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TLDR: I am attenting a seminar where the grade is based entirely on a talk I hold. The responsible lecturer fell asleep during the talk multiple times, and I am worried about my grade, feel insulted and am unsure how to communicate these issues.

For a seminar, I was required to hold a 45 minute-talk about current department research in front of the course. The corresponding researcher attends this talk as well.

Together with the lecturer (the instructor for this seminar), they grade my talk, which amounts for the entire seminar grade. The researcher can make comments about how accurate the presentation was, but the ultimate choice of grading is with the lecturer.

During my talk (actually not too far in), the lecturer fell asleep for a bit for the first time, for only a brief period. Now this happened on multiple occasions during my presentation, and it has happened during someone elses' past talk on an earlier date as well.

I find this highly insulting, since I have spent a lot of time reading up on the topic and practicing to hold the talk.

Since the lecturer did not hear or see my entire talk, I am worried that grading may be affected in addition.

The lecturer is notoriously busy (which I assume to be quite common) and stressed, but both issues should not affect me or my grade in my opinion. Also, he may have had stress-related health problems in the past, which could be a reason for him to pass on caffeine consumption. I see that this may be a reason for his tiredness, but again I cannot possibly account for it and I should not be graded differently because of it.

I want to communicate the following two issues, how can I approach this situation?

  1. I feel insulted by the lecturer falling asleep through my graded talk

  2. I am worried about him falling asleep could influence my grade

On a side note, I really like the lecturer otherwise, but I am afraid that making a comment like "please reconsider your sleep schedule" whould be considered highly inappropriate (and rightly so). Recommendations on this matter will be appreciated as well.

Update: Grades are out as of today, and I am not satisfied with the grade. I don't have any pointers on what I could have done better or how to improve future talks. I will probably not pursue this any further.

I don't know if I wrote this in a comment already, but in another seminar I attended, a similar thing occured for another student.

Jonas Schwarz
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    This extended discussion has been moved to chat. Please read this FAQ before posting another comment. – Massimo Ortolano Nov 12 '19 at 19:19
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    Not sure if this applies here, but in some countries, like Japan, closing eyes during someone’s talk is actually a sign of deep concentration on the talk/sound. – Tofig Hasanov Nov 14 '19 at 11:14
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    Let me say that I am sorry and this is a shame (the prof and the outcome). – user111388 May 05 '20 at 18:18
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    This is probably too late for you, but if someone else finds themselves in this situation: in a personal talk ideally before the feedback/grading you could carefully try to touch the topic by something like: "You seemed a bit tired during the presentation, do you want me to summarize the key points for you?" If yes in writing or oral? What is their reaction? Maybe another take? This takes away the focus from them falling asleep, avoids them feeling attacked, and at the same time gets them into a problem solving state of mind: how can I obtain enough information to grade you properly. – Felix B. May 06 '20 at 13:11

11 Answers11

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The first thing to note here is that sleeping in such situations is often not a voluntary action, but a physiologically unavoidable response to the situation the body is in - many people die every year after falling asleep at the wheel of a car. I don't think you'd describe the results of that on other people in the car as "rude". In general, if you are in this state of involuntary somnulence, then no amount of caffeine will change anything.

You do not know the circumstances in which this lecturer is in: casual lecturers or adjuncts may be working several other jobs, or may have insufficient income to afford rent and therefore a proper place to sleep. Permanent folks may have so much work that they literally don't have time to sleep and complete everything they are required to do. Or they might have a young child or as you say, mental health problems. My point is these things may not be voluntary choices for the person concerned.

If i had a dollar for every student that fell asleep in a lecture that I had spent days preparing...

But....

None of this is your problem. You deserve not just to get the correct mark for your work, but also the feedback that will help you improve - after all, you are there to learn, not to get grades. As others have said, wait and see what the feedback is (and really you want proper feedback, not just a grade). If it's fine, then I'd wait and see, but even if it is - if this becomes a pattern then it might be in everyone's interest, including the faculty member's (depending on how understanding the Chair is), for people to know what is going on.

Sasha
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Ian Sudbery
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    Professors are supposed to be role models in academia. If you're insulted by students falling asleep in your lectures, which has no professional consequences for you, then how can you say the OP shouldn't be insulted in the reverse situation, which could have far greater consequences for them? – knzhou Nov 11 '19 at 18:45
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    It was a light-hearted (probably ill-advised comment). I'm not insulted students falling asleep. Disappointed perhaps, but not insulted. And I absolutely agree the student needs to not be disadvantaged by the professor's behavoir. But I'm sure taking it as an insult, when no one would "choose" to fall asleep on the job is the a productive approach. We wouldn't be insulted if someone broken their leg. – Ian Sudbery Nov 11 '19 at 22:08
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    I don't like the example of falling asleep whilst driving - the proper response to being too tired to drive should be not to drive in order to avoid putting others in danger IMO. – Jonas Schwarz Nov 12 '19 at 06:36
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    I can’t believe what I’m reading here. Of course once someone is so tired that they can’t help fall asleep it’s not a voluntary thing. However, getting in that state in the first place when you still have responsibilities is entirely their own fault. Everyone is busy sometimes. Quite frankly I’m flabbergasted you wouldn’t consider someone falling asleep behind the wheel ‘rude’. Rude is the least word I’d start to describe them with. How many other people have died because someone crashed into them after falling asleep? – Sebastiaan van den Broek Nov 12 '19 at 06:44
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    @SebastiaanvandenBroek sometimes you can't choose to be perfectly awake, nor to get time off. While my father was dying from cancer, for a month, I almost couldn't sleep and all my weekends were spent with him with almost no sleep. Of course I was dead tired, even falling sleep sometimes, at work. After some weeks I managed to get paid leave by visiting a doctor, but it was by no means immediate. In the weeks waiting for that leave, I had no choice but to continue going to work and having my coworkers cover for my mistakes. If I was a lecturer, that wouldn't have been possible. – LordHieros Nov 12 '19 at 08:10
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    @SebastiaanvandenBroek of course, if this happens every two weeks for a couple years, then something needs to be done. But saying that getting in a state where you can involuntarily fall asleep while having responsibilities is entirely your own fault is quite an excessive absolute statement. Everyone has their circumstances, and there can be exceptional moments when you have no choice but to put up with difficult circumstances while going on with your life as if nothing was happening. – LordHieros Nov 12 '19 at 08:14
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    @LordHieros but if you would have killed someone on the road because you fell asleep at the time, would you have not considered that a fault of your own? – Sebastiaan van den Broek Nov 12 '19 at 08:17
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    @SebastiaanvandenBroek for that duration I only used public transportation or had someone else drive for me. Among other changes to my routine to minimize the chances of thing going awry for that time, like dropping out of every appointment that wasn't needed for me to eat and pay rent or getting pre-made food to minimize the time spent cooking or doing dishes. Still, I fell asleep at work many times. – LordHieros Nov 12 '19 at 08:20
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    "If i had a dollar for every student that fell asleep in a lecture that I had spent days preparing..." You do -- it's called a salary. ;-) – David Richerby Nov 12 '19 at 08:47
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    @DavidRicherby, I don't get paid that much! ;) – Ian Sudbery Nov 12 '19 at 10:12
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    @SebastiaanvandenBroek - There are many words you could use: irresponsible, negligent, dangerous, criminal, but not "rude". "irresponsible"/"negligent" isn't just a worst version of the same thing as "rude", its a quantitatively different thing. – Ian Sudbery Nov 12 '19 at 10:17
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    @SebastiaanvandenBroek "getting in that state in the first place when you still have responsibilities is entirely their own fault". Not neccesarily. I've just finished a month when I've had to work 8am to 1am to keep on top of all the classes I'm supposed to be teaching. Plus fighting to keep a phd student funded so they arn't deported, get two master's students started on their dissertation research and get the departments semester 1 exams organised. None of these things are things I had a choice over. If i'd been requierd to keep awake for a whole class of 45min talks, I'd have struggled. – Ian Sudbery Nov 12 '19 at 10:23
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    @SebastiaanvandenBroek Likewise, we cannot believe your comment. My first child was a colicky, screaming baby refused to sleep until it was involuntarily, but that keeps me up too. When she finally slept, I did not have the luxury of deciding to skip work and sleep too; I had to support my family, so I had to go to work, and in fact I worked 2 minimum wage jobs to support my family. I also had to take care of a grandmother. I also attended college during this same time. Lots of responsibilities, but sometimes I could not stay awake precisely because of them. Was this entirely my own fault? – Aaron Nov 12 '19 at 17:31
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    I think that the main issue here is the double standard. I think most of us are on the same page that falling asleep is not a choice someone makes, but a biological response to a severe lack of sleep. However, most of us remember being lectured about being awake and lively as students, and find it unfair that the professor now gets a pass. In a perfect world, no one would be criticized for falling asleep when they need to. Sleep is not optional. – ribs2spare Nov 12 '19 at 17:42
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    "You do not deserve not just to get the correct mark for your work, but also the feedback that will help you improve": could you fix the double negative there please? I can't really parse that. – terdon Nov 12 '19 at 18:50
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    I'm quite aware that many of my students have difficult lives, and that some of them have to work night shifts to afford to study, so I would never have a go at them for being tired (however much I might joke about it with other staff in the pub afterwards) – Ian Sudbery Nov 12 '19 at 20:47
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    +1. Let me add that many lecture halls in universities have some properties (lack of natural light, bad air) that make it much harder to resist sleep (which already is not a very widespread skill in academia). – darij grinberg Nov 12 '19 at 21:49
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    @LordHieros but at least you took public transport while the op explicitly came with the example of falling asleep behind the wheel. – Sebastiaan van den Broek Nov 14 '19 at 04:02
  • @IanSudbery I know rude is not just a smaller step of the other words you mentioned, but for the sake of keeping the comment short they were close enough. As far as it not being your fault you were tired, it seems your entire faculty was at fault there. But surely you wouldn’t drive in such a state if you were responsible. – Sebastiaan van den Broek Nov 14 '19 at 04:04
  • Oh, its its definitely the faculty's (as in the universities management structure's) fault. And no, I probably wouldn't drive in that situation unless it were a life or death situation - the point of that analogy was that. But I would give a class, because giving a class tired is not going to kill anyone, and not giving it would be a sackable offence. – Ian Sudbery Nov 14 '19 at 08:46
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    Why the lecturer fell asleep is irrelevant, a red herring, and rabbit hole for comments and debate. Feeling insulted is a normal reaction - but the OP needs to let it go. No one is perfect. I'd suggest removing most of what you've said about the sleeping part and focus the answer on how to approach the lecturer. (my $0.02) – CramerTV Nov 14 '19 at 18:18
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I would advise patience, wait until the grades are out.

If the lecturer was actually asleep then that may or may not be something to deal with.

However, if the lecturer was not asleep but not looking at you and perhaps reading the papers on the desk or similar you may be starting something you should not.

Again, patience and see how it goes.

Solar Mike
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    Thank you for your response! I am rather certain he was at least nodding off, and other students confirmed this as well. – Jonas Schwarz Nov 11 '19 at 16:01
  • I would add that researcher was present for the presentation, and it could be that the lecturer defers to the subject matter expert with regards to grading. – Chad Nov 12 '19 at 22:18
  • Excellent advise. Patience is a virtue. – user347489 Nov 13 '19 at 08:01
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    I disagree; waiting until grades are out risks looking like you are motivated by getting a poor grade, rather than getting a potentially unfair grade. If you wait then people will question why you didn't say anything at the time. – dbmag9 Nov 13 '19 at 10:14
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    @dbmag9 So why not ask this of the other answers that also say wait? Perhaps you should post this as an answer yourself and see what the opinion is of the community... – Solar Mike Nov 13 '19 at 10:21
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    @SolarMike I posted the comment while at work, and hadn't scrolled further down than your answer. I don't mean to suggest that your recommendation of waiting is any worse than anyone else's recommendation of waiting. – dbmag9 Nov 13 '19 at 20:22
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    @dbmag9 You also risk retaliation when otherwise your grade would have been fine, however. I'm not sure I would take that risk up front over waiting to see whether I need to take a different risk. And fear of retaliation is not the worst rebuttal to "why didn't you say anything at the time?". – Matthew Read Nov 14 '19 at 22:13
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I understand your frustration with a part of your audience sleeping through (some part) of your talk. As many other answers mention, this is unfortunately not an unusual experience for anyone presenting in academia. Members of the audience have different lifestyles and indeed different situations and sometimes the sleep deprivation takes the best of us. It is alright to be frustrated about it but please try not to feel insulted - there is really no evidence that this fact was in any way a response to the quality of your presentation and research.

As for your second question, why do you think the grade will be adversely impacted? If I were the lecturer in this situation, I would feel terrible about it and I would probably be inclined to "make it right" for the student, so I would consciously or subconsciously raise the grade.

NelsonGon
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Dmitry Savostyanov
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    In addition, often the lower-level researchers are the one's that in practice provide the feedback that counts and the lecturer may largely rely on that fellow researcher's assessment anyway. – Frank Hopkins Nov 12 '19 at 00:49
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    The issue is not that "a part of the audience" fell asleep. The issue is that the part of the audience who was specifically responsible for assigning the student's grade fell asleep. – David Richerby Nov 12 '19 at 08:49
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    @FrankHopkins: Seeing that the OP is located in Germany, this remark might be a crucial point that is worthy of being made into an answer of its own. My impression is that in parts of German academia, in particular when it comes to teaching, there is a very pronounced culture of having one person (usually a professor) be formally solely responsible for a certain task, but someone else (usually a doctoral candidate or a postdoc) doing the entirety of the actual work, including being entrusted by said professor with making the actual decision (or at least being the only one who has all the ... – O. R. Mapper Nov 12 '19 at 10:23
  • ... information and therefore is the only one who can immediately suggest a meaningful course of action, even if the professor has to officially sign off on it). – O. R. Mapper Nov 12 '19 at 10:24
  • @DavidRicherby The grade issue is addressed in my second paragraph. – Dmitry Savostyanov Nov 12 '19 at 11:05
  • @O.R.Mapper I agree with your observation --- There's a general culture where the prof is the superstar and the rest minions. Which doesn't lead to a good managerial culture, as a few minions get inevitably promoted eventually with no managerial experience; on the plus side, they find they have minions that follow their orders. – user3445853 Nov 12 '19 at 12:03
  • @user3445853: Actually, I was trying to express that the professor is often the only superstar only on paper. Behind the scenes, those who are just minions on paper actually all act as "superstars" of some kind, if you will. This includes opportunities to gather lots of managerial experience early on precisely because they are entrusted with responsibilities that are formally the prof's and the prof's alone. – O. R. Mapper Nov 12 '19 at 12:12
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    "there is really no evidence that this fact was in any way a response to the quality of your presentation and research.": this, exactly this! I remember being in a conference once and listening to a talk I honestly found fascinating. I really wanted to hear it, it was excellent. And yet, I was falling asleep. This had nothing to do with the talk and everything to do with the fact that it was late, I was tired and there wasn't much oxygen in the hall. – terdon Nov 12 '19 at 18:55
  • @DmitrySavostyanov RIght, but I was addressing your first paragraph, which is basically irrelevant. The question isn't asking about some random person falling asleep in a talk; all parts of the question are about the person responsible for grading falling asleep. The first part is whether the asker should feel insulted by that specific person falling asleep; the second part is about whether it will affect the grade. – David Richerby Nov 12 '19 at 19:52
  • If I were in that professor’s position, as soon as I realized I was having trouble, I would have suggested a rescheduling. – WGroleau Nov 14 '19 at 07:55
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About your grade

Granted, you are likely not getting the best assessment of what a fair grade for you would be. But in any decent place, the professor knows he is at fault and won't let his fault put you in trouble. If you are expecting to graduate with some kind of special honors, I'd have a friend put in the word about this to this teacher. If you are afraid of failing this class (which from my experience, is very rare in presentation-only grading systems) then unless you made very crappy slides and handed them for evaluation, you should have nothing to worry about.

About feeling insulted

Vent to some friends, as you have every right to be be insulted. But what do you actually expect that should happen? Have you ever seen a student apologize to a teacher because he slept during his class? Well, it happens, but I've never seen the other way around, even though teachers have struggled to keep awake during presentations of mine.

If the teacher does come to apologize to you, what would you respond? "It's okay"? From what you've told us, I think it's not. "Take better care of your sleep schedule?", he should know what to do in this regard and what he can't do, and better than you know. "I appreciate the apology"? Still leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. The only good response I could think of, would be in the case where you could suspect him having some rare/uncommon disease that might have been undiagnosed (some people for instance have dark marks on their necks, which are often dismissed for poor hygiene, but they're actually a sign of diabetes, quite dangerous if nobody ever points it out to them). But that is not the case, is it?

My point is, with regards to feeling insulted, leave it alone.

Another thing to consider

There are several presentation techniques that help preventing a sleepy audience. Have you used any of them? You could have:

  1. Moved from side-to-side of the class every now and them, forcing the audience to move their necks.
  2. Modulated your voice tone, so it changes every now and then and during sentences (thus achieving the opposite of a mono-tone/monotonous voice).
  3. Fake coughed, stomped your feet or made any other annoying noise (poor tactics, but work when someone is nearly falling asleep).
  4. Prepared a few jokes (don't tell them unless you really need to re-engage the audience, but have them up your sleeve), a laughing classroom wakes up the sleepy ones very well.
Mefitico
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    Upvoting for including techniques that engage the audience, skills that should be mandatory for every presenter. – Chad Nov 12 '19 at 22:13
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    @Chad: To be fair, there are much better methods to engage the audience, the examples I've mentioned are just the ones I believe to excel at waking up the audience. – Mefitico Nov 13 '19 at 12:14
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Wait. Yes, it is insulting or at the very least rude, but ultimately as long as you pass there is no problem... But I do hope you have recorded evidence of your presentation and of the public in case you dont pass. In which case you can demand a revision of your grade based on the lecturer falling asleep multiple times.

You mention that the lecturer seemed very busy, that is not a problem, you dont need your eyes to hear and he/she could have been listening to you, which isnt necessarily rude, it could have been that the lecturer was was fact-checking stuff or taking notes on your presentation. Falling asleep however is rude even if the person was super tired and make an effort to arrive to your presentation. You don't know and we don't know how interesting your topic was either, but sleeping it out is a lack of respect for the speaker.

Yet, as long as it does not affect your passing grade then swallow your pride and move on. Your main objective for the lecture was to get a passing grade. Just that.

In usm, wait til you see your grade. If you pass decently 'good work, well done, move on' , if you dont pass, then thats when you act, but be sure to have lots of evidence.

deags
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    as long as you pass there is no problem --- The OP is concerned with the grade, not just with passing or failing. – Dave L Renfro Nov 11 '19 at 18:56
  • @Dave L Renfro The grade determines if OP passes or not. Passing could mean an 8 or it could need a 10. That is up to OP. – deags Nov 11 '19 at 19:51
  • This appears to be one of those situations that depends on information the OP has not provided. What you said might be the case, but not always. For example, in many graduate programs I've been involved with (in the U.S.), you will be dismissed (or perhaps put on academic probation) if you get too many C grades --- A degree student who receives three “C” (i.e., “C+”, “C”, or “C-“) or lower level grades (i.e., “F”) will be dismissed from the program. – Dave L Renfro Nov 11 '19 at 20:01
  • @Dave L Renfro It seems to be the case. In other countries the general grade is an average of all grading with a minimum (normally 8 for masters and up levels of education. USA is the only country I know to use letters for grading). It might also depend on the institution. Op said it was a seminar and that the whole grade depends on only that presentation though. So it would most likely depend on the universities policies if OP does not pass. – deags Nov 11 '19 at 20:07
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    Do you mean "recorded" as in "recorded on camera"? –  Nov 11 '19 at 20:42
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    @Heutl Yes, most presentations are recorded in camera and/or in the cellphone and various people normally do so. more so if it's an important talk. It can be the school that then adds the talk/conference to their youtube channel, the students showing it to their family or for memories, or even for paranoid reasons like catching on record any problem that may happen, which then serves as evidence. – deags Nov 11 '19 at 20:53
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    I have never seen anyone in a "normal" student seminar (not conference talks etc.) seen recording a talk, so I'm quite surprised! However, I guess the questioner cannot change now the fact if it was recorded or not. Hopefully the other students stand up for them! Otherwise stellar answer! –  Nov 11 '19 at 20:56
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    Additional info: I have not recorded the talk, and the grade will probably be above the pass/fail-range. – Jonas Schwarz Nov 12 '19 at 06:38
  • @Jonas Schwarz Well, do you have witnesses or did the school recorded? It's still just a backup plan as it seems you will pass with a nice grade. Just in case you could check what is the process of asking for a revision of grade, but it seems it wont be necessary. – deags Nov 12 '19 at 16:09
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    @Heutl It has become very common to records talks; even normal classes are recorded because that way students can later revise the lecture for anything they missed (and prove that the teacher did/didn't teach something). I've seen too that the recordings are uploaded to a Google classroom/drive folder or shared via whatsapp. – deags Nov 12 '19 at 17:54
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    @deags: Wow, that's interesting! In my times, at most first-semester-lectures lectures where recorded (but only if the professor did not forget) but never seminars. That they are shared via google or whatsapp is a shame though. –  Nov 12 '19 at 17:56
  • @Heutl Why would it be a shame? Its practical. A whatsapp group is a great form of instant collaboration platform for a group of students, and google has so many tools for students and teacher that it can even be replicated and improved for future groups of students (During an MBA a teacher even forced us to make a facebook profile). Google docs is awesome because it allows many users to edit a doc simultaneously too and the videos can be linked to a google sites. However Ive seen many teacher hating that the students are fact-checking them and 'interrupting the class' . – deags Nov 12 '19 at 18:14
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    Relying on (potentially unsafe) companies is a shame when there are alternatives (providing the videos on the university website or on an university app should be safer). Forcing someone to create a Facebook profile is really bad. –  Nov 12 '19 at 19:22
  • @Heutl I would trust Google more than the average university site (most are terrible in every aspect that is not marketing). Plus is more convenient due to the amount of data and the accessibility. The cautious thing is to create a profile specific for class and share only class stuff. And yes, the facebook thing was bad, but that profile was never linked to any other data (basic cautions: disposable emails, incognito mode, safe browser, VPN,etc) and was used only to send HW or share class stuff. – deags Nov 12 '19 at 19:32
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The poor guy has to listen to dozens of presentations like yours, and most of them are going to be boring. When you go into real life and give presentations to your managers or your customers, they are going to fall asleep if your presentations are boring. When it comes to grading or assessing you, it will come down to "this presentation was so boring, I fell asleep".

It's your job to make it sufficiently interesting that your audience stays awake. Work on your presentation technique.

Michael Kay
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    Him falling asleep as an indicator for a bad grade is what i'd like to avoid, as this has happened to other students (some of which did great talks). – Jonas Schwarz Nov 12 '19 at 11:03
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    It's the profs job to listen to listen to student's presentations and give feedback and grde, even if they are boring. While it may be understandable that a proff can have private problems which make them sleep it is never a student's fault. –  Nov 12 '19 at 11:55
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    Also your grading scheme "I fell asleep, so the student has done something wrong" is weird, especially after reading the other answers. –  Nov 12 '19 at 11:56
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    I don't know from the question to what extent they are assessing you on content and to what extent on presentation technique. I'm just telling you that in the real world, if you're pitching for a contract and your customer falls asleep, you've failed. – Michael Kay Nov 12 '19 at 14:36
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    @MichaelKay: Okay, then you've failed in the real world. But that has no relevance to the question (except that one could argue that the prof has failed). The student is there to learn and get feedback. (Moreover, a prof who falls asleep because of personal problems should not a student fail because of this -- the real world customer may think differently.) –  Nov 12 '19 at 16:13
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    It may be uncomfortable to hear but this answer is ultimately correct. It may not absolve the lecturer but the reason people fall asleep in some lectures and not others isnʼt predominantly tiredness, itʼs boredom and failure to be engaged. And thatʼs on the one giving the lecture, Iʼm afraid. – Konrad Rudolph Nov 12 '19 at 17:37
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    @KonradRudolph: As someone who’s fallen asleep in plenty of conference talks, I find it’s much more affected by the time of day, proximity to meals or coffee breaks, ambient heat/humidity, how much/well I slept the night before, and other incidental factors. The quality of the speaker is in there somewhere, but it’s far from the dominant factor. – PLL Nov 12 '19 at 19:36
  • @MichaelKay if this were true then the evaluator should have stopped them well before the point of sleep. "This presentation is too boring." That would be both useful feedback and save the others in the audience from being bored to death. – emory Nov 12 '19 at 22:16
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    @PLL: I would add the way in which the conference is organised as regards regular enough breaks to that. Sometimes you get 3-4 fairly long talks back to back, and I wouldn't blame anybody who fell asleep during one of the later talks in a session. People need coffee, even (/especially) if the talks are actually interesting. Sitting still and listening passively for long periods can be surprisingly tiring in practice. – Stuart Golodetz Nov 13 '19 at 02:11
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    @PLL From one professional sleeper to another, I have to disagree. In fact, I’m confident that you are wrong. I think you are misled because you vastly overestimate the quality of most conference talks and seminars: most are objectively atrocious, and the vast majority are at least somewhat bad. We as a profession have simply gotten used to it and don’t perceive it as such (and are too nice, or to self-conscious of our own bad talks). Show me a substantial number of people falling asleep in the few genuinely good talks and you might have an argument. – Konrad Rudolph Nov 13 '19 at 09:11
  • The best way to keep the audience awake is to interact with them and demand a response. Ask them questions. Ask them if they agree with you. Make a mistake on the whiteboard and ask them to point it out. Walk to the back of the room and force them to turn in their chairs to look at you. Ask someone to open the windows. Ask them to stand up and stretch their legs. Anything, other than carrying on and ignoring the fact that they aren't listening. – Michael Kay Nov 13 '19 at 12:09
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    If the presentation is boring, that should be reflecte by the grade. IMHO it doesn't excuse the professor sleeping. – cbeleites unhappy with SX Nov 13 '19 at 14:55
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    I'm shocked this answer even has a single upvote, it is based entirely on completely unsupported supposition. Even if we somehow knew it was a boring presentation it would be a bad answer though. – eps Nov 13 '19 at 17:54
  • I'm surprised it got upvoted too. Answers that challenge the OP's interpretation of events and suggest that they may need to take some responsibility themselves usually get downvoted. – Michael Kay Nov 13 '19 at 17:58
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    @eps: answers in favor of professors are usually upvoted, even if they are not relevant to the question (like this one, which talks about the real world while the situation was in an university setting). –  Nov 13 '19 at 19:48
  • If I am to grade a student, it is my responsibility to stay awake. In the service we were often told to stand up in the back of the room (we were somewhat deprived of sleep in boot camp.) I still use that technique in the business world. – CramerTV Nov 14 '19 at 18:23
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    This answer makes no sense - by this logic, it would be perfectly acceptable for the professor to judge the entirety of your presentation based on the first 5 minutes and then walk out of the room while you continued to speak. They're there to evaluate the whole presentation, not to evaluate part of it and then determine the rest isn't even worth seeing (if that's even what's happening, which is unlikely). – Nuclear Hoagie Nov 14 '19 at 19:38
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    @CramerTV: technique not guaranteed. Standing in line in boot camp, I fell asleep and knocked over a rack of cereal. – WGroleau Nov 14 '19 at 22:43
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Of course, sleeping on the job is a very unprofessional thing of the professor to do. But should you complain because of the grade?

First, as you are in Germany and are most likely not paying for your education, I doubt you find an institution in the university which takes your complaint and is able to do anything about it. You can probably only complain to the professor themselves. But should you do this?

If the professor does not realizise they were sleeping, they will probably not believe it if you tell them. This could give them a worse image of you which might result in a worse great.

If they did realize, they most likely do not hold this against you. I have seen professors sleeping (and even snoring) during student's talks and exams -- they tended to give some general feedback "The talk was good. See you next time." and give the best grade as they realize they made a mistake. Calling them out on their mistake would probably again make a bad impression and put the professor in a defensive spot.

Addendum: From the comments, it seems that some people do not believe that nobody would and could take the complaint. Indeed, this is my experience with German universities. It is (most likely) different in universities where students pay a lot of money. However, of course I don't know all German universities. So my advice to the OP is: Before you complain, think about if you know who to complain to. Is there any institution where you know there has been a change after a similar (!) (that's important) complaint (something of the same level as your complaint)? I assume no -- then my answer stands. If you could really think of such an institution in your university, you can ignore my paragraph regarding that. (Note that you certainly will have an institution which takes those complaints on paper -- this does not has to mean that something will ever happen).

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    claiming you can't complain about a free "service" is misguided at best – Alex Robinson Nov 12 '19 at 17:25
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    @AlexRobinson: From my experience in studying in Germany, there is no authority you can reasonably complain to (except for sexual misconduct etc. or if the instructor is only a student). In countries where you pay for your education (or private universities in Germany) there is more incentive for implementing a quality process as the institution has an interest not to lose "customers". –  Nov 12 '19 at 17:44
  • @Heutl - In the UK, the student could discuss their concerns with their representative on the Student Staff Liason committee. But I concur that calling them out for snoozing could make the lecturer defensive. I would approach the subject as "When grading is the result of a presentation, how should I deal with a professor/instructor who is inattentive or distracted?" This approach includes a great range of behavior, without targeting a single professor or instructor. – Chad Nov 12 '19 at 22:22
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    @Chad: Those committees exists also in Germany, but, as far as I know, they are toothless. At the very least, they are not likely to provide immediate, concrete help (the questioner does care about this concrete grade). –  Nov 13 '19 at 06:49
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    Could the downvoter please explain? My answer is based on my German experience. –  Nov 13 '19 at 19:44
  • @Heutl even if the student is not paying for their education, someone else is, for example the government. The government presumably doesn't pay for lecturers to sleep on the job. Even if this is due to a situation that is not caused by the university, they may want to be aware to look into it. This time it may be in the class room, what if the next time it happens while they're driving on the Autobahn? It'd be better if someone in a suitable position at the university looks into this (by talking to the lecturer) so the situation may be resolved. – JJJ Nov 14 '19 at 00:49
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    @JJJ: I don't see your point. Of course the government is paying , sure, but in general, this situation is not important enough that somebody would investigate (it would probably be different if OP was famous). Of course it would be great if somebody in a suitable position would look into this -- in my experience, this is not done in Germany. A private university has more incentives to implement quality assurance. But if you are talking about how life should be, then I completely agree with you. –  Nov 14 '19 at 06:27
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My suggestion: Go talk to him. He is probably pretty embarrassed about having fallen asleep, and would be appreciative of you not drawing wide attention to this incident.

So, arrange a meeting - now, not after the grades are published. In that meeting, tell him what you told us, and how you feel about it. Let him offer an apology and a solution regarding how you should be graded. Don't rush to agree or disagree immediately, tell him you need to think about it. And - do think about.

Now, if he gets angry, denies it, yells at you or threatens you - talk to your student union and then lodge a formal complaint.

Also, if you can coordinate your actions with the other student during whose presentation the lecturer slept, that would be great. It would strengthen both of your positions and credibility.

einpoklum
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(I'm German as the questions author is too, and studied computer science at FU Berlin.)

The situation is less complex than your intuition tells you:

It is, on an abstract level, very simple. Much of what happens is nice for various reasons, but not actually relevant.

The sole purpose of the presentation is that you, personally, learn to give a good lecture. How good you do is usually documented in terms of a grade, but that fact is not relevant for you during the process. The final grade is relevant, but you do not need to know how it was derived. To illustrate that, the grading person may always give a good grade, for whatever reason. That can happen after he listened your presentation with great attention, even posing good questions during the presentation. Or he may sleep during the whole presentation. Or, for this example, even sleep behind a half transparent mirror so you do not even know whether he is there. You would make some assumption how the grade was derived, but that is irrelevant for the result. All that is perfectly fine.

If there are other students in the seminar, it is perfectly normal that they are your audience. You do not need to worry about the grade, because he knows if he is missing information that is useful for grading, and has tho assume the positive wherever he is missing information. It's not your responsibility. For example, you may hold a presentation, with the lecturer being awake in the beginning and at the end. While he is awake, you give a good presentation to the audience you prefer. But while he is asleep, you mess up a couple of times. In this situation, it is legitimate to let him grade based on beginning and end. Except if you feel it is not legitimate, and explain to him what happened.

Note that in all this, it is not actually relevant what the lecturer does. Theoretically, the audience could be a single mannequin, which only exists to make it easier to imagine the presence of an audience. (No audience at all would be pretty hard to handle). You see that you can fulfill the purpose of the presentation without an audience.

I can absolutely understand that you are not comfortable to have a practical experience like above. That is perfectly fine. But if you take the above into account, you can just disregard anything that does not feel right in the process.

And if you feel the presentation should be graded, you are perfectly competent to just do that yourself.

Now on your actual experience: There is no reason to feel insulted. Because no insult does exist. That he sleeps is unrelated to you, and you even know the very valid reason for it. He has the option to either listen to your presentation, while he already knows most of the content. Or sleep, and spend an hour actively discussing with and supporting a student. That student could be you. At least in the later case, you may agree that the second option is far better for you, and potentially for him too. I assume this may be a proof that there is no disrespect in the situation, because it is clearly the right thing to do.

Your case is actually much simpler, as your audience actually includes

  • a person responsible for grading
    • He will practically just decide for the other person where he is missing information
    • a negative influence on your grade could only happen if the person not sleeping tends to give lower grades, and the sleeping one does not object, even based on a single second being awake.
  • an audience that is sincerely interested in and gains objective advantages from listening to you.
    • I would call that an outright luxurious situation

Finally, I want to emphasize that there is nothing insulting whatsoever. There is n malice involved at all. And that, if in doubt, you even have the information to conclude that yourself. That conclusion would be perfectly valid in a strict mathematical sense.

Volker Siegel
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I recently had a very important interview for a postdoc position. There were two professors in the interview. One of them fell asleep on multiple occasions. What shocked me was he fell asleep after asking a question and while I try to answer his question. I tried my best to keep him up by changing the pitch of my voice and it really helped. I was a lecturer at a university and had taught many courses. I learned about active learning methods before becoming a lecturer. The key to make your audience awake is on your hand. Just change the tone of your voice (low to high then to low), the audience will stay awake. Try other tricks to add some spice besides perhaps the boring hardcore science stuff. I wouldn’t feel insulted instead I would ask myself whether my talk was that much boring to make my key audience be sleepy.

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... You could always ask the presentation to be remarked by a different lecturer?

Being a former student myself, this option has always been common knowledge across the entire class if one is unsatisfied with the assessor.

Best act sooner than later, I recall remarking of work after being formally marked only able to reach a certain percentage (60% - or a 1:2).

Danny Watson
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    Do you have experience with the German university system? I have, and frankly I cannot think of anyone who could and would grant this request. (Moreover, how should someone not present while the talk grade it?) –  Nov 13 '19 at 16:05
  • In the UK, typically the assessor takes notes and/or generally asks questions to gauge knowledge of the subject. Then after, between a week and a fortnight the formal mark is given back.

    If what you are saying is correct then I feel sorry for those studying at German universities that they cannot get a second opinion. In my personal opinion, asking it to be remarked by another assessor should not be considered beyond capability.

     – Danny Watson Nov 14 '19 at 13:59
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    So, somebody else who grade them based on the non-existing notes of the sleeping guy? And yes, unfortunately this is the case in Germany. I am now instructor in a different country with a similar system -- it is really scary how powerful I am over the students. –  Nov 14 '19 at 15:42