If the prof sets the settings the other way, s/he will have hundreds of students a week crying because they don’t understand that their current grade on BB is not accurate. It will be far worse to toggle the settings to the other option, and many more students would complain. I think the suggestion to approach the Dean about the settings is meant well, but it doesn’t reflect an understanding of how LMS gradebooks work. I would really not suggest she take this up with the Dean. It may make her look very bad. Talk to the prof, maybe, but don’t go over the prof’s head for something like this, esp. if she can’t remember if she did the assignment. You have to realize that the grade book feature in an LMS (like BB or Canvas) is sort of like an ATM. If you write twenty checks a week, and most are under $50, but a couple of times a month you write a check for $1000, would you ever just trust the ATM balance to accurately reflect how much money you have to spend? No. Because you would know there are checks that you wrote that haven’t been presented to the bank yet, and you can’t tell just by going to the ATM which ones those are. You have to go home and balance your actual checkbook for that. Similarly, all students should be keeping track of all their assignment grades and figuring their grade out based on the percentages posted in the syllabus. Don’t ever just trust the running total of the LMS grade book. There are several reasons it could be off. A prof could have an assignment muted, they could have not filled in zeros because they are trying to give students a chance to turn in the assignment late, they might not have gotten to an important assignment yet. They may have to manually factor in extra credit, which isn’t done easily in the LMS grade book. I hope this helps. Maybe I should start a thread explaining modern grading systems and their various pitfalls! But I’ve done enough procrastinating for today and need to get my own grades in!
I’m confused. What exactly do you think should have happened in October after the first assignment was missed? This young lady is a college student, and SHE is supposed to keep track of her assignments.
Maybe in high school, the teachers would remind a student of a missing assignment, but that seldom is the case in college.
I’m sorry this happened…but really one B for one semester really isn’t going to make a difference one way or another…even for a premed student. It just isn’t.
Also, lots of assignments does not equate to busywork. Sorry, but there are some really major assumptions on this thread that seem to be leaning toward some default assumption that all profs are jerks. The proliferation of small graded assignments is mostly a response to the wider culture which wants to reward effort not results. Profs spent years voicing opposition and finally got beaten down. Don’t blame us!
How big is the school? What is the student population like? I don’t have personal experience, but have noticed that at smaller LAC type schools, profs seem more understanding. Ditto at big schools in which the population is diverse, with more older students and working students. I’m sorry this happened to your D.
@ccprofandmomof2 not blaming profs at all! I know profs don’t want to grade all of that.
I think I’m just confused because I didn’t think there were any schools that didn’t use Blackboard or a similar system. My kids have known to check the LMS for missing assignments and follow up since they were in the third grade. I guess that it’s not the case, though.
I assume the Dean might nod politely at a discussion of dashes versus zeros. I think the student would come across as snow flakey in that conversation.
@SeattleMom1 I can empathize with your frustration over the professor’s lax grading habits, as it does sound likely that your daughter would not have missed a second assignment after seeing the first 0. But, like others have said, some profs are good, others not so much, and there’s nothing much you can do about it. One of our son’s is going into a final having gotten NO written assignments for the entire semester back in that class. So, he never had the benefit of feedback to make any assignments better. It would be great if there were no professors like this, but there are. Regardless of the outcome, your daughter will learn from this experience, know she doesn’t want to be like that, and it will help her be a better person and doctor. This is a tiny pebble in the road. She sounds great!
It is good preparation for med school. Some high schools provide this level of accountability to prepare for college, but many do not, and online grading systems can be problematic. She now knows.
@thumper1 I want a missed assignment entered as a zero so that you see you missed an assignment. At that point, you either say - wow, I did the assignment and something happened wrong technically…better trouble shoot this and make sure this doesn’t happen again. Or you say, wow, I totally missed this assignment - better not let that happen again which it would NOT have. Or, have the teacher include a line in the syllabus that says - hey, freshman, Blackboard doesn’t record missed assignments as zeros so…you do the math. We don’t expect verbal reminders - thus the syllabi on her wall. She won’t be making this mistake again and her lesson is learned the hard way.
@Lizardly The school is about 13,000 undergraduate students plus a graduate program so not a LAC. Its an expensive private university but thanks to my daughter’s diligence in high school she got an Honors Scholarship that makes the tuition doable.
@CCtoAlaska We have never used Blackboard before.
@CheddarcheeseMN Hah! Probably so!
@havenoidea Thanks - I know she will accomplish her career goals and I hope your son finishes off the semester strong.
@SeattleMom1 the LMS’s are often pretty similar, though. My kids have been through 2 or 3 different platforms.
@CCtoAlaska What is LMS? We had Schoology in high school.
This is such a great lesson for an aspiring doctor.
Details matter. Having your family around for family weekend is so wonderful but you still need to turn in your work. Juggling your EC’s is terrific, but you still need to turn in your work.
Do you want to be treated by a doctor who can’t handle and balance life plus a patient load? No you don’t.
Your D is lucky- this is a low stakes error which can teach her a huge lesson! Check and recheck. Assume nothing.
Learning management system, e.g. Blackboard. My school uses Canvas, but I’m familiar with Blackboard, and as noted, they are all very similar.
I am sympathetic, but a student does not need a 0 to know they didn’t submit. Blackboard gives affirmative feedback when an assignment is submitted, and it is listed as submitted. She can’t think she submitted things that she didn’t actually do. That’s sort of magical thinking. And that’s especially clear that you say it was two weekends when she had other things going on. And again, it is not remiss of a professor not to put 0’s in. It would never occur to me that I was obligated to make it clear to students that they didn’t do the work, which I’d assume they know or should know they didn’t do.
I feel bad for her, but this sounds like wishful thinking and remorse. I get it; as a parent I’ve lived with it. But it really doesn’t sound like something the professor did to her, and framing it that way makes it more probable to not take ownership and learn.
@garland It’s very uncharacteristic of her to miss one…never mind two. In fact, I can honestly say that she has NEVER missed an assignment. She is the kind of student that did the extra credit work in high school even if she had an A in the class because you just never know. She was the one senior in her class that did the extra work so a class was given an Honors designation while her friends felt it “didn’t matter - college decisions were made.” Yes, she will be doing things differently moving forward.
The dashes can be seen as Incompletes. The dash is a holding symbol, prior to the zero. Not some confusing replacement for zero. Not a teacher delaying reviewing a turned in piece of work.
I’d rather see a dash and check my records, clarify what’s incomplete, than deal with a zero.
@lookingforward My daughter said her bio prof said the dash is a zero. There is no grace period - they were due when they were due. She did not have until the end of the semester to complete the dashes.
It is very hard to finish college without ever missing an assignment. The flow of work is just too intense, and perfectionists either burn out quickly, or learn to dial it back. Sometimes you’re in triage mode, just trying to keep your head above water so something’s got to give.
Really…like i said…one B grade in one semester of biology is not going to make or break this kid’s future.
Honestly, she shouldn’t be worried about ONE grade of B.
I’m not worried in the grand scheme of things. She is applying for a research lab next semester and some research opportunities in the summer so her biology grade says a lot to others. When they don’t know her, all they can go off of is her grades. If both kids are equal with their EC’s and LOR’s, the grades are the tipping point.