Frustrated with online class

[u/CertainRespond3211]

I'm doing online asynchronous college courses through community college after 5 years of not being in school so I'm not sure if my expectations are just too high and this is normal for college, or if this is something most people would struggle with.

I'm taking an introduction sociology course and my only resource is a textbook. There's no lectures or study guides or any other material from the professor just the textbook. We complete one quiz and one 2 page paper every week for each chapter. And for every chapter I take notes for all the key important information. But on every single quiz, all the questions are nothing I took notes on. They're specific minor details that I wouldnt have even thought to take note of.

So I guess I'm just curious, is this a common way for online courses to be handled and I'm just not taking notes with enough depth? I dont understand how I'm supposed to know what key information will be on the quizzes from a textbook alone.

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[u/Safe_Conference5651]

As a university professor who teaches online, this is not normal. Feels like a lazy situation. I provide so many things, including videos and a free self-written text.

[u/PaperbackWalrus → u/Safe_Conference5651]

Not necessarily. Some universities ask professors not to do video lectures because students can’t pay attention to videos anymore. The most they can do is a 2-3 minute introduction video.

[u/Olliegreen__ → u/PaperbackWalrus]

As opposed to reading? lol

[u/PaperbackWalrus]

It’s common. You need to fully master the chapter before taking the quiz. It’s only one chapter so it is doable.

[u/Jumpy-Salad3591]

This is why I only take async classes if they are required/the only course available for that subject. I've never had such an.. independant async before but its normal for professors to put as minimal effort as possible, never answer questions or emails, and never post a god damn thing because its async. Just cause its the laziest thing to do, especially during summer/winter. I had an OK async class last year during fall, had stuff missing but mostly understandable assignments with different articles and chapters assigned. Professors would have virtual office hours and if you use canvas announcement boards for students to reply.

[u/tongmengjia → u/Jumpy-Salad3591]

100% some professors are lazy, but there are also real technical limitations.

I teach at a small private college, we're not great about federal compliance regarding, e.g., accessibility or academic records. I have a google sheet for each of my classes with the date, the topic, and a link to whatever material students need for that day (lectures, assignments, activities, homework, etc.). Students love it because everything is organized in one place and it's obvious what's due when.

I also create online modules in Google Forms for my courses: watch a short lecture video, answer a question about the lecture video; watch a short lecture video, answer a question about the lecture video; etc.

This year I picked up an asynchronous course at a community college as an adjunct for some extra cash. They are super hardcore about compliance, which means that all my materials have to live in their learning management system (LMS, i.e., Canvas), and they all have to satisfy ADA requirements.

I basically had to throw out all my materials and start new. It is SO time consuming to create high quality content in their LMS, and compliance expectations are so onerous, that it's often easier to eliminate material than it is to incorporate it. You end up choosing material based on what's achievable from the instructor's perspective, not what's optimal from the student's perspective. The problem is exacerbated because most CC instructors are adjuncts who cobble together a living teaching at numerous institutions at the same time, and it can be difficult or impossible to transfer a course you created in one institution's system to a different institution's system, even when they use the same LMS. You're essentially starting from scratch at each new school, so you don't design a course that's effective for learning, you design a course that's easy to build and easy to teach. To add insult to injury, your instructors are earning maybe $3,000 to teach a 16-week course.

That's not to excuse the instructors, many could do more. But the system itself is an obstacle to interesting and effective course design. The worst part is it's all done under the guise of serving students.

[u/Asleep_Caregiver_948]

That sounds like a half baked class. In CA, online classes need to have a lot more substance. The courses are evaluated for items like instructor presence (videos or text pages), peer to peer engagement (discussion boards), and clear goals.

Check the score on Rate My Professor for this person, then see if there are other profs who run more thorough online courses.

[u/casadecarol → u/Asleep_Caregiver_948]

Unfortunately the requirement for peer to peer engagement results in vapid discussion boards where people just post inane comments about each other's works

[u/timesuck]

Yes, most of my asynchronous classes have been the instructor handing us a textbook and I’m in a graduate program. I wish I would have realized earlier this is what the program was. I would have transferred. It’s really disappointing and makes education feel like a cash grab. It’s being enshittified just like anything else.

The quizzes are normally written by the textbook publishers and are some of the most poorly written materials I have ever encountered. The majority of questions are about tiny details the author mentions once. These quizzes do not really cover overarching concepts or capture understanding. It’s infuriating and lazy that instructors use them. We’ve had several quizzes with duplicate questions. My instructors didn’t even bother to read through what they were giving us. And quizzes shouldn’t even be in a grad program, but it’s an easy way to show a grade without the teacher having to do any work.

[u/Olliegreen__]

So it’s not super common, it’s not uncommon. It’s disingenuous for the purpose of the course though. The quiz should be testing your knowledge and competency on the core subject and topics covered not some obscure detail fo a case study type of deal.

I had a dumb supply chain professor who would ask stupid questions like which country was this case study primarily based out of? I could tell him all of the details of the current case, the issues, and resolution and how it applies to the course. But when he out Australia and New Zealand I wasn’t sure which one but knew it was one of the two. Of course I picked the wrong one. Dude didn’t give two shits even though I could demonstrate the actual necessary details of the case and actual learning. He just wanted to ask stupid questions like that.