Virtual Classroom FAQs

In this post, I outline some important FAQs about how we plan to finish the rest of this quarter in a virtual classroom. Please take a look at the questions below. If you don’t see and answer to your question, feel free to leave a comment on this page. For more about how to comment, how to like a comment, and how to flag a comment, please see the YouTube video below:

+ How should we contact Jeff?

This website is designed to be a repository for questions and comments between you (student) and me (teacher). I also hope the comments section will provide you a forum to answer each other's questions.

If you have a general course logistics question, please post a comment below.

If you have a more specific question about your individual circumstances that you'd like to keep private, please feel free to email me that question. Please do your best to use email sparringly. I have a ton of work to do right now and email is a necessarily low priority. With that said, I will do my best to respond to emails.

+What will we do about in-class meeting times?

I plan to host a zoom meeting starting at 10am during our regularly scheduled in-class meeting times on both Monday 3/16/2020 and Wednesday 3/28/2020. During those meetings, you can ask me questions and engage with me synchronously using Zoom.

I will send out more details about those meetings as soon as I figure out how that will work.

+ How will the final exam work?

I (Jeff) will send out a pdf copy of your final exam on Monday 3/16/2020 by 2pm. I ask you to finish your first draft of your final exam by Wednesday 3/18/2020 at 1pm.

The first page of this exam will be an integrity pledge in which you proclaim that the work you submit represents your own knowledge and mastery of the material. Remember: the point of this class is to learn the content so that you can apply it later in your life. I also plan to give you a chance to correct any mistakes you make and get me to regrade your exam a second time. My hope is that this grading structure is fair and gives you the incentive to honestly engage with the content for yourself.

I will do my best to write an exam that is fair and doable. I will attempt to limit the number of questions so that a student that has studied hard and is well prepared will be able to finish the entire exam in two hours.

I will also ask you to spend no more than 4 hours on your exam. Of course, you are welcome to spend more time. But, I also want to limit the exam's impact on your performance in your other classes.

+What about Lab 5?

Sadly, I don't think I have the bandwidth to grade lab 5 this quarter. I spent over 20 hours this week trying to support our campus and my classes as we transition to a virtual format.

Because this was all unplanned, I put off the work I had planned to finish this week. I have a ton of grading to catch up on and work to do to get ready for finals.

With this in mind, I am making lab 5 optional and nongraded. For those of you that want to learn this material for your future, please take that lab assignment seriously. You are welcome to finish this lab and use my online resources to help.

However, I will not be grading lab 5 this quarter. I am so sorry for this change in plans... This decision is a direct result from the issues that have arisen from the corona virus.

+How can we get our graded work back?

I'm not sure at this moment. I'd like to be able to put all your graded work outside my office door inside folders with your class number on them. However, the FHDA district has come out with much more clear guidelines that seem to want to minimize student visits to campus. I will ask my dean about this and report back to the class as soon as I hear an answer.