Quick OSU German question

[VBCaroline]

Would someone please tell me how long the weekly phone call lasts? Is it all conversational practice?

Thanks.

Caroline

[momee]

The weekly phone call depends on what they're doing, but mostly 20 mins tops. My son says it's pretty much all conversation. Sounds to me when they're doing it the main goal is to get the kids to actually speak German :)

 

It's harder than I thought it would be but the upside is you can take as long as you need to complete the course. (I think, it's more than a year anyway.)

[Annie G]

Caroline's right- around 20 minutes tops and mostly conversational. But if your student has questions or needs help with something, it's a good time to ask. I've also had dd call when she needed explanation even if it wasn't her designated call time and she has never been turned away or put on hold.

 

Once we had an issue with a grad student who did some grading on some written work dd did. He accused her of cheating and gave her a barely passing grade. Lickety split she was on the phone to Sabine Lewis and it was handled quickly and with total satisfaction. (Then *I* had to talk to Sabine about why she allowed them to give a passing grade to a student they thought had cheated!)

[VBCaroline]

Thanks for the information.

Caroline

[Moira in MA]

Once we had an issue with a grad student who did some grading on some written work dd did. He accused her of cheating and gave her a barely passing grade. Lickety split she was on the phone to Sabine Lewis and it was handled quickly and with total satisfaction. (Then *I* had to talk to Sabine about why she allowed them to give a passing grade to a student they thought had cheated!)

 

Having also hit this issue -- again with a satisfactory resolution, my perception is that there *is* a huge amount of cheating going on in student coursework in many school/college situations.

 

The internet is readily available and has tools such as google translate. Some students just plain don't do the work themselves. Doing too well invites scrutiny. It is sad that grades are more important than learning.

 

~Moira

[Annie G]

I'm sure cheating is rampant. Dh taught at our local community college and students cheated by turning in papers they found online. Those were stupid students- one submitted an article by a scientist with a PhD and thought dh wouldn't notice that the writing was a bit above college freshman level. Oh, and the article was published on the Internet, word for word what the student submitted.

 

I was just disappointed that dd had high A grades all year in German 1 and suddenly a grad student thought she was cheating. Sad that a dedicated student is suspect!

[VBCaroline]

Moira,

Do you mean that you had the same issue with an OSU grad student, or with another program?

Caroline

[momee]

Ok. Wow. This thread is a bit confusing. I think the first poster after me meant to say momee is right. Seeing as you're the original one asking the ? :)

 

Also, looks like the cheating bit was from another post.

I don't know how there could be cheating with OSU unless the student intentionally goes onto the parents login stuff and directly copies the info.

Not really helpful to them as a student.

The videos they watch are so explanatory it's almost impossible to not get the answers right except for tests they have to study for.

 

We're very happy with OSU. My son hasn't exactly been timely in his pusuance of this course and it's taking him a long time but I'm cutting him slack because I required SOOOO much in terms of history and lit he hasn't had a ton of time. Or energy left.

[Moira in MA]

Moira,

Do you mean that you had the same issue with an OSU grad student, or with another program?

Caroline

 

probably with the same grad student...but they're learning too, remember.

 

He has been a good tutor since then and dd benefits from her conversation time with him.

 

~Moira