So basically my professor does not teach me anything. Not a single thing.
In my class, the only thing we have to do is write an essay each week in a discussion board. That’s it. He just asks a question and that’s all. There is no teaching involved. The professor does not provide us with powerpoints or even an article to read. I am not being taught a single thing. Most of you might be ok with just writing the discussion post every week, but I’m not. I’m paying a lot of money to be taught and I’m literally just not learning anything. I get that remote learning can be difficult to manage but it’s unacceptable. If I have to put effort into my classes then so do they.
My question is basically if I have valid grounds to report them…
I think you could rise this issue. Here is advice I saw elsewhere.
“If you have any concerns about the teaching ability of a professor, either contact the department chair or go to the student rights/ombudsman office. It is preferable to go to the chair first.
Make an appointment with a brief description of what you want to discuss (“I have concerns about Professor X’s classroom management and teaching”). Bring documentation of your concerns. Do not be belligerent. Answer any questions the chair will ask. Be ready to write and sign an official statement. Key phrases to emphasize: “I’m not receiving the contact hours I paid for” and “This is just like a correspondence course, because you almost never see the teacher and only interact when you submit an assignment.” That second phrase should wake up any chair who has been paying attention to recent developments in higher education.”
Be prepared to back up your claims with evidence. Keep emails and assignments together, also get with feedback. Record a session so that you can provide video evidence if needed. Good luck.
Not nearly enough info to offer advice here. What sort of course, from where, what year are you, is this part of a college program or one independent class? Was there no course description when you signed up? Etc.
Here’s a thought - what about talking to the professor first? Why are we so quick to escalate things today when sometimes a simply conversation will help.
As a college professor, I can tell you that there is an order to complaints if you feel that complaining is necessary.
First, you MUST go talk / talk virtually to the professor. You wont be taken seriously by those you complain to if you dont take this step first. Ask why the course is set up as such and why his/her assignments are the way they are. Most faculty care and have reasons behind their methods. If he/she clearly does not care or have any answers to this, then you may move up the chain of command. Check your syllabus which frequently has the person to contact if you have an issue that cannot be resolved. if it is not there, either ask your professor directly (we do give out this info) or call the department administrative office and ask. Be sure to always be polite.
And remember, that not every professor is a “match” for every student. Yes, some are truly bad, but that is fairly rare, sometimes it is just a matter of what you find helpful versus what another student finds helpful. There are plenty of places online to read about professors before registering for classes, definitely use those to help guide your picks.
Good luck!
The professor is required to teach, however, learning is entirely up to you.
While many professors still have not gotten the hang of online teaching, you need to make sure that you aren’t missing anything. In my decades of teaching, I have learned that students rarely take the time and effort to read the syllabus. So, before you decide to complain, you first need to make sure that you are not missing anything. There may be a list of articles to read, which you have missed. There may be a schedule of discussions which you have missed, there may be Zoom sessions which you have missed.
Many a student has complained about class because of an issue which arose because the student had not actually read the syllabus and/or was not regularly checking the class Canvas site.
I agree…look at the syllabus. Do you have reading you are supposed to do before the essay question? Are there any zoom meeting you are not going to?
Look at see what your grades are. Are you only being graded on your essays? Are you supposed to respond to others entries? Are you doing well? (if you are doing well that may indicate that you are correct in your assessment that these are the only assignments…if you are doing poorly then you may be missing some).
If you find that there is nothing that you are supposed to read or no lectures, Find out the professor’s office hours for this class. Talk to them and ask: “I have checked the syllabus and I want to make sure I am understanding the requirements for this course. It seems to indicate that are only expected assignments are to write an essay weekly in the discussion board. There are no assigned readings. Is this the case?”
If in fact this is the case, then ask for a meeting with the Department Chair. Tell them that in Professor X’s MTW Basketweaving class, that the only assignments are weekly posts on to the discussion board. You talked to Professor X and confirmed this. That there are no lectures nor readings. Tell them that you don’t feel that you are being taught anything and are wondering if this is meeting the minimum standards for contact hours as needed by accreditation.
To me this sounds like a different teaching style, but still a valid one.
When people are working for a living, no one “teaches” us anything. However, we still need to learn. Sometimes we have to “learn” stuff that no one understands in advance. Problems come up. Sometimes a group of knowledgeable people have to get together and talk about it and think about it for a while even to figure out what the problem is, never mind the solution. Then we have to go off and hope that someone comes up with a workable solution.
“I’m paying a lot of money to be taught”
I think that you are paying a lot of money to be in an environment where you can learn. That is not quite the same thing.
I do not think that we have complete information, but I am not sure that there is anything wrong here at all.
Sometimes it is a teaching style, and sometimes it is a dysfunctional teacher/situation.
I remember my DD had a Adjunct Spanish Prof who would take weeks to grade assignments/etc. How can you know how you are doing unless you get feedback? She talked to the prof and then talked to the Dept head and then the prof started grading in a timely fashion.
I also remember when my other DD was taking IB German Ab Initio…the beginners and intermediates were put in with one teacher. My DD was given a worksheet to do and it would take her about 5 min to do. Then she would sit around while the teacher taught the intermediates. She would ask for more work, and was told to “read these German magazines”…except she couldn’t read German. So when my HS student was complaining that they weren’t being taught or didn’t have any work to do, I talked to the Principal and a second teacher was added. THe teacher did get mad because i didn’t talk to her…but I felt that my daughter had already asked and she was set up in a no-win situation that she couldn’t solve.
The federal govt/accreditation bodies have requirements on college courses…they need to have a minimum number of contact hours, they can’t be correspondence type courses. So the suggestions in my previous post help the OP get to whether or not they understand all of what might be going on.