Help Regarding Professor Issue

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rwbil

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My wife is studying to get my B.S. in ASL interpreting. She has been an "A" student and in her final semester a professor is failing her. The professor gave the most negative comments about my wife's videos. But my wife had worked with a Deaf Mentor that the professor herself recommend to get her skill to be the best they can be. And my wife asked the deaf mentor to review her video. She also provided the deaf mentor with the transcript. The deaf mentor said her videos where good and thought 85% of the message was conveyed, while the professor said 30% of the message was conveyed.

No other professor want to get involved against another professor. My wife is planning to do a grade appeal. And we are trying to find some recognized expert to evaluate her video. She can get other deaf individuals and other certified instructors, but not sure who to get whose opinion would carry tremendous weight in this field. We are willing to pay the individual to do an assessment.

Any suggestions?
 
Did your wife ask her professor what she has done wrong, and what she can do to rectify it?

Yes, it sounds like the professor has a bone to pick for your wife, but it is hard to make that determination without knowing all the facts.

I would get to the root of why the professor disagrees. It is possible that the video is not good, and those that you've consulted with don't want to hurt your feelings.
 
Maybe the student can write a rubric of how he or she thinks he or she should be graded, and then compare it to the professor's grading criteria to see if the assessment is fair.

If the professor doesn't want to do this, then I guess there is always the dean.

Just remember to treat the professor as an ally, not an enemy.
 
I only gave part of the story because it is so long. My wife had asked the Professor and the Department Head for names of mentors so she could get her skill to be as good as possible. She worked with both mentors and both mentors told her; her videos were good and then this professor says they are not. And my wife did not agree with any of her comments. She just says things like not clear and gives a zero. So we have two deaf mentors saying the videos were good and the professor saying they were not. How is that even possible.

Worst, my wife asked another student for her video. It would unethical to send that video to another person to evaluate, but according to my wife in her opinion her video was better. And the other girl is passing.

So we are trying to get as much objective evidence together as possible.

We are trying to find someone that is considered a recognized expert in ASL who's word carries some weight whether they be hearing or deaf and ask them to do an assessment.
 
I guess I should comment on the Rubic comment. It is tough because the Professor list the main ideas and just puts a symbol that says it was clear or not clear or missing. And if it is not clear or missing you get zero points. My wife thinks the main ideas are there and clear, but according the professor they are not. There is no explanation why it was unclear.

I am an engineer, not an ASL person. I cannot believe it is this hard to know if someone signed something clearly or not.

She tried to talk to the professor to no avail, so that is why we are now trying to gather as much objective evidence as possible. We will once again start with the professor and work our way up the ladder.

The bad part is this is such a unique program she cannot take the class from another professor or even take the class next semester, because it is only offered every 2 years.
 
Curious what is record with that professor? Like how many % of students have passed? Is it. 10%? 50%? Better?
 
IMO the professor is looking for something he's not getting. I'm not really about to speculate on that. Personally I'd wait the two years, you're going to make an enemy of him no matter what you do now.

You might even consider transferring the credits to another university.
 
Perhaps the issue isn't the video at all, are you sure the video is completing the assignment?

When I was in college I had an accounting professor that wanted a ten page paper on some subject which I researched and submitted. I received a low grade on the paper. To say I was upset would be an understatement as I commented on it when he handed back the assignments during class. The whole class was surprised because they knew I was getting good grades. After discussing the paper with the teacher, it seems I didn't correctly present my bibliography in the form he was expecting. Now, I knew if he had read the paper he would have at least seen the bibliography and noted it. He wasn't the greatest teacher, but he had tenure. The grade was adjust, but it wasn't the correct grade(IMO).

My point is: It could be that what your wife is presenting as a video might not be completing the assignment if it is not done as the professor expects it.

So, I would review the assignment and make sure you are presenting what is expected.
 
On transferring the credits. This is a B.S. Program in ASL. Only a few schools in the US with that program. Even if you went to another college with the same program they would require you to take at least 45 credit hours with that college to get a degree from them.

The assignment was to interpret the video. There is issue on whether she did the assignment. This issue is on the quality of her video interpretation.

No I do not think the mentors were being nice. She had worked with these mentors to get her skill to be the best they could be. Anytime they saw a video of hers and thought there were changes needed they would say so. On these videos they said they were Good and did not need any changes.

We knew another mentor who has the highest certificates that use to work for the school and she told us the professor would never take her opinion because she was not formally educated in the field.

That is why we are looking for someone that is formally educated in this field, preferable with a PH.d that is a known ASL expert to assess her videos.
 
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