This complaint is in reference to the class (POS 420) in August 06, I will explain the problems that I encountered and the results of my actions. Much of the trouble I had is very technical and very difficult to explain via email. My academic advisor, Brooke Massey should have copies of any communication that I had with her.
This class was learning the Unix operating system. Within the first week to or so of the class I had obtained he required software (Knoppix) which allows a windows based computer to emulate a Unix based computer. Most of the students were having problems getting the software to work. I learned from the classroom discussions, I and others had called tech support and it seemed that the tech reps that had been contacted were unfamiliar with that software, and it's operation, so they could not help.
From the classroom discussions, it seemed that the software acted differently depending on the version of windows that was installed. Another problem that I encountered was that when I finally got the software to install and work (more or less), I tried to follow the examples and assignments in the required text, but the results were not as shown. (The text didn't fit the software/assignments)
This brought up another problem and that was that the assignments had to be done in the Unix environment and the results (right or wrong) had to be submitted to the news group in the windows environment for evaluation and discussion. The 2 systems are not compatible, so that a file saved in the Unix program is lost when the computer is restarted in Windows. There were times that I restarted my computer a dozen times trying different things.
When I continued to have problems that discussions, feedback, tech support, study, and trial and error, could not resolve I contacted my advisor (Brooke Massey) to hopefully help resolve the issues. I explained to her as best as I could in a non technical way the problems that I was having, and she was as lost as I was, so she passed my case to a different department.
In about the 3rd to 4th week of class, because of all the problems students were having with the Knoppix software the instructor changed the method of creating the Unix environment by using a web site that allowed the user to access a "Unix Shell" within the windows environment. This method was just thrown out with no user material to read to know how to use the new site. He just assumed that I (and others) knew how it all worked.
When I first accessed the site I got an error message that "NO new user accounts were available". As it turned out there was a "trick" to get the new account which I had no way of knowing. So the instructor set up an account for me (and maybe others, I don't know), gave me a user name and password that didn't work when I tried it, So by the time I informed him and he helped me to get in, more time/days were lost.
I am condensing this activity, but every step listed took a few days and put me farther and farther behind to the point there was no way to get caught up. I communicated all these issues to Brook early on, but she could not help because it was beyond her understanding and scope of authority.
I feel that I did everything and took every measure that was available to me to succeed in this class. Had I known the problems that I would encounter I would have dropped the class in that first week, but Brooke encouraged me to hang in and things would get "fixed" or better, but nothing did and now it has cost me 3 months delay.
In mid December I was ready to file a small claims action, but Kim Murphy (financial aid manager) assured me that things would be fixed within a few days, but things only got worse. I have gotten the "run around" from one department to another to another for the last 6 months.
As of this time all the appeals have been "in house" and of course thia means that the school is investigating itself and found no fault.
Mike
Horn Lake, Mississippi
U.S.A.
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