Necessarily, we do that behind a veil of ignorance: we don’t know who will be applying or accepting our offers of admission to the program; our requirements are meant to be fair to the broadest likely set of applicants to the program. Still, some of the requirements may be redundant for you, given your prior experience, knowledge, and skills. If that’s the case, ask whether there’s a method established for testing out of the course. There may not be, for any number of reasons.

Understand that our goals for students are not entirely about the knowledge you will acquire; if they were, you could just read a book and be done with your education. We’re also interested in the attitudes and skills related to collaboration, problem-solving, and teamwork you’ll develop and the relationships with your peers and with faculty that develop as a result of your efforts. Can you participate as a team member who supports the goals of the team, supports other team members as they develop their skills, and brings a diverse knowledge-base to bear on a given task?

I assure you, most things in the world— indeed in the universe— are things you do not yet know. That should make them worthy of study in your mind, not unworthy.

You study a topic to discover to what degree it interests you. You can’t reasonably decide what interests you until you’ve studied it for a time.

If you’re only going to consider ideas with which you already agree, then why bother studying at all? How can you hope to understand why you hold the beliefs you do— and why others hold their beliefs— unless you consider ideas that contrast with what you already believe?

Exceptions may be made for events outside your control: health crises, legal obligations, etc.. However, you control your course load, time management, hobbies, travel plans, etc.

It is not your instructor’s job to lower the course expectations to fit your busy schedule. Rather, it’s their job to hold everyone— themselves included— to a high standard in order to ensure both a quality education— would you want anything less?— and to encourage your personal growth.

Everyone with an advanced academic degree has had to figure out how to balance school, work, and home life. It’s difficult, but many people before you have done it. Be inspired by them, ask them how they’ve managed, and find a balance that works for you.

I’ve found that a good habit to adopt is to avoid excuses altogether and instead directly accept responsibility.

If there are problems with the software, don’t shift blame for your experience to the software. Instead, take responsibility for the experience: (1) identify the problem, (2) describe how to replicate it reliably, (3) confirm that the problem occurs for others, and (4) think of 2 or 3 ways it could be made better. You can then share that information with your instructor, the software designers, etc.

If the book(s) required for your class aren’t written in a way that matches your learning needs, ask for and seek out other high-quality resources on the topic. The instructor, reference librarians, and the Web are there to help.

Ultimately, you must be responsible for your own experience.

Educators try not to take it personally, and you should follow suit. A poor learning experience for you is likely a disheartening teaching experience for the instructor, too. Or it might be a positive learning experience for others in the class.

If you have suggestions for improving the experience, discuss them politely and constructively with your instructor. Good instructors are always thinking about how to improve their courses and concrete suggestions from students about how to improve the learning experience are usually welcome.

A positive learning experience consists of the students and the instructor working together to create a healthy and inspiring learning community.

If you believe, however, that the instructor in being unfair to students or is in some other way professionally deficient, consider discussing it with the department chair. Again, try to be constructive and specific: what is the instructor doing or not doing that undermines the learning experience? How could it be corrected?

The bottom line: you are responsible for your experience. What can you do to make it a better experience for you, your classmates, and your instructor?

I hope for more from myself and my students: I want you to be synthetic thinkers [1]synthesis. You need to be able to examine the evidence, deconstruct it to understand its critical aspects, and reconstruct it into novel solutions to novel problems.

Most of life’s important questions aren’t answered in any textbook.

If you’re right, then the instructor may be doing a poor job. If you’re wrong, then there’s a disconnect between the way your instructor is evoking concepts and the concepts you’re expecting and you should work that out together.

You are a student and your jobs as a student are (1) to learn to ask interesting questions— a very difficult thing to do— and (2) to learn to answer questions on your own. Your instructor’s job, as an educator, is to provide you with learning experiences that challenge you to become more than you were when you joined their class.

Learning is difficult: biologically we know that learning expends metabolic energy; it’s not just time spent on-task.

Step back. What simple things might you have overlooked? Are you certain you understand the meaning and implications of the key phrases in the statement of the problem— both what they include and what they exclude? What assumptions are you making?

Learners often fall into the trap of believing that, if they don’t immediately know how to approach a problem, then it must involve some new skill or knowledge that they have to hunt down. More often, a workable approach can be found by combining the skills and knowledge you already have: be synthetic [1]synthesis.

Review assignments as soon as possible after they are given. If you’re uncertain what’s expected of you, ask.

You need to be responsible for your experience.

First, as soon as possible after the class you missed, you should get together with a classmate you trust to find out what we did and discussed. This will help them, too, as they try to crystalize the ideas well enough to present them to you.

Second, well before the next class meeting, you should discuss your understanding and any remaining questions you have with your TA or instructor during their office hours, via IM, or via email. This will help you as you try to crystalize the ideas well enough to present them to the instructional staff.

This repeated effort to restate and clarify one’s understanding of the course materials has been shown to be a critical factor in how deeply one learns [3]howpeoplelearn.

Please do not wait until the next class meeting to find out what’s going on with the class.

The time immediately before and after class are not meant for the instructor to condense the entire previous class meeting for you. That is time for the instructor to setup, clean up, and deal with relatively minor administrative issues: signatures, returning papers, etc.

So, why are you asking this question?

Do the work. Turn it in. Demonstrate that you’re willing to exert the effort required to learn. If you get ‘credit’ for it, that’s a bonus.

You surely will not get credit for asking this question.

Writing about and presenting your ideas are major factors in how deeply you learn [4]wac.

It’s always possible the instructor made a mistake or didn’t apply the marking rubric consistently; for every paper you write, your instructor has to read and evaluate 10, 20, or even 30 papers from your classmates. I once taught a class with 350 students; in such classes, it’s nearly impossible to be precise in marking papers. Remember that small variations in percentage-based scores are unlikely to change your final course grade.

It’s also possible that the papers might have differed in some subtle ways that your instructor values: argument structure, clarity, conciseness, quality of external sources, degree to which information was simply being restated versus reinterpreted, and so on. Instructors are usually looking for evidence of engagement and depth of thinking. How do the papers compare on those measures?

What’s the least work I can do and still pass?

Again: Do the work. Turn it in. Demonstrate that you’re willing to exert the effort required to learn. Worry about the gold star later, if ever.

• Be engaged.
• Be honest.
• Be responsible for your own experience.
• Be a responsible member of this learning community.
• Communicate clearly and concisely.

Learning isn’t about word counts or margin widths or numbers of pages. It’s about honest engagement in the experiences in which you find yourself. It’s about trying to improve yourself and to support others— including the instructor— as they work to improve themselves.

• what you intended to do
• what you actually did (in enough detail that your instructor can reproduce the issue)
• what you expected to happen
• what actually happened (do not say that “nothing” happened. Something happened, even if it was that the computer screen stayed the same and the on-screen pointer stopped responding.)

Send your work and be specific about what issues you’re experiencing— screenshots, your draft paper, and your source code are all wonderful!— so that your instructor can try first to reproduce them and then debug them.

A reasonable expectation is that you’ll get a response within 1 business day… add time for evenings, weekends, holidays, etc.

Given this likely lag, be as informative as you can be in your initial email:

• instructors are often teaching several classes at once, so be explicit about which class you are in.
• some students may be lagging behind or working ahead, which assignment, chapter, quiz, unit, etc. are you referring to?
• what is the problem for which you’re seeking help?
• what steps have you taken already to try to solve your problem?
• attach your draft, source code, or other work products; without seeing the work you’ve done, your TA or instructor is just guessing at what your issue might be.
• exactly what happened when you tried your solution? (“nothing” is almost always the wrong answer.)

Deadlines are when you should be wrapping-up your work, not when you begin it. You have days— possibly weeks— to work on assignments for a reason: they… take… time; especially if you intend to do them well. Plan accordingly.

If you don’t know, yet, how to plan your time, there are resources both on campus and online [6]time that can help. Everyone had to learn this at some point; don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Provide context and ask directly for what you need:

• What is the agenda for this meeting?
• Do you just need a quick signature, or is this likely to be an hour-long deep thought session?
• Do you want to discuss the class, or do you need advice on grad schools?
• Is there a time constraint?

Provide enough information so that both you and your instructor can prepare for the meeting.

Why does it have to be tomorrow? Have you checked your TA/instructor’s posted office hours and preferred methods of contact? Exert the effort to find a mutually agreeable time to meet, rather than just thinking about your own schedule.

Requests for meetings constrain what else people might do with their time. Clarity about the purpose and time constraints for the meeting improve the chances you’ll get what you need.