Complaint Review: Virginia College Online

I had been attending college on line with VCO (Virginia College online). One of my minors was Word Processing. The school required the use of a site titled Myitlab, which the cd for downloading and subscribing was mailed to the students. I had issues with this site and was unable to do almost all the assignments, as with few other students having same issue as well.

Using this site for learning activities and homework assignments began about the fourth week of this term in my Word Processing class.

This site was supposed to guide students through the completion and submitting of their assignments with Microsoft Word. My issue was that no matter what I chose as an answer, I got an alert message stating "wrong answer". Even when I followed the hint and/or show me buttons (which guides you through the correct procedure) I still got the same message alert.

I sent my instructor an e mail message alerting him of this issue. His reply was to use the hint and/or show me buttons. I replied back telling him that I had already tried that, same thing keeps happening; "wrong answer" message alert. The next message I got from him was an attachment that showed me where the hint/show me buttons on the assignment page of the site were, even though I had already stated that I tried that step. In the meantime, I am unable to do the assignments because while in the site attempting them, they are not submitted, which is done automatically, until the assignment is completed, or you close that "page". If the student chooses to close it, it is submitted automatically, with points for the remainder of the assignment that was not completed deducted from the over-all grade. During this time frame, I am getting behind in my homework.

Finally, when I sent him a message requesting to do the assignments by going directly into Mocrosoft Word and using the textbook or I will transfer to another college, he then granted me this.

He then sent me a list of assignments, which we were already about six to seven weeks into the term (the term consisted of 11 weeks). I had all these plus the current week assignments to do.

The majority of that week I would sit at my computer after working all day (I have a full time job and was working over time as well) and do these assignments until I got nauseas because of the repeated looking back and forth from the textbook to the monitor, and vise-versa.

I sent him the assignments as an attachment to his e mail at the college, only to get a message back telling me some of them were the wrong assignments. I went by the list he sent me, but still the majority of them were the wrong ones.

Alot of the substitute assignments, which he then sent me another list, did not guide the student (me) through the steps to complete.

At this same time, not only did I have another class I had homework assignments to do, I also had a group essay project we were assigned to do in our Word Processing class due week 10, which was fast approaching.

I finally gave up on getting the proper help from my instructor and sent an e mail to one of my advisors stating the problems I was having in this class with the assignments and instructor. She immediately passed this information onto the program director, who then contaced me via e mail, and at my place of employment. I explained to her the situation in full detail.

By this time, we were already nearing the end of week 10, just one week remaing for the term.

When doing the missed assignments, I would file them on my computer desktop for more ease in locating to submit. I had to take my computer to where I got it for servicing, and was given a 'loaner" to use for this duration.
The 19th being the last day of this term, I got a message from her on about the 16th with a list of missing assignments she obtained from my instructor.
I replied with the (above) information about my computer being serviced and I would have to do them all over again.

Our final exam was done through the college website, which I received a 95%, was given a 90% for the group essay, 100% on our class discussion board, and brought other grades up from C's/D's to almost all B's and some A's. At the same time staying up to par in my other class.

The morning of the 20th, last day of the term, I was sent the message of getting an F for my grade in class.

According to the list the program director sent me, there were eight missing assignments. These not giving any guidance as to the specific steps to take to do them, each one could take about one to two hours to complete due to having to go back and forth from page to page in the textbook.

The original list of assignments I was given are titled "Hands on Exercises" and "Skill Based Training", h*e and SBT for short. For example: Chap. 4 h*e (SBT) #1. Those give instructions throughout the assignment guiding the student through each step. Whichever ones was initially given to me are the ones I had done. The assignments that do not give guidance for each step are titled "Mid Level Exercises". I was expected to know up-front most of the ones he sent titled SBT were actually the mid level exercises for me to do.

As a result of his inadequacy of assigning the homework I was actually supposed to do, I am receiving an F for the class.

Helen
Batavia, Ohio
U.S.A.