Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am writing to you because I am very concerned about the grade I received in a particular class. I took ENIN 140, which is an online class last semester and I, unfortunately, regret taking this class. This class consisted of two midterms and two assignments. Upon receiving the grade for the first assignment, I emailed the professor asking how I could improve for the next assignment and if it would be possible to meet with her to discuss this. I was confused as to why I got the grade I received (78) due to the professor's lack of constructive criticism. I, however, never got a reply from the professor regarding my inquiry.

With regards to the second assignment of the class, I ensured that I applied the class-wide constructive feedback that was given. Since I did not have ANY feedback regarding my strengths and weaknesses in the class, I completed assignment two based on what I thought would get me a higher grade than my previous assignment. Once again, I received a grade of 78 even though the professor's comments on OnQ on my assignment was that this submission demonstrates a very good performance that meets, and in some cases exceeds, all expectations and objectives for the assignmen...t Not once did the professor give me constructive criticism on what I was lacking. This has made me feel extremely confused and frustrated because the professor's comments have all been positive, and my grade does not reflect that.

After receiving the final grades, I emailed my professor a total of three times without receiving a single reply. It was not until my last email begging her to reply to me before I make an appeal that she surprisingly responded within hours saying that she will be expecting the appeal, yet she never actually responded to any of my concerns.

I am incredibly disappointed in the lack of guidance or even minimal professor-student interaction I have received in this class. I have taken many online courses in my years at Queen's and I have never experienced this lack of concern for a student who clearly just wants to do well in a class. Not only is this class extremely important for my GPA as I am applying to law school in the fall, I believe that I did not receive any of the tools that I needed to succeed in this class. I would assume that with an online class, the professor would be more attentive to her students rather than completely disregard the numerous emails I have sent her throughout the last few weeks.

I really hope that this is taken into consideration because I have put in a lot of work into this class and have definitely improved from assignment one and assignment two, while still receiving the exact same grade. I cannot stress enough my disappointment with this class. Thank you for your time. I hope to hear back from you.

Best,
Heather Batista
20016631