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My suspicion regarding the bottom is that based on the description of the class they decided this was the "blow off" class.

MrPopo wrote:My suspicion regarding the bottom is that based on the description of the class they decided this was the "blow off" class.

Perhaps. That said, they had ample opportunity to learn from early on that it was not so and to either change their mind and engage or drop the course to save their grade. I feel I offered a fair 100-level course challenge (e.g. the textbooks were non academic and they had only one major paper to write), but some of them were not able to meet it despite offering what I felt to be every available opportunity to help them along the way.

16 is a small number but even then the scores skew negative.
It seems that some of them really didn't make an effort. Don't blame yourself too much, Dave. You can't help those that don't want to be helped.

I'm always shocked at the number students who fail or withdraw from a class.

In the programming class I'm in now, I can look at other students' work. I'd say 50% have either withdrawn or will end up with an F due to lack of completed work.

Dave, I find the fail-rate baffling as well. Wow. Bummer. Maybe like Popo said "ah cool, video game class - I can just play instead of working"?

Like Ivo said, I wish I had had a chance to stay caught up with the vids. My problem was mainly that most vids I watch are streamed YT sitting in front of a TV. If I'm in front of PC I'm probably gaming. That said, I'd still love the link with full 8parts in case I get a chance. And if you do up it to YT (or put together a DVD, even better) I'd be even happier.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:In the programming class I'm in now, I can look at other students' work. I'd say 50% have either withdrawn or will end up with an F due to lack of completed work.

I made a college career of figuring out how much non-exam work needed to be done for a passing grade. In my various CS classes it turned out to be very little; about the only class that I regularly did homework was our 400-level algorithms class, since it involved group problem sets.

MrPopo wrote:

BoneSnapDeez wrote:In the programming class I'm in now, I can look at other students' work. I'd say 50% have either withdrawn or will end up with an F due to lack of completed work.

I made a college career of figuring out how much non-exam work needed to be done for a passing grade. In my various CS classes it turned out to be very little; about the only class that I regularly did homework was our 400-level algorithms class, since it involved group problem sets.

I did a similar thing. I did well on exams but attendance quizzes and homeworks brought me down some.

I was all about efficiency. I could get an A for an estimated 10 hours of work a week or a B for 3 hours (using numbers for the sake of example). So I went for the most grade for the work. I would also try to take professors who didnt do a lot of quizzes or homeworks.

MrPopo wrote:

BoneSnapDeez wrote:In the programming class I'm in now, I can look at other students' work. I'd say 50% have either withdrawn or will end up with an F due to lack of completed work.

I made a college career of figuring out how much non-exam work needed to be done for a passing grade. In my various CS classes it turned out to be very little; about the only class that I regularly did homework was our 400-level algorithms class, since it involved group problem sets.

Most of my classes are the opposite. No exams, but homework and projects that are weighed very heavily.

I'm always baffled by how many people are willing to pay for schooling, then fail it.

BoringSupreez wrote:I'm always baffled by how many people are willing to pay for schooling, then fail it.

They aren't always necessarily paying for it out of their own pockets.