<p>Does anyone else feel that instructors are given too much authority to decide how a class should run? Logically it’s pretty stupid to have one section of a class, for example, to be almost entirely different than another section of the same credit class when it comes to coursework, class policies, grading methods and so forth. I think this is the main reason sites like Rate My Professors was created to help students choose wisely who will end up dictating their college life.</p>
<p>It makes perfect sense if universities just set a standard themselves for each section of a class, make one lateness/absence policy to apply for every class at the college, one for grading method; even the rule when it comes to extra credit. The list goes on. </p>
<p>I doubt this will change any time soon but I’m guessing eventually the above will happen. It’s probably that universities just value their instructors so much that they give them too many privileges. I’m talking about physical colleges and not online ones by the way.</p>
<p>I was going to talk a bit more about this but I have to prepare for the day, lol.</p>
<p>College instructors should be more like “tutors”, while the grading, policies, and determining how the class will be like should be handled by the university and/or university department as a whole, though grading and lateness/attendance policy should obviously be a university standard. </p>
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<li><p>This would get a better response if posted in the correct section.</p></li>
<li><p>I disagree. Not every class works the same way. Different classes require different methods, and different professors prefer different policies. That’s just how college works. Sometimes it works out well for you, other times it doesn’t. Don’t take classes with policies you don’t like. It’s that simple. The ability of professors to do what they’re there to do is enhanced by the university getting off their backs about details and letting them teach.</p></li>
<li><p>Using college professors as tutors would be a waste of their knowledge and expertise in their fields and in teaching.</p></li>
<li><p>You’re not in high school anymore. Deal with it.</p></li>
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<li><p>For some reason unknown to me, I don’t know why I couldn’t find a proper forum fit for this topic when I made it. Right now I see one…but not when I made it. Weird. Perhaps there’s more than one kind of “view” for these forums and I was looking at the rather “incorrect” view? Either way, a moderator can move this to the correct forum especially since I want more people’s input here. I may not expect full agreement, but I’ll find it hard that people will agree more with the current system than a more rational and standard policy, universal to a specific school.</p></li>
<li><p>Where did I say something different than this? You’re nailing what I’m saying. All of that second point in fact, and I thought I mentioned I use RateMyProfessors prior to registering for a class? This is me “not taking classes with policies I don’t like” to the best of my ability. For instance, sometimes you have to register for a class due to schedule convenience. That includes registering at the earliest times possible.</p></li>
<li><p>Why? Are you saying they’re necessarily more effective in their teaching than tutors? If so, then I wonder why so many students opt for tutors when apparently the instructor’s teaching was “better” than the tutor’s. It simply seems that tutors give a more understandable way of teaching, well, in some/most cases, and the tutors are hired and paid by universities correct? Let’s just replace these tutors with the instructors. What difference does it make really, besides of course the good things which is that university standards will be implemented and you won’t have 4/5 different professors dictating your f.ucking life for the next 5+ years…</p></li>
<li><p>Oh, I’m “dealing with it” more than you apparently think.</p></li>
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<p>It’s a professor’s class. It’s up to them to decide how it’s run. Don’t like it? Don’t take it. You’re not always going to like the way that your superiors do things. Suck it up or do something different (in this case, transfer if you really hate it).</p>
<p>It’s called “academic freedom” and it’s what makes great professors great, and lousy ones lousy. Now, I have loved some professors that others told me were horrible, and vice versa. Just like in life, one boss will do things differently from the next. Part of wisdom is learning how to deal with different people…it’s a really important part of the college experience, because it is much closer to real life. Life is NOT “fair”, not uniform, and learning to live in this world really does go day-to-day. Just when you think you have everything all figured out, something changes, and you feel like you are back to square one. That’s life.</p>
<p>^There you go, and sometimes there even isn’t a different professor teaching the subject.</p>
<p>Transferring? Lol seriously? Yeah I’ll transfer to another university much farther away or out of state because of one lousy professor/facepalm.</p>
<p>I know life’s like that. I’ve been through a whole lot of crap already, and not expecting it to end at any point (although expect a good deal of it to end whenever my “learning” ends, be it when I get a degree or not).</p>