Advising Daughter about Professor Issue

[romanigypsyeyes]

Yes, the syllabus would be a good place to start. The school also might have a general guideline for this.

Good luck. Either way, it's a life lesson .

[cobrat]

Originally Posted by sybbie719

The problem with this situation is that it is against NYC DOE policy for the teacher to do this (my principal would have placed a letter in the teachers file if they did this in my school). The DOE has a specific classroom removal policy that must be adhered to if a teacher needs to remove a kid.

Maybe nowadays, but that didn't seem to be the case in the early-mid-'90s at my NYC Specialized High school. Almost everyone from the US govt/history classes we had with her ended up getting locked out at least once for lateness.

Moreover, the Deans, Principal, and most of the parents back then backed her up even though some felt she was a bit extreme.

[sybbie719]

It was the case at my NYC specialized high school (and I was there in the 70's). Perhaps it is because your school felt that rules did not apply to them (we see how that has worked out for them).

[HKLincoln]

Next time she can take screen shots of the work and document it in a word file. She can at least email that for some credit if it happens again.

[emeraldkity4]

I don't quite understand this statement. I can file my tax return online or via UPS, FedEx...This student only had one way of taking the exam.

? Wouldn't hoping FAFSA or your tax forms to be received by mail or UPS by deadline, require more advance planning than hoping you were able to file online at the 11th hour?

[oldfort]

I am not familiar how people file FAFSA, I only know about tax returns, which only requires a time stamp of when it is mailed.

I don't think OP's D needs to take total responsibility and hit for a bug in the system.

[sybbie719]

But she should take responsibility for poor planning, and perhaps poor time management and not prioritizing.

[oldfort]

There was no poor planning. She took the test within the time frame it was given to her. It was poor planning on the teacher's part to use a program with a bug. Where is the teacher's ownership on that?

[keepittoyourself]

Do you expect FAFSA & the IRS to be as equally accommodating to folks who wait till the last minute?

If the only reason these last minute people couldn't finish was that the fafsa or irs software was broken, then yes they should be accommodating.

I entirely sympathise with the daughter in this case. Sure, it might have been poor planning if something had gone wrong on her end and she hadn't been able to finish it. A deadline is a deadline. But in this case, she was on the right side of the deadline, except that the college screwed up.

If this really is going to drop her grade, I think a formal appeal might be in order.

[NJSue]

Someone had used my Ds computer to log onto the program under their own acct. Normally when that is the case and another student tries to log on, the program won't allow it until the other student is logged off.

In which case it's not a glitch or a bug in the system, but the system working the way it's supposed to for the sake of online security. I am sorry this happened to your D, but she exposed herself to this difficulty by allowing someone else to log on to her computer and not making sure they were logged off before she began the quiz. It's not IT's fault.

Update: I'm assuming that the computer is her own and not a lab computer used by many.

[sybbie719]

She took the test within the time frame it was given to her. It was poor planning on the teacher's part to use a program with a bug. Where is the teacher's ownership on that?

The only thing we know is that the test had to be submitted by 7 pm and student started the exam at 6 pm. She had a week to get the exam done. One of the reasons for the glitch is that she let someone else log on to the exam from her computer. Ok, she did not know, however if she had not waited until the last minute she would have found out that this was the problem and could have found a solution. It is poor planning if she did not build in a contingency or and waited until the final hour to submit the exam. Things happen (sort of like the presidential candidate who felt he did not need a concession speech and scrambled at the last minute because of a "glitch". Poor planning and no contingencies).

[oldfort]

What about people who showed up to vote in FL? They were allowed to vote as long as they showed up before the cut off time. The fact that the facility and computer couldn't accomendate that many people didn't preclude them from voting. Those people had busy schedule and they just managed to get to the voting booth after they were finished with what they had to do during the day. What if they were turned away because of their poor time management?

I don't think it is for us to judge if OP's D had justifiable reason to wait until last minute to take the test. What's important is that she took the test within the time frame that was given to her. As stated by mathmom, what if she took the test at 1pm and IT weren't able fix the bug before 7pm?

IT also knew they have been having issues with the program. Did they tell the professor? I am in IT. If I know there is a known bug, I let my users know about it.

[cobrat]

It was the case at my NYC specialized high school (and I was there in the 70's). Perhaps it is because your school felt that rules did not apply to them (we see how that has worked out for them).

Actually, the NYC Specialized High Schools were exempted from many regulations which existed for the rest of the NYC public school system.

Considering the decrepit state of the latter in the '80s and early '90s* as illustrated through violent crime rates and mediocre academic stats...I understand most parents of SHS students considered those exemptions....such as not being barred from immediately kicking out students for violent behavior/conduct to be a good thing.

* Got a taste of it in middle school and from seeing older neighborhood kids pleading with me and other friends to avoid attending our neighborhood high school at all costs after experiencing extreme violence...including getting knifed to the point of requiring multiple stitches which were clearly visible.

Things happen (sort of like the presidential candidate who felt he did not need a concession speech and scrambled at the last minute because of a "glitch". Poor planning and no contingencies).

Moreover, it seems one of the candidates experienced similar IT issues as his campaign's GOTV database crashed and was offline for 90 minutes during election day.

[Emaheevul07]

I am taking an online college class for work at the moment, and all of our assignments and exams are due by Monday at 9. It becomes available the Monday prior, so we have a full week to take them. It is written into the syllabus that if you start the assignment and have computer trouble FRIDAY OR EARLIER, you have to email IT ccing the professor, make every attempt to finish the exam on time even if it means going to the library and using a different computer, and if it still doesn't work out you can be eligible for an extension. If it's AFTER Friday, you're screwed. The professor does understand that technology isn't perfect and that's why we have a week to take the test. If this professor has this sort of a policy it's a shame he didnt outline it in the syllabus.

[MommaJ]

When I was in college I studied up until the last minute for each test so I could be as prepared as possible. If I had been hit by a car on the way to a test because I had just finished studying and was rushing to get in my seat on time, no professor would have penalized me for waiting until the last minute. I think this is an analogous situation. The girl started the test with enough time to finish. She shouldn't be penalized. Give some people a little power and they are sure to misuse it. Perhaps next time the prof should warn his students that the online testing system's weaknesses makes deadlines meaningless, and they should actually do each quiz a full day in advance.