My grad students

This semester I taught a graduate level course, MCM 541 for the Master of Corporate Media degree at Marietta. It was a desktop publishing elective course for those people in that masters program. I had 6 students this semester, 3 students from China and 3 students from the U.S. (specifically the surrounding Mid-Ohio Valley).

Now this class is not the hardest grad-level course there is out there. We met about 13 times and the class was held on Tuesday nights and we were supposed to meet from 7-10 (and that happened just a handful of times.) So anyway the week after Thanksgiving we go over the final project, a 24 page magazine and they can start that night. Plus I am giving them the next class period to work on their projects and I will be there so if they have any questions I can answer them for them. The projects are due on Dec 14 at 7:00 p.m., so essentially they have 2 full weeks and 2 3-hour class periods to do the projects. Pretty generious huh? They will all have their projects done on time, right?

Wrong.

First of all I go the class on Dec. 7 (the lab class where they have 3 hours to work on the project) and none of them have started. So basically they have wasted a week. For 3 hours I help them the best I can, and some even leave early.

I then expected to get calls and e-mail the next week leading up to the deadline. No calls, no e-mails, no one stops by my office for help. I am thinking, “I taught these kids so well that they don’t need my help. They are fine and completing the project with no problems.” Then I get an e-mail on Monday, Dec. 13 the day before the final is due (from one of my American students) asking if the final is due tomorrow and if it is she isn’t sure she can finish it on time. Are you kidding me? 2 weeks to do this project and then you don’t know when it is due. Now if one of my Chinese students came to me and weren’t sure when the project was due I could understand, the communication barrier, maybe they got confused, but the fact that all 3 Chinese students knew when it was due and my American student didn’t, now that’s just a simple case of wax in the ears and not paying attention.

Later on Monday I have 2 Chinese students stop by and ask for help (not a problem I expected that to happen).

I then have another American student stop by and have me help her with her project on Tuesday. She mentions that she thinks it won’t be done by 7:00 p.m. What the F---? If I even thought about being late for a project (let alone the final) I know it would have been at least a grade drop.

So I decide I will give them the last class period to finish up and that the projects will be due at 10 and not 7, and if they want to turn them in on Wed then the best they can do is a B. Turn it in on Thurs and the best you can do is a C.

That night no one had their project done at 7. They all had some work to do on it, some more than others. And one person didn’t show up at all. This kid had an A going all semester, thought there was no way he could turn in his project by 7 (little did he know I changed the guidelines to accommodate the lazy) and decided not to show.

My one student who e-mailed me about her project and claimed she didn’t know when it was due, lost her project on the computer and had to turn it in late. The other American student who didn’t think it would be done by 7 did a very good job on her project, and the 3 Chinese students turned all of theirs in on time and did well.

Overall I handed out 2 A-, 1 A, 2 B+, and 1 F. And when it came down to my 3 American students vs. my 3 Chinese I have to give the Chinese students the nod. They did a better job and they did the simplest job of all and actually followed directions.