The SPOT (Fall, 2023): PSYCH 494

Once more unto the breach--diving into the comments from my PSYCH 494: Human Factors and Ergonomics course. Who knows what they'll have to say...? (If it's not immediately obvious, my comments in parentheses are in full-on sarcastic/snark mode.)

 Once more unto the breach--diving into the comments from my PSYCH 494: Human Factors and Ergonomics course. Who knows what they'll have to say...? (If it's not immediately obvious, my comments in parentheses are in full-on sarcastic/snark mode.)

Wait--before I dive in. One of my kids is now in university. I hear every day about things that other instructors are doing (or, in many cases, are failing to do). Here’s a tiny sampling:

• There is disregard for rules. (For example, one prof tried to hold two final exams. It boggles my mind that they thought this was even remotely a possibility. Shame.)

• There is disregard for students. (For example, holding exams on a Saturday. I don’t care that they’re consolidated exams that everyone in the course has to take at exactly the same time. That’s bullshit. Closely related is having assignment deadlines on the weekend. Take a damn break and make it due on Monday. It’s not hard.)

• And there’s being intentionally underhanded. Like a course that marks assignments by giving students a percentage, then converting that to a letter grade. At the end of term, the final grade is calculated by doing a weighted mean of the letter grades. WTF? And none of this is explained anywhere like the syllabus where university rules require it. (I’m looking at you, Department of English.) This also falls into the category of bullshit. Even a high-school level of math can show you how this distorts a student’s true performance. I can’t even.

I’m listing these things because a) I would never pull anything like that. And b) it makes me embarrassed for my institution. You need to do better, University of Alberta instructors. Whatever criticism I may receive (i.e., see below), I am satisfied in knowing that I am doing better than a whole bunch of my peers. Okay, now let's get into my feedback!

"one thing i appreciated about lecture notes specifically is the lecture outlines at the topic of every note package. thinking about them now i paid little attention to them but i think it’s incredibly helpful being told explicitly that it’s worth focusing on certain topics that were mentioned in these outlines."

(That's great to hear.)

"The first midterm caught me by surprise since my expectations of the test format didn't match what was presented. Had I known what to expect my study methods would have differed."
"In the short assignment I felt like there was not enough of what you really wanted the papers to be. At least from myself and what I have heard from other students is that it was hard to figure out exactly what we were supposed to write for the short assignment.”
“Professor L does a great job of providing clear instructions for assignments and exams.”

(I thought I made it clear. I gave examples of questions. I'm not going to give examples of essay question answers, as each one varies from another by a huge amount. There's not much that generalizes.)

“Exams and paper often had specific hidden criteria that students were effectively expected to guess (like being expected to guess the conceptual model of the designer of MacEwan, which if you got wrong resulted in a 5% penalty in the grade for that paper).”

(No, I’m not asking you to guess. I’m asking you to think, and make a conclusion based on the evidence that I stepped you through in the walkthrough. Yes, it’s difficult! No, not everyone will be able to get it. It should be easy to get 50%, harder to get 75%, and even harder to get 100%. This should be true of all coursework. It’s not a hidden criterion: you were explicitly told to provide the designer’s conceptual model. It’s also not a “5% penalty”--it’s that you did not get the correct answer so you didn’t earn that 5%.)

“The blanks gave enough to ensure that I was engaged but not overwhelming that I couldn’t pay attention to what was being actually discussed.”
“Fill in the blanks can make the lectures boring and thus I am not engaged in the material”

(Gotcha. They’re engaging but not engaging.)

“The readings, especially the textbook, were honestly quite interesting to read adn was quite informative.”
“I quite enjoyed Don Norman's book. I appreciate how it is not a traditional textbook. It was very readable.”
“The book did not really help in my understanding as what we needed to know was discussed in class, a waste of money”

(You mean the free ebook available on the library website was a waste of money?)

“If you cant recount word for word the lecture slides, then you will struggle with the exam. There was no room for deviation even if it was clear you understood the concept”

(My job is to evaluate people’s learning, under the assumption that not everyone will learn everything to the exact same degree. If your answer to an exam question is perfect, you’ll get a perfect mark. If it’s incomplete, you’re going to get a lower mark. I’m not grading you on your understanding, I’m grading you on what you put down on paper.)

“I think there could be more material to practice for the midterm and finals, such as more sample questions for the short answer and long answer”
“I felt the exam questions were unfair in what the question asked for and how we were marked.”
“The midterm was definetely not evaluative of peoples understanding , the average was a 55%. I studied incredbly hard and had memorized the material as wel as understood it yet was docked marks for stupid things”

(Literally every single learning outcome can be considered a potential essay question--and there are dozens of them. Also, literally every single term in bold can be considered a potential short-answer question. I haven’t counted, but there are dozens if not hundreds of them as well. That’s a lot of potential practice, but you have to put in the work of doing a self-evaluation. Further, I also said I was willing to give feedback if you tried answering the questions and sent them to me in advance of the final exam.
As for fairness, that word means “impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination.” How was I unfair? Maybe you didn’t like your mark, but that has nothing to do with fairness.
The class mean was low, I agree. That’s because performance overall was pretty low. Much lower than in previous terms--with exams having similar content, marked the same way. Maybe you understood the material, but if you write down something incorrect, that’s what I have to mark you on.)

“the term paper could be done without utilizing any information from the course.”

(That depends on your topic. You chose your topic, not me. If the systems approach applies to your topic, that’s an enormous amount of course content.)

“I enjoyed being able to test myself and my research and writing abilities when completing my term paper. It’s by far the largest writing assignment I have done in University thus far and found that I enjoyed being able to research and write about a topic in such depth.”

(It’s a shame you didn’t have the opportunity to write more before this course. At least you finally got the chance!)

“Only being graded on 4 total assignments (midterm, applied project, final paper, final exam) is extremely punishing and does not give much room for growth if a mistake is made.”

(My understanding is that having a greater course load is “punishing.” You want more assignments? Yikes. I agree in principle that more assignments is probably better, but I have a limited capacity to do marking. I don’t get to have a TA in this course; I have a marker, but I have to beg for that every term.)

“feel the structure of the midterm & final exams exclude the possibility of assessing all content learned in the course. We were responsible for all course material, but only a few terms would appear on the exam.”

(Oh my gawd! You want me to test you on everything? Seriously? I’ve never heard of any instructor doing that on any exam in my 30 years of teaching. The best instructors can do is take a representative sample and test on that.)

“The term paper was so much work, which definitely caused a time crunch.”

(I think that’s a you-thing, not a me-thing. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s a Term paper. Like, you’re supposed to work on it over the course of a term. I try hard to push students to do that--giving a bonus mark when you decide on your term paper topic. If you leave it to the end of term, yup, there’s going to be a time crunch. When I was a student, I had my term papers done two weeks before they were due. And this is in a time before anything was available on the web. I had to physically go to multiple libraries to look up and read my sources. Now, many students don’t even start their term paper two weeks before it’s due.)

“Other classes come into play and impact my schedule and how I manage my time for assignments but the course work for this class independently is well spaced out and allows for lots of time to complete the assignments if you manage your time well.”

(Yes! Time management skills FTW!)

“You’re doing great lol.hats off to you.”
“I appreciate all the real-life examples! They really helped me to see the relevance of course content in daily life.”
“Case studies were very helpful in expanding the impacts of the topics and how they apply to our environment in practice.”
“Excellent use of case studies, very engaging.”
“They were EXCELLENT and incredibly helpful! Professor Loeplmann used several examples to illustrate real-world applications of difficult concepts.”

(You spelled my name wrong.)

“not supplying notes online feels antiquated and infantilizing.”

(I have my notes online. On my website. I’ve been doing it for every course I’ve taught since 1995. How’s that for antiquated?
Oh--wait. Do you mean that I don’t post my PowerPoint slides? No, I don’t. I am exquisitely mindful of accommodating people with disabilities. PDFs of PowerPoints are crap for that. HTML is still an elegant solution. You can print them out. You can load them into a word processor.
Oh--wait. Do you want that I don’t give you full notes and have blanks that you have to fill in? I’ve been saying this--and posting on this blog--for years: You Don’t Have To Use My Notes. You can take everything down longhand.
Oh--wait. Do you mean something else? I dunno. I don’t really know what you’re criticizing. Maybe you just couldn’t find my notes online.)

“The midterm exam was marked by Dr. Loepelmann himself very quickly after it occurred. :D For both the applied project and the midterm, the instructor provided in-class feedback which was great! No need for extra viewing sessions; efficient use of class time.”
“Feedback from the midterm exam as well as the assignments was specific and helpful for future learning. He also gave the option of submitting term papers early for some extra feedback which I found incredibly helpful.”
“The early term paper submission feedback was very helpful and was very much appreciated.”
“karsten seems to be a cool guy and easy professor to speak to. despite never actually speaking to him.”
“Dr. Loepelmann is professional, kind, and knowledgeable. He is also very humourous! One of the best instructors I have had in my university career. If I could afford to gift him an Aeron chair, I would. Thank you!”

(Well, it looks like my strategy of “be the worst jerk of an instructor ever” is not working.
Anyway, to all the haters: I hope that one day you get to teach a class and get feedback on it.)

Why aren’t you studying?

The SPOT (Fall, 2023): PSYCH 367

On, I continue! Slogging through Student Perspectives Of Teaching! This time, PSYCH 367: Perception. (If it's not immediately obvious, my comments in parentheses are in full-on sarcastic/snark mode.)

“Slides should be relased for finals or atleast sometime during the course to review. Its not fair to have fill in the blank notes and expect everyone to be able to attend classes and never miss one. Students should not be faulted because other students do not attend your classes. The blanks could be provided or the slides to provide extra information. everyclass moved very quickly and would sometimes go on irrelevant tangents.”

(Me? Irrelevant tangents? I stick really close to my notes. Sometimes I got questions from students that I tried my best to answer. Is that what you mean by “tangents”? You can get any missed blanks from me at the end of class. Or from the Discord.)

“The notes and course are really well put together and easy to follow! Notes make sense and are well suited to the material Lectures are the most engaging part of this class. They are fun and interesting and presented in a very easy way to follow with easily understood language.”

(I’m glad it works for some people.)

“Topics not gone over thoroughly enough. major topics are brought up and then dismissed with no emphasis whatsoever”

(I wish I knew what “major topic” I bought up and then “dismissed.” Being specific here would actually help me. There’s nothing I can do with this vague feedback. You see, it’s really hard to present information to other people so that they can understand it. Was it autism? See, I can't go off on an "irrelevant tangent" or some people won't like that. See above.)

“Might have been nice to have a basic rubric or template for labs, just to get any idea of the desired format.”

(Yup, I know. I’m working on it.)

“Your classes are the only classes I have ever taken that require me to graph data. No prerequisites for this course seem to require digital literacy. As such I suggest that at minimum, the requirements for graphing are better laid out within course documentation. Preferably, this would be a skill that you would actually teach us. The references included do not contain sufficient information on what is required to organize the data, and modify the graph to make it do what it should. I genuinely found making a graph to be the most challenging content in the entire class.”

(At some point, you have to learn how to do graphing. This is that point. I’ve never taken a course in graphing. I’m completely self-taught--in the era before YouTube. In this course you were required to make: two graphs. That’s all. Just two line graphs. I’m happy to hear that you were able to learn how to make graphs in this course. I consider that a success. I mean, are there university courses on how to make a graph? Let me know and I will seriously add that as a prerequisite. Seriously.)

“The lectures consisted of tons of information and evidence to back up theories that were both disproven and proven. It was difficult to follow what was the actual theories that are in use present day as we had to also know the false ones.”

(Er, theories are not “true” or “false” (or right or wrong). That’s not how theories work. We get to better theories by seeing what didn’t work. I showed you the scientific process. There is value in that. This is a third-year course. It’s not about getting the right answer and moving on. There is complexity and nuance to science that you’re only starting to see at this level. Wait till you get to graduate courses. Shit, you’ll start to believe that nothing is true.)

“the course website stating how you have never missed a class is not very supporting or accomodating to students. Students should not be faulted because other students do not attend your classes. It is not my problem that people do not attend your classes. Most profs do provide slide lectures.”

(So my strong work ethic is not “supporting”? You’ll have to connect the dots for me on that one. I try very hard to be present for students in my classes--even when I was feeling ill pre-Covid. Likewise, I expect a level of commitment from students. Missing a class here or there happens, I acknowledge that. But this was an in-person class. So is it now unreasonable of me to expect that students actually attend classes? I guess you don’t have to. But you also don’t have to get an A. No, I don’t provide slides. That’s not my style. I’ve sat in on classes in which everyone has the slides. It's unbelievable how many students were disengaged, on their phones, going through email. Great, they were in class. But they weren’t present.)

“It felt like we were often rushing through things closer to exams, not giving us enough time to reflect and learn the information before the exam.”

(That’s on me and I apologized to the class for it. I’ll apologize again. I am sorry. I know that I need to remove some content. Editing is really hard for me.)

“the format of the notes, the epolls during class and the online labs were all amazing ways to reinforce what we were learning and added an active element to classes. 10/10”

(Thx)

“While the text book was helpful and so were the practice tests that it gave, I would've strongly preferred at least one practice test from the prof. Every prof as a unique way of writing questions and being able to have baseline for what questions to expect make it easier to prepare.”

(See, that’s where the ePoll questions come in. I wrote those.)

“Overall, I liked the textbook! I just wish there wasn't so much extra content in addition to lecture notes - it makes studying a little difficult as I don't know what to really focus on.”

(I’m glad you found the textbook helpful. I’m ditching it next time I teach this class.)

“Labs didn't really help my understanding, personally, and were just more work for grading.”
“The labs helped reinforce some important concepts in the course.”

(Do you see how these surveys don’t really help me do my job? I mean, what am I supposed to do with this information?

“Both the midterms felt like they tested on material we never covered, and were not really in the lecture notes. Even after studying a lot I still wasn’t prepared because the tests had questions on other material that we didn’t go over.”

(I have never put a question on an exam based on material that was not in the lecture or textbook. Did you, y’know, read the textbook? That’s where 50% of the exam questions came from. Hmm, I think I may have discovered the cause of your difficulty.)

“That one lab due just before reading week was sneaky and mean, especially considering there was another lab due on the first day back after classes. I would pick one or the other.”

(Not trying to be sneaky or mean. I could, if I tried. Having things due on the weekend, like some instructors do. I try to space out the labs as much as possible, while also trying to cover the relevant background material before you do the lab. It’s very difficult to do this. Keep in mind, the labs are free. If I went with for-pay labs--about $60--I’d have a great selection to choose from and much greater flexibility. But I’d get mad comments from students about having to pay so much to do labs. I know the timing of these labs sucked. But I’ll see what else I can do next time. It's interesting that I didn't get a single positive comment about the labs being free.)

“Two midterms I feel is not accurate or conducive to learning. More exams worth a smaller percentage of the overall grade I think would have benefited in this course as there was so much content that was expected to be known and memorized for the exams. More exams allow for most focus on the key concepts.”

(You want more exams? You, dear person, are in the distinct minority. Don’t tell your fellow students about this!)

“it would be useful to have low stakes quizzes to see if the content was actually being learned after each chapter and to also promote staying on top of the reading chapters from the textbook”

(So, you want something like, um, chapter quizzes maybe? Like the chapter quizzes that are on eClass? Or are you saying you want free marks for doing these?)

“My instructor provided very helpful examples that made the content interesting!”
“The visuals/examples make the class more engaging and are something hat is easy to reflect on when writing the exams/reviewing”
“Examples used in class were great.”
“Diagrams, videos, interactive activities were a really nice touch to the course material - it helped with staying focused during the entire class!”
“Very very very very very good at explaining things and giving help one-on-one if you asked. I wish I had the time to come and ask for help or have the language to get help.”
“They explained things very well and would change the explanation from the textbook to help”
“I never asked but when anyone asked questions in class he was quick to come up with a different way of putting it aside from the written notes to help people understand”

(Whew. I’m glad I’m not completely wasting my time. I was starting to get worried!)

“No feedback was ever given by you, by the ta yes but not by you. when the average was 60 all you had to say was that it was consistent with past perfromance which is bull**** and not motivational or helpful at all.
* Inappropriate words were found and removed from this response.”
“I emailed the prof with concerns on my performance and was replied to with a lengthy email about ways in which I could better my performance of exams and also with what resources to refer to.”

(To the first person: I designed the labs that the TA give you feedback on. That's a design choice I made. Also, do you want me to say that the class did badly? And some people did really crappy on the exam? That would be demotivating. Sometimes, classes do better than historical averages, which I take great care to point out to the class. And, see what the second person wrote? I’m here to help. But I’m not going to come over to your house or anything. You have to make some effort. Did you reach out to me at all?)

“Not the most approachable.”
“the nicest prof i’ve ever had by far!”

(*heavy sigh*)

“Oh, he makes the class feel amazing with how he talks, jokes, and sets himself up in the class. I love this man so much, and I hope my next class with him is even better (:. He really REALLY reminds me of Wilson from the show 'House, M.D.' and makes me want to watch the show so much every time I have a class of his.”
“Very respectful and made the lectures fun to attend due to their sense of humour and this also made the content more enjoyable to learn. They also had amazing examples of each topic to help with learning the material and having those examples be fun made it easier to learn too”
“I really like Dr. Loepelmann's teaching style, and the material in the classes he teaches are always fascinating. I was already really interested in perception, and I was delighted when I found out he taught that class! I look forward to taking more classes with him in the future <3”
“this is the best prof at the entire uofa he deserves all the praise in the world! he clearly loves his area of expertise and going to his class is always a good experience. obviously the content is hard but he does a good job of explaining the majority of the time.”

(❤️)

Why aren't you studying?

The SPOT (Fall, 2023): PSYCH 282

The SPOT are, of course, the Student Perspectives Of Teaching, taking the place of the USRIs. Here are some selected comments from students in PSYCH 282: Behaviour Modification from Fall term, 2023. (If it's not immediately obvious, my comments in parentheses are in full-on snark mode.)

“I like the organization of the textbook better than the lectures. It seems more logical.”

(But my lectures follow the chapters of the textbook exactly. I don’t know what else I could do except read directly from the textbook. Here’s what others thought, below.)

“The lecture material and the textbook aligned extremely well”
“The textbook did have lots of overlap but it helped reinforce and strengthen my understanding.”

💀

“It would be nice to have a video to watch that explains the self-management project in a bit more detail”

(I wrote an 11-page document all about: The Self-Management Project. Is it not long enough? Not detailed enough? I also talked about the project throughout the course in lecture. Sorry if that’s not enough for you, but I’m trying to treat you as adults.)

“There were immensely to many terms needing to be remembered for each test. A non-cumulative design for each test would be more conducive to a better learning environment.”

(The midterms were not cumulative, although this university-level course does build upon itself. All of those terms are part of the course content. Part of learning about behaviour modification is learning the language of the field. This is not part of the “learning environment.” You just want the exams to be easier, right?)

“notes could've been in greek"

(Προσπάθησα να κάνω τα πάντα κατανοητά.)

“Class lectures were structured into 3-50 minute lectures throughout the week which felt like a really good pace to go about some of the heavy technical terms, subtopics and jargon that this course involves. The syllabus outlined everything in a very comprehensive and effective manner detailing what topics are going to be covered each week and the major due dates for the self management project."

(See? This person gets it.)

“I think at times the self-management project instructions and expectations could have been clearer. There were a lot of questions asking clarification about a lot of things. I also found the scoring rubric to be confusing. The point deduction and addition system in it was confusing.”
“I found the requirements for the self-management project clear”

(These responses were literally one right after the other.)

“I didn't like the fill in the blank lecture notes. I found it distracting trying to make sure I was getting all the blanks filled in and would miss blanks often when I was trying to pay attention to the lecture.”
“The taking of the notes by filling the blanks really increased my in class attention. Was a good idea.”

(Some like it, some hate it. You don’t have to use them at all, you know. You are free to write everything down yourself. As I said in the first lecture, if you miss some blanks, you can come up to me at the end and I’ll help you out and give you the blanks you missed. Also, I think people were sharing them on Discord. So you won’t miss anything if you just put in a bit of extra effort.)

“I hate textbook exclusive testable knowledge. Everything testable should be covered in lectures.”

(Reading is an important skill. Yes, it takes effort. You sign up for my course, I assume that you want to learn things--and develop your skills. No?)

“There were a plethora of resources available on eClass and on the instructor's main course website. Literally everything from supplemental videos, Textbook answer key guides, assignment video tutorials, ePoll question sets, customized worksheets for several of the topics we learned throughout the course, substitution recorded lecture videos for the classes the professor unfortunately had to miss, a Zoom link to access some lectures when the class became a hybrid class, to even appealing, simplified 1 page infographics that made processing certain concepts and topics that much easier.”

(Gee, when you put it that way, it sure looks like I put a lot of thought and effort into teaching this class!)

“Prof posted a recording on zoom but did not give us the password required to access the recording.”

(When you click the video, Zoom copies the passcode to your clipboard and a message on screen says, “Copy Passcode to Clipboard.” This is how Zoom works, and I can’t change it. Sorry if it was too confusing for you.)

“the textbook did not align with the notes in too many instances”

(“Too many”? There were five. And I pointed each one out to you explicitly. I figure second-year university students can handle that.)

“This course has strongly shaped how I see psychology as a field. As well I have made great strides in my own personal wellbeing”
“I had no idea about behaviour modification, and despite this being a hard course, I am highly motivated to continue more in this field, especially due to Loepelmann's amazing humour, knowledge, and overall awesomeness.”

(Well that’s pretty darn cool. You keep me going, people; you keep me going.)

“Need to read the textbook if you want to get over 80 on exams”

(Is this a surprise or something? I did say half of the exam questions are from the textbook. And why are you writing this comment to me? This isn't rmp.)

“More practice exam or questions would have been better”

(So, having dozens of ePoll questions, dozens of worksheet questions, dozens on online chapter questions, and literally hundreds of practice quiz and practice test questions in the textbook are not enough? Really? How many are enough? Thousands? smh)

“had lots of practice exams”

(Yes. Yes, I did.)

“The one project that got split into 5 parts has a certain amount of points for each section but I found it difficult to tell how you were doing percentage/letter grade wise”

(You just have to do a calculation: the weighted mean. Here’s an online calculator: https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/math/weighted-average-calculator.html. If you are can’t do this, then I am sad that your math teachers have all let you down.)

“dont get to keep our tests”

(Yep, just like every other PSYCH course that has multiple choice exams. However, you could go to the exam viewing and spend 2 hours looking it over, though. You’re welcome!)

“THEY DID NOT MARK ANYTHING ON TIME”

(I have to stand up for my TAs here. First, what even does “on time” mean? Were there some deadlines to have marked material back? Did I make any promises about when your results would be available? Answer: No. Marking almost 300 completely different assignment submissions is a massive job. It’s not the same as a TA marking answers to math problems in which everyone is supposed to get the exact same right answer. They did a damn good job and I appreciate it. More patience you need.)

“If anything it felt slow paced at times”
“Too fast sometimes”

(Ah, a classic complaint from two students in the same course. I go both too fast and too slow. In the same class.)

“I felt that the self management project was useless as we as students are already struggling with the material, we don’t need a full on project that is designed to change one of our behaviours when we can barely keep up as it is with not only this course but other courses as well.”
“The test were less about knowing the elements of the course and more about almost tricking us questions as it was close to the material but way to challenging to decifer.”
“Midterm 1 was very fair and representative of the course content as well as the self-management project which incorporated the occasional subject content of the course close to the date that it was actually taught.”

(Maybe--and this is just a thought--maybe different people experience the same course in different ways. Maybe some people struggle more than others. I could simplify my course content to satisfy everyone. But then ? Is my course worse than, say, a second-year CHEM course? Or a second-year ENGL course?)

“He is a WONDERFUL human and made the lectures incredibly enjoyable to attend!!! I would definitely take a class with him again. He is incredibly funny, engaging, and definitely passionate and knowledgeable about what he teaches!!! Definitely one of the best psych profs I have had, he is so organized and prepared”
“Dr. Loepelmann is one of the best professors I have had in university. You can tell that he wants people to succeed and go to great lengths to ensure that people are understanding the content of his lecture.”
“Dr. Loepelmann is an excellent professor. He makes the class and the topics more interesting with the videos played to us during class. He explains the topics in a concise way.”
“The energetic environment made me excited to learn and I always looked forward to coming to classes.”
“The environment wasn't too serious either: the expectations were mostly all clear and he was so incredibly kind and funny.”
“This course honestly broke my spirit.”

(Well, that’s what I’m aiming for.)

Why aren't you studying?

The Remote Delivery - Reviews

I'm going through (cleaning out?) some of the stuff I have left over from our abrupt switch to remote teaching and learning due to the Covid pandemic. I was online almost two full years, from March 2020 to the end of February 2022. (I previously wrote about that experience.)

(← crappy AI-generated image, thanks to Microsoft Bing Image Creator)

I never went through my evaluations and feedback comments (partly because the Department of Psychology has stopped giving out in-house teaching awards--which is another topic entirely). So here they are. Sorry, I've lost track of which courses these are from, and exactly which term. It all just blends together now.

“I really enjoyed the approach he took for the remote learning. Many profs seemed they had no clue how to go about it; some profs didn't even give anything like videos or notes. He was really fast acting in such a stressful and unique situation. I hope he knows that his hardwork and dedication to his students and his classes don't go unnoticed."

“Thank you for staying so consistent and working so hard. As a student watching and seeing that, it is truly inspiring.”

“The speed of which the instructor moved his material online. Some of my other instructors took a while to do so (which is understandable since it all caught us off guard) but it is really nice that Karsten Loepelmann had a lecture online the day the in-class lectures closed. He always updated on time as well which helped to keep me on schedule rather than waiting around for the next lectures to come.”

“The notes with blanks allowed me to listen more in class which helped me with my understanding of the material and concepts. I appreciated the ability to follow along with the PowerPoints while he voiced over the lectures. As well, the introduction and conclusion videos really helped and was something some other professors did not do.”

“I personally found that I was more motivated to engage with lectures during the set class time when they were initially conducted live, and I think some others may feel the same way. However, in the youtube format, I felt I was able to better absorb and understand the material as I could replay parts that didn't immediately register so falling a bit behind was traded off for clarity which isn't so bad in my opinion.”

“This course was very well suited to my style of learning and was one of the best classes I have taken in 4 years. The transition to remote learning was very smooth. Thank you for all the effort and enthusiasm you brought to this course, especially when everything went haywire.”

“The remote delivered lectures were of excellent quality; definitely appreciated the humour in them as well. Whether it's knowing the course material inside out, preparing well-thought out test questions, or editing his Youtube videos, you can tell this guy goes the extra mile and more.”

“Karsten was an awesome lecturer, he made the online classes probably as entertaining as they could be and he was really easy to stay engaged with. My only complaint is that there was absolutely no way to review our midterm exams and the final is cumulative so it’s impossible to know which areas we need to work on for the final.”

“Lecturer displayed content in an interesting way. Great quality lectures with great sound. Was pleasing to the ear to listen for more than 3hrs a session. Enjoyed this course overall.”

(More than 3 hours? You poor soul! Take a break, for heaven’s sake! Gah!)

“If you are going to do more asynchronous videos in future semesters, break them into smaller, better focused videos so that each one feels more self-contained and to better space out the watching to execute the spacing effect of learning.”

(Excellent application of course content. Sorry about the length. What happens is I get carried away and lose track of time. And I hate chopping a video when I'm in the middle of explaining something.)

“I was very impressed by Dr. Loepelmann's delivery of this course given the circumstances. The effort put in was noticed and appreciated!”

“I feel like there is so much content to be covered, and the online videos make are longer than class time would be. It is a lot of information to try to teach myself and remember.”

(I didn’t work out if they were longer or not. If there were longer, it’s not because I added more content to the course. I probably talked more slowly than I would in face-to-face classes, because I’m not getting feedback on whether you’re understanding everything so I just go slow.)

“Absolutely outstanding professor. He did very well at making online courses fun and interactive. Very engaging and well spoken.”

(Aw, thanks!)

Why aren't you studying?

The New LMS

LMSs are boring. Or rather, they should be boring--the less excitement, the better. First: What the heck is an LMS? A Learning Management System is used by institutions to deliver courses. They can deliver a course fully online, or be used to supplement an in-person course by hosting the syllabus, allowing assignments to be submitted, and deliver marks. So eClass is the UAlberta LMS. At least, that's our name for it. Our LMS is an instance of the open-source LMS Moodle. I'm not completely sure why "eClass" was chosen, but it's likely because no one knows what a "Moodle" is. It sounds like a cross between a muddle and a noodle, which makes no sense. So it was probably coined to make it clearer that it's the system for Electronic Class.

Previously, we used other LMSs: WebCT and a later version, called Vista (Microsoft Windows Vista was released around the same time, and boy did that lead to some confusion). At the time, the provincial government bought a license for WebCT for every post-secondary institution in the province. (I know: hard to believe. This was at a time when the government actually gave a shit about post-secondary education.) After everyone had gotten used to WebCT, the company was taken over by Blackboard, who wanted to phase it out. At that point, about 10 years ago, the University of Alberta faced a decision: force everyone to go with a new, unfamiliar Blackboard LMS or force everyone to go with a different, unfamiliar LMS. That's when we Moodled! (Ugh, sorry.)

In 2000, I taught a hybrid course (part online/part in-person), when we didn't have any LMS. I had to use a lot of hand-coded HTML. There were no lecture videos back then, just online notes and discussion forums. I wasn't interested in continuing that, and had no use for LMSs. I grudgingly learned how to use Moodle, but still relied mostly on my own hand-coded website. Again, this was before assignments were submitted online: students still handed in labs and term papers on, well, actual paper.

Grudgingly, I learned how to use eClass, gradually putting more assignments online. Some people used eClass to make MOOCs (massive open online courses) like Dino 101. But there was just no need for me to learn more. I mean, it would take something like a global pandemic to make me--and everyone else--re-examine boring old LMSs.

Oh, right. Pandemic. That's why we need an LMS.

When Covid hit, many of us instructors were in the same situation: I need to know how to do everything online, and I need to know it now. Lecture videos. Assignments. Exams. Grades. This was one of the most difficult aspects of the abrupt shift to remote teaching and learning. Many of us were constantly pinging eClass support, and when they became overwhelmed, we turned to each other for help.

By no means do I consider myself an eClass expert, but I was able to help a graduate student who was teaching their first class online. They even bought me a very nice bottle of wine as a thank-you present! So now that I'm fluent in eClass, now what? This is what: the email that sent a cold shiver of fear down my spine in September: "Transitioning to a New Learning Management System." Wha--?

That's right, starting in Fall, 2024 (and rolling out to everyone by Fall, 2025) is a new LMS. Moodle will be no more.

There are a few good reasons to ditch Moodle. There were several high-profile outages of eClass during the worst possible time: during online final exams. This even hit me in December of 2020, when eClass crashed right before my PSYCH 367 final exam. (Students were given the option to write the final at another time, or allow their term marks to serve as their final grade: 14 out of 123 students chose to write the final.) Also, even though Moodle is free open-source software, the university has to pay for servers to host it, and for developers to maintain it (fixing bugs, adding new features). All of these costs start to get pretty expensive, so going with a hosted option looks like a better option.

A company hosts the LMS, running and maintaining the servers. They may add features (maybe). And they will covert existing eClass sections to their new format so we don't have to create new ones from scratch. This last one is a verrrrrrry sore spot for a lot of instructors. We spent so much time over the last 4 years learning the ins and outs of Moodle, and now we have to learn something completely different!? There are some existing custom plug-ins that may not work in a new system. (Departments like math & stats and physics use custom software to manage their grading workflow, for example.) Most other universities in Canada that are similar to the University of Alberta have already moved to other, hosted LMSs. Even UCalgary uses D2L. I mean, c'mon. Even Calgary.

So, it's going to happen, no matter what. What's the new system going to be? I don't know; it hasn't been decided yet. But the timeline is pretty short--we should all know by the end of the month. And then the new learning curve begins. A note to students: please, please have patience with us. We're all going to be trying our best to learn this new system, and there are going to be glitches.

(One final thing. The University of Alberta provides tech support to MacEwan University, who are also using Moodle. If we ditch Moodle, it kind of puts MacEwan in a difficult spot. Maybe they'll end up hiring the eClass support staff who will inevitably be let go.)

Why aren't you studying?

Update 2/26/2024:
After much delay, it's finally been announced: we're moving to Canvas. Yay?

The Office (Good News and Bad News)

You never want to hear the words "There's asbestos in your office." That was the first bad news. It actually followed the good news of "We're cleaning the floor of your office." It's nice to look forward to a spring cleaning after a long winter of tracking snow, dirt, and muck into my office. But it's not really nice to open the door to my office and see that Bee Clean ripped up the flooring. I complained about this and a guy came and put down black tape. That's it--no fixing or replacing. At this point, I didn't even know that there was asbestos under the flooring; they only told me about that years later.

Does this look carcinogenic to you?

"No problem," he thought optimistically. "If it's a hazard, they would do something about it." But then the UCP took office and cut half a billion dollars and counting from higher education. There was no money for anything--not even asbestos abatement. And then Covid hit, and I taught remotely for almost two years. I guess that's good news? The fact that I wasn't in my office, being exposed to carcinogens. Okay, yes. That's good news.

Remote teaching eventually came to an end and I went back to my office. My asbestos-ridden, cancer-causing office. This spring, though, there was a glimmer of hope. Scarce money was being allocated to asbestos remediation. Yup, offices on the third floor would be completely redone. That's some good news, all right! The bad news is that my office is on the second floor, and there wasn't enough money for those offices. I looked jealously on as my colleagues packed up their offices. They would soon be asbestos-free, with spiffy new university-standard offices. This is the standard offices that new faculty get when they're hired: fresh paint, choice of flooring, new ceiling tiles, new window blinds. But not me: I'm old, not new.

But then--from out of nowhere--an email. Good news! More money had been allocated to redoing offices on the second floor! Except, as I peered through the documents, it wasn't so good. I'd be getting new ceiling tiles, and having the walls of my office painted. Wait, what? That's it? That can't be right. Every other office on my floor has either been completely redone (for new faculty), or was now on the list to be redone--except my office. That's, well, Bad News.

(Digression: What's the deal with ceiling tiles? The next time you're in the Biological Sciences Building, look up at all the gross, stained ceiling tiles. This building has leaks. It leaks a lot. When it leaks, it stains the ceiling tiles. Better not to look up. It's gross.)

 

I firmly outlined my case and eventually received (you see where this is going?): Good News. They would redo my office after all. It's just that, well, the renovations would start in the summer and run pretty close to the start of fall term. But there were a couple of weeks of buffer time in between, so that shouldn't be a problem. Right? Deep breath, and relax...

Packing up the office.

It took me four full days to pack up my office. Over 25 years worth of textbooks, papers, and knick-knacks. And an opportunity to pare it all down. (Marie Kondo, eat your heart out.) I went through every single thing in my office, recycling a few hundred kilos worth of old textbooks and papers, and boxing up the rest. Here's what it looked like:

 

Boxes, boxes, boxes!

(There was another bad news item that happened. The movers got tired (I guess?) and went for a break, leaving my office door wide open and all my stuff just sitting there unattended. Anyone could have just walked in and taken whatever they wanted. As if we don't have enough problems with theft as it is. Grr!)

And then I was done packing. I put it all out of my mind. There won't be any more bad news! Family vacation time in Victoria! Workers would be ripping up floored, remediating asbestos, and generally beavering away getting everything ready well before the first day of class. Except... Except not. Bad news: "delays" in getting the carpet. Which meant delays in getting everything else done, and getting all my stuff moved back. My greatest fear came true: move-in day was scheduled for September 8, with classes starting on September 5. So I'd be without an office for the first week? The busiest week of the year? Time to complain again.

Kudos to my department's executive assistant, who found me a spare office to use. I'll count that as good news, I guess.

A temporary office is better than no office?

And then, at last, finally, it was done.

 
Hmm, stripier than I thought.

Move-in day followed soon after. I've spent every spare moment over the past few weeks unpacking boxes, organizing stuff, and reconnecting computer equipment. After hours and hours of work, here's what it looks like now:

That's more like it!

All done! Good news! But...but wait. I noticed something. I stepped closer. I peered at my blinds. My old, unchanged, not updated blinds. Oh, they'll be replaced "at some point." So, some bad news after all.

Overall though, I am pleased with the reno. The office looks pretty nice. I finally have carpet like my colleagues have. And the reno gave me the opportunity to get rid of a lot of stuff I don't need. Thing are more organized, and there's a lot more room for my stuff:

Now that's good news!

Why aren't you studying?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2023 edition)

How was my summer? Busy--even busier than usual. So much going on.

As usual, I spend the majority of my time prepping for the next academic year. Sigh. Technical stuff: Manually converted all of my web pages to HTML5, and tried my hand at Inkscape to create vector images of the logos and graphics on my web pages. Hopefully, everything looks better on mobile devices now. Content stuff: Developed a new lecture topic on information design, which I should have done long ago. I got three books to get me up to speed (of course!).

🚙 In the spring, I got a new car: a Hyundai Tucson hybrid. I really wanted the plug-in hybrid but didn't want to wait 2 years (!) to get one. It often takes a while get comfortable with a new car, but not with this one. It's smooth and easy to drive, and it gets even better gas mileage than my old hybrid.

🔥 Then the wildfires hit--and kept on coming. So much destruction and chaos. My heart goes out to those disrupted and displaced by the terrible fires this year. Yeah, we had a lot of smoke to deal with in the city, but at least we were all safe. I hope the rebuilding goes swiftly.

🏖 Took the family to Aspen Beach on Gull Lake, as we do every summer. Chased butterflies and ate ice cream.

It's melting!

 

🦋 Then we headed to the Calgary Zoo for more butterflies. (Clearly, my wife and daughters are big fans of butterflies.)

So. Many. Butterflies.

🐱‍🐉 Next up: Drumheller. It's been five years since we were last at the Royal Tyrrell Museum; it's always worth the trip. And then: hoodoos.

Hoodoo?

 

🎬 There were a lot of blockbusters this summer. I didn't get around to doing the Barbenheimer thing. My mission, which I chose to accept, was seeing Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning (Part One). There's a lot of punctuation in that title.

Mission: Completed!

🎠 I got to spend time with my youngest daughter at K-Days. Thankfully, she's not into rides (me neither). It was all about the snacks and the petting zoo.

🌷🌸🌹🌺🌼 The highlight for us though was our first real holiday in five years, and the first real summer vacation we've taken as a family, going to Victoria. The Butchart Gardens! (Flowers, flowers, FLOWERS!) Victoria Butterfly Gardens! (Butterflies, amirite?) Craigdarroch and Hatley castles! Frickin' Delights Donuts! (Owned and run by ex-Edmontonians--given them a try!) Trans-Canada Highway Mile 0 and the Terry Fox memorial statue! (Got choked up a little bit.)

(This is a pretty good photo. 😎)

(You think these look good? You should try them. Frickin'!)

RIP, Terry. GOAT!

Whew! Lots of fun, and way better than last year when I broke my toe. Way better. Un/fortunately, I also had some good news and then some bad news. But that's another post.

Why aren't you studying?