How hard do the professors at DMACC work? That is a question I unfortunately find myself asking many days when I come to class.
With the innovation of Blackboard and online quizzes, professors can now just put up assignments online and have them automatically graded. It amazes me even more when the questions on these Internet assignments are ones that you can Google and find the answers provided by the publisher of the textbook we use in class.
It leads me to wonder why I try hard to work in the class while the professor can just take PowerPoint presentations from the publisher’s website to lecture directly from, without adding anything from their own experience. Then they use pre-made assignments and quizzes that you can find already answered on Google.
How is this helping us learn if we can just Google it? Why do we have to spend hours studying and coming to class, when they are just reading off of a PowerPoint presentation and notes provided by the publisher. If we were to do the same thing for a presentation in class we would be counted off points, and maybe even fail for academic dishonesty.
So why is it okay for a professor to take someone else’s work and use it as their own but if we do it in class or even here in the newspaper it in plagiarism?
If our professors are the people we should look up to and give them such honor by calling them “Doctor” or “Professor,” they should be able to live up to those titles and make their own PowerPoints, lectures, assignments and tests.
I fully respect the professors that teach using local and personal examples, creating their own PowerPoints. Even writing tests that actually have to do with what we have talked about and not waste our time in the classroom talking about information that does not match what is on the quizzes or text.
When a professor creates a lesson plan and their own lectures they know what the main points are that they want to cover and can highlight them for the test. Things also click more with the student. When everything is just copied from the Internet, it takes away the connection that the professor has with the subject. It is not coming from their personal experience and is more like an elementary school teacher who teaches from a textbook and has little connection to all of the subjects.
What happened to the days that the professor creates the lectures and assessments? What about the days where the professor grades the assignments? We have some professors that have the assignments automatically graded online and then we have the ones that will not even grade tests. They will not even have you take them on a scantron and enter them in manually to a grade book.
Professors are now requiring students to purchase remotes from the bookstore, then pay an additional fee to use the remote so the professor does not have to grade the test or do attendance. They just have students enter their answers in on a remote control and the professor has the grades automatically transferred to the grade book.
These remotes are a convenience for the professor and can be a time saver, but also a distraction in class when computer problems arise.
What happens when these professors find themselves so dependent on the PowerPoints, lectures and assignments provided by the publisher when the computer system is not working? What are students to do when their professor spends the entire class time messing with the computer and they do not have a backup plan to be able to just lecture on? Some professors have become too dependent on someone else’s material that they cannot teach themselves. Instead the class turns into a waste of time with the professor messing with the computer for 40 minutes and the students gossiping on the latest episode of Game of Thrones and are on their phones texting and catching up on Facebook and Twitter when the computer does not work.
I love technology and the amazing innovations that it has brought to the college campus. However, it is not an excuse for professors to become lazy and basically plagiarize lectures, assignments and tests.
Professors should also be prepared for technology to malfunction and have a back up plan. Do not waste productive class time, particularly close to finals time, messing with their computer because they have become so dependent on it that they cannot teach their class with out it. Professors have been able to teach with out PowerPoints and computers for hundreds of years. Live up to that title of a professor and teach.
Almost any person can come in and teach a class by reading off of PowerPoints and pre-made lectures.
I wish professors took pride in what they do and provide the quality education DMACC was founded on.
Professors should take pride in their work. It is a disappointment to both the students and community when professors cannot create their own assignments, lectures or tests.
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