I do not ever want to be the (perceived) reason why any student fails at a class.
I say this because, on an otherwise pretty stellar annual evaluation from my chair, I received this comment: “Dr. Lucas’ on-line NMAC 4460 class appears to have had significant problems last fall.” Wow, “significant problems”? I never received a single complaint from this class. I also made the course self-paced, eliminating much of my usual assigned readings, and tended to evaluate with a lighter hand. I assume complaints were received in my evaluations. This is unusual because I heard absolutely nothing from students during the semester. If there was in issue, shouldn’t they have let me know? If they really wanted it solved, I say yes; otherwise, this is just bitching and complaining in an anonymous evaluation. While this might help me improve my course in the future, it will not help the students who had such a terrible educational experience.
Was it my fault? OK, I will take the blame. However, I think this is more evidence of nasty students just wanting to get back at me for some perceived wrong.
Always in New Media. I have got to change this course.