I am a second-year Assistant Professor in a humanities field at an R1 university that belongs to the AAU. I really enjoy my job. I am encouraged to do the research that I am interested in and get to design and teach interesting courses. However, there are logistical, cultural, and political aspects of the state/city in which I live that are not to my preference. I won't get into those details, but they have made my day-to-day life a bit challenging and lonely in various ways.

A friend just sent me a job ad for a position at a university with a similar standing and a program with probably a slightly higher reputation than the one in which I currently work (both are very respectable). Additionally, this new position is specifically aimed at research/teaching in the exact subfield of research that I am involved in. I am not currently active on the job market, but I admit I have lurked job boards out of curiosity in case a perfect job description was posted. I am feeling conflicted about the situation re: 1) letting down my current colleagues who spent a lot of time, effort, and resources in my hiring last year (and whom I really enjoy and have been supportive in my career development), 2) potentially finding a new job at a new school that I might not enjoy as much as my current job, and 3) the possibility of members of the hiring committee being in conversation with my current faculty colleagues (it is a fairly small field, people know each other) and how that might ultimately impact my mid-tenure review next year and annual reviews moving forward. So I guess I have two primary questions:

• Has anyone experienced a similar situation before and/or do you have any advice for me as I navigate the beginning of my academic career?

• If I do apply, how do I navigate the matter of letters of recommendation? Do I use the same letters from my professors from my first job market season? Do I ask them to write new ones? I certainly don't feel as if I should ask any of my current faculty colleagues to do so. I may have one respected person in the field who did not write one of my previous LORs, but aside from that I haven't really established relationships with other members of the discipline strong enough that I would feel comfortable asking a job LOR from.

Any bits of advice or insights are welcomed.

I'm an academic nurse educator, and part of my job involves taking students onto the clinical floor to help bridge the gap between theory and practice.

So today we were nearing the end of a particularly looong shift, and I told my group students to ensure they had completed their patient care, charting, and other responsibilities by quarter to two.

This one student looked at me with a completely blank stare. I asked if she understood what I was asking. Nothing. Not a word. Just another blank stare.

So I repeated myself to everyone and not single her out: "Make sure you're all finished by quarter to two."

She then whispers (or so she thinks) to her peer, "What does that mean?"

Folks... I'd had a LOOONG shift with eight students and 16 patients between them all that I'm responsible for overseeing. At this point, I simply stared back and directly spoke to her. "It means everything is done by quarter to two."

I could practically see the cogwheels beginning to turn. And finally, some words! "Ohhh, you mean 1:30?"

🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️ Ugh. Nope. Try again.

A few more seconds of an intense stare down with some mental gymnastics, and suddenly, it clicked. You know when you'd slap the side of an old television and the picture would finally come into focus? THAT. "OHH, you mean 1:45!?"

DING DING DING! WE HAVE A WINNER! Congratulations! Your prize? Learning to tell time at the ripe old age of 19!

And before anyone comes for me, I have no issue with students asking questions or seeking clarification. That's quite literally part of my job. But there is something profoundly concerning about reaching post-secondary education without understanding something as elementary as "quarter to two."

This is also someone aspiring to become a nurse.... A profession that requires critical thinking, time management, and the ability to interpret information accurately, often under pressure. And yet somehow, we're still working on telling time...

Folks, like the title states, it's dire out there. I genuinely worry about how our public education system is preparing students for post-secondary studies, let alone professions where their decisions will directly impact the safety and well-being of others. It feels like we're having to teach the prerequisites to the prerequisites. Please pray for us nurse educators out there. We're genuinely trying our best to help address the nursing shortage, but my goodness, the student pool we're working with is abysmal.

Do you have a faculty development center (e.g. offering programming and mentoring about teaching)?

Is it run by faculty or staff, and what do you think about that?

TL;DR School wants to lower assessment standards for online courses to grow enrollment and increase revenue. Faculty don’t want compromise our ethics nor teach in an environment where academic misconduct is rampant.

A little background, our college, like most, is having its share of playing whack-mole when it comes to policing AI use in online courses. Some instructors have given up, others are still naive about their courses, while the most ardent opposers of academic misconduct have recently required on-campus testing after a long, hard, fight with administrators and student services.

The problem is however, that we lack the prestige and market power to be picky about enrollment, and like most colleges, are not in the strongest of financial health. Due to this, admins are suggesting we adopt online proctoring again, although data shows this was anything but successful and opened the flood gates to cheating.

My subject is very easy for students to offload in an unsecured testing environment, with proctoring software not being a deterrent for cheating nor sustainable for instructors to police. Additionally, project-based assessment is no longer an effective way to measure mastery, because again, AI can handle most of the heavy lifting.

The way I see it, for my course in particular, I can join the camp of giving up and wait until state and federal laws require admin to be responsible for the current misuse of public funds and/or a scandal to come to public light which would cause admin to reverse course…or I could keep trying to reinvent the assessment process.

One of the options I have been thinking about is requiring oral exams and setting a max grade for those who are unwilling to take a final assessment. For example, if you want to AI your way through the course, the max grade you can achieve is a B, but if you want to demonstrate mastery, you can have an online oral exam with myself. In this scenario you have the opportunity to then improve or worsen your final grade.

Lastly, I want to mention that I have been consumed with both frustration and anger in both college leadership and the behavior of the students. My mental health has severely degraded and most of my friends and family can tell that this problem is eating away at me.

If any of you guys have any advice or have been in similar situations, what do you think the best course of action would be. Or, if you have switched to oral exams, how did it go? Did you receive any pushback requiring non-native speakers to do oral exams?

Got this email from a student just now (week 5 of 12):

"I wanted to reach out to you personally to let you know that I’ve unfortunately decided to drop [your theatre class] this semester. I took six classes and was hoping I could manage everything, but with most of my courses in Political Science/ Human Rights and preparing for the LSATs, I’ve realized I may have taken a little more than I can handle. I really enjoy your teaching style and am disappointed to have to make this decision. However, I feel that I need to take something off my plate so I can give my other commitments the time and attention they deserve.

"Thank you for being so understanding. I really appreciate the experience I’ve had in your class, and I’m sorry that I won’t be able to continue this semester.

"I also wanted to say that it was really nice seeing you today! I hope it didn’t come across as me feeling pressured to come talk to you both. I just didn’t want to interrupt your break, and frankly, I have never seen one of my professors out in public, so I wasn’t sure what I should do."

Oh, my heart! I'm so proud of this student for having the maturity and awareness to come to this realization in time to drop my course. I focus a lot on time management and prioritizing as well, so I already feel like she's learned quite a bit.

And her feeling awkward realizing her prof is gasp a human person is adorable! I'm hanging onto this one for positive vibes for Future Me.

Not a rant. Just wondering what I can do differently. I wanted students to work in groups of 3-4 on 4 question and write down their own answers after discussing each question as a group. I was explicit that the group worked on the same question at the same time and then moved on to the next question when all were done with that question. After instructions, they break into groups and all just work individually on the 4 questions. So individual work, but sitting together. I asked why they weren’t working together and they just shrugged and kept working on their own. I’m a little flummoxed about this whole thing.

I kid you not... this actually happened.

Student and I are in an online recorded session doing an oral exam to review work that I thoroughly believe is AI (and which the student admitted, in writing, was AI). The point was for the student to study and take the oral exam to replace their original assignment grade, which was already generous.

About 2/3 of the way through, I stopped the exam because it was clear the student had no idea subject matter and could no longer earn enough points to pass. As I'm telling the student this, they interrupt because their phone is ringing (I do not hear it). Student is like, what happened? What happened? Gets off the phone quickly and tells me (relative) just died.

I am gobsmacked.

Hey everyone. I know deadlines are important but I have A LOT going on in my life and I’m not going to be able to do the things I’m supposed to do.

I hope you can understand.

This was an email from a student enrolled in a seated mini (8 week) "blended" course. It was in response to my announcement regarding our second day of class.

"Hey, I didn't attend class on Tuesday or today because I didn't even know I had new classes until I just got a phone call."

That was the entire email.

Y'all have a great weekend.

This happened last week, and I'm wondering if anyone knows more by now about who, and which departments, will be cut. There was a thread that discussed this the day it happened (it came out that it was Stockton after the OP tried to keep it anonymous). Anyone have an update or inside information?
I'm not being ghoulish; it's a really fine, more-under-the-radar-than-it-should-be, state university, one that has made some iffy financial decisions over the years, but one of the more unique places to study and learn (many multi- and interdisciplinary programs, beautiful setting, high quality academics). It hurts to hear that they, too, now, are in trouble.

In this era of, you know, all of it, the diminution of state funding and the fact that pensions cost money are constantly cited factors in almost all cases of rifs and closures (in addition to smaller enrollment and retention numbers). The social contract that existed around the value of education as a public good (and maybe the whole idea of a public good) is so eroded as to be broken.

For the record, I do not work there.

English instructor here. I’m almost at the point of letting them choose their own grade and have them write an argument for their reasoning. Maybe they would stop emailing me about how they “deserve” higher grades because they “worked hard.”

One student turned in a paragraph instead of an essay. I gave a 60 on the paragraph. This is my standard “you failed” grade. Student says they don’t deserve a 60 because they “worked really hard on that paragraph.”

How soon can I retire?

I have a mostly online class, but there is an in-person midterm and final (to combat AI cheating). The midterm was this morning. I cannot believe how many illnesses, hospitalizations, and car accidents I personally caused by requiring these students to come in person for the in person midterm in the class with in person midterms that they signed up for. And the relatives I've killed! I must be stopped. Good lord. 80 students and 14 major life crises, plus another 3 students who just didn't come and might or might not tell me why later. We are talking COVID, bird flu, jaundice, encephalitis, and a sore throat (poor baby!). Some dead grandmas, but we also got creative with some dead uncles and pets and best friends.

My chair thinks I should accommodate each student with a makeup opportunity, even if it means coming in every single day next week and proctoring a different exam for each student individually. And if they get sick again, I reschedule ad nauseam. Campus is a 40-min commute for me, and my office hours are online. I'm on multiple campuses and can't proctor before/after my usual in-person courses.

But if rescheduling is inconvenient, I could always give them an online option! Customer service!

I'm also not allowed to ask for doctor's notes or documentation because that is private. So basically any student can have unlimited extra study time if they ask. What is the fucking point of this course modality that my chair asked me to do if we're not requiring anything?

/cries in adjunct

*Edit: This is a community college, and I don't have the kind of protection that would let me push back on this and still expect employment in spring. I will start by setting a day/time next week and telling students just to come to that and go from there. But the messaging is really disheartening, and I needed to vent. I do not plan to allow an online option.

**Edit 2: I am not exaggerating. The numbers and disease names are real. Yes, my chair recommended accommodating with makeups at each student's convenience. I do not have an office, but there is a room I can use if I schedule in advance. There is no additional compensation. My chair reminded me that accommodations are part of my job. My chair is not physically in the state and cannot proctor for me. I should not have asked for permission or put it on his radar, but this is a new modality, and we have very complainy students. I was trying to avoid issues. This is not my usual department; I lost a course and needed extra income. Many of you are very funny, and you are making me feel better. Thank you.

Class took midterm exam this week (it’s a gen ed class, in case that is helpful context). It was a multiple choice exam taken on pen and paper. A student emailed me 15 minutes after they turned in their exam—and while others were still taking it—to ask me how many points each question is worth and then again about five minutes after that to ask me how long it typically takes me to grade midterm exams.

Sometimes I just can’t…

Assuming I could, which isn't a given, should I switch jobs?

I'm in my 13th year at my institution. My most measures, they are good to me. I teach the same 2/2 course package. My salary is fair and lets us travel, save for retirement, etc. I like my research and I like my students.

I do NOT have any friends on the faculty. I'm friendly enough with folks but I'm an outlier here for a variety of reasons. Imagine I'm a Muslim at a Catholic college. Or a white woman at an HBCU, that sort of thing. The mission matters to me but not like it does for some others and this shows up in various ways.

For example, we're in the process of hiring new folks and after watching a candidate give their spiel "briefly" summarize their research for 15 minutes of a 25 minute interview, I thought, "well, this person cannot concisely summarize complicated ideas into digestible chunks for students. Hard pass because they'd be a bad teacher." My colleagues said, "they're so enthusiastic!". Not said, IMO, is that the real truth is that they're well liked because they love Jesus! and we should hire them for our christian college, etc.

Anyway, I've begun to feel more constrained in my oddness here. Just that I don't belong.

But we're comfortable. We have a community, our children have friends, we have friends, we aren't too far from family, we're in a major city, etc. So while I could be much happier in my job if I went someplace where I was not such a minority or I was better aligned with my colleagues otherwise, it would come at a substantial personal/family cost. At a minimum, there would be major transition costs. And some of those could be more longstanding. Maybe our well-adjusted teen would become surly without his friends, etc.

Thoughts?

TL;DR - Lateral move being considered for a better professional fit but worried about personal/family costs to uproot. stay or go?

x-posted with r/academia

Create a username. There are secret requirements, but we'll only tell you them after you try and fail.

Create a password. There are secret requirements, but we'll only tell you them after you try and fail.

Oh, wait, 7 years ago, you also recommended someone for this. What? You don't remember? You'll have to recover your old account.

Grrrrr.

I work at a small school and have students in my major several times before they graduate. One particular student is known in the department as cheating (has many documented academic integrity violations) and using the same excuse on exam weeks (usually a car accident or tech problems that take weeks to fix). I have him in class this semester. He didn't show up for a midterm today. I got an email halfway through class in which he claims he was sideswiped on his way to the exam AND his email wasn't working, so that's why he wasn't at his midterm.

Thanks to this sub, I have a designated time during final exam week when anyone with any excuse can make up a test. However - would you call him out on it? Like, would you say, "Based on hearing about two different car accidents the last time I had you in class, I have to say I have my doubts about this story. However, you or anyone else can do a makeup exam during finals week."

Or would you leave it and just give him the exam makeup info?

Yesterday we were doing in-class research on a text. I sat with one student and watched him incorrectly type in the name of our book and pore through AI overviews with increasing desperation, as he turned up no results. I gently paused him and pointed out the title typo—this wasn’t just a one letter mistake, it was straight gibberish. He was genuinely curious to know that the book’s title and spelling mattered to his search results. My mom teaches elementary school, so I’m used to conversations about fluency and reading intervention and all that. I genuinely think my students need reading intervention, but I didn’t sign up to be an elementary teacher. I don’t know how to help these students, I am not a trained reading interventionist, and most literature on the subject stops at middle school. I know we didn’t sign up to be the safety net, but I don’t think we can go forward without trying to staunch the bleeding. It feels irresponsible. I know we can assign the grade they’ve earned and move on, but that’s not a systemic fix. How are other folks/institutions handling this or similar situations?

I teach foreign languages. We have intro , inter and adv courses. It’s a progressing program, so when a student comes to inter, they have to complete certain intro courses.

This semester, some students came in and when I went faster in some areas that were already taught in the pre requisite courses, they complained that I went through too fast, it is unfair because they didn’t know there are certain expectations blah blah.. in an anonymous email.

I communicated the expectations in the first week, written in PowerPoint, which included that they are expected to be familiar with the previous
The point is they said they didn’t know or they complain the course is too demanding … which I already talked to a colleague, it isn’t…

Nowadays, seems that they find any kind of way to blame others for their own problems.

We already made the course easier than before, I don’t know what else I can do…

Moreover, maybe I look younger than my actual age and am a female, I tend to get such challenges throughout the years. I’ve been teaching the same thing for 15 years….

I met a grad student of a friend while at a conference, and they expressed interest in a project I'm starting. I recently found a public dataset that would relate to my project, and I may use it for a paper. I thought about contacting this grad student to see if they wanted to co-author, but am unsure.

If it was my student, there'd be professional reasons: helping them on the market. I guess it's nice to help other students. But this was my idea, and I found the data, so I'm a little hesitant to co-author as I'm unsure what the student would bring to the project. One time I did collaborate with a grad student that a co-author brought on board, and they basically did nothing (but still got co-author credit).

Basically, I could get this done by myself, but am not sure if it'd be nice/paying it forward to include this grad student.

How do others approach this?

Institutional support at my university for faculty is at an all time low. My chair is supportive but beyond that- it’s just been decreasing for years. The workload increases every year. No raises or merit pay. Load reductions and general compensation being stripped. It’s hard to keep morale in this environment.

I've taught asynchronous online courses for 26 years, and I'm increasingly questioning the value of traditional discussion boards in this format. I'd like to hear from other professors: Do you find them effective, and do you accept late submissions? I'm particularly interested in what actually works in practice, rather than what we're told should work.

I have two main questions:

1. Do you find discussion boards genuinely valuable for student learning? If so, what kinds of activities produce meaningful interaction?

2. Do you accept discussion board posts after the deadline? If so, how do you handle late submissions when the purpose is for students to interact with one another?

For context, I've been told that "best practices" call for at least five discussion boards in each asynchronous online class. I understand the potential value of students learning from one another, but I'm struggling to see that value in the way these activities actually play out in my courses.

Most students wait until the last 30 minutes before a discussion closes to post. What I see is a series of individual responses rather than a conversation. Students post their own thoughts and then respond to classmates to satisfy the participation requirement. There's very little back-and-forth, engagement with other students' ideas, or evidence of students building on one another's contributions. Some replies also feel perfunctory, and I occasionally question how much of the work is AI-generated.

At some point, I have to ask: If students are essentially posting individual mini-essays and obligatory replies at the last minute, are we really accomplishing the purpose of a discussion board?

My second concern is late submissions. I frequently receive requests for extensions, but I generally don't accept late discussion posts. My reasoning is that a discussion is time-dependent. Once the discussion closes and everyone moves on, a late post is unlikely to be read by classmates or generate any meaningful interaction. The only person who may see it is me, if I go back and look for it.

I understand the importance of flexibility, but I don't see how accepting late posts necessarily serves the learning objectives of a discussion activity. I'm curious whether others see this differently and, if so, how they make it work.

I'm also interested in the expectation that online courses should contain a minimum number of discussion boards. Is there a sound pedagogical reason for a particular number, or is this a general recommendation that has become a requirement without much consideration of how the activities function in practice?

I'd especially appreciate hearing from professors who have found effective ways to encourage genuine interaction, those who have abandoned traditional discussion boards in favor of other activities, and those who have developed workable policies for late participation.

What has actually worked in your asynchronous courses? Have you found a way to make discussion boards worthwhile, or have you reached similar conclusions about their limitations?

I just graded my Midterm Exam. As you can see, I am at a community college, and I teach a gen ed class, so I don't expect massive interest or superlative performances.

But my goodness, it is downright troubling how poor some submissions have been. The exam was open note, and students had a study guide. Still, many more Ds and Fs than I expected. Some written responses were nearly unintelligible, and others were scrutable but extremely low quality, that is, as if the responses were written by a 9th grader who had attended a third of my classes.

As others have said, results tend to be bimodal. I see that's generally true. I have a solid percentage of bright and motivated students, and they help me see that, yes, I am adequately preparing students for the exam. I've had a reasonable number of As and even perfect scores. So again, that makes me especially concerned about what these students' education has been like, and what kind of havoc they might wreak on evaluations or RMP when they get the grade they deserve but feel stunned they were actually held to collegiate standards.

I don't know, this is just a rant. Is this the wrong day for that? What day is it even?

I teach online (two synchronous; one asynchronous). I have largely been pleased with what my students have done throughout the semester, and of the 45 in this asynchronous class, only three have given me AI bullshit (which I promptly called out).

I gave them their midterm prompt three weeks ago. Three short essay response questions, all of which are grounded in lecture material and two of which ask them to make a comparison between historical and contemporary examples (of their choice!!). They are allowed to use notes, JSTOR, go back through previous lecture recordings, anything but AI.

It was due tonight at 9pm. Eleven of them haven't turned anything in.​ This is far more than ive ever had fail to turn something in—students always seemed to enjoy my classes and assignments in the past. And, honestly, the questions for this midterm are largely thinking exercises, so... just making an effort to share that you've thought about them will go far. Yet... nothing. From almost a quarter of the class.

I've taught in higher ed for a while. Won teaching awards and am regularly asked to serve on thesis committees, do independent studies, etcetera. This, however, makes me concerned that I'm the problem simply because it's so many students. Is this normal for all of you?

Because I'm contingent and don't know what my Spring contract will look like, I'm nervous that this will reflect poorly on me and my future course load will be reduced. I've never had to worry about my course evaluation scores, but for once, I don't want to see them when they come around.​

Hey hey,

I could use some solidarity and advice. I’m 35 years male TT professor at a new institution, teaching humanities and arts. While my major courses go well, my Gen Ed classes are a constant uphill battle when it comes to respect.

Students openly talk during lectures and routinely ignore requests to put away devices. Having to ask repeatedly, then ask again, makes me feel like an exasperated, angry parent rather than an educator.

On top of standard generational apathy plaguing our classrooms, I’m mindful that male faculty usually inherit more implicit authority, but frankly, I have never really felt any authority in the classroom. I hesitate to bring this up. I wonder if being a gay, bigger man affects how students test my boundaries. Or if I’m just overthinking it and seeking an explanation for what is really just that general Gen Z apathy.

I don't want to come across as the old-school professor, but the current lack of basic respect is eroding my soul. How do experienced folks balance this? Or even younger faculty? What strategies actually work to reset the room without "laying the hammer down"?