so many of my 100 and 200 level STEM classes were like this in no small part due to the instructors not wanting to teach. they were being forced to teach as part of their employment contract but their main work was research
i resented them for turning their lack of ability to get a position that didn’t require teaching into my problem because they refused to give the slightest effort towards actually explaining the material
doing problems from the textbook on the overhead projector with near-zero explanation is dogshit teaching
My girlfriend showed me recently that one of her profs made an AI clone of himself (voice and visual) and distributed prerecorded lessons that way. Who knows if he’s even writing the script for it. Probably not.
Did the professor willingly do this? Around/after COVID a lot of universities were forcibly claiming the lectures recorded by teachers in previous semesters as their own IP so they could lay them off. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s yet another cost cutting measure.
i had multiple professors like that 1 was animal physio, the PROFESSORS was actually doing research/lab during the whole semester so he was barely in class, and had the TA who had her own MS degree research to do, when the final came about, everyone was like wtf he dint mention any of this in the whole course, like actually chemical/energy equations that he never discussed in class.
That was the most jarring thing for me transitioning from a community/junior college to a private university. Pretty much every teacher I had in CC was there because they loved to teach, but didn’t want to teach children. In University it felt like everyone was teaching because they had bills to pay and had no concept of a world outside of school.
that was my CC too, unfortunately they taught like everyone should be ivy league level courses, too many people failed out and repeated the course, for stem, i suspect this was part of the scheme to keep students forever studenTs in the CC. AND THIER were quite a few that stayed there 5-10year+ with no direction in thier goals.
I went to fairly small private college for Music, and all my music professors were really great, every one. Even the couple that were considered the worst were decent teachers, it’s just that some were amazing, and made everyone else look mediocre.
Once you got out of the Conservatory, and started experiencing other subjects, the quality was variable. I had some excellent profs, but also some fairly bad ones. The worst were the adjunct teachers who were only doing it for a side hustle, they generally weren’t too invested.
I’ve had similar experiences. I went to a university and not a conservatory, but my music teachers were consistently excellent; from my very first elementary school band teacher all the way through college.
By contrast, I’ve never had a good math teacher. Ever.
I’ve never been good at math, but it wasn’t the teachers. I wouldn’t know a good math teacher from a bad one. I didn’t know that good ones were so rare.
I went to a very small public university campus that a few years before was associated with a massive state university. They were still mostly independent but we’re getting all sorts of pressure to conform to the larger universities policies on research etc. At my school the professors all taught and did little to no research.
As part of their ongoing arguments they had all juniors/seniors in both schools take a standardize tests at the end of their core degree courses for a year. My tiny university averaged 90th percentile. The large university averaged 30th percentile. The difference having highly qualified dedicated teachers.
Even for the classes with excellent profs, sometimes I’d have to do the thing above.
If I had midterms or an important project in one class, I might have to skip the prereading / review for another class. After that, I’d get to class and not understand much of it. Then I’d catch up the best I could during weekends, reading breaks, or just during finals season.
so many of my 100 and 200 level STEM classes were like this in no small part due to the instructors not wanting to teach. they were being forced to teach as part of their employment contract but their main work was research
i resented them for turning their lack of ability to get a position that didn’t require teaching into my problem because they refused to give the slightest effort towards actually explaining the material
doing problems from the textbook on the overhead projector with near-zero explanation is dogshit teaching
At least yours were taught by actual faculty?
A lot of my 100 and 200 level classes were taught by grad students who were interning as teachers in exchange for free/discounted tuition.
or adjunt professors who would rather do research, which is about the same thing tenures do anyways.
At least yours were taught by actual people.
My girlfriend showed me recently that one of her profs made an AI clone of himself (voice and visual) and distributed prerecorded lessons that way. Who knows if he’s even writing the script for it. Probably not.
probably used AI to write his own script, lol. i can see pretty much why alot of reviews online about university, said they dint learn anything.
every time i think I’ve encountered peak “worst timeline” some new shit tops it by a mile
Did the professor willingly do this? Around/after COVID a lot of universities were forcibly claiming the lectures recorded by teachers in previous semesters as their own IP so they could lay them off. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s yet another cost cutting measure.
During covid when I was recording lectures I tried to make them fun and silly and it would take me like 3-4 hours to record and edit. The art is gone.
Looks like academics should be unionizing.
i had multiple professors like that 1 was animal physio, the PROFESSORS was actually doing research/lab during the whole semester so he was barely in class, and had the TA who had her own MS degree research to do, when the final came about, everyone was like wtf he dint mention any of this in the whole course, like actually chemical/energy equations that he never discussed in class.
That was the most jarring thing for me transitioning from a community/junior college to a private university. Pretty much every teacher I had in CC was there because they loved to teach, but didn’t want to teach children. In University it felt like everyone was teaching because they had bills to pay and had no concept of a world outside of school.
that was my CC too, unfortunately they taught like everyone should be ivy league level courses, too many people failed out and repeated the course, for stem, i suspect this was part of the scheme to keep students forever studenTs in the CC. AND THIER were quite a few that stayed there 5-10year+ with no direction in thier goals.
I went to fairly small private college for Music, and all my music professors were really great, every one. Even the couple that were considered the worst were decent teachers, it’s just that some were amazing, and made everyone else look mediocre.
Once you got out of the Conservatory, and started experiencing other subjects, the quality was variable. I had some excellent profs, but also some fairly bad ones. The worst were the adjunct teachers who were only doing it for a side hustle, they generally weren’t too invested.
I’ve had similar experiences. I went to a university and not a conservatory, but my music teachers were consistently excellent; from my very first elementary school band teacher all the way through college.
By contrast, I’ve never had a good math teacher. Ever.
I’ve never been good at math, but it wasn’t the teachers. I wouldn’t know a good math teacher from a bad one. I didn’t know that good ones were so rare.
I went to a very small public university campus that a few years before was associated with a massive state university. They were still mostly independent but we’re getting all sorts of pressure to conform to the larger universities policies on research etc. At my school the professors all taught and did little to no research.
As part of their ongoing arguments they had all juniors/seniors in both schools take a standardize tests at the end of their core degree courses for a year. My tiny university averaged 90th percentile. The large university averaged 30th percentile. The difference having highly qualified dedicated teachers.
Even for the classes with excellent profs, sometimes I’d have to do the thing above.
If I had midterms or an important project in one class, I might have to skip the prereading / review for another class. After that, I’d get to class and not understand much of it. Then I’d catch up the best I could during weekends, reading breaks, or just during finals season.
And that’s how universities work, because who cares if it’s all just a giant farce, right? Gotta have the paper that says your smart.