I can see now why you like AutoCAD better. You're right, everyone uses it to some extent and if you're not doing mechanical 3D objects then Solidworks is not going to work. There are professionals that use Solidworks; my brother-in-law convinced his employer to get it since every job they douses the same parts but different sizes/dimensions. They had to draw every piece for every job where Solidworks allows them to just re-dimension.

To go back on topic... smaglik, I think you should be enthusiastic about the subject and try to draw every student into the discussion. Don't lock the doors, don't allow texting or movies etc..., stop students from having their own private discussions, and DO allow students to make up missed work; some of us have valid reasons. I think you know what to do and be fair.

If you are doing anything in class other than participate or working on assignments, then you are distracting to other students; pleasejust leave.

 

I've been giving plenty of opps to get points for late work...some are taking it, some not. I am sure the percentage will increase when it gets closer to the end of the semester.

We have had a couple of consultants express a desire for us to teach MicroStation...While we would like to honor this desire...its not very feasible to teach both autoCAD and microstation...and since autoCAD has like 80% market penetration...

 

That's good. When I was a Junior in college my mother died. Imissed 3 or 4tests cause I went home for a week for the funeral and to be with my family. Not a single one of my teachers let mere-takea test I missed. All of them just said "that will be your drop test." Pretty heartless andpissed me off pretty bad.

 

WOW ..... that's unbelievable! Smag ..... don't be like that! I've had friends in school that were allowed to make stuff up even after the semester was over for death in the immediate family.

 

Trust me, its plenty of work.

They have to turn in all the work in the course, or they will get an incomplete.

If they turn it in late, its 50% off, but they still hvae to turn it in.

There are extra projects available to earn back that 50%

Once the semester is over, that's all she wrote. Nothing will change then, without serious extenuating circumstances. I give a lot of leeway, but you have to tell me in advance of missing something. Last minute doesnt cut it.

 

Smag, I'm not saying that you are wrong in your methods because I agree with a lot of what you say, but please remember that you are not the only professor giving these kids "plenty of work." I've had times when I was in college that I had to pull back-to-back all-nighters because I had a few teachers giving tremendous amounts of work and I also worked 30-35 hours a week throughout college. True, there were times when I could have managed my time a little better, but there were also times that I spent all of my time on schoolwork and it still wasn't enough. Also, if your class is not a required part of the student's curriculum, it is unfair to expect your work to come before the work from a required class. While your goal is to teach the subject, you have to be mindfull of where the class fits into the overall scheme of the student's education and also to not burn them out because then they'll just block out the subject rather than learn better.

 

What I meant by plenty of work is that amount of work required to earn back lost points.

As far as the workload of the course, they get a hw and a lab every week. If they've paid attention and asked questions, should take 2-3hr each. That's typical for an engineering course.

 

OK .... I thought that you meant like 4-5 hrs a week ...... deforms anyone!

 

I signed up for a speech class and the instructor would not allow any make-up work; if you missed the day of your speech you got a zero and no options for extra credit or make-up work. I explained that I had to work full-time and help raise a family but she wouldn't budge at all, soI dropped the class.

It looks like you've got a good system, in my opinion.