Altilab2005 - Distance Education Blog

You know, I realize that you probably all think that I enjoy  this.  That I take pleasure in complaining about things.  Well, I don’t.  It takes a lot of time out of an already busy schedule and adds to the stress of a life abundant with it to begin with.

This is going to be a long one, so make some popcorn and put on some flannel PJ’s.

In this blog post I will present to you a detailed account of the exciting experience I have had taking ENG327: American Literatures with Associate Professor Dr. Marcus Librizzi at the University of Maine at Machias.

I was given special permission to take this as a substitution for a class that although is required for my degree, wasn’t available during a time frame that I was able to take it through my own branch of the University, Augusta.  My boyfriend had taken a class with Dr. Librizzi about a year ago and he’d had a rewarding experience, so when it came down to choosing between two classes and two professors to get this credit from, I selected Librizzi because he seemed truly involved in the class that Dan took with him.  I like to see teacher involvement, especially when a single class costs as much as three months of my mortgage payments.

Class began and we received an email from Dr. Librizzi welcoming us to class.  The weekly assignment schedule asked us to read the syllabus and email him with our choice of a grade contract.  I did this promptly.

Week two rolls around and I hadn’t heard back from the teacher yet and hadn’t seen a meet and greet forum posted.  The whole class felt very strange, disconnected and isolated.  I assumed it was because of the hectic nature of Fall semester and waited to see what happened with Week 2’s assignments.  We were asked to read a few stories and a poem and comment about them in the forums, using Dr. Librizzi’s prompts as a guide.

The forums seemed stagnant, other students reluctant or hesitant to participate.  This being the first  Blackboard based class I’d taken with Dr. Librizzi, assumed it resulted from a lack of camaraderie because there had been no activities designed to promote a cohesion of the class.  We weren’t given a forum to meet and greet each other or even a forum where questions could be asked.  Just a single forum that consisted of a few prompts written by Dr. Librizzi.

To try to create a little unity, I sent out an email to all the other students in the class introducing myself and asked that they do the same so we could all become  more familiar with one another.  Especially since we’d be spending the next twelve weeks or so together.  I never received a single response.

Not exactly the best way to begin a distance education course if you ask me, and completely and uniquely atypical of every other distance course I’ve taken through the University of Maine system.  After a couple of days I began to wonder if maybe the class had been canceled.  Only a couple of students were participating, the teacher hadn’t been on the forums once or even contacted us with a weekly pre-cap or recap.  He just wasn’t around.  I had enrolled in a class in the Summer semester that I didn’t find out was canceled until long after I’d been working on my assignments and readings.  I suspected that this had to be the case because nothing else would explain the lack of students and a no-show teacher.

I called my branch of the college and they referred me to Machias.  I called Machias and they told me that the class was definitely running but expressed concern that Dr. Librizzi hadn’t been seen since it began and suggested that I call him directly to find out what was going on.  Which I did.

He called me back within a reasonable amount of time and explained that this was his first time teaching this class online and that he was running behind getting content on the site.  He told me to expect the site to be complete shortly and to just be patient.  I was. I suggested he create a forum where students could get to know each other.  He thought that was a good idea.

On September 9th or 10th I notice he has posted a meet and greet forum so I took some time and posted some information about myself and greeted a  couple of fellow students.  Dr. Librizzi posted a very brief biography of his own but didn’t use this as an opportunity to speak with any of the other  students.  I thought this was kind of disrespectful but hoped he would turn it around in the forums.

Below notice the one post by Dr. Librizzi and the very limited posts by other students.  These six represent only about half or 1/3 of the entire class.

On September 22nd, about 3.5 weeks into class, I received my first email from Dr. Librizzi.  He told me that I was doing an excellent job on the forums and that his only suggestion would be to use more textual references.  Okay, I thought.  And the next time I posted, I took this advice.

He also mentioned that he thought it was odd that I hadn’t posted on the Meet and Greet forums.  The email is below. Please note the dates of 9/22/09 and the casual nature of the email:

Hi Stacy,

I wanted to give you feedback on your participation in ENG 327. You’ve been posting some excellent responses.

I thought your discussion of Hawthorne’s tale was particularly illuminating, but each of your major responses has helped advance the discussion by addressing significant points. Your Melville entries were quite helpful, but I would have liked to see a little more examples taken from the novel.

It’s rather odd that you still haven’t introduced yourself in the “meet and greet” forum, which I created on your recommendation. Please post an introduction there.

Keep up the good work.

I responded to him by saying that I had though posting again would be redundant since I’d already sent my bio to everyone in the class.  He wrote back that same day, asking me to go ahead and post.  (Plus I’d already posted twice in this forum which was once more than he’d bothered to and twice more than half the class).

It was really hectic from the 23rd to the 26th.  I postponed major homework  until the 27th when I could concentrate on it  fully and be at home with a constant internet connection.  Sometimes doing homework from the shop is possible, but the connection from the bookstore cuts out frequently leading to lost posts, etc.

Saturday morning I woke up and while drinking coffee and making a list of things to do that day (including my repeat introduction post), I brought up my email. Mind you, I had been working all week long and only four days had gone by since Marcus had requested I post again in this non-mandatory, social forum… I get this ridiculous email from him telling me that:

Stacy,

I’m beginning to run out of patience. Last week, I specifically requested you to post your introduction in the meet and greet forum, which I created on your recommendation. Whether or not you think the introduction is redundant, I expect to see it there as soon as possible.

Okay???  First of all, it was only four days prior and I wasn’t aware that there was a deadline, at least I hadn’t been given one.  Considering that he had been incapable of gracing his class with his presence in the Meet and Greet besides discussing his own accomplishments, I felt that this demand and rather rotten tone were uncalled for.  I decided at this point that I wouldn’t be posting in this forum.  If you notice from the screen shot, there were only six students that participated to begin with.  I was one of only two students who were decent and active enough to post twice.  Was I the only one who had received this petulant command to post?  Was I the only student being required to participate in this forum three times as opposed to optionally?  Weird…and… enough to piss me off!

Holding my tongue, I contacted Dr. Librizzi about another issue, to obtain permission to use a short story I’d written for one of his assignments.  He told me that was good and that wrapped up that conversation.

I never heard from him again.  Weeks 3, 4, 5 and 6 come, Dr. Librizzi has still never posted anything in any of his forums, socially or educationally.  It’s as though he doesn’t exist.

I receive no additional feedback, students post less and less.  The way the class is being conducted and Dr. Librizzi’s earlier hissy fit are beginning to annoy me more and more.  Since half the semester had gone by with the course on autopilot, I decided I had no choice but to contact UMM once again to find out where this teacher had disappeared to.

So, I begin my round of calling, again.  First my campus advising office, then I was referred to Distance Education.  Then Provost at Machias, talked to the secretary.  She left a  message with Stuart Swain.  It was  a few days before I got  an email from Nick Necastro.  Yes, I deliberately bypassed Dr. Librizzi.   I didn’t feel as though anyone should have to be reminding him to teach.  Much like as an adult student I shouldn’t have to be reminded to do my homework.  This class is his responsibility, not mine.  He was the neglecting it, not me.  If he was even partially participating in the class  I never would have  said anything, but he had never once done  so.  Truly disgusting behavior for a Professor if you ask me.  And, being the squeaky wheel I am, I decided to complain about it.

I assumed that if I was feeling this way that other student’s had to be as well.  I, and this is when shit hit the fan, emailed all the students in the class that seemed to be at least semi-active on the forums.  My email asked students how they felt the class was going.  It also brought up the four complaints I had with the class, mainly the lack of teaching going on and asked that they stand up for themselves.  After all, we pay too much for these classes to not be taught anything.  I’m very pro-active when it comes to my education, I assumed others were as well.  I got five responses.

One student was just pissed in general that I would want to increase her workload.  She was content not doing anything and by defending Dr. Librizzi, she was probably hoping that the TWO times she has participated out of SIX weeks, that she get a good grade for.

Three students ripped me apart like piranha going at a piece of bloody meat.  They were adamant that this had been the most wonderful educational experience of their entire lives.  Going on to to say that Dr. Librizzi had been teaching the class like the dickens and he was beyond reproach.  They used lot’s of words that I’d normally associate with fanaticism and cult-like mentality.  ‘Love’ came up a lot in each of their emails.  It felt more like they were jealously defending a lover than a Professor.  It kind of gave me the creeps, but the giggles too.  If anything, I felt very bad that these women were sacrificing a solid education for misguided worship and adoration.

One of  the three I just mentioned, one actually recanted in a second email.  She apologized for jumping down my throat and explained that the biggest reason she’d been so quick to flip her bic is that she ‘loved’ Dr. Librizzi so much.  So basically, she was blindly defending.  I can get that.  I have done it before.  But it doesn’t make it right.  After we both cooled our tones, she admitted that she too felt Dr. Librizzi wasn’t doing his best work in this class.  She told me she’d asked him to respond to posts, but he hadn’t.  She’d also been emailing him, but he hadn’t replied.  Aha! Vindication finally.

The next morning  I got another email from a fellow student.  I was reluctant to read it  because I was trying to keep my blood pressure down.  I figured it would be another psycho “I  love Marcus and I’ll tell on you for being mean to him” letter.  It wasn’t.  It was another student who agreed with me.  Thank god!  Now at least I know I’m not completely seeing this wrong.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION