For the fourth time since Thanksgiving, I'm putting together a course. Ashland starts Monday, and their two are all ready except for the final copying. (I hope the weather breaks up enough to allow me to do that on Friday.) Same story for one of my NCSC courses, and I have an extra week to worry about them.
Then there's the new one. A teacher at NCSC took sick, so I got the course at the last second. It's a basic writing (developmental) course, and I only have six students. I might possibly pick up one or two more, but I doubt I will hit ten. I've never seen the textbook, and I can't get a copy until Monday. The textbook publisher needs assurances from the school that I really teach there if I am to get access to the teachers' website. Apparently an essential part of the course is the PLATO online learning software, but I cannot get into it because I'm not yet registered as a teacher (and presumably, I am supposed to construct an elaborate set of online exercises and tests for these six students). And apparently, nobody has developed anything resembling assignments for this course.
This is the point where I begin to say, "C'mon guys! Isn't this a LOT of overhead for six students?" And wouldn't it be nice, for once, to be an insider, not an outsider to the whole educational machine?
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