Back to school

Time to start thinking about going back to school. Most children are already back in school; in our area, some started yesterday and some today. I get a slight reprieve until next Monday. My classes don’t start until Tuesday. One of my four sections is only about 60% full, not surprising since it is a 7:30 am class. The others, including my online course, have a waiting list. It should also not be surprising that the 7:30 or 8 am classes have a higher GPA than the classes later in the day. Most of my students are Freshmen and Sophomores. The university allows on-campus students to take online classes. In my opinion, that is a mistake. Most freshmen are not mature enough nor do they have the discipline required by an online class.  This last semester the online class had a GPA of 2.0 and the face-to-face classes had a GPA of 3.0. This is typical. I do not allow late work. Most of the online students had at least one 0 for late work. Some had several. I curve the online class to compensate for this. In talking with other faculty, they also find that it is typical for online classes to do worse than face-to-face classes and most apply a curve to their grades. The university is very interested in the retention rate of students, especially at the freshman and sophomore levels. I don’t believe it is because of the university’s desire to ensure that the students get a good education, but rather that they contribute to the university’s income. More on this after we hear how faculty’s pay will be cut. This is not a sure thing but was strongly hinted at the end of last semester. More on this in a future post.