Since we have the Educators’ rant thread, I thought it was only fair that we students should have one as well.
Especially since I have a rant, but I can’t be the only one.
My program is online; we do everything over the Internet and turn in our work by email or electronic drop boxes.
Back in early April I had to turn in a short paper which was worth 16% of the grade. Note the date…early April. I still don’t know how I did on it, because this prof takes forever to get anything back to us, and I had just resigned to waiting to see what my final grade was.
Flash forward to last Friday, May 25. I normally check my school email at least once a day, so about 3:30 I log in. Turns out there was an URGENT message from the professor about this paper, and when I opened it, his message said that he was unable to open it because I had done it on my home computer which runs the Vista OS. His message was dated around 8:30am that day. So I answer that I"m sorry I didn’t see his message until now, and I couldn’t reformat the paper now because I was using my work computer, and the paper was on my home computer. I would reformat the thing as soon as I got home, which would be in about an hour. I get home, and get the reformatted paper to him at 4:49pm.
Next day, last Saturday, I check my email again, hoping to see an acknowledgement. There’s nothing. So I click on over to the course tool that shows our grades, and find that I’ve received a zero on the paper, and a C- in the class. The datestamp of the grade is 5:02pm Friday.
A C fucking minus. Enjoy your long weekend.
Needless to say a couple of further emails followed–from me of course. I still haven’t gotten a response from the prof. And if you’re going to give someone a C-, which is tantamount to failure in grad school, the least you can do is provide an explanation, holiday weekend or not. Especially as it turns out, Friday was the day that final grade reports were due, and yet you couldn’t be bothered to find out that you couldn’t read a student’s paper on that same fucking day, and this a paper that was turned in over six weeks previously.
I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad about the grade, because I know I did better than that. But it sure doesn’t help to have it on my transcript.
I definitely will be taking this to the academic appeals board if the professor won’t adjust the grade this week.