Professors shouldn’t assign more than they can grade

Photo courtesy of Scott Graham on Unsplash

In a world where a grade point average can determine your enrollment, affect whether you keep a scholarship and prevent you from graduating, professors should be on top of grading – but many are not. 

Students are often given several assignments per week, sometimes multiple from the same class. Whether solving equations or writing papers, we’re expected to budget our time and uphold the workload of four to six classes on top of jobs and extracurricular activities. It can become overwhelming, and professors shouldn’t assign more than they can grade.

Professors sometimes take weeks or even months to grade and give feedback on students’ submitted assignments. Without grades for their submitted assignments, and while facing a seemingly endless list of upcoming tasks, it’s difficult for students to know what changes they can make to improve. Feedback is a necessity that can drastically affect the quality of work being produced. Yet many professors at Hofstra don’t use Canvas, don’t provide feedback and don’t grade on time.

Too often have students gone long periods of time with weekly assignments yet only one or two posted grades. Students have gotten used to hearing excuses from professors, such as, “There are 30 of you and one of me,” or “I teach other classes.” Still, professors expect the completion of work that they cannot make time to grade.

Furthermore, professors penalize students if they don’t finish work on time, deducting points or refusing to accept the work at all. One of the things holding students back from submitting work on time, however, is the fact that they often have no idea how their previous assignments have been graded. This trend can make students feel disrespected. 

Along with not grading or giving feedback on assignments, students report that some professors don’t even use Canvas, contributing to a lack of clarity about upcoming work. This problem is happening across all majors. Students have had experiences with professors using outside resources for homework but neglecting to announce assignments in class or post any schedule online, leading to assignments building up unbeknownst to them. 

With professors not posting clear directions and due dates for assignments on Canvas, students are often forced to comb through multiple platforms trying to see what’s due. With the amount of money people pay to attend this school, this sort of neglect is unacceptable. 

This trend does not end with grades. Too many students have experiences with professors who make no effort to work with students one-on-one. Students are not being given the help that they need. They’re expected to guess when their assignments will be posted and hope they can complete them before they’re due. Students face strict submission deadlines without any feedback about grades and are often met with no response when they try to reach out directly. Long waits for feedback from professors leave students helpless when it comes to improving their grades. 

Our professors are letting us down. If you don’t have enough time to grade your students’ work, you are assigning too much. If you can’t help students when they need it, you shouldn’t be teaching. Hofstra students deserve better.