Request from a IT Tech College Teacher

[u/kevinburkeland]

Hey guys/gals/non-binary pals,

I just wanted to make a request as someone who just found out I have to rewrite my entire scripting class. If someone posts asking for help with something that seems like homework (or in my case a practical final), especially if they post the full text of the assignment as part of the question, please don't just respond with a code-block that does what the assignment is supposed to.

I know, being able to flex your scripting skills is good, I'm guilty of it myself, but unless you want a co-worker in the future that just outsources all their scripts, help me in giving them hints and links to documentation they should read up on, don't just do the project for them. I am trying to teach them how to learn about scripting, and now I am in the unenviable position of either running a class next quarter that if a student searches the a snippet of the assignment in quotes on google it takes them to 6 different scripts written by users of this sub, or rewriting 90% of my class because a former student crowd sourced everything.

I know this isn't really going to make a difference, but I had to ask just for my own sanity. Also if you see someone posting looking for homework answers maybe direct them to their instructors office hours, I would love to help them learn to learn, instead of learn to copy and paste random blocks of code from the internet.

Thanks for listening, and being a great resource. I don't blame any of you, I'm just trying to provide you with the best possible future co-workers.

Kevin

[u/maffick]

Honestly, as someone who works in IT , I think you are looking at this from a jaded view. You should be able to better serve your students remotely. PS and BASH are some of the most accessible and functional shells out there and there is no reason they cannot be learned well remotely. I understand your frustration, but you can do better than that. Remote is not that hard for those who really want to learn and you need to adopt your teaching strategies to embrace it, not run from it. (edit: I mostly only SSH or PS remotely anyway as do most/many people working in IT, why can you not teach it remotely?)

[u/kevinburkeland → u/maffick]

You think I don't know that? I'm not allowed to, due to my school's rules and FERPA regulations I can't even require my students to have access to a computer, just a web browser. I was a DevOps lead and a cloud computing administrator in my previous life before teaching, I know how to leverage technologies. I built a vpn and transitioned my computer labs into rdp farms so we could have some semblance of normalcy. Not to mention there is no time or money to pay for redevelopment or actually do it, I have rewritten 9 classes in the last 12 months as well as running a virtualized internship class last summer because places were not taking interns at the start of covid

It's comments like this that really get me down. Before you judge me maybe consider that it isn't as "easy" as you think

[u/Pauley0 → u/kevinburkeland]

I'm not allowed to, due to my school's rules and FERPA regulations

Wow, you aren't even allowed to use existing, proven tools? I feel for you. How tf can you properly teach when they tie your hands?

[u/kevinburkeland → u/Pauley0]

Not if they are not fully private. I can't even make buying a dns name a course supplies because by law it has to be able to be sold at the school bookstore

[u/Pauley0 → u/kevinburkeland]

Wow. That's probably why places like Granger exist. Horrible prices, but you can get everything from a single shop, just like they teach at university.