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1500 questions
71
votes
14 answers
Is my approach to discouraging whiners from taking my class acceptable?
I am writing a syllabus for a Calculus for Business class. When I taught the last year, I had some very weak but vocal students whine that the tests were tough (despite other students doing fine), the practice exam was not similar to the actual exam…
usr0192
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71
votes
13 answers
Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media
Inspired by this question, I have a similar but somehow different problem.
I recently assumed a tenure-track position. One of my strategies for a visible start is to have a strong presence in social media. We have a youtube channel in which students…
user198293
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71
votes
16 answers
Should I prepare new homework exercises each year, 20% of the final grade is homework?
This year I prepare a new course (in programming, but it could be any other course). I spend a lot of effort in creating homework exercises. This is fun, but also very time-consuming.
I wonder if I can use the same exercises next year, when I teach…
Erel Segal-Halevi
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70
votes
14 answers
How to deal with students staying hours past the end of office hours?
Background: I am a fourth year math graduate student working as a TA for an introduction to proofs course with a focus on analysis.
I really enjoy the teaching component of my position as a graduate student, but this semester I feel as though…
AegisCruiser
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70
votes
12 answers
Why do faculty use the software "Blackboard"?
It is becoming apparent to me that, outside my field, use of Blackboard and other LMS software is becoming extremely common. Indeed, a rash of technical problems here is making it apparent students and administrators alike seem to assume that…
Anonymous
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70
votes
6 answers
A student posted my lab materials as a "project" on Instructables, and hid its origin as a lab assignment. How should I address this?
TLDR: A student posted my lab assignment as a “project” on Hackster.io and Instructables. His posts hide its origin as a lab assignment, in which a lot of the materials (texts, circuit diagram and similar) were given to the students. If you were a…
ff524
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70
votes
9 answers
Academic discretion: Should one participate in online forums or Stack Exchange sites anonymously?
As we may ask and answer various questions on online forums or stack exchange regarding teaching, research, publishing etc; it may reveal our lack of knowledge on any basic topic. This might hurt us in the future as an already established…
ShadowWarrior
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70
votes
7 answers
Should a paper be reviewed in entirety, if the introduction contains plagiarized passages?
I'm very new to being a peer reviewer. I agreed to anonymously review a paper for publication, and while reading it for the first time, I was a little annoyed by the writing style. It sort of reminded me of the feeling I get when reading a paper…
Concha Gomez
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70
votes
12 answers
Is it possible to submit a paper to a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal without a PhD and get it accepted?
Is it possible to submit a paper to a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal while not holding a PhD? More specifically, what would be the bare minimum qualifications that would grant one the possibility of a paper being published in a peer-reviewed…
duskn
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70
votes
4 answers
What to do when you spend several months working on an idea that fails in a masters thesis?
How shall a masters student deal with the complete failure to meet the expected results when working on a master's thesis?
For example, in the field of machine learning a masters student might spend 4-5 months developing a method that turns out not…
Magellanea
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70
votes
18 answers
Why does research cost so much money?
I have been dragged into an argument with someone who can't understand why millions are being raised to fund ALS research (that's the "ice bucket challenge", love it or hate it). He doesn't get why research costs so much money because - and I…
MGA
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70
votes
7 answers
My professor gave me a bad grade and wouldn't discuss it further, I think some prejudice may be involved. How should a student proceed?
Background: I was a senior at a very prestigious, high-ranking university in the US. At the time my GPA was around a 3.9 and had never had any issues with professors (and actually socialized with a few outside of class).
Fall semester I…
blankip
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70
votes
14 answers
How should bathroom breaks be handled during written exams to avoid cheating?
It seems to me that it is impossible to prevent cheating (as in: communicating and getting help from outside) if one allows students to use the restroom during written classroom tests.
Excluding creative solutions involving full-body searches,…
Federico Poloni
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70
votes
9 answers
Should I challenge my professor who thinks he's always right?
One of my professors has been in the IT development fields for over 40 years. He thinks he is up-to-date with all the latest research and technology. But I believe he's not.
The problem is - he hates when a student (like me) dares to point out his…
user10815
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70
votes
10 answers
How to work efficiently under loose supervision during graduate studies?
I work in a very cross-disciplinary field, which has caused me some headache* over the past couple of years, partly due to the fact that my supervisor isn't very knowledgeable regarding the day to day (technical) details of my projects. He typically…
posdef
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