my problem.
I get home check the site and see that he posted Quiz 1 at 10am today and says it has to be taken by 10pm.
So I had like...take or give 2hrs to study/take the test. Point is...b/c of all of the above, my grade is so bad right now esp since it's only been a week of class.
[... .]The other thing would be
his way of scheduling the quiz. Posting a quiz from 10am-10pm doesn't seem fair because I for example have class
9am-7pm and get home at about 8pm so that doesn't leave much time to study and take the quiz.

well the way students are "supposed" to prepare for an exam of any sort is not to cram hours before the test. teachers expect you to review well in advance so that you are not found trying to cram in info at the last minute. you have no argument here. the 12 hour window is to allow you to have time to finish the quiz just in case you run into some sort of technical difficulty with your internet.

i have a question though. do the assignments not become available until the day they are due or are the assignments available before the day it is due.

[kOoHII]

lack of communication on behalf of hte professor - how were you supposed to get access when the dang thing wasn't working? you did try after all. i would save and print out all your email exhanges with him just in case he says you didn't email him -.-

[ae4azns]

Update:
I called him on Thursday and he actually picked up.
So I asked him what was up with the whole e-mail thing and so he starts checking his e-mail and says
oh umm....okay, yeah..I know why, I have so many e-mails and I guess I didn't scroll down all the way and it missed your e-mail.
(I e-mailed him like three times, not once.)
Yatta yatta, we sort things out with it being my fault and he was feeling nice so he let me make it up and the two assignments due the next night.
(Yeah I have my own thoughts about this but I don't want to make it anymore complicated, just thankful I can make it up. =.=)

As scheduled, the next day I had a meeting with the Dean in the morning so I went even though I was already able to talk to the teacher.
I described to her the problem and since I already talked to the teacher we basically resolved it already so she kinda just gave her thoughts
on it and took my suggestion into consideration about him maybe changing the schedule for hw so that it's more flexible for the students.
She emphasized that he was new to the online teaching thing, so hopefully he's gotten the hang of it and no more tech problems will arise.
Last drop date w/out a W notation is the end of Feb. so I still have some time to see if I can recover from this.

Yeah....what a great start for the year. Thanks for all the input, suggestions, ideas, etc. It really helped me.