buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 5:44:21 PM

1

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

Two and one-half hours of online-teaching tutorial, since live classes are canceled for the foreseeable future.  May you never have a headache like mine.

Kosh's Shadow 3/22/2020 6:37:26 PM

2

Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 1:

What kind of system do they use? Where I (used to) teach, it was all text and document based. I could have made videos, but I don't like them, and all the interaction is via asynchronous threads and replies.

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 6:39:56 PM

3

Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 2:

They're using something called "Blackboard."  We can do live classes, but that sounds like a nightmare.  Meantime, the fun part is that it's not compatible---or at least not fully compatible---with Safari, or Firefox; I have to download Chrome to be able to fully access it.

PaladinPhil 3/22/2020 6:45:40 PM

4

Small bright spot in my personal hell. Company has instituted a temporary pay raise to the beginning of May, retroactive to March 8th. Two dollars an hour raise.

I have been exclaiming lately "Make the stupid stop!". Generally customers and the whole situation. I need a vacation badly now.

Kosh's Shadow 3/22/2020 6:50:38 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 3:

Blackboard is the standard platform. It sucks. It does work on Windows Firefox, but I generally use Chrome.

I think there should be a special place in Hell for those who think that you only need one window open. How can I respond to a student's private question about my reply to his post if I can't have both open at the same time?

You can mostly do that, if you open Blackboard in separate tabs or windows.

Also, entering grades is a pain. Select student, wait for something  to happen, enter info, close, repeat.

It took me about 2 hours to enter grades for ONE assignment for 60 students. (Would have been a lot faster if the due date was filled in instead of the current date, but if assignments are submitted through Blackboard, it does get the right date. The math work is done on a 3rd party platform called MyMathLab, which does work well, usually.

Kosh's Shadow 3/22/2020 6:51:59 PM

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In #4 PaladinPhil said: I need a vacation badly now.

Not that you ca go anywhere.

lucius septimius 3/22/2020 6:55:13 PM

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In #4 PaladinPhil said: Company has instituted a temporary pay raise to the beginning of May, retroactive to March 8th. Two dollars an hour raise.

An extra Twoonie an hour?  Won't get you a DB 5 but I'm sure it's welcome.

In 1985 when I was going through the British Isles with my Kiwi girlfriend we were running low on cash.  The continent was cheap in the days of Reagan dollars, but not Britain.  I remember being in Paddington station rummaging through my duffel bag when I felt a hard object under the lining.  It was a money clip with a couple hundred Canadian dollars.  It was from a camping trip I'd taken with my cousin two years earlier.  We had gone all over Vancouver Island, and despite the fact he was a young corporate hot shot and I was a poor college student he ended up having to borrow money from me.  At the end of the trip I asked him to pay up -- he repaid me in Canadian.  I stuck it my money clip, tossed it in the duffel and forgot about it.  

I remember when I went to exchange it.  Needless to say, it didn't buy many pounds.  I said "c'mon!  It's part of your Empire!  Can't you do better than that?"

midwestgak 3/22/2020 6:55:59 PM

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In #4 PaladinPhil said: temporary pay raise to the beginning of May

So, they have figured this thing will continue until May then?

buzzsawmonkey 3/22/2020 6:57:29 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 5:

Oh, big fat fucking joy.

Kosh's Shadow 3/22/2020 7:26:00 PM

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Snow Mon-Monday Night.

3-5"

At least I don't have to go to work.

Now, if I could be sure I could work from home....

Some glitches in that

doppelganglander 3/22/2020 7:43:45 PM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 5:

My school used Blackboard during my first semester two years ago. It never worked right. For synchronous classes, they switched to WebEx, which is pretty stable. The rest of the LMS is confusing, or maybe the instructors just don't know how to use it. 

Ironically, my professor has decided not to hold synchronous online class meetings for the rest of the semester. He's concerned that there will be connectivity problems as hundreds of in-person classes move online. I don't mind - he's a very boring lecturer with a droning voice and a heavy Korean accent. Sadly, he's decided to post his lectures and we have to listen to them to get credit for attendance. 

Kosh's Shadow 3/22/2020 7:55:10 PM

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In #11 doppelganglander said: Sadly, he's decided to post his lectures and we have to listen to them to get credit for attendance. 

A reast you can run them through transrate sofware. Or rewind.

We had professor who talked about erectric frux

 (No, not obscene. Electric flux)

And with that, good night

Occasional Reader 3/22/2020 8:41:04 PM

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In #7 lucius septimius said: The continent was cheap in the days of Reagan dollars, but not Britain.

Hmm.  That’s not how I remember it. I remember being shocked at the prices when I arrived in Paris for the very first time in my life in spring of 1986, on spring break from the University of Edinburgh. In comparison, the UK prices seemed manageable. And Switzerland? Fuggehdaboutit. But of course, that was visiting Paris, etc as a traveler versus living in Edinburgh as a student, probably somewhere apples and oranges.