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What to do about past errors or inconsistencies in assignments I graded?
I was a grader for my university couple of years ago. I'm also a PhD student. Out of the five semesters I graded..I got a "not fit for rehire" 3 times.
I was not responsive, didn't cater to the needs of the students properly, and occasionally would lose assignments submitted to me. I could not handle the logistics of taking in 100+ assignments(sometimes per week). Most importantly, I was thoroughly inconsistent with grading- I could not follow a proper rubric to the bone. Most often I'd have to make a rubric myself, even in really odd grading situations like having to grade students' notes as either 0 or 1(depending on whether they were relevant to the classroom, etc). I would grade the papers, but often I'd find myself grading differently towards the end of the pile as opposed to when I started grading.
Part of the reason this happened was due to my ADHD+OCD combination of mental disorders, but I am tired of citing that to my professors and also myself. The reason I was fired so many times was not due to Grading incompetence, but because I was late to deadlines, would miss TA meetings, and because of reasons like having to leave town before I could finish grading.
The grading incompetence is something only I know. If I think about how many students got, say, a C+ instead of a B- because of MY negligence and irresponsibility, I start feeling like the worst human being on planet earth.
I have considered confessing to my Professors about this, but have never been brave enough to do it. All my semesters of being a TA are long over, grades collected and put up on the students' transcripts. I have somehow managed to get an RA position but have been struggling very badly since the past year mentally due to all this.
I am posting here because I just want some possible solutions. Do I confess, and get terminated from my PhD-most importantly is it technically possible to roll back grades like that en masse? Should I quit graduate school myself? I don't intend to ever be in academia after I get my degree..but I don't feel like I can take that amount of psychological burden and keep feeling worthy of a PhD. What would you do if you were in a similar situation, hypothetically?

How long is "long ago"? Five years? Also, are you talking to a mental health professional?

I got recruited as a TA 3 years ago. It has been terminated by my department. I TA'd for two years so my final TA assignment was last year.

I am in therapy. It's not helping.

If it helps, I had at least 4 profs who (claimed to) do similar or worse things when grading.

This sounds like something a therapist should be able to help with (someone specializing in the obsessive side of OCD, for instance). If your therapist isn’t helping, I would advise finding a new one.

Actually this might just be your OCD talking. Nobody is ever fully consistent. To me it seems you were looking back searching for fault/problems and magnifying a non problem. Talk to your health professional, if it is not working consider a second opinion.

One point that's worth reemphasising: When the grades are important, there are measures in place that ensure fair grading (independent grading by two people, possibility of appeal, etc.). Equivalently, if there are no such measures, the grades are not considered to very important and reliable. Graders are not perfect, grading is not an exact science, there's no point beating yourself up over it at this point.

Were there any biases in the order in which you graded work (alphabetized, order handed in), or was it random? Did you grade all work from that class for the same group of students for a semester? How many assignments per semester? If the number of assignments is large and the order is random, then any variation due to order will tend to average out.

@user3067860: What would be okay if it avarages out? It is not so important if the best student got the best mark as it is that every student get their right mark. If it tends to average out such that every student gets a worse mark than they should have, what's good about that?

@user111388: I'm guessing they meant for any one student over several assignments. If each student gets an average from one mark every other week, say 7-8 marks in a semester, the variation from errors (for any single student) gets reduced.

" a C+ instead of a B- because of MY negligence and irresponsibility, I start feeling like the worst human being on planet earth." Perspective and reality check:  each and every day, people die because their doctor or nurse made basic errors.  People go to prison because their lawyer forgot to file some paperwork.  Humans make mistakes, be thankful yours are so utterly inconsequential in the grand scheme.

@user111388 assuming errors are symetrically distributed (and probably close to normal but that's not really all that important), and the grader graded a decent number of assignments per student per semester, the average of the grades should pretty well match what they "should" have received.  Though different weightings might mess that up a bit.

"occasionally would lose assignments submitted to me" This is a major issue, perhaps as important as the rest of your post together. Fixing that would be a major step in the right direction.

"I don't feel like I can take that amount of psychological burden and keep feeling worthy of a PhD". A PhD is so much more than correcting assignments as a TA for a few years... If you're not good at grading, you can still be a good researcher, you can still understand and contribute to your field, you can still be worthy of a PhD.

"but I don't feel like I can take that amount of psychological burden and keep feeling worthy of a PhD."  This quite frankly isn't an academia question, this is a 'go see a professional' question -- statements like that are highly indicative of unresolved issues which therapists can help with.

@user11388 It's not really clear that the net grade was lower, the OP just says inconsistent--so that could also include sometimes giving a higher grade than normal. But also, the final grade is the professor's responsibility--if the professor looks at final grades and they are half a letter grade lower than expected (compared to other work done by students plus the grader is clearly struggling), that's where the professor should adjust (aka curve).

In addition to working with my therapist, I'd be really glad if anyone here was willing to talk with me.

@user3067860: Unfortunately, in my experience, most professors do not care so much to correct this (or have expectations at all). Another thig I have learned is that typically, one is not inconsistent symmetrically, but in one direction.

I could not follow a proper rubric to the bone.

That's not unusual.  Following a rubric is indeed difficult, even for people who have had many years of experience in teaching.  And the rubrics supplied by professors to TAs are often not very good.

Most often I'd have to make a rubric myself,

That's a good thing - you found something that helped you get your work done in a more consistent manner.

often I'd find myself grading differently towards the end of the pile as opposed to when I started grading.

This happens to everybody.  It's not desirable, and we try to find ways to avoid it, but a certain amount of inconsistency is inevitable when grading is done by humans.

Do I confess, and get terminated from my PhD

Nothing you've described sounds like cause to terminate a grad student from a PhD program.  TA performance is usually evaluated independently from academic performance, and staying in a graduate program is based on the latter.  The only exceptions I would expect would be something that went beyond poor performance into the realm of blatant dishonesty: taking bribes from students, etc.
If you were to "confess", I think the likely reaction would be something like "Well yeah, it was clear you weren't doing a very good job as a TA, and that's why we're not hiring you as a TA anymore.  So that's the end of that. Why are we still talking about this?"

is it technically possible to roll back grades like that en masse?

It would depend on your university's rules, but it's probably unlikely.  The standards for changing grades are usually if there was a clerical error (e.g. incorrect addition of scores) or "arbitrary and capricious" grading (e.g. grades that had absolutely nothing to do with the course material).  Just being somewhat inconsistent wouldn't rise to that level.  Moreover, there's usually a limited time period in which this is possible at all - after a year or so, the students' original assignments have usually been discarded and it isn't possible to regrade their work even if one wanted to.

If I think about how many students got,say, a C+ instead of a B- because of MY negligence and irresponsibility, I start feeling like the worst human being on planet earth.

So, a few students have a GPA that's 0.01 points lower than it otherwise would have been.  It's not exactly on par with mass murder.

Should I quit graduate school myself?

I certainly do not see any cause for that.

What would you do if you were in a similar situation,hypothetically?

If I found that I wasn't able to meet the standards of a job, and I didn't feel able or willing to put in the effort to get better - I would try to find a way not to have to do that job anymore.  And that's exactly what you have done, by finding a source of support that doesn't require you to work as a TA.  Again, problem solved.

+1. Only thing I would add (not enough for a separate answer) is that the instructor of record, not the TA, is ultimately responsible for course grades. It is the instructor's responsibility to protect the students from an incompetent grader. So, while OP is guilty of poor craftsmanship (for which they were correctly fired), their culpability is limited to having created more work for the instructor.

I agree. But US med/law schools are notorious for requiring GPA's around 3.7 and such. It's hard not to think that you might have blown someone's career choices with one bad grade.

If the grade really actually possibly could matter that much, the student would have complained and had it marked again by someone else. Giving a C instead of a B on one assignment won't change a grade enough for you to be worth panicking about it. @remore1112

@Nij That presumes the student knows the grades were done unfairly. If they're a student with a reasonable attitude, they're going to assume that grading was fair and that they have no reasonable grounds to complain about their grade - even if it's important. Only a very narrow selection of, arguably narcissistic individuals, complain in order to get what they want (under the assumption grading was fair). I strongly doubt it was advertised there were inconsistencies with a chance to appeal.

@Remore1112 The system is broken, not you. It's unrealistic to think the grades are really given according to some objective criterion, there's always leeway. The only way to not "feel bad" about this is either to ignore the issue (most do that), give everyone good grades (some do that) or to try to change the system (a few do that).

@SSight3 you must not talk to many students, trust me they would never assume that the grading is fair.  You are far off base with your comment. Complaining about grades is INCREDIBLY common.

@eps it hugely depends on the system. Even when teaching courses for students aiming to go on to med or engineering, I only got 1 or 2 students per class of ~30 who would really complain about grades, and most of the time they were content when I explained what they got wrong and why they got the grade they did, or of course when I conceded that I made a mistake and gave them those marks.

The key point, which is made well here, is that they already know you didn't do a great job as a TA—and they know the specific potential outcomes of that, such as someone's grade moving from C+ to B– or vice versa. Nobody ever likes people having a negative opinion of them (even when you agree with them), but they would have had plenty of chance to sanction you if they'd wanted to. Don't beat yourself up over it (easier said than done I know), and I don't see any point in bringing it up with them.

@SSight3 I do not know what university you are from, but in mine, students have the right to see their exam and complain about their grading, and exercising that right does not make them "narcissistic". I would argue that it is far more "narcissistic" to be a TA/professor who assumes that they always grade perfectly and therefore students are wrong to complain.

This is a great answer. The only thing (sorely) missing from it is any mention whatsoever of the 100+ assignments per week that OP had to grade. That number is insane and in itself absolves OP of any blame: even if OP had committed actual misconduct, this workload makes it a priori impossible to perform an adequate job and shows reckless negligence by the organisers. Nothing productive can be done within this framework.

@KonradRudolph: You are welcome to add your own answer with that if you like.  I cannot evaluate that number by itself without knowing what the grading actually involved, the length of each assignment and level of detail expected, what other duties the OP had, and how much time was allocated.  I can imagine situations where it would be reasonable.

@NateEldredge, I actually do believe there was severe academic misconduct in the way I carried out my work..hence the severity of guilt. I had to grade 100+ "assignments" every week, and I would list the names and grade on a sheet of paper. I had 10+ such name lists. Due to my negligence, I lost a few of them(Which I graded with full points to everyone), and I mixed the records of some others(i.e say HW 2 grades got mixed with HW 3). I tried separating them by my own handwriting and panic induced intuition. And I submitted those grades. I cant not see that as misconduct.

@KonradRudolph they weren't really "assignments" per se.  I was asked to grade..well a Yes or no answer based on the class, but it was much more vague(I will compromise my anonymity if I go for the details). So grading one paper took 10 seconds, if it wasn't an absolutely outrageous answer. But yes, the actual number of assignments to grade was pretty large.  It took me a couple of hours to grade the entire pile. Recording it was an entire beast, however.

@Remore1112: Well, losing student papers or grades can (unfortunately) happen to anyone, but yes, at the time you should have told the instructor and let them decide how to sort it out.  However, it is in the past, and I think it's unlikely that anyone's life was greatly impacted; any grades that were affected by this must have been borderline to begin with.  I still don't see that there is anything productive to done about it, or that anything will be accomplished by "confessing" [...]

@Remore1112: As others have said, I think at this point it's really a matter to be resolved by you internally and with your therapist; my answer to "what to do" academically is still "nothing".

You are mixing two things. Your performance as a TA is independent of your performance as a PhD student. Being a good TA or a grader is no requirement for you to be a good PhD student. So leave out the thought of being terminated from PhD.
TAs make mistakes all the time. So do professors and lecturers. Grading is not easy and there is no solution to it.
In your case, you have been insincere owing to circumstances, some under your control and some not. You made mistakes and you feel bad about it. Your assessment that your poor work as a TA must have caused issues for students is accurate but what is done is done. One grade in a particular subject is very unlikely to have a poor effect on the career of a student.
Moreover, it is the responsibility of the lecturer to assign the grade, you are only supporting him. I am sure a student would have approached a lecturer if he felt his grades are massively off from what they expected. And the course coordinator would have fixed that issue. It frequently happens - and the lecturers know about your situation.
You have already quit the job you were not able to do properly. So you have already taken the right step. And furthermore, if you still feel guilty, start some free tutoring sessions to help out students with poor grades. Or start some community service by helping school students for free.
We all make mistakes in life. You are a good human being to have accepted it. It is also important for one to move on. And more importantly, what you have done is not that bad as you are making it out. Your guilt outweighs your mistakes.
Focus on your PhD. All these experiences will make you a better professional. Best of luck!

Grading is hard, and it is the structure of reality which we have to accept that we get to hurt others. If you don't hurt anyone you're doing nothing. Sure it's best to go to an approach which minimises suffering but don't mess yourself up because of it.
Go with a "minimum neccesary force" aproach in punishing yourself. Just enough to not do stupid things again and be better in the future.
If you grade differently in the end, one theory is that you have a better understanding of how to grade it.
Grading can be arbitrary especially on subjects which have no clear cut answer and are opinion based.
I'd say if you have something which bothers you then speak to your professors. It might not be as bad as it seems to you. The longer you keep something in the back of your mind the worse it gets. Deal with your demons as long as they are little demons.


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Providers of fake DOIs?
How to find and check providers of fake Digital Object Identifier (DOI) numbers? What are the consequences of using fake DOI numbers? How can I know is DOI number actually fake?

Not sure, but can't you check where a DOI points to on https://www.doi.org/ ?

Seem to remember putting a comment asking what was meant by DOI - would have appreciated a notification of the edit instead of someone just deleting my comment. But that seems to be how some act. Sad.

@SolarMike https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/130975/are-comments-ephemeral-and-what-should-be-done-with-informative-comments Also, I think it's quite reasonable to assume people know what a DOI is.  We have a tag for it and I use DOIs several times a day.

@AnonymousPhysicist sure: Drunk Or Incapable...

@SolarMike: What a shame!

It's a side-note, but DOIs commonly contain letters, so calling them numbers seems at best unnecessary. The I=Identifier provides a more suitable noun anyway.

DOIs are registered and managed by Registration Agencies appointed by the International DOI Foundation. All registered DOI numbers resolve through https://doi.org/ - if it doesn't resolve it's not a DOI. A DOI can be applied to many different things so the fact that content has a DOI doesn't say anything about the quality or validity of the content. There's a blog post about this - https://www.crossref.org/blog/dois-unambiguously-and-persistently-identify-published-trustworthy-citable-online-scholarly-literature-right/

"All registered DOI numbers resolve through https://doi.org/ - if it doesn't resolve it's not a DOI." In my experience this is not true.  I have obtained a DOI from a journal a few days before it began to resolve.

@AnonymousPhysicist The journal did not give you a DOI.  It gave you a magic cookie that transformed into a DOI when doi.org started to resolve it.

@JeffE It was exactly the same text as the DOI.

@AnonymousPhysicist And yet its meaning changed when it was blessed by doi.org.

A DOI functions when it's registered so if you get a DOI prior to it being registered it's a DOI that isn't active yet - there's nothing magic or blessed about it. I could give you a URL to a domain name that isn't registered yet and the link wouldn't work until the domain name is registered. However, I could also just make a random string of numbers and letters that look like a domain name or a DOI - e.g. 10.65421/1238djkad - is it a DOI?

The EU-backed FREYA is currently working on a project called 'common DOI search' to address this issue.

Attempt to resolve the DOI digitally. If the number doesn’t resolve then it doesn’t currently identify a digital object adequately.
Do you mean “how do I identify DOIs resolving to objects that are academic garbage, lack peer review or a publisher exhibiting academic standards of review prior to publication?”

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Am I right to be frustrated that my professor does not actually teach?
This is a 101 philosophy class in an online format. Each week we have over 100 dense pages of a textbook to read as our sole source of information for the class. The teacher does not do any teaching and relies on the textbook.
Obviously a textbook is beneficial but especially for a 101 class, it is difficult to grasp these complex ideas without the input from your professor. Is this wrong? I am having a hard time understanding concepts and actually learning. No lectures or actual teaching. There are no actual in-class sessions: the work is posted at the beginning of the week and we submit by the end. Other classes I take in this format have provided lectures but this one does not. He only grades the work we did. Being paid to provide no expertise and guidance, only grade?
The assignments are discussions and quiz questions based on chapters in the text, that have to be usually 750 words or more. When he grades them he sometimes comments and says "yes that is true". It is one discussion with usually 2 open ended questions and 2 quiz questions that are long open ended each week.
Further remarks following the comments:

Typically, discussions for this class are not beneficial because most people don't actually engage and debate/ go back and forth. We do not have discussion it is solely our interpretation of the readings. Most just say "I agree with what you said and I like this part..". So it is not actually helping us learn and debate. But I cannot blame my classmates because the discussion we have to post are over 750 words so why would they want to read something similar to what they wrote. They can only do so much, they are not doing anything in this case except for grading which is frustrating to me.
There is only 21 people in the class. Obviously that is a lot of grading to do but he assigned it and could set the word count to be lower if he chose to. Most teachers reuse the same assignments and discussion questions each year or get them from the textbook. Every module/unit has been posted since September, so he is not lesson planning each week. He only has to grade each week, I am not denying that is a lot of reading but can you understand that it is frustrating for a student to not receive any actual instruction, but I am still spending a lot of money to take the course?
The professor has not mentioned any office hours. I have not tried sending questions by e-mail; will try that and see if I get any useful responses.

Lori, I've edited your question to include additional information from the comments. Please, feel free to make any amendment if I reported anything wrong. The other extended discussion in the comments has been moved to chat.

Just for cultural context, is this in the US? (I guess so from the "community college" tag.) Or are you somewhere in the world where just saying "I agree with you" would be the expected behaviour of a student towards a teacher?

One issue that hasn't been answered satisfactorily, is whether it is possible for students to ask questions of the professor. Does he provide some channel, even just email, to ask questions. Moreover, if there is such an opportunity, then what happens when you ask questions? An "empty" response would be bad, but something less than an "answer" could be good. Additionally, I'm assuming that the professor is present in the "discussion" sessions, even if he doesn't participate in them. Is that correct? Does he make some comments? Can you ask questions there? Even if he wants others to answer?

@Lori, you write about "discussions". Can you clarify if these are actual live audio/video discussions, or are they discussions in written format, like a text forum? Personally, I assumed the latter (b/c in the Blackboard LMS such forums are called the "Discussion Board"), but it seems like some readers might assume the former.

Have you talked to the instructor about your concerns?  If so, what'd they say?

If I understand correctly, the professor has:

assigned readings
facilitated online discussions
given written assignments and quizzes, and graded them

But:

the professor does not himself participate in any activities (lectures or discussion)
the online discussion format does not lead to many useful interactions with peers
the professor gives only superficial feedback to written assignments

This does seem like poor practice. You are attending university partially to gain from the professor's expertise, rather than just reading books and discussing with peers. This is a class, not a book club. I acknowledge that there is a legitimate teaching style that involves activities, discussion, group work, and/or individual interactions rather than lecturing. But if your professor is as hands-off as you describe, I do not believe he is using this method, or at least not effectively. At a minimum, I submit that he should provide more detailed feedback (even at the cost of grading fewer assignments) and post a few comments in the discussion board to raise the level of the debate.
Despite this, I doubt there is much you can do. The professor did curate a course for you, facilitated group discussions, and is grading several pages per student per week (which may be a significant time investment). So unfortunately, I doubt that complaining to the department would lead to significant changes, at least in the short term.

Unfortunately the professor is as hands-off as I described above. I am not going to complain to the department, I just wanted validation that this is not the best teaching style, this is my first year in college. I'm not discrediting the professor for taking time to grade, my issue is the sole reliance on textbooks for us to learn the information. My wish was that he provided lectures or more interaction so the text could supplement what he taught.This would be beneficial to succeeding and being able to think and discuss more clearly with a better understanding of the material.

while yes, the teaching method @buffy pointed out is great, I do not think this professor is correctly executing the method.

Before you call something poor practice, you need to demonstrate that better practice within the given constraints is possible.  I am not sure there is anything anyone can do; given the resource constraints of a community college in the middle of a pandemic that has forced online education on everyone, what is happening is likely close to the best possible.

@AlexanderWoo Other friends enrolled at this institution and other classes I am enrolled in have better developed to being online despite a pandemic with more interaction from the teacher. I am simply saying this is not the best teaching method as students are not able to fully grasp the concepts from sole reading dense 100 page readings each week. It is very easy for a professor to record a powerpoint and upload it for their students to watch. Yes, that may take time, but it is their job. Hearing a teacher's expertise helps for the student to develop their own understanding.

While I also was inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the instructor (and it's indeed possible that he is doing more behind the scenes), I submit that the situation as Lori describes it is quite objectively a "poor practice." The students are taking a class from a subject matter expert, not merely a book club facilitator. Concretely, this might mean giving more detailed feedback on fewer assignments, or posting a few comments in the discussion board to raise the level of the debate.

@Lori "I am not going to complain to the department" I'd encourage you to complain about it in the teaching evaluation surveys that many universities give to students at the end of each semester to let them rate how they felt about their classes. That's literally what they're there for.

I think the thing to focus on in your feedback (e.g. course evaluation) is the low-quality of the online discussions due to the lack of attention paid to them.  If the class is going to continue to be taught in this general structure, it's important that the discussions be higher quality.

"It is very easy for a professor to record a powerpoint and upload it for their students to watch"
no, it's not

It is okay to give the instructor feedback before the final evaluations. If you said that you are having trouble understanding some topic and asked for a mini-lecture to be uploaded on said topic, they may be willing to oblige if you show that you have already read the materials.

@Dawn I think I will try to reach out an email the teacher for clarification more.

@cag51 I like the point you made about him being like a "book club facilitator". Is it too much to ask for the teacher to provide more feedback or interaction? A lot of people that have responded seem to think so.

@nick012000 Thank you, this is my first semester in college so I did not know this was a thing. I will consider this, thanks.

@NoahSnyder I agree, it is difficult to benefit from the discussions because most of the students do not know what they are writing.

@fqq Ok yes that is true and wrong of me to say, but it is their job.

I'm teaching in a philosophy department and I believe students definitively sometimes need explanations and/or explications to clarify concepts before even being able to use them in a discussion. The distinction between the ontic and the epistemic planes is a case in point. Also, you cannot just have them "discussing" things aimlessly in the mere 50 minutes that a seminar session lasts for.

To further your last point, peer discussions can be very helpful, but they can also be detrimental. The facilitator should be monitoring the quality of the discussions and making sure they're going in the intended direction, not off in the weeds. Discussions can spread incorrect information as easily as they can accurate information.

@bta That's true.

Yes, the textbook is useful, but I find myself needing clarification to understand the concepts in order to benefit and voice my opinions and thoughts in the discussion. Because of the reliance on the textbook, I find my discussions and my peers lack the full understanding therefore the benefits of a discussion.

Some classes are conducive to online learning and some absolutely are not. From my own experience, Philosophy is not.

I haven't tried to teach online yet. I hope RianGillis is wrong.

@RIanGillis I guess so, it is difficult to actually spark meaningful discussion online. I am just taking this class as a general credit so, oh well. I am not failing, I actually get high grades on the assignments, I am just frustrated with the lack of guidance.

Yes, you're right to be frustrated with what your teacher does not teach, but the problem may be more with remote learning than with the class itself. From what I've read, many students do not like their remote learning experience as discussed in How College Students Viewed This Spring's Remote Learning for example.
I've taken online courses in coursera.org and while I found them good, I found support and interaction sporadic, some courses had none whatsoever. So, your frustration seems to me to be part of remote learning in general as most teachers haven't developed a good method for teaching remotely; Teachers were trained for in-person classes that haven't translated well to remotely located students who are forced to rely on blogs, forums, emails, texting, etc, that do not result in consistent response to their questions and needs. For example, if you ask a "stupid" question in class you will get an answer whereas if you ask it in a forum, you will get nothing or a snarky comment that doesn't help you.
My guess is that colleges are trying to deal with your reality, such as Remote Teaching Good Practices: Beyond the Tech, but they aren't there yet and until they are, you will not have a good learning experience without a lot more effort on your part to fill in the holes that your instructor and other students are not filling.

I agree that online learning is difficult and this could contribute to my frustration. Since this class has been offered online since before the pandemic, I assumed he had training on online classes. My issue is not with reading the textbook, just the lack of commentary and guidance from him. I think in an intro class, we need insight from a professor to help better understand the text.  @Jeff

OK, I'll say the elephant in the room. For most students Philosophy 101 is very likely a course taken purely to meet general education requirements. This is just as true at traditional four year institutions as at community college. Actual philosophy degrees only make up less than half of a percent of total four year degrees.
Most people in your class have no interest in learning about philosophy. They do not want lectures, they do not want feedback, they only want a grade (preferably a passing one). And they would prefer to not spend a lot of time on this class, since they don't care about it and they have other competing things that they want to spend time on.
Any feedback from you that the professor did not teach enough will be counterbalanced by feedback from other students if the course becomes more time consuming. The professor and department know this and are probably mindful of how much they can require of students for this particular class. So you can certainly write a complaint in the end-of-course evaluation, but you shouldn't expect that much action will be taken based on it.
Instead, I recommend that you just avoid course sections that are in formats that you don't like.

You can find online review sites (e.g. RateMyProfessor) where other students will post reviews specific to the course and instructor. If you read between the lines, you can find courses where there is lots of interaction with the instructor. Try looking for "makes the information interesting" or "includes a lot of personal anecdotes" or similar description.
You can make a few friends who have been at the school longer than you and ask them for personal recommendations.
You can sometimes find the syllabus from previous semesters (or the syllabus for upcoming semesters posted early) and get a feel for the communication style of the professor and the types of assignments.
Most schools have a drop/switch date after the beginning of the semester (maybe in the first week or two) where you can potentially switch to another section of the same class for free if you don't like the teaching style.

Sorry to disappoint you, but this sounds like a perfectly good teaching method, especially for philosophy. It is akin to the Socratic Method in which the "teacher", Socrates or Plato, asks leading questions and then reflects on the answers, especially if they are seriously wrong.
The instructor is, I think, trying to teach you to "think", not to listen.
But take advantage of the situation by asking questions whenever you have them. You might also ask whether it is proper to form discussion groups among your peers on the material.
If you can be successful in such an environment then you are well placed for future study. There is nothing to condemn here.
And note that a person doesn't "learn" because of what the teacher does. They learn because of what they do themself. If the professor provides meaningful resources, meaningful exercises to reinforce the ideas, and meaningful feedback on student attempts they are doing their job. Don't confuse "lecturing" with "teaching". Either can occur without the other.

Learning isn't a spectator sport. It is an activity.

This answer has been object of significant criticism and the long stream of comments has been moved to chat. Please read this FAQ before posting another comment, and keep the tone of the comments professional and civil.

In addition to all of the other, good ones: It is worth keeping in mind that "teaching" is not the same as "lecturing", even if maybe in your past, teaching has always taken the form of lecturing.
At its core, "teaching" means "facilitating learning", and that can happen in many different forms. Lecturing is one approach, but we know from educational research that it is often not the best one.

I guess I used lecture by default, I essentially meant that there is no interaction with the teacher at all and this does not benefit us when we read the text and do not have insight from the teacher. I am not asking for lecturing I guess I wanted some teaching. For me, this is my first time taking a class like philosophy, so the subject in the text is difficult to understand for the first time and I think it would be beneficial for the teacher to provide some engagement to better understand the material.

So, there's a lot of decent advice in this thread but the question (correct me if I'm wrong) seems to be asking four things:

Is this a normal way to teach? (prevalence)
Is this an acceptable way to teach? (quality)
Will I be expected to learn under these circumstances going forward? (predictability)
Are my feelings about this situation valid? (validation)

with the third and fourth questions stemming primarily from a lack of comparison (freshman in college).
So to answer your sub-questions:

It's "normal" as in people do it, but it is definitely not the norm. Many professors get hired because they are brilliant researchers. Some researchers are passionate about education and go above and beyond to make sure their students understand the material. Some are not. Lectures, even for online courses, have included supplementary material - be it PPT files, practice exams with solutions, pre-recorded videos, office hours, or additional literature - for every single course I've taken, including courses where the professor just read out of the book. I would say most professors prepare more for their students than this one does. That said, others will have different experiences. Take my assessment with a grain of salt.
Depends on whom you ask. Some people like being able to do work at their own pace without having lectures (which sometimes raise more questions than they answer if the instructor makes mistakes). Some professors - brilliant as they are - are disconnected from their students and simply do not have realistic expectations for what people can learn on their own. Some students are comfortable learning that way, and would have just absorbed the textbook regardless of the instructor. Expecting some sort of supplementary material or help is more than reasonable, though.
So here's the thing. After high school, you will be expected most anywhere you go - whether it's in academia or in industry - to more or less teach yourself. College is about "learning how to learn," so at a certain point you should be prepared to learn material on your own whether the instructor is "good" or not. The expectation is that you are a self-driven adult, and that you know how to ask questions and get the answers - whether it's from a person (like a professor or teaching assistant) or a reference source (book, tutorial, article).

I think this expectation is limited; yes, you need to develop the skills to learn effectively and resiliently. But I also think some (keyword: some) people use this mindset as a reason to excuse low-quality education and absolve instructors of responsibility that they place onto the students. Everyone starts as a beginner somewhere, and expecting people to pay high opportunity costs to not receive the attention or resources they need is baffling. I absolutely agree that students should be held accountable for being active learners and taking initiative, but they also need a foundation from which they can begin to ask and answer those questions.

This question, while fine, is not really suited for StackExchange. It's subjective and not actionable. However, whether it's valid to strangers on the Internet is irrelevant. You deserve to feel however you want. Even if he were an engaging and focused professor, you don't have to enjoy his teaching style or have a high opinion of his teaching.

Furthermore, the problem will not be solved with feelings. It might help to treat this situation as the first trial of many in life. And to do that, as per others' suggestions, look into other resources and research the professors before enrolling going forward. If it's too late to drop the course, just try your best to learn as much as you can. With that in mind, make sure to take care of yourself above everything else. Sometimes students' mental health really takes a backseat in academia and that should never be the case; your health and well-being should be supported by your education, rather than the other way around. If your frustration bubbles over into something more dangerous, please leverage mental health services.
(And on a personal note, I felt the exact same way as you about this teaching style when I was in college and can sympathize a lot. This, too, shall pass. You can do it! :) )

Wow, thank you so much your response is very encouraging. I appreciate you taking the time to answer in a well-thought out response. I definitely have been letting my feelings take control of the situation, but it is a great learning lesson for the future. :) Thank you for the encouragement.

I agree with Buffy's answer here that, in principle, your professor's teaching method here is sound - and, in fact, for particular kinds of subject matter, may be much preferable to a more "traditional" structure. But I also agree with cag51's answer, that it sounds like this may be a poorly executed example of an otherwise sound teaching strategy. I want to complicate things a little, here, though.
Most schools have now been fully online for three academic quarters, one of them summer. Many faculty do not teach at all in summer quarter, because enrollment is lower and there are fewer classes to teach. So this is likely your professor's second quarter - ever - teaching fully online. And, speaking as a professor myself, teaching is itself a skill, and online teaching is a very different version of that skill. Just like you wouldn't expect yourself to master philosophy in one quarter, don't expect your professor to master online teaching in one quarter. And yes, other professors may be doing better - but other students may be doing better than you are, and that doesn't mean you don't deserve support. And, just as a little window into the life of an instructor: I received a grand total of one week of training in online teaching, and that was outside of my contract hours, so I was mostly unable to attend because my other jobs got in the way. Your instructor's situation might well be similar.
So, you're probably right to feel like the professor should be doing more here. My advice is to think about what exactly would help you learn that you think would be in the professor's power to provide. Would it help to have video office hours where you can talk through ideas with him? Would it help for him to record short "commentary" video or audio to accompany the readings? Would it help for him to participate directly in the class discussions, and if so, how - since it presumably wouldn't help for him to just take control of those discussions? Once you have a couple of concrete suggestions, contact your instructor directly (or, if you want to be anonymous and are okay with waiting, put them on the evaluation form many schools provide at the end of the quarter). I can't promise he'll take those suggestions, of course, but I know that's what I would want from my students.

I appreciate your response. This class has been offered previous years online since before the pandemic. I guess what I think would help is if he offered short commentary to accompany the readings. I think a lot of people have misread my question and thought I want him to be giving us all the answers. No, I just think it would be beneficial to have a professors commentary for us to better understand the concepts to then form our own thoughts.

Was it taught online by this particular instructor before the pandemic? If so, I'd recommend removing the "covid-19" tag from your question, since the pandemic doesn't seem relevant to the course. If not, then the learning curve I was talking about still applies - even when you're given a pre-made course to teach, learning how to meaningfully interact with students online is not easy.

Yes, this instructor has been teaching this course online since before the pandemic. I agree it is difficult to meaningfully interact with students online, but can you understand the frustration of the student? I am paying to learn and succeed but do not feel like I am benefiting from this class, only meeting deadlines.

Of course! I don't mean to minimize your frustration or make excuses for your instructor - you're perfectly right to be annoyed at what sounds like an ineffective approach to teaching. My goal was to suggest a way for you to relieve that frustration and make your learning situation better; because this may be inexperience rather than intent or laziness, making your concerns known to the professor may help. Now that I know he isn't new to this, that seems less likely, but it's still worth a shot.

Thanks! I think I am going to try to email him questions I have after doing the reading and that might help. Thanks for your input.

Ok Lori:
The most important thing here is for you to note lose your focus from your primary reasons for being in school and for taking this class. There will be many occasions in the rest of your life where you will feel like you're being shortchanged by someone and you have no recourse. It will be frustrating and you will feel like the deck is unfairly stacked against you. But you cannot allow those circumstances to derail you from your mission.
Some more observations:

College is hard and reading a 100 pages a week is super challenging when you first encounter it. The skill you need to develop is to first focus on how to get a bigger picture understanding. Try to see how the ideas in a particular chapter connect to those in other chapters. Once you have this big picture, it will enable you to have some context for a particular week's material and help you absorb it better. This is a critical skill you need to develop.

No lectures, particularly for freshmen, is a bit rough. If you were a graduate student in a Ph.D. program then this would be totally acceptable but its a touch extreme for freshmen undergrads. But these are the cards you've been dealt. Make an appointment with the teacher to discuss what you can do to get a better handle on things. The teacher might give you good tips. Always be ready to reach out for help. If the teacher is unresponsive then reach out to the department head. Not to complain but to explain how you're finding the current setup difficult and what you can do to help yourself. Again, don't complain to the professors. They are human and they may start to tune you out if you do. Try to work with them to get tips on how to absorb the material better. It's possible that the department and the teachers are jaded and don't care about the quality of instruction for elective courses but as humans they might try to help you at a one-on-one level.

It's ok to be frustrated but try to use this energy to empower yourself. Look inwards to see if there is anything in your own study approach that can be changed. College is supposed to be several levels harder than high school and it is supposed to challenge you and stretch you. It's possible that the teacher is mailing it in or it's possible that you're not used to a more challenging environment and you need to step up your game... or both. Try to empower yourself to change your circumstances here. Worst case, since its already October end, at least commit to not letting this course hurt your GPA.

Good Luck!

Different people learn in different ways. It may be that the way your professor is expecting you to learn is the way that he finds most effective for him to learn, and he assumes it will be most effective for you too.
A perfect teacher provides resources and opportunities to suit many different learning styles.   There are not many perfect teachers.
If you have 100 pages of text to cover, you probably couldn't get through that in one hour of lecture.
If the professor is not good at the kind of lecturing you are hoping for, then you might well find that his attempt to provide it would be even less useful than what he is currently providing.
It doesn't matter whether you are right to be frustrated, the important thing is that you are frustrated.
I suggest you prepare and ask one question about the course material each week.   You might be pleasantly surprised by the answers.
I suggest you look at alternative sources of information, such as Coursera and edX.

Thank you, I appreciate your response and advice. I will try it out.

Yes, you are absolutely right to be frustrated. I am a professor who is also taking a graduate course in physics. My professor goes over the home work for the first 45 minutes of class and then asks if there are any questions. I have asked him if he plans to ever lecture. He said no, and this is how he does things (meaning COVID or no COVID). I am not sorry, but no way. This is truly a disappointing experience.  I was hoping for brilliant lectures and inspiring conversations with my classmates. But its more of a recitation class being led by a well-meaning graduate student, rather than a course with a professor.  What we are being taught is the antithesis of how to think. We are being to taught that solving a set of problems is more important than mastering techniques.

In physics, one key is to learn how to solve problems, so this may be more valuable than you think!

Again, I am a PhD in the sciences. I agree, that solving problems is key in physics. This is not in dispute. That said, stating to the class, "There is not enough time to lecture," is just laziness. Ending a 1.5 hour class after 35 minutes of reviewing homework is both against school policy and plainly slothful.  Again, solving problems and reviewing homework is great; but if that is all you are doing, then no dice.

I would expect a professor at this level of class to lecture (that is, teach).  It is important to guide students through the material.
Due to COVID restrictions, one could use virtual meeting strategies (e.g. 'Zoom', etc.) to protect people.  However, there should be view-able lectures.
What does your course catalog say about the course?  What does the syllabus say?
Economically, sometimes a school will offer a refund, but that is highly variant depending on which school, what type, which country it is in, and so forth.
Best wishes with this.

Thank you very much for your response. This course does not have assigned meeting times. Every other course I am taking in this style provides recorded lectures or video commentary from teachers to understand what we are learning, that is why I am frustrated.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Google Scholar is assigning citations for my paper to a completely different paper
My paper's arxiv id is 2008.09164. The title is "PyTorch Metric Learning".
When I search for the above arxiv id, Google Scholar retrieves an entirely different paper.
You can see here that it erroneously thinks "PyTorch Metric Learning" and "Spatial semantic embedding network" are just versions of the same paper.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Edit: This issue mysteriously resolved on its own after several months.


text:
Are others allowed to use my copyrighted figures in theses, without asking?
I recently got a citation warning from google. A book I have written, which is copyrighted by the publisher, was cited. It turned out to be a doctoral thesis, in which a figure from my book was copied, with the phrase "Reproduced from [x]" in the caption.
My questions is if this is actually legal. It is very unlikely that I will take action against a student, but they should have asked. I would have agreed unreservedly.
The copyright statement is as follows:

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned,
specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or
in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of
general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service
marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of
a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

It is quite possible that the student requested copyright access from the publisher, and that they were granted access. Academic publishers usually give copyright permissions very easily when the data is to be used for a thesis.

I agree with @Harsha, when I used figures from another publication in my paper, the only contact I had was with the publisher. Why should they ask you? After all, the copyright belongs to the publisher, not you.

Thanks for the answers. If it had been my student, I would have recommended that the author was asked anyway, just a matter of courtesy, even if not legally necessary. Politeness matters.

Its also possible that such use might just scrape in under fair use rules, depending on where you are. In the US I believe this would fall under the specific Fair Dealing (research & study) exception.

@Anders if they had asked you, you gave permission, and they reused the figure without permission from the copyright holder, they could get into hot water. (Probably not in this case, but in general.)

@Anders I would not find that impolite at all. You are no longer the person who has anything to decide that. Personally, I would find it rather spammy would I receive such a request, as I am not the one who is able to decide anything anyway.

I would expect this to fall under fair use (or whatever equivalent in your jurisdiction). And there to be a duplicate already (don’t have time to search right now).

@MisterMiyagi, probably not fair use. figures have too much information and can be considered as "complete works" in themselves, unlike a sentence or so. And, as Allure says, the OP has no right to give permission if they aren't the copyright holder.

I don't think a PhD student in the last stage of the dissertation process needs the added "politeness" burden of reaching out to someone who plays no role in the decision and might never even respond.

@Buffy Works can be copied in their entirety and still come under fair use, provided other conditions are met. The amount copied is only one factor in the test.

While there is an international copyright treaty, details can vary from place to place. It would help you get the best answer if you can add the jurisdiction where the work is copyrighted.

@ToddWilcox It's not THAT important, but the book is copyrighted by the publisher in Switzerland, and the thesis was from a university which is also in Switzerland, which is surely just a coincidence. It is a multinational publisher.

A "citation warning"? I do receive mails from Google Scholar saying that my papers have been cited, but typically they are not warnings

Since the book is copyrighted by the publisher, it's indeed legal to use it without asking you. You no longer hold the copyright, after all.
You could find out if the author asked the publisher (i.e., the copyright holder) by reaching out to your contact at that publisher. It's pretty likely they did (and most publishers have an explicit form, example from Elsevier). If they didn't, then it's up to the publisher to take action, although they are admittedly also unlikely to do anything.

And the OP should be happy they got a citation.  Publications without citations are not so valuable.

I'd be wary that asking the publisher might make them feel compelled to pursue some sort of action against the student, which in my mind seems unnecessarily heavy-handed given the circumstances. Unless OP wants something to be done (which, I don't really see why? especially since OP says they'd have gladly granted permission if asked) then it's probably best left alone.

“You no longer hold the copyright” — That depends entirely on the agreement with the publisher. The phrasing in the question (“A book I have written, which is copyrighted by the publisher”) is somewhat vague and doesn’t make it clear if the book is exclusively copyrighted by the publisher or jointly copyrighted by the publisher and the author. If it’s the latter, which is quite common in Europe, the publisher would not be able to grant reproduction rights without asking the creator as well.

@JanusBahsJacquet To be honest, I don't know. I would assume it's exclusively the publisher.

"It's pretty likely they did [get the publisher's permission]" -- I'm not so confident for something like a Ph.D. thesis, but sure, it's possible.  Either way, however, it's quite right that this is primarily the book publisher's problem, not the OP's.

Certainly, I obtained permission for the figures in my thesis, and it was something discussed in our programme and lab. The usual phrase being "reproduced from X, with permission". I have no idea whether this is widespread elsewhere, of course.

It's only a doctoral thesis that does it? You are cited?
Seriously, if this were a journal paper or even just a conference paper, I would understand your question.
But it's just some poor soul that tried to make their doctoral thesis a bit more readable and included a didactically helpful diagram of yours with clear reference, maybe even just in the pressure of the last minute. Very few theses are read by anyone except the reviewers.
As others say, it's probably not even your copyright, as you may have signed it away.
And as Terry Loring says in the comment, you should be happy to get a citation.
Let it go.

… not sure I agree.  As I do not know of a case where a student would have to pay to include a figure taken from a paper or a book in a thesis, it costs nothing AFAIK to the student to just ask for permission.  Agreed that “Reproduced from [x]” mitigates the case for plagiarism, but otherwise I see no valid reason for not contacting the rightful copyright holder.  The student deserves to receive a strongly worded note from the copyright holder.

@ZeroTheHero If this were ordinary coursework, the student would almost certainly be covered under Fair Use in the US and I assume most other places as well. The thesis is probably the first thing the student has done that's not quite the same as ordinary coursework, yet it seems quite similar and it's not too surprising that they'd assume similar rules apply. At most, it seems like it could be a teaching moment, I don't think an admonishment is quite needed.

@BryanKrause agree it's a teaching moment.  I'm just surprised the supervisor wasn't on top of this.  I just came out of a thesis defence where the 2nd question by the examination committee was "Did you get permission to use the figures".

@ZeroTheHero The original question mentions the publisher is the copyright holder. We don't know if the student contacted the publisher and received permission. Without that information, there really isn't any valid judgement call on what the student deserves.

@DavidS at least in the case of physics journals I'm familiar with, publishers also require to get permission from first author (or corresponding author depending on the journal) of a paper/book.

@ZeroTheHero That is not the case for physics journals I'm familiar with. I'd be surprised if it's a very common practice, although I don't actually know.

You seem to have read the OP's post as a complaint. I read it as a question and nothing more. I don't see the need for condemnation here.

@DavidZ (At least some) APS journals do ask for that. From the most recent one I requested: "The American Physical Society (APS) is pleased to grant the Requestor of this license a non-exclusive, non-transferable permission, limited to Electronic format, provided all criteria outlined below are followed.  1. You must also obtain permission from at least one of the lead authors for each separate work, if you haven’t done so already."

@Buffy Maybe you are right. Still, in the legalistic atmosphere that is increasingly being promoted in academia, I like to pour cold water on the tendency to view everything through a rigorously formal lens. There is a place and time for a formally correct procedure (and there are, by all means, enough situations that call for such), and there is a place and time to (to quote my response or, if you prefer, the relevant movie) "Let it go". And with these considerations, ultimately, this remains my response to OP's question, even read purely as a question.

@Buffy Thanks! It was indeed a question and not a complaint.

@CaptainEmacs Agreed there is too much legalize around, but on the other hand the most important academic currency is recognition, not money, and it costs nothing to properly and correctly recognize the work of others.  I am not advocating paying $$, but the process of obtaining permission (for figures and such) is now much streamlined so this is a case where ignorance or carelessness should be combated, especially as students do get copyrights on the contents of their thesis.

@Anyon IIRC Nature journals (at least those for physics) have an equivalent wording requiring permission from the first author (which annoyingly may not be the corresponding author).

@ZeroTheHero Recognition is already achieved by citation. Permission is about the permission holder having the power to withhold the right to use them; it's about IP rather than recognition. Again: I am of the opinion that one should ask for permission for a journal or conference, but for a thesis, whose role is essentially to demonstrate the candidate's scientific prowess, I find the demand overkill. I have used a professional photographer's images in a paper, paid for and referenced, but this was crucial. Normally, it's so much effort that I avoid external images.

@ZeroTheHero In Nature, AFAIK, you even need permission to acknowledge someone. I am sure this is above the usual standard expectation.

@CaptainEmacs well... I suppose my threshold is at a different place than yours.  Where the threshold is may be field dependent, and it may be a different amount of hassle for different disciplines and/or journals, but in physics at least it's so simple  I find little excuse not to do it.

"Very few theses are read by anyone except the reviewers." << That strongly depends on the field. In some fields, PhD theses can be very popular, not for their original contribution but for their bibliography and literature reviews, which tend to be much more comprehensive than any other literature reviews available.

@Stef Point taken. But it is quite the exception, in my experience.

Other answers have addressed who is the owner of the copyright, but haven't mentioned "fair use" provisions, under Copyright Law.
Even if you were to show you did own the copyright, other people may copy it under certain circumstances. This varies by jurisdiction, but is likely to include people using your figures for scholarly purposes.
In the USA, for example, Title 17 U.S. Code § 107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use states:

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

Whether it strictly applies in your case is a question for a lawyer.

Plus, if they cited it, it means OP's publication may be scientific or research-oriented in nature, and that would by definition mean it is supposed to be spread, used, copied, and improved upon.

@MrVocabulary: Copyright law doesn't allow willy-nilly copying based on whether the original publication is research-oriented. It allows limited copying based on whether the purpose of the copying in considered fair use. OP's publication could be a Disney movie, and fair use would still be fair use.

Fair use is a US concept. In EU countries, the equivalent concept of fair dealing and similar ones provide significant exceptions, usually defined at the national level. For instance, exemptions are for the purpose of criticism, review, or quotation, which are subject to proper justification. While I am a layman, my experience suggests that the type of source is a factor in justification, including academic contexts.

@MrVocabulary: Your first comment suggested that "by definition" a research publication may be intended to be copied. That paints the fair use/fair dealing copyright exemptions the wrong way around. I may not just reprint an entire book because it is research-oriented. Yes, the type of information may be a factor in determining if a usage is "fair", but there is no "definition" that makes it wholesale free to copy without permission. Your original comment was misleading rather than illuminating.

I can see how my comment may be seen as ambiguously phrased — to clarify, I did not mean a legal definition, but a clear characteristic.

It seems like just a citation warning, as just a notification that you were cited. You should be glad. It is the publisher that holds the copyright and it is their responsibility to deal with that. I am quite sure that the person who cited and used your figure first cleared it with the copyright holder. In the end, it has nothing to do with you.

What is it, exactly, that makes you sure the copyright holder granted permission?


text:
choose target journal, does impact factor matters?
Recently we submited an abstract to a conference. For that conference, publishing a proceeding paper afterwards is optional. I prefer to publish our paper to a 'higher level' conference proceedings half year later or a higher IF journal. But my supervisor does not care about IF much, he told me when people read or evaluate the paper, they care about the research itself instead of where it was published.
I wonder if impact factor is a key consideration in choosing where to publish?

I assume you are a PhD student - as a post-doc, my advice is to start looking at what is required for your dream job. Examples: in artificial intelligence, R&D companies typically request candidates to have publications in high-ranking conferences like Neurips/ICPR/etc. To become a professor in my univ, you need journal publications - IEEE transactions are highly reputed (even if IF is low), MDPI are considered trash, IF and quartile are important as well. If you want to finish your PhD and go into industry as a senior, HR might prefer to see master's supervisions. It depends on your goals.

Honestly, unless the future conference is super-high-profile, like a Gordon Conference or some such, I wouldn't even consider holding off publication in a conf proceeding in favor of holding it for a future proceeding.  This would be much more of an issue if the alternative to the proceeding were a peer reviewed article in a high-profile journal.

But my supervisor does not care about IF much, he told me when people read or evaluate the paper, they care about the research itself instead of where it was published.

Most people don't care about impact factor
I would agree with your supervisor that most people do not care about impact factor. Read any government policy or news article citing a research paper and you'll find that all journals are generally cited with equal authority (sometimes even if they're not peer-reviewed). Industry hiring teams also don't generally care about (or even know about) impact factor.
Even many research papers don't make a distinction when citing other papers, choosing whatever research supports the story they want to tell.
Some potentially important people do care about impact factor
However, there are some people that care very much about impact factor. And those people are often in the position to heavily influence the trajectory of your academic career. (tenure-review committees, grant committees, hiring committees in academia, etc...)
The question you have to decide is whether you care much about impact factor. The answer to that depends upon your career goals.

I think industry hiring probably does not care about impact factor qua impact factor, but I'd expect many (e.g.,) biotech teams would be more impressed with a Nature paper vs. Frontiers, or ML teams to prefer someone with a NeurIPS track record vs. a small regional conference.

@Matt a definite possibility, though I think it would depend on the careers of the team members. The ML teams I've been on spent little to no time in academia outside of their undergrad / masters work, and had relatively little experience with publishing. More research-heavy teams likely have different experiences.

Impact factor IS important. But it is not the only thing that is important.
Cutting edge, novel research is more often than not published in higher IF journals. Though certainly, many good works, and even novel works are published in lower IF journals (but they are the anomily, not the norm otherwise those journal IFs would be higher). What is important to distinguish is why the higher IF journals have a higher IF and why the lower ones don't. You should aim your work at a journal that will reach your intended audience specifically, and also your related audience so that your work can have both specific and broader reach. Another factor is that IF reflects a two year cycle, whereas some areas of research require more than that to replicate experiments, thus leading to a slower adoption of the exciting work towards new publications... but there are other factors such as 5 year, etc...
For example, a journal that publishes on a broader scope topic (e.g. Nature, Science), is naturally going to have the broadest readership. Similarly, a journal that routinely publishes reviews and perspectives will have a higher IF because those articles are often cited with substantially higher frequency than research articles.
Specialized journals will have lower IF because they cater to a narrower audience. Similarly, specialized journals which publish no, or fewer reviews, will have an even lower IF. What you want to avoid is just low-ranked journals within that subtopic as that sends the message of overall lower quality of work (whether or not that may be true).
So for example, your Ph.D. in underwater basketweaving has produced an exciting manuscript and you have some options.
#1 Journal of the American Weaving Society (a prestigious high IF flagship journal covering weaving of all types of objects in all types of environments). If your findings are substantially exciting for your subfield, with general findings suitable for a broader audience, send it here!
#2 Basketweaving Letters (a specialized journal with good IF dealing only with basketweaving; a flagship journal for the basketweaving community) Probably a good place to submit because the right audience will read it (both aquatic and terrestrial basketweavers).
#3 Journal of Aquatic Crafts (a broad journal for all arts and crafts underwater, sometimes, but rarely they publish basketweaving, but the IF is high). May be suitable and seemingly prestigious, but less likely to reach your target audience, so in the end your work may not get the right exposure.
#4 Central European Journal of Underwater Basketweaving (a low-medium IF journal that is very specific and often publishes relevant but derivative works of underwater basketweaving) Maybe try to aim higher with your very exciting result so that it gets both broad, and specific community exposure and is reflective of the intended (or perceived) impact of the work.

"Cutting edge, novel research is more often than not published in higher IF journals." [Citation needed]

@Anyon it is implicit by the fact that the works are on average highly cited, which leads to the higher IF. It is more difficult to publish "the 9th observation of something" in Science, than it is to publish "the first observation of something". It may well be that the 9th observation of said phenomena is done more rigorously, and the article itself is better written, but is it cutting edge? Does cutting edge work get published in lower IF journals. Of course it does, but it may well get ignored due to a restricted audience, and by the perception of lower importance.

My, perhaps more cynical, take is that the high-impact-factor journals are excellent at what they do, which is to publish splashy results that attract citations within the 2-year window.
I remain unconvinced, however, that they publish the majority of "cutting edge, novel research", in part because they are so selective, in part because some topics, especially theoretical ones, just don't attract citations quickly enough for their purposes.

People might not care about impact factor per se, but they might indeed care about the associated reputation of that impact factor.
In my field, some journals are known by name to be highly reputed journals in the field, with a lot of quality research regularly published in them. This comes with an associated high impact factor. This might benefit your career but not because people might recognize the impact factor but just the journal by name because of reputation.
Your supervisor is right in saying people care about the quality of research that they read. But I can say with certainty, that more often than not, their impression on what they read is influenced by where they read it.


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Profile Development Advice Needed
I am about to start my Masters in Data Science this Fall and while thinking about what comes after that, I just had one answer: I want to become a professor, get into the teaching line.
Now I have heard that a PhD is important to do that. How true is that?
Secondly, if i do decide to do a PhD, I don't have a research paper. My MS course is only about 16 months and getting a Research Assistantship is difficult though I'll try my best. What other things should I do to enhance my profile to get an admission in PhD?
I am particularly interested in the fields of NLP and AI in healthcare if that helps in helping me.

For almost all university teaching jobs a PhD is essential. There are few exceptions. A masters will place you well for admission to a doctoral program, but it isn't essential everywhere. Many people start doctoral studies in the US with only a bachelors, but they need additional coursework along the way.
Nor is prior research essential to admission to a doctoral program everywhere, though it might be in some places.
Note, however, that you are asking about fields that are, at the moment, extremely competitive. That will make admission more difficult and, if all those other people are successful, will make finding a teaching job in that field more difficult as well. This is the problem with choosing a "hot" area of research.
For admission requirements in many places see the following: How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in Country X?