All of my classes for next semester have, by the standards of PermaU, relatively long wait lists. Depending on whom I talk to, this indicates one of the following:
1. I am a good teacher, so students want to take my class.
or
2. I am too easy, so students want to take my class.
My teaching evaluations point to the former, but some of my more vocal colleagues insist that long wait lists are only because students want easy As.
So perhaps I am too easy or maybe a combo of #1 and #2. Is it common knowledge that long wait lists directly correlate with the ease of the course?
5 comments:
some of my more vocal colleagues insist that long wait lists are only because students want easy As.
Envious douchebags should go fuck tyhemsleves!
I don't have an answer to your question but could it also be that some of your classes are requirements for the major or for other classes?
I was just going to ask if your classes were required for a major. The only classes I were ever willing to sit in a waiting list for were the required ones for one of my majors or minors!
There is an easy way to answer the question: Prepare a graph of your grade distribution (including withdrawals and/or drops depending on how your system works) and compare with what other profs produce for the same class. Or post it here (or just your "ABC", "DF", "W or drop" percentages) and we will tell you.
[If you don't have access to the student info system for other classes, ask you chair to provide "blinded" data on the other sections of your course.]
However, there will still be one unknown factor, which is that good teachers produce more engaged students who do better overall. I have seen many instances of that.
PP: Word.
Jennie and EtBr, yes, it is intro chem, which is required for chem, bio, and of course, all pre-meds. There are wait lists.
Doctor Pion: My DF/drop rate is admittedly a little low, at 15%. (ranges for previous semesters have been between 10% to 35% for this class, but I haven't gotten final grades for the other sections yet for this year) Now I do know that my classes were filled with more top freshman (due to scheduling of calc II, physics, etc.) than the other comparable sections. I know that next semester the DF/drop rate will increase dramatically. Oh, the overall class average was a C+ to B -. (2.5 to 2.67 GPA)
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