text:
Why am I getting low grades in a subject that I work so hard and studied so well?
What is wrong with me? I studied hard and get so low marks? What am I missing?
I thought I would score 70/80 in COA subject but I got only 49/80. It is a subject where I would even pass if I went to the exam today. I don't understand why is this happening to me. In class 11,12, I would easily get good marks when I studied hard for it. Even before that, I used to get good marks. But nowadays no matter how much I study I keep getting low marks. If I don't study, I fail.
What is wrong with me? I am really frustrated. I study so hard to get low marks... What am I missing? This is really hampering my self confidence and it is going to close many doors for my graduate studies. I am really frustrated with this.

There seem to be at least three potential issues raised by your question. They appear to be conflated in either your thinking, or your question, and it is not clear which is really important.
The first possibility is that you are saying you study hard, understand the material and know the domain but are then somehow  either unable to access your knowledge in an exam situation (e.g., in a multiple choice examination), or able to access your knowledge but unable to express yourself coherently in an exam (e.g., with essay format answers).
Another possibility is that you are saying you put in hours and hours of study but that you find the material incomprehensible even though you think you ought to grasp it.
And thirdly, you might be saying that you study a lot, believe that you have grasped the material, complete the exam believing that you have done well, but then discover that you have done worse than you expected.
In my opinion, it will be impossible for you to solve your problem unless you can first work out which of these issues is at the heart of your apparent failure. The different problems require different solutions. In the absence of more information, it seems foolhardy to make to many suggestions, but briefly:
Problem 1 sounds like something that is usually called "stage fright", "performance anxiety", or "exam anxiety". If this is the problem, I suggest that you talk to a psychologist about solving it. The kind of psychologist you want is one who is not an analyst but rather, someone interested in cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders.
Problem 2 sounds like something that happens fairly commonly to bright high-school students who progress to good colleges and universities; it is touched on by @nick012000 in their answer. You did very well at high-school (i.e., in your local pond). You apply to a good college or university (perhaps one with high standards, where you were surprised, or delighted to have been accepted), and now you are one of a cohort that is quite unlike the one at high-school. Although you were among the brightest of the bright in the high-school pond, in your new environment, you are average or below average in performance, even if not in IQ! The solution here is to accept that you're struggling, and to get some tutorial help.
Problem 3 can be solved by getting more information from your teachers or professors. You will want to discover what it is that you thought you understood even though you (demonstrably) did not understand it. You'll want to find out how you misled yourself and what you can do to prevent that from happening in the future, perhaps by finding a way of clearly checking your own understanding before it's put to the test in a critical examination. (Quiz books in your relevant area, with answers are a great support here).

It's normal. Don't worry about it.
I'm guessing that you used to be one of the smartest kids at your high school, and you studied really hard so that could get into a good university, right?
So did all the other kids in your class. As a result, your course and its marking was designed to take into account the overall higher level of ability possessed by the students, so that they can discriminate between the top students and the middle-of-the-road students within that cohort of students who were talented and driven enough to be admitted to begin with.
As a result of this, you're being held to a higher standard than you were in high school; something that might have earned you an A there might just earn you a C now that you're a university student.

But there are students who got same marks like me in high school and who are still getting same marks(i.e better than me, same as their high school marks), how are they doing it? They must be doing sth right. I believe I am doing sth wrong, this has been a huge pattern throughout my university. I keep getting low marks than I studied for.

@TeamB.I It's possible that you're studying in an inefficient or ineffective fashion, that your writing skills aren't up to the expected standard, or some similar deficiency. It's not possible for us to say for sure, since we aren't the ones marking your work. Universities often have academic support sessions that help teach students writing and studying skills, so if you think those might be the root cause they might be able to help you.

@TeamB.I Otherwise, I can only advise that you talk to some of your professors during their office hours to ask about any deficiencies in your work - not to ask for a higher mark, but to learn why you earned a low mark so that you can fix the problem in the future.

Our exam copies are checked by professors outside of our college(from same university), so we can't go and ask professors.

@TeamB.I Even if the exams were marked by other professors, your professors should still be able to help you with figuring out where you went wrong. If all your marks are based off of exams, then I would definitely recommend that you consider attending some study skills classes.

My Professors can't see my exam copy as they are checked by other teachers from different college than mine. Thanks for recommending study skills classes.

If what you say is true, the organization of your course sounds like a joke, to be frank. I don't understand why someone would want an education where they can't get any useful feedback from their instructors. You don't get your graded exam back, so that you could bring it to your instructor? How are you supposed to learn from your previous mistakes if you don't know what they are? Your work isn't assessed by the people who run the course and know what material is covered and what the learning objectives are? I feel sorry for the circumstance you are in.

@BryanKrause: It's common in the UK and many European systems that most of one's marks comes from a final exam that is handled by someone other than the instructor of the course (or at least handled by someone in addition to the course instructor).  This is to ensure that standards are upheld.

@Team B.I, I have seen people face the same problem, it probably must have been due to pressure, the memory where you have stored much of your information could have been replaced by something else, so you must have done something else that must have replaced the information that you studied. It's always good to take a break from doing anything, and then studying again, so then what you studied stays in your mind fresh.


text:
How to report bugs for Google Scholar?
I have a paper published in 2021. However, for some odd reason, Google Scholar lists citations from papers that were published years before mine, which means it's impossible they cited my paper. Where can I report this bug for Google?
For those who still not understand my question, here is a snapshot from Google Scholar:

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

@Community I don't know what is unclear in my question. Google scholar lists citations which appeared before 2021, and therefore these citations cannot be related to my paper.

I believe the problem with this particular paper is Google Scholar thinks two different papers are actually different versions of the same paper:

If you click on the "All 45 versions" link, you'll see the paper you're concerned with, "The HITRAN2020 molecular spectroscopic database," is considered another version of "The HITRAN2016 Molecular Spectroscopic Database," which is another paper, albeit one with a very similar title, the same first author, and the same journal. The "HITRAN2016" paper is the one all those citations are pointing to, not your "HITRAN2020" paper.
If you go to your Scholar profile, you should be able to split these. It's hard for me to replicate personally, but if you click on the title of the paper in your profile, you should see an "Edit" button:

When I do that, it gives me the option to change basic metadata about the publication, but at the bottom is a list of "Scholar articles" that are all combined into one profile publication. I think this is what you're looking for:

Thank you very much for posting an answer. I can see the 45 different versions associated to my paper. Of these versions, the first one (which is the correct version) has all of the 2143 citations. Unfortunately, a large number of these citations appeared earlier than my paper. So I do not think that removing all the other versions would solve my problem.

That's surprising! So not only is Google Scholar combining two different publications, but it's assigning citations to the wrong version! You'd think that wouldn't happen, especially with different DOIs issued to each one. It's possible selecting the "Unmerge this article" option might trigger something internally that will re-evaluate the citations? It probably won't help, but it's notoriously difficult to contact anyone at Google, especially for projects like these.

I would try to get contact with them, but I don't know where I can report bugs.

Doesn't this answer affect only articles when they are viewed through this specific profile?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Helping PhD student when supervisor does not offer help
A friend (1st year PhD student) is facing some technical issues with writing a code (Computer science) that she finds difficult. The supervisor does not want her to get any help from lab members. Should I, as a postdoc, help her "secretly" code her programs?

Actually no, unless the supervisor gives you permission to do so, in which case it isn't secret. You can point her to resources she might need, but if the supervisor thinks she needs coding experience then your  "help" is actually not help at all.
You could ask the supervisor whether they would agree to your offering general help such as coding instruction and what the limits of that should be.
You also put yourself at risk if it is found out.

+1 for the second paragraph. Ask the supervisor if you can help teach her how to write code. That's not the same as helping her code this particular project.

No.  You'd be engaging in an academic violation. Submitting work that's not your own but representing it as entirely your own is called plagiarism or, perhaps in this case, cheating.  You'd be helping and encouraging her to do that. Helping someone commit an academic violation is also considered a chargeable violation at most schools.

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


text:
(UK, mathematics) Making the most of a teaching job as an aspiring researcher
I finished my PhD a few years ago, and since then have been hopping from temporary job to temporary job every year. They've all been research-and-teaching jobs, which has been exactly what I wanted. I applied to a whole host of jobs this year, and got one. It's a secure, open-ended job, in a location I think I could be happy living in for a long time. I'm incredibly relieved about this.
The one downside is that it's a teaching-only job.
Now, I honestly enjoy teaching, but it alone is not enough to keep me in this career in the long run. This job seems like a poisoned chalice for my research career: not only does it mean less research time, it also means I'm less likely to be able to attend seminars, I'll have minimal free time during other mathematicians' work hours to liaise with them, I'll receive no funding to attend conferences, I won't be able to swap out duties with other people to give talks, and so on. I won't even be housed in the same building as the research mathematicians, so even interacting with them over lunch is going to be difficult. I'm basically excluded from all of the things that are involved in being an active member of the community!
How do I avoid being funnelled into a permanent teaching-only career? How do I make the most of the time I have during this job? Am I going to find it more difficult to be taken seriously as a researcher after a few years in this job?

Edited to clarify: my department is not the mathematics department. It is part of the university, but it is a "learning and teaching"-style department: the vast majority of staff there are teaching-only. I don't know whether this makes a concrete difference, but it might well impact funding, internal policy regarding grants, the priorities of my line managers, etc. I have no idea. Anecdotes and experiences related to this might also be useful.

What's the teaching load like to leave no time for research? Some US colleges do four courses a semester.

@ShuhengZheng As someone who has taught math(s) in both Canada and the UK, I should point out that the workload and demands on time in the UK are not as simple as just counting the number of hours or number of students. (I work harder teaching 2 courses in UK than I did teaching 3 courses in Canada; obviously my experience might not be universal, but this is just to give an idea)

I won't know for sure until October. But I'm concerned less about the workload, and more about flexibility / timing. In my current job, I can legitimately ask for my teaching duties to be moved around so as not to clash with seminars, conferences, etc. because these are part of my job too. I'm concerned that a teaching-only job will be less flexible; indeed, I've heard stories of managers deliberately keeping teaching staff away from research communities.

I am puzzled how you can be so busy from 9-5 every day that occasionally  going to another building to talk to people is impossible. And why can't you find others to fill in for you now and then? Or cancel a some classes once or twice a year to attend a conference? People I know at teaching schools do it all the time. Though yes, they do complain of never having time for research during the school year. Are you committed to teaching a full load during summer too?

@ASimpleAlgorithm I doubt I'll have timetabled classes 9-5, but what does that matter if the seminar I want to attend clashes with a class I teach, and my bosses are inflexible about moving it? I'm not in the mathematics department - my department could be forgiven for seeing this as "bunking off", or at least reading it as a sign that I'm hoping to leave them asap, and they might therefore make it difficult for me. Likewise, I doubt I have to teach a full load during summer, but I might have to be around for enough of it - exams, open days, outreach - that it might clash with conferences.

However, it's good to hear about the people you know at teaching schools - in fact, this is exactly the sort of good news I'd love to read as part of a full answer, especially if they're in the UK. I have only ever heard negative stories.

@MacIntyre I'm afraid I am not familiar with UK schools. Your concerns could have been brought up in your interviews/negotiation. Such as getting at least assurances they will work with you on scheduling where possible, and you will be allowed (perhaps even funded) for one or two conferences. I take it you have misled them somewhat regarding your love of teaching over all else? It is actually beneficial to them for you to participate in some research activities. Also everyone has to deal with those infrequent school events potentially clashing with conferences.

@ASimpleAlgorithm I don't think you're really engaging with my concerns in good faith. I didn't mislead anyone; I wasn't asked to swear undying fealty to this job. I do enjoy teaching, I just don't want to give up research forever, and sadly that's how academia usually works once you've been out of research for a few years. I didn't drive a hard bargain because I'm in no position to; I've been rejected for far less, and I need a job. As for "It is actually beneficial to them for you to [do research]" - again, I'd love to see a full answer here, because I'm not sure I see why this is true.

@ASimpleAlgorithm "Or cancel a some classes once or twice a year to attend a conference? People I know at teaching schools do it all the time." It would really help if you did not assume the UK environment that the OP describes works like environments that use similar words in your own setting (North American), and tried looking up how life in a UK teaching institution might actually work. Workload and autonomy and "lecturer's discretion" can really, really differ (seem my comment above)

@YemonChoi Sorry was my comment getting in the way of all this UK-based info and advice being added here? If I can answer their question by doing a bunch of internet research then so can they. Or you. What would help a lot more is you two not getting all triggered by people who were trying to help.

@ASimpleAlgorithm I appreciate that you're trying to help. I've given two examples of throwaway comments you've made above that I'd love to see expanded into full answers, if you're still interested in helping.

First, I’ll describe what happens at my department (engineering, high ranking, UK). It might be useful to understand the mindset.
We were recently hiring for teaching only position at my school (teaching fellow). The idea behind it was to get someone to teach in a specific area. The job is open-ended, the same salary as other faculty (Lecturer/assist prof), and has excellent career progression (to full professor on a teaching track). We wanted someone that loves to do that, teaching. If we wanted someone to do both, then we would open a position for someone to do both.
As a panel, we tried to understand if the candidate really wanted to do research and was only using the position as a transition or as a way into the department. Then, we removed those candidates. Afterwards, there is a probation period of one year during which, if the person seems that is not interested in teaching (which was the job description), the school can decide to let them go.
The school only “allows” the teaching-only colleagues to research if it’s related to teaching. For instance, new teaching methods, methodologies, etc. With “allows”, I mean would shift timetable, include in workload, and pay for conferences. If the teaching staff wants to do anything not related to teaching, they need to do it at their own time and expense. PhD co-supervision is not possible.
To your questions
The more you stay in a teaching position, the more you’ll get trapped. Your peers in research or combined post will be encouraged and have more time to write grants and publish papers. Since these are the main characteristics looked for in research-track hiring and progression, you will gradually become unattractive for research-focused or combined positions.
Transitioning within the same department is indeed possible (but rare). We have a colleague that transitioned from a teaching to a combined position after three years. He is now transitioning back to a teaching post. He found that three years without publishing and without the skills that other research-track colleagues honed over the same three years (grant writing, networking, panels, etc.) it was impossible to attract funding (which is a requirement in our school to keep your position).
Edit based on OP comments
Our university offers two progression tracks. The research track has 80% research excellence, contribution to the field, and funding criteria and 20% teaching. The teaching track is the other way around.
The teaching-track research is on education in the area. One of the best journals for us as an example is IEEE Transactions on Education. Admittedly, most of the research is translational. That is, bringing modern educational concepts and ideas into the engineering teaching environment.
Other criteria involve participation to accreditation process, designing/updating teaching programs, achieving Fellow status at HEA, outreach activities at schools, etc.

Thanks for your response, this is exactly what I wanted. I hope you don't mind if I ask some follow-up questions. (1) You talk about career progression: what are the usual sorts of promotion criteria in these jobs? If it involves writing research papers, attending conferences, winning grants, etc. in the field of education, then I worry that I'm starting off on the back foot, as someone in their 30s with zero experience of this.

(2) Unlike your colleague, I am intending to continue publishing, writing grant applications, etc. and anything that can be done at home, on evenings and weekends. Where I'm scared of losing out is in networking and outreach opportunities: the sorts of things that require travel funding or time out of my 9-5 job. How much does this affect my chances? Or maybe more precisely: to what extent do interview panels (for jobs, grants...) look sympathetically on this sort of "making the best of a bad situation"? Am I a promising young researcher, or a failed old researcher? (Hope that makes sense...)

@MacIntyre I’ve answered 1) in the question above. For 2), you need to be realistic. My colleague also took the position with the goal of continuing to publish and write grants. However, I was given PhD scholarships, a startup fund, and grant writing training as a combined post holder. He was given education training and CPDs related to education. I had half his teaching load and reduced workload for 2 years to build a research team. He was asked to develop three new modules with labs at the same period (part of his workload). We both had family, weekends and nights are not so flexible.

@MacIntyre As for what panels see, it depends on the area. The fact that you lose the networking means you have to compensate with better track record. So, it goes again to being realistic. Can you build a much better track record compared to someone doing a postdoc at a large group and 2-3 PhDs working with him/her and no teaching obligations?

No, of course I can't build a better track record than a postdoc with far more resources than me. But that's my point: interviewers surely know that this is (at least in part) because I have very limited resources. I've never had zero teaching obligations and several PhD students, so comparing my research outputs to theirs directly is never going to be a fair comparison. In that sense, I suppose my question is: do panels take this sort of consideration into account when assessing applications?

@MacIntyre In principle, the panels should take that into account, but in practice it is rare that the applied "discount" is adequate to bridge the gap. That is partly because the panels (who are made of research-oriented position holders) cannot figure out exactly how hard it is to do research in a teaching-oriented position, and because of ample supply of candidates with proven research record, making disadvantaged candidates with less established research record a much riskier choice.

@MacIntyre I agree with Bukh. In principle, yes. However, last recruitment round we had 52 applicants for an assistant professor position. We shortlisted 5 for interview and hired 1. So, people with extensive research and funding experience were lower risk and ended up higher on the list. The only separate rule are candidates with career break for family (e.g., women that had career break for children) or health/disability reasons. They always go top of the list and there is an HR representative overseeing the process.

Understood. Thanks very much to both of you for your responses.

It sounds like the research mathematicians are at the same campus. If so, even if not in the same building, you can cultivate collegiate relationships:

Go to the seminars held by the research group
Be a co-supervisor for PhD students in the research group

If you spend some time finding out peoples' interests, then you could potentially write a grant application during the summer teaching break with one of the research mathematicians, and that grant could include buyout time for you. Find out the buyout policy for your department.
Do the research mathematicians also teach? That is, would you be able to apply for jobs with the research group where your teaching experience is relevant? If so, becoming familiar with the group would also be an advantage in any application for a position.

Hi Jen, thanks for your response. Yes, I'll certainly try to go to seminars / offer my services however possible, depending on my teaching timetable. I strongly get the impression that we're not expected to be applying for research grants at all: our whole department's teaching-only! (The mathematics department is separate.) But I'll ask about grants. The research mathematicians do teach, so I'll be applying for those jobs, and any others that come up.

The obvious answer is to shirk teaching and divert time to research.  Do it in a stealthy manner of course (just be perceived as efficient, not blowing things off).  Use your massive Ph.D. brain to figure out how to do that. (limit graded homework, use established texts and curricula versus trying new ones, etc. etc. use your noggin.)
But really, you are already pretty far off the beaten track ("job to job" along with taking a teaching only post, versus finding another one with partial research).  At this point, you really need to re-evaluate your goals and see if pursuing hard core academia research is in the cards for you.  It is a tournament system (like being a rock star...lots of aspiring musicians, few headliners).  Consider if you will be happy being a postdoc in your 40s.  Or an adjunct forever. Or if you even might want to look at alternate fields (more applied, BUT don't take more school) or going to work for government or the like.

Phrases like "being a postdoc in your 40s" and "or an adjunct forever" and "use established texts and curricula" make me wonder if you have experience of study or work in the UK system or in mathematics

Thanks for your response, but I'm inclined to agree with @YemonChoi. One thing you're absolutely right about is that there are lots aspiring but few headlining, but academic departments in the UK do not consist entirely of "headliners" - they consist mostly of people well below the professorial pay grade, but still in secure research and teaching jobs. (And yes, I'd be very happy with that.) But the landscape is shifting very rapidly: many of those people would not get their jobs if they applied for them today. "Job to job" very much is the beaten track for young UK academics right now.


text:
Co-author responds to email by mistake cc'ing the EiC
I (first author) received a decision on a manuscript recently (minor revision). All my co-authors were cc'ed in the decision email and some of them replied to the decision email saying "congratulations" to me while cc'ing the other co-authors.
One of them accidentally cc'ed the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of the journal!!! Actually, his reply was to the EiC of the journal with me in the cc. I think this horrible as formally the paper is still pending minor revision before publication.
How should I react? Should I just ignore this or send an email to the EiC apologizing for the misdirected email of this co-author? I do not want to overreact but this got me anxious as I have been eager for this paper to get accepted.

Have you spoken to the co-author in question about this? Was it actually an error from their point of view?

Yes, it was. He accentually hit reply to all on the wrong thread and apologized to me. I am trying to see if I should do any damage control.

You're overthinking this. I've made that same mistake before. Nothing bad happened to me.

As long as the email wasn't "congratulations getting this by this jerk EIC!" they will not care. Minor revisions are reasonable to congratulate - I've never been involved in a minor revisions decision that didn't result in publication on the next submission.

@BryanKrause Even then most EiCs would just laugh it off (or, maybe, reconsider how they are seen in the community). What else is there to do for them? Out of spite backpedal on the paper and reject it?

@xLeitix Agreed, the consequences would probably be for the future rather than the present, if any at all.

Surely this happens on a daily basis.

@BryanKrause surely "congratulaions getting this load of rubbish past review", even fairly obviously if meant as a joke, would be worse. Worst case it could be read as suggesting fraud, and it's not like all academics have humour as a first language.

I think you can safely ignore it. I don't see how or why the editor would suddenly disfavor your paper because of something like this. They seem to think your paper is worthy of publication and they want to publish such papers, not get upset about small communication glitches.
And, of course, people often get cc'd on emails they shouldn't see, causing minor embarrassment. And I think that it is only that here: minor embarrassment.
Let it go. Someone got a chuckle out of it perhaps, but there isn't any reason for them to take out the big hammer.

(+1) they want to publish such papers, not get upset about small communication glitches --- That's what I was thinking also. I think it's all too easy to get caught up in worrying about what others think (I'm certainly not immune from it), and it helps to think back to situations you were in where someone (for me, often a student) thinks the worst about something that maybe I didn't even originally notice, or maybe I had originally laughed it off, thinking "oops, well at least I'm not the only one who does something like this".

Thanks for the answer! I thought that I might be overreacting to this. I am not doing anything about this. I am sure the EiC is getting a lot of these glitches given the volume of submissions he receives.

I'm not even sure it is an embarrassment, because I think "minor revision" is already worthy of a congratulation, especially with a difficult journal. It is like congratulating someone for reaching the finals in a sports competition before the final match takes place ;-)

I think this [is] horrible as formally the paper is still pending minor revision before publication.

It's not horrible, just a harmless glitch.

How should I react?

"Have you considered... Masterly Inactivity?"

I do not want to overreact

Good, because emailing the editor-in-chief would be an over-reaction...
PS - More generally - don't get so stressed out! You'll experience much worse gaffes in life to be worried and anxious about  :-)

Thanks for the answer! I am firmly masterly inactive at the moment :)

Thanks for involving Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey in an good answer.

@CarlChristian: Actually, I've been meaning to use that link ever since I answered this question, where I also really wanted to use it, but didn't because it would have been too inconsiderate.

Upvoted for "You'll experience much worse gaffes in life to be worried and anxious about :-)".  @user18244 should consider this a practice run.  Once I sent what I thought would be a private email to a potential investor that I happened to know, and it ended up getting forwarded to my CEO.  I had been very candid about the state of the company...that was not a pleasant time :D.  Assume every email will get misdirected.  It's the safest thing.  Candid commentary is best done in person or over the phone where there's no record to be misinterpreted later.  E.g. in court. :D

@msouth: And let's not forget "Reply All by someone you've BCCed" debacles. Happened to me a couple of times before I learned my lesson.


text:
Impact of slide quality on student learning
I'm working on improving the contents of a university level introductionary course.
Has there been done any research on the impact of lecture slide quality on student learning?
My assumption is that slides that are well structured, follow a theme, spread content over slides in a thought through manner, etc. will give the students better learning. I feel like this is a safe assumption but I've learned not to trust assumption, can this be backed up or contradicted by research results?
The question at hand is whether or not refactoring old lectures is worthwile, as they stand they are sort of hap-hazard and glued together of slides from various lecturers.

I would imagine it depends on how important the lecture slides are. If they are the primary source from which students revise, then by all means, improve them as much as you can. But if the slides are just used as an aid in lectures, and students don't typically use them outside of the lectures, then perhaps there are better ways to spend your time than working on the slides.

Have you considered avoiding slides entirely? Please?

If you're refactoring the course, consider moving away from a mostly lecture-based approach towards more active learning. There is a lot of evidence out there to support the effectiveness of active learning techniques (if used correctly). To paraphrase What Is the Impact of PowerPoint Lectures on Learning? A Brief Review of Research: "PowerPoint or slightly better PowerPoint?" is a less important question than "How can I
adapt my lecture course for active learning?"
Having said that, there is some evidence that slide design based on principles from multimedia learning research can have a positive effect on student learning, compared to slides that violate those principles.
For example, in engineering:

[We] compared learning
  outcomes in 110 engineering students who viewed a technical presentation in which the slides either integrated or violated
  six multimedia learning principles. The presentation slides that adhered to the six multimedia principles followed the
  assertion-evidence approach, while the presentation slides that violated the six multimedia principles followed commonly
  practiced defaults of PowerPoint. Essay responses from the 110 engineering students revealed superior comprehension and
  fewer misconceptions for the assertion–evidence group as well as lower perceived cognitive load. In addition, stronger
  recall occurred in this assertion–evidence group at delayed post-test. These findings support the use of the assertion–
  evidence structure for presentations in engineering education

Source: Garner, Joanna, and Michael Alley. "How the Design of Presentation Slides Affects Audience Comprehension: A Case for the Assertion–Evidence Approach." International Journal of Engineering Education 29.6 (2013): 1564-1579. (PDF)
Here's another example, from medicine:

Methods: A pre-test/post-test control group design was used, in which the traditional-learning group received a lecture on shock using traditionally designed slides and the modified-design group received the same lecture using slides modified in accord with Mayer’s principles of multimedia design. Participants included Year 3 medical students at a private, midwestern medical school progressing through their surgery clerkship during the academic year 2009–2010. The medical school divides students into four groups; each group attends the surgery clerkship during one of the four quarters of the academic year. Students in the second and third quarters served as the modified-design group (n = 91) and students in the fourth-quarter clerkship served as the traditional-design group (n = 39).
Results: Both student cohorts had similar levels of pre-lecture knowledge. Both groups showed significant improvements in retention (p < 0.0001), transfer (p < 0.05) and total scores (p < 0.0001) between the pre- and post-tests. Repeated-measures anova analysis showed statistically significant greater improvements in retention (F = 10.2, p = 0.0016) and total scores (F = 7.13, p = 0.0081) for those students instructed using principles of multimedia design compared with those instructed using the traditional design.

Source: Issa, Nabil, et al. "Applying multimedia design principles enhances learning in medical education." Medical education 45.8 (2011): 818-826. (PDF)
and there were also long-term effects:

Results:  Findings showed that the modified condition group significantly outscored the traditional condition group on delayed tests of transfer given 1 week (d = 0.83) and 4 weeks (d = 1.17) after instruction, and on delayed tests of retention given 1 week (d = 0.83) and 4 weeks (d = 0.79) after instruction. The modified condition group also significantly outperformed the traditional condition group on immediate tests of retention (d = 1.49) and transfer (d = 0.76).

Source: Issa, Nabil, et al. "Teaching for understanding in medical classrooms using multimedia design principles." Medical education 47.4 (2013): 388-396.
A third example:

To measure the effect of a multimedia design principle adherent PowerPoint presentation on test item performance, student satisfaction, student confidence in potential exam performance, and classroom dynamics.Two versions of an identical lecture were presented in different formats over subsequent years (2011, 2012, and 2013). One with traditional PowerPoint slides and the other redesigned to comply with multimedia design principles. Student scores on identical exam items were compared and a voluntary student survey was used to evaluate the activity.Students performed statistically better on identical exam items, were very satisfied (mean = 7.4 of 10) with the redesigned PowerPoint format, confident in their potential exam performance, and a majority (66%) wanted to see pictures and narration more often.Students may retain information better when presented in a multimedia design adherent format. Student reaction was positive and indicates that students may prefer this method to traditional PowerPoint slides.

Source: Pate, Adam, and Savannah Posey. "Effects of applying multimedia design principles in PowerPoint lecture redesign." Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning 2.8 (2016): 235-239.

RE: assumption vs. research results: It would be quite a challenge to accurately measure how much a largely cosmetic change in a course might affect student learning. Personally, I've always thought that the quality of the slides sends a message to the audience: low-quality slides can have an adverse affect on student morale, motivation, and attention spans, while well-designed slides could have a positive impact by keeping students more engaged and perhaps even improving long-term retention.
Proving my assumption quantitatively as opposed to anecdotally, however, would be a challenge. I suppose I could teach two sections: one with a set of "cohesive" slides and the other with a set of "haphazard" slides, and compare student performance. Even if I conducted that experiment, it's often difficult to get reliable data that way. (Any difference in scores could be due to other factors, such as what time of day each section was taught, or the raw talent of the students in each section.)
About my remarks on the "quality" of my slides, there are several practices I often employ regularly; for example:

Replace bullets with pictorial cues
Add occasional humorous cultural references in strategic places
Add discussion questions intended to launch an in-class discussion
Pepper the lecture with active learning activities

Based on student remarks (via in-class comments and end-of-course surveys), I get the feeling that my efforts are appreciated, and it's worth the time I invest. Last year, one student put his hand up in the middle of a lecture last year, and asked me, "How much time do you spend on your slides?" He told me outright that he appreciated the effort. Another student in that same section was engaged to an intern who was working for me on a committee. She told me, "My fiancé says he really enjoys your class; it's more interesting than most."
As with many things in learning, though, it's all about tradeoffs. While I feel my slides help facilitate a more lively and interactive presentation, I've also been told that my slides are great during lectures, but not such a good resource for studying. Moreover, I'm an adjunct professor, so it's not like I'm committing time that would be better spent on research.
RE: The question at hand is whether or not refactoring old lectures is worthwhile, as they stand they are sort of hap-hazard and glued together of slides from various lecturers: I think it would be worthwhile, but maybe you could refactor them gradually over time, so it wasn't such an enormous task. Try to get them into a cohesive theme and smooth the transitions as you continually improve the course.
As much as I admire your thirst for hard data, there are times to go with your gut. If you cringe at the haphazard feel of your presentation, perhaps your students are noticing, too.
One last hint to consider: If getting the slides more cohesive is a daunting task, perhaps you can hire a student to do some of the heavy lifting. We did that for a course that needed a lot of material moved from written notes into PowerPoint. It was an efficient way to get much of the work done at a very reasonable cost.

I don't think there's any research on 'slide quality and its effect on student learning'. I would imagine that it is very difficult to separate just the effect of slide quality from other factors affecting student learning.

This really doesn't answer the question.

I was trying to answer to "Has there been done any research on the impact of lecture slide quality on student learning?"

@ff524: This is quite obviously a direct response to the question "Has there been done any research on the impact of lecture slide quality on student learning?" The answer claims there has not. Whether it is correct or not is a different matter, but it does answer the question posed.

I guess I don't really think of "I don't know" as an answer. It's more the type of thing I would expect to see in a comment.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Do teaching load agreements always refer to the academic year?
I was lucky enough to get hired as a tenure-track assistant professor in computer science. During the negotiation of the offer (per email), the department head assured me that, during my first year, the usual teaching load of 2 courses per year will be reduced to 1 course.
After having accepted the offer and agreeing on a starting date in Spring (2017), I was told that I will be teaching 1 course in Spring (2017) and also another course in Fall (2017) as "I am not teaching any course this Fall (2016)" and hence I have a reduced teaching load as promised. The reasoning makes little sense to me as I will only be joining in Spring 2017. (For the record, I am going to be TA for a course at my current institution this Fall).

How do I approach the situation?
Is it common that new hires joining in Spring miss out on reduced responsibilities during the first year?

Note that the department/university is considered to be well-established (i.e. reasonably highly ranked and has been around for several decades.)
Edit:   I will also be teaching a course in Spring 2018.

I've seen this sort of thing happen from time to time; these situations are sufficiently open to interpretation that if you don't have clarity in the letter itself, the chair may try to get you to do a bit of extra teaching. It's entirely reasonable to push back a bit.
First, though, I'd want to know what you're doing in Spring 2018. If you're getting a semester of teaching release then, that may be just as good as getting in Fall 2017 and thus there would be little reason to argue.
If you're expected to teach in Spring 2018 as well, then you've got a legitimate beef. Just bring it up politely, ask for some remedy, and remember that it's in your department's interest as well as in yours that you have the time you need to get established in your new department and get your research off to a splendid start.

I will also be teaching a course in Spring 2018.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
What is considered a good GPA in a master's program?
I am in a top master's program for my field of study. I completed my first semester last month and got back my grades. When I was offered admission at my current school, I was offered a partial fellowship, most likely based on my GRE scores, which were much higher than the school profile average. The only condition that I needed in order to maintain that fellowship was to maintain at least a 3.0 GPA. As a new student last semester, not knowing which courses to take, I took only the courses that were mandatory for students in my program.
I honestly did not enjoy many of my course subjects, and the one course that was required of all first-semester students was my least favorite. It was a theory-based course for all students regardless of major (whether they majored in the same thing in undergrad or something else). My undergrad major was different from my current major. This course made me feel depressed because it was in the same format as an undergraduate course with one lecture and one discussion led by a PhD student. For most of my courses, when I would inquire about grades, I would get vague responses. In my program, C is the lowest grade that could be given. I am still in good standing, which in my program is a 3.0. My GPA is a little bit higher than this, so I am able to keep my fellowship. But, my GPA is what disappoints me.
What is considered a good GPA in a master's program? Are there wide variations depending on the program of what is considered a good GPA? How important are master's program GPAs? I don't plan to move on to a PhD program. I read different responses on other sites like how a B is similar to an F.

This varies around the world, but an extremely rough grade scale that's somewhat common in US grad programs is something like "A = good, B = okay, C = lousy."

The grades are A, B, and C U Later.  You don't say where you are, but, in the United States, I'd bet that grades of D and F are possible in your program.  A grade of D or F could potentially mean immediate dismissal from the program; two such grades almost certainly would.

@BobBrown D is not possible for graduate students in my school, which is in the United States. The lowest possible passing grade that can be assigned in a graduate course is a C (there is no C- and no D), the next grade after that is F.

@ff524 So, no passing grade lower than C, but it is still possible to fail a course with an F.  What happens to such students?

@BobBrown Not sure what you mean by "such students"? You mean students who get an F? The usual stuff. There's a 3.0 cumulative GPA requirement for graduate students to remain in good academic standing, and 3.0 required to graduate. 2 semesters in which CGPA is below 3.0 (during entire graduate career, not necessarily consecutive) leads to expulsion.

What is considered a good GPA by whom?

If you do not plan on pursuing a PhD then a "good GPA" is one where you can complete your courses and graduate with your Masters. When you go into industry from academia, no hiring manager will care about your GPA - your experience matters more and your master's degree will be icing on the cake. Many graduate programs require at least a 3.0 GPA (B average) to maintain a good status and not be put on probation. So that might be your goal.

"The one course that was required of all first-semester students was my least favorite. It was a theory-based course for all students regardless of major.  This course made me feel depressed because it was in the same format as an undergraduate course with one lecture and one discussion led by a PhD student."
You ended your first semester of a master's after changing fields with a gpa slightly higher than 3.0, which is the threshold value to keep your fellowship.  You were disappointed.

Part of your question is

How important are master's program GPAs? I don't plan to move on to a PhD program.

Your gpa is one indicator of fit -- fit between you and your new field and fit between you and the program you're enrolled in.
But it is not the sole indicator.  Here are some other good questions:

Did the required class prepare me well for the courses to come in my new field?

Are the instructors in my program supportive of my learning?

Am I comfortable enough here to do satisfying work?

"For most of my courses, when I would inquire about grades, I would get vague responses."

You are entitled to clear, useful feedback about your own work in a course, and you are entitled to information about grade distribution in a course.  If the instructor doesn't answer your questions, you may ask a department administrator.
Tip: ask in as neutral a tone as possible.  There are students who come across as believing themselves entitled to an A at all times, and it wouldn't be helpful for you to give this impression.  (I'm not saying your question here gave that impression -- just warning you about a possible pitfall.)


text:
Use and costs of Creative Commons licenses in scholarly publishing
How often is which Creative Commons license used in scholarly publishing and are there differences between their use in gold (fully) open acces (OA) and hybrid articles?
I am looking for a table like this, with the amount of articles:
license       gold OA    hybrid OA
CC-BY         A          B
CC-BY-NC-ND   C          D
...

Additionally, what are the average charges for both types of articles (gold open access and hybrid) depending on the different licenses?
I am looking for a table like this, with the average costs of the license:
license      gold OA    hybrid OA
CC-BY        A          B
CC-BY-NC-ND  C          D
...

Update: Some results of my further research:

As mentioned in a comment, there is a study for gold open access journals. Hybrid journals are not investigated.
There is data availible from OASPA members. They provide a chart showing the growth of Fully Open Access (OA) journals using a CC-BY license. Additionally, there is an Excel file including also data for hybrid open access journals. Unfortunately, there is no information about the charges and the source of this data.

I am aware of this study but it only focuses on gold open access articles.

arXiv links article licenses in a well-defined place; you may want to farm their data. (My guess is most articles use the default, but well.)

Good point, @Raphael. Actually, I'm more focused on publisher data, not on pre-prints. But this would be interesting, too.

That would be more easy, I guess: there are probably very few publishers using CC licenses. The ratio of articles published thus is probably zero up to several decimal places. Therefore, I think you'll have to look outside of traditional publishing. Then the landscape is more diffuse: you have preprint servers, different databases for different disciplines (that have non-empty intersections), articles published only on their authors' websites, ...

No, it wouldn't. The number of publishers offering hybrid open access is no longer small and even just to find out which articles of only one subscription based journal are open access (hybrid) is not straight foreward.

I was not aware that "open access" at traditional publishers entailed a CC license. All models I have seen mean they keep their usual copyright -- everything that changes is that they make the article available for free (as in $0). This typically costs the authors a four-digit amount of dollars. If that has changed, I'm glad! (I doubt it, though. Giving something away for free does not challenge your business model in the way CC does.)

Hybrid articles are more and more published under CC licenses. You're right that this has been different in the past. I recently found a journal charging more for CC-BY than for CC-BY-NC-ND. That's when I started asking myself this question: Which license do most authors choose and what are the average charges by license?

I see; good things are happening then! Good luck in your quest, I'm afraid I can't be of help.

The three dots shall indicate that I'm interested in all CC licenses. Nevertheless, I corrected the question to a correct one. Sorry for the typo.

The "costs" of a bad license choice (e.g. using -NC when you have no plans to sell the work) are often hard to measure. Cf. https://www.ub.uit.no/wiki/noap/index.php/User:Nemo_bis/Elements_of_journal_freedom

@Nemo Your link leads to an empty page.

@FuzzyLeapfrog uh indeed, since a week ago. Archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20171123080853/https://www.ub.uit.no/wiki/noap/index.php/User:Nemo_bis/Elements_of_journal_freedom

@Nemo Thank you so much! There is a very well written text explaining in detail why NC is not what most people think it is and why it shouldn't be used. Unfortunately, it's only available in German. https://irights.info/wp-content/uploads/userfiles/CC-NC_Leitfaden_web.pdf

@FuzzyLeapfrog yes, that's a leaflet we at Wikimedia helped make, it's translated at this page (linked from the page above): https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Free_knowledge_based_on_Creative_Commons_licenses

Even though there is still no complete data set answering my question, I recently found a public data set at least answering my questions for hybrid OA. It's called Hybrid Open Access Monitor. The data and the source code is available on GitHub. It is based on data from Crossref and the Open-APC dataset, also freely available on GitHub. Some more explanation can be found on the About page. As an example, here are the numbers of hybrid articles published by Elsevier split into the different licences.

This figure is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Author: Najko Jahn (Scholarly Communication Analyst, SUB Göttingen), 2017.
You can also see, how much each country spent (relatively) of the total costs, if you go to the monitor's website.
For Gold Open Access, there is the study already mentioned in the question showing the usage of different CC licences.
Combining both will lead to a data set of the usage of CC licences in Gold and Hybrid Open Access. Nevertheless, regarding the costs, one has to dig even a bit deeper but I'm sure there will be published data soon and I will update this answer accordingly.


text:
How do I reassure myself that I am a worthy candidate for a tenure-track position, when department would likely have interviewed me even if I wasn't?
I am a woman currently on the market for tenure-track positions. I will not disclose my department since I think this is not relevant, and I am about to describe a particular department in detail.
I have a couple of interviews for the tenure-track positions, and while all of them are from schools that I would happily be at, one interview is from my dream school (research fit, compatibility with colleagues, location, and familiarity are all important factors in my job search).
While doing my research on this school, I made the unfortunate mistake of reading the hiring policy of the university. The policy says that if there are no applicants of minority status (such as being a woman) on their interview shortlist, the hiring committee must go back to the applicant pool and find the best applicant of minority status and add her to the interview list, or justify in writing to the Dean why they did not find any minority candidates suitable.
Clearly the second option is tedious, and I believe that most hiring committee would rather throw in a minority candidate rather than trying to justify the lack thereof. I am the only minority candidate. Furthermore, this department has never hired any women through the proper channels. The only women they have (the percentage is in the low single digits) were all hired through spousal hires. This makes me strongly suspect that maybe I am the candidate that they begrudgingly added to the interview list to avoid the paperwork.
This knowledge is impacting me severely; even though I am preparing for my interview, I keep thinking that all of this is hopeless, and I wonder if it's already agreed on among the hiring committee that I will never be hired. I feel that I am wasting my time. And although I have never acknowledged that being a woman was a disadvantage, or even that I was subject to sexism up to this point of my career, this time, I know that the other white males who are interviewing are not having these worries, and I am intensely jealous.
How can I talk myself through this, and believe from my heart that I can actually get this position? I read a similar question on this site just now, and it seems that unless I believe that I can get this position, often the defeatist attitude will show during the interview and become self-fulfilling. It really is my dream job and I want this job more than anything else.

See also the existing post on the imposter syndrome.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. (Comments can't be moved to chat more than once, only deleted from here on out.)

The majority of the people involved in evaluating your interview are not involved in shortlisting.  The hiring process is incredibly random.  Last interview process I observed, there were 4 candidates, and for each candidate there were people who thought it was obvious that that candidate was the best.  At worst, you're getting high-quality practice with the interview process.

You're probably applying in a STEM department. If it's mathematics, too bad the Association for Women in Mathematics (https://sites.google.com/site/awmmath/home) doesn't have a hot line with someone at the other end to ease your anxiety. Just wow them. Good luck.

Just a small anecdote: Where I work, a candidate was mistakenly invited to interview rounds. The candidate knew this as he was addressed with the wrong name in the invitation letter. After the interview he revealed that his name was in fact not xxx but yyy. He got the job.

There are two things worth keeping in mind. First, while it might be the case that the committee is "forced" to interview a female candidate, it might not. You have no actual evidence in either case, and though it's tempting to assume the worst, there's no reason to, and there's absolutely nothing to gain by thinking the search committee doesn't want you there. So: spend your mental energy working on your talk, your research plans, etc.
Second, even if it is the case that the committee wouldn't be interviewing you if left to itself, the interview is in many respects a "blank slate" -- an opportunity for candidates to impress potential colleagues beyond what's evident on paper, and (of course) for candidates to fall flat and perform terribly. I've been on enough search committees to assure you that several of your fellow interviewees will do terribly, and that conversely it is not uncommon for committee members to say "I wasn't really in favor of bringing X to campus, but now having interacted with him/her, I'm glad we did."
This is all, I suppose, a long-winded way of saying "worry less, and always do your best!"

I agree with this. Even though I'm still in the early-career stage, I've seen plenty of searches that ended up with a completely different consensus than what everyone expected going in. The choice seemed obvious on paper, and then seemed obvious a different way after the campus visits. Let your enthusiasm shine and wow them. :)

@trikeprof can I ask just what has to happen in the interview for such a change of consensus to happen? Is that common?

Not sure how common it is, but it's never impossible. Someone coming across as likable on paper, but not making a good impression in person. An application seeming only borderline, but then the person clicking extremely well with the department. Well-written writing samples and really poor presentation skills. Thoughtful research statement in advance but then no evidence of having actually read up on the department/school. Applications are such a limited way of getting a sense of a person...which is why at the tenure-track level campus visits are so crucial to the hiring process. :)

I've sat on hiring committees where the leading candidate after the last round of on-paper sorting was judged as exceedingly disagreeable in the phone interview round and ones where the leading candidate after the phone interview struggled in person while the runner-up shone in the classroom. It happens. And there is an element of "fit into the culture of the department" as well as search for raw talent. Of course no one gets to the on-campus interview unless they are judged as meeting the basic requirements.

@AnnaB no one wants to hire someone they won't get along with. I've seen two or three people (in one case, on paper, he was far and away the top candidate) that within a few minutes in person we could already tell it wasn't going to work. We had another candidate who by the CV should have had excellent teaching skills and talked the talk in the phone interview. Come the campus interview with sample class, they showed they did not know how to teach.

Also, you could have gotten to the interview stage for any number of other reasons: I know for a fact I got a callback because I mentioned volunteer work that happened to be the favorite cause of the secretary processing packets. Still had to do phone and campus on my own, but things can be so random (say, judging folks by coffee habits), the best is to not search for too much rhyme or reason.

@AnnaB: In some departments different sets of people are responsible for choosing which candidates are interviewed, and which of the interviewees is hired.  For example, in my department a small committee chooses the short list, but the entire department (modulo restrictions on rank) votes on which of the short list candidates to hire.  And it's quite easy for an entire department to reach a different consensus from a committee.

The simple answer is: who cares? Whether you were invited beause they want to interview you, or because they had to invite a <minority>, you have your foot in the door AND it is a place you want to work. So get prepared as best you can, because YOU want this!
Do note that women have this annoying tendency to say:
"Oh dear, I am only 80% qualified for this position, I'd better not apply/not oversell myself/ask for what I want."
I know; been there, done that. Men, on the other hand, often have this "Hey, I'm at least 25% qualified for the position, and I'm great, so here I go, you folks need me!"-attitude.
I understand that you don't want to be the token <minority>, but it won't be better until there are at least three <minority>s until the diversity factors kick in. So it is your job to give the best interview of your life. Study all the details of the institution, have a good idea of what you plan to research, find out as much as you can, and go into the interview with a smile and "Yes, I can!" on your mind. Good luck!

+1 Rankings can be reversed by interviews. So, even if you were the "token" of the invitation (which you shouldn't assume), you may end up the star of the interview. Don't overthink it, and give your best.

This is absolutely a great answer. At the end of the day it really makes no difference if you were the minority pick or not. You put your best foot forward either way.

"Who cares?" Perhaps the OP has good reason to care.  Time is limited.  Everything has a cost.  If she goes to this interview, she may have to cancel that interview.

In addition to the other good answers, let me object to one of your assumptions. My experience is that interviewing a tenure-track appointment is usually expensive and time consuming, and would be far more of an annoyance than simply giving the dean a reason why you might not be qualified. This usually involves paying airfare, driving to and from airports, driving around town, tying up an entire day in the department's life, breakfast lunch and dinner, cajoling people to go to your job talk, etc. Meanwhile, the dean is probably not going to seriously push back on the committee's recommendations.
You can justify not interviewing someone to the dean in just a sentence or so. E.g. "this person didn't have the expected number of publications at this point of their career" or "this person replicates an area of expertise we already have in the department".
Also, take heart that your under-represented status can give you an advantage. I know for certain that my previous department weighed representation as a significant attribute of prospective hires. They wouldn't hire someone they thought couldn't live up to the normal workload expectations, but if there were two otherwise equal candidates the under-represented individual would be the clear choice.

Gender equality in academia (and everywhere else) is built one job interview at a time, one hire at a time, one painful soul-searching Academia Stack Exchange discussion at a time. It is an edifice with millions of little bricks, still very incomplete and growing every day, and I feel that your situation is just one of those bricks.
The best I can offer by way of encouragement is to say that you owe it to future generations of women (who by the way are also in your debt for asking this extremely insightful and relevant question, a link to which I intend to forward to my dean and several other people at my department and campus) to do your best to overcome your doubts, go to that interview and perform at the very top of your abilities. You seem to know intellectually that you are just as qualified for the position as anyone else but are looking for ways to also "believe it from the heart" when a small but critical piece of evidence has planted doubts there. It is truly unfair that you were made to feel this way, but the best and perhaps only solution is to soldier on and interview precisely as if you are interviewing on a level playing field with all the other candidates, which for all we know you may very well be.
Think about it this way: by succeeding you would be taking your new dream employer and all of us in academia one more step on the way to making such hiring policies redundant so that future women candidates don't have to agonize in this way about their next job interview - a small step for a woman and a giant step for womankind (and mankind). Isn't that something worth making an effort for?

By the way, I would be very interested to hear your Dean's response (if at all). This kind of affirmative action exists in my institution too, and although I have never inquired about it, I wonder if I should. At present, I do not see an alternative to this policy, however.

First of all, let me reassure you that it is completely understandable for you to feel this way, even when you know that you are totally qualified for this position. You might already know the term "impostor phenomenon", the existence of which is a testament to the fact that many women (whom you would also recognize as successful and qualified) nevertheless have strong self-doubts about their worthiness.
I think it's also worth explicitly noting that you feeling this way is not your fault! Any of us would be susceptible to similar feelings, if we had been faced with a lifetime of suggestions that we are somehow not welcome in a field simply because of an irrelevant trait such as gender. Even if the worst were true, the fault would lie with the department and its hiring committee, not with you. Bias against women means that people evaluate women as less qualified, even when they are equally or more qualified than other applicants; but those evaluations are erroneous, and this department's policy is one attempt to compensate for that bias. (And really, if it were the case that this department can never bring itself to hire women due to the biases of its members—can it really be a dream job? They need to convince you that they live up to your standards of collegiality, after all.)
I know there is no magic solution. But, to suggest an ideal strategy to at least orient toward: remember that other people's choices are out of your control, whether those choices are fair or not. You have been invited to demonstrate your strengths and potential to this department, and you can do that regardless of what they end up deciding. And even though job searches are extremely stressful and personal, remember that no hiring decision is a statement about your worth as a person (or as an academic): you have worked hard, learned, grown, and accomplished so much during your education, and your worth is unconditional.
I hope it's helpful for me to list a few articles that talk about issues like this, and do actually have some tips for people in your situation:

K. Kaplan, Unmasking the impostor, Nature 459 (2009), 468–469.
A. Gheaus, Three cheers for the token woman, Social Science Research Network, March 5, 2013.
P. R. Clance and S. Imes, The impostor phenomenon in high achieving women: dynamics and therapeutic intervention, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice 15 (1978), no. 3, 241–247.
https://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/gendered-conference-campaign/

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. (Comments can't be moved to chat more than once. So future contributions to the ongoing discussion that are posted as comments, can only be deleted instead.)

Lots of great answers here already about why you shouldn't let this worry you.  Let me add one more thing that may help address the actual question - how do you stop worrying?
Your worst case scenario is that they won't seriously consider you.
If that is the case, you are still getting the best possible practice for interviews at places that will consider you.  I've heard lots of stories of people approaching an interview as practice and getting the job.
So (particularly if you are an impostor syndrome case), I bet you can treat this as practice, but still do incredibly good preparation on your presentation.  Focus on getting the best possible practice for other interviews.

In all honesty however, in todays academic environment, there are many qualified women applying for jobs.  In my experience, as a general rule, any of the top 10% of applicants has a legitimate chance at the job, and the process of choosing one over another is random.  Odds are there were around 200 applicants.  They probably had a pool of 20 or so people from which some random detail led to one being picked over another.  Perhaps the random detail that got you picked was being female.  Someone else may have gotten picked because their webpage mentions scuba diving and so someone on the committee read their application a little closer than the others and liked it.

So my point for the rational part of you is "you've got as good a shot as anyone else".  My point for the impostor syndrome part of you is "at worst, you're practicing for your other interviews."

I've done a lot of interviews, both as a candidate, and as an interviewer in universities. You are there only because they think you can do it. It's just too much effort to drag people in otherwise. At an interview you can sell yourself, in a way that no cv can match.
In my experience we do interviews for two reasons -

To see if we can live with you. We've dropped very able well published candidates because we could not imagine working with them.
To see if they can think - we often throw candidates hard questions to see if they can think on their feet, and to get some idea of their problem solving style (which matters a lot in my area)

I would say, go for it, and do not undervalue yourself.
Good luck!

The only exception to this I'd say is that I've known a few schools to invite former students to get them "real" interview experience, despite there being no expectation of then getting it. Though one time, a guy ended up getting it because the others all bailed after getting jobs elsewhere.

If you can't stop thinking that expectations are set too low for you, turn that thought around and focus on the large margin by which you can beat those expectations - probably by a wider margin than other candidates, if the expectations really are lower.  No matter how objective people try to make their assessments, they usually wind up emotionally remembering the delta between expectations and actual performance (especially when they're evaluating subjectively!).
Then turn that view of an opportunity into motivation to prepare to do your best.

So you read their hiring policies, and suddenly you think you are not qualified for this job? Why would you think that? Their hiring policies have nothing, nothing at all to do with your ability to do the job.
Of course if you think your situation is hopeless then it is hopeless - you are your own worst enemy, and if you go to an interview with the assumption it is hopeless, you don't have a chance.
It's time to adjust your attitude. Take a big sheet of paper. On the left side, you write down all the positives and why you should get the job. The right side, you just leave empty. And every morning after you get up and every evening before you go to bed you take that list, you say loud "This is why I will get the job, and why I deserve it", and then you read the list aloud.
Wish you success for your interview. You can do it. You will do it.

I would say to be cautious.  Because even if it is your dream job, you still need to be able to successfully work there and get tenure.  With how they have treated women in the past (only spousal hires) it may be challenging to near impossible to 1) get along in the department, 2) get the good classes/research opportunities, and 3) not be stuck with all the service that the rest of the professors don't want on their plate.  If this is indeed your dream job AND you have a positive feeling about "getting along" with these colleagues, I would ask lots of questions about course load and service obligations during the on campus.  And then if you get an offer to have all of that written in your offer letter.

Other answers do indeed convey "what people think". And, yes, the question reflects an ugly reality of academic and other contexts where the "looking like a baseball player" fallacy sadly dominates.
In the world that we apparently inhabit, probably not the best of all possible, based on several decades of both observation and attempts to intervene to make things better/fairer, ... I'd recommend a sort of aggressively hyper-Darwinist viewpoint, namely, that if you can get a job you have earned it.
I have to say that (in my STEM field, mathematics) there are many accidental or subliminal misogynists ("she doesn't look like a mathematician"...) but/and some of the worst of them are willing to bend to various "equal-opportunity" laws, if only for funding or avoiding hassles.
Sure, even after tenure, people (of many sorts) will receive endless (believe me...) "micro-aggressions" from central administration, passed on to Deans, passed on to dept chairs, ... not to mention self-aggrandizing types... so the problem does not end.
For a flashy ending to this answer: if "looking like a mathematician" means "looking like a socially awkward, physically clumsy, late-pubescent northwestern-european or north-east-european boy", well, gosh, yeah, I guess that many of us don't "pass". I'd note that the obvious objections to this sort of caricature are ... in principle... justified, but, in practice, are absolutely not.

Paul, the question doesn't mention anything about math or STEM...

@DanRomik, indeed, the question doesn't mention a specific field, but/and surely most of us can only talk (with any substance) about our direct experience in a specific field, ...


text:
Will making a complaint against a student backfire on me as a postdoc?
This is about a non-academic issue I've had with a student, who is outside of my department, and I would like to know if I should pursue it or just let it go.
I recently moved to the US for a postdoc and I sublet a room for a student over the summer. All interaction between the student and I was friendly and I enjoyed staying in her place. At the end of my stay, she told me that she would not give any of my deposit back and the reasons she gave me were, frankly, ridiculous. There was no damage to the apartment that needed to be paid for. After explaining to her (politely) what the purpose of a deposit is, she eventually gave back half of my deposit. This was just a check in the post, with no explanation of why she withheld the rest of it. I asked her to give me a breakdown of what she kept me money for but she has ignored all my emails since sending the check. Without evidence of what she has kept my money for, I see this as blatant theft.
So, my options are, do I go to her department and make a complaint because I have no other way of contacting (after moving out she asked me to only contact her via email), or do I let it go? If I make a complaint about her, could it backfire on me professionally?

This does not seem like an academic issue to me, more like a legal one. Why does it matter if she is a student?

What on earth would their department do?

This doesn't belong here, but - you can get a lawyer or threaten with a lawcase - as with every non-academic landlord. Since I assume the deposit isn't much, try writing a letter in which you tell her to send proof of damage and repair costs, or else you will take steps to open a lawcase.
The department has nothing to do with it and probably won't care. They might give you contact information, but since you know where she lives that should suffice.

Change "for" to "from" and it will clarify the legal question at hand.

@PsySp This is if the student can then retaliate given the common academic connection, complaints, harassment, stalking, etc.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is not about Academia. That the sub-lessor happens to be a student is irrelevant.

I suppose this is off topic but I was worried if she would retaliate against me and make harassment complaints to my department. I could have stressed this more.

Since you are aware of the need for an itemized deduction, take a moment on how to write a demand letter, send it via certified mail, and then check if the apartment complex allows for subletting (which I doubt).
If there is truly no reason for the deduction, implying legal action through small claims as well as involving the agency should have the individual reconsider their action.

I will do this, thanks. Writing a physical letter didn't occur to me and is much more sensible than bothering her department.

Not the student's department. The Leasing Agency that is in charge of the Apartment (the Landlord). This is a completely seperate issue. Legal =/= Academia

The leasing agency allow subletting, they just take a subletting fee and stay out of any disputes. I contacted them immediately but they were no help.

Then your best avenue is small claims and only small claims.

No, this will not backfire on you professionally (unless it somehow makes it into the media, and that's unlikely).
As one of the commenters mentioned, this is a purely legal matter outside of the academic setting. However, unless you have some proof (or she does), it will be a "you said, she said" argument. You could take it to small claims court, but the big question is if it's really worth your time and money to get back the other half of the deposit.


text:
PhD funding 1st year
I am a Spanish student who is intending to apply for a PhD in electrical engineering in some US colleges. As far as I read in the web pages of the graduate schools, they financially support all the students they admit to their programs.
Anyway, in the application program they ask for information about the external funding I am asking for. I will be asking for It, but the period to ask for is after the university application is over.
Also, lots of the fellowships i have seen are only for PhD students that are already in 2nd or 3rd year,while the TA and RAs are also starting from 2nd year(as far as I know), so I wonder how important is it to have the external funding to get accepted? And if I would not get It would I get funding from them?
Thanks!

External funding is not expected at most US graduate schools. If you do have external funding it's important to say so, because it lets you effectively choose wherever you'd like to go. You become "free" to the university that admits you.

You do not need to have external funding to be accepted to graduate schools, and your situation is the same as every other student who applies: most of the time, the results of the fellowship applications won't be known until after the application deadlines.
As for RA's and TA's, that's a field-dependent thing. You may find that some departments use "central" funds to support students in their first semester or even first year (especially in programs where there is a lot of coursework to complete).

So, just to be clear, the process goes as follow, right ? : 1. Student applies to universities for graduate studies. 2. Application deadline is over. 3. Universities give their offer (including whether they are accepted, and  the fund that they are providing) to the students. 4. Student accepts one of those.

Step (1) should be: "Student applies to universities and external funding opportunities." But otherwise it's pretty close to what happens.


text:
Is work experience necessary for tenure-track positions?
In India, a minimum of 3 years of work experience is necessary to be appointed as an assistant professor in any of the IITs. (Years during the PhD or master's are not counted, but any year spent outside university after bachelor's will count.)
Is such a work experience a necessity even in US universities? If yes, how much will this weigh towards selection? If the candidate has only a post-bachelor's experience, what should be highlighted from that so as to enhance this application?

I think you meant "associate" instead of "assistant" - the latter requires at least 6 years on the link!

@shan23: Thanks, it was an error on the link. Have provided a new link now.

Yes, it is called a post-doc.

@bobthejoe: Post-doc and this necessity are not the same, but is post-doc compulsory?

@Bravo - The first link was for IIT Chennai, while the new link is for IIIT (not of the same stature as the other IITs, IMHO). So, which requirement do we take to be more binding?

@shan23: Just a printing mistake in the first link. This condition holds for most govt. institutions in India, IITs, IIMs, IISc, etc. See this ad (pdf) from IITM: http://www.iitm.ac.in/images/file/facapp2012/facad.pdf

There are no universal rules regarding employment status and being hired at US universities. In some fields, such as engineering, graduate students may be hired before they have completed any post-graduate professional experience. In contrast, in departments such as physics, it may be required to complete several post-doctoral appointments before being considered for faculty positions.
There are some general guidelines, however:

In less "applied" STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, more time is generally required in academic positions before earning a full-time faculty position.
In more "applied" fields, the time spent is reduced. Unfortunately, in some cases, although industrial experience is often seen as a good thing, it also has a tendency to make it difficult to jump back into a research field—unless one has been employed in an industrial research capacity.
In humanities fields, it's very difficult of to be able to continue to a faculty position after leaving academia.


text:
How to learn writing a scientific publication?
I'm halfway through my PhD in theoretical physics and so far, I have never written a paper on my own. At best I wrote short parts for an article published with my advisor. I am currently taking part in an international collaboration and we decided that I should try and write our paper. I spend about 2 weeks on it and barely reached 2.5 pages (two-column APS style). I sent my work to the advisor and he said that "it is not good". We only spoke shortly on a phone, so I expect him to give me some more feedback. However, he has given me feedback before and it hasn't been all that helpful. His main advice is for me to be more verbose which I just don't know how to do.
How can I learn to write scientific publications? Any tips? Training ideas? Sources I can follow?
I just feel that in a quite short time I should become an "independent researcher" and that should include the ability to write a paper on my own. With the current pace, I definitely won't achieve that by the end of my PhD and that gives me a lot of anxiety.
I'm not an English native speaker. I'm not sure if that matters but wanted to clarify.

Internalizing the IMRaD structure is a good first step.

https://cs.stanford.edu/people/widom/paper-writing.html

The sources are fine and I will go through them. I will also appreciate ideas for practising writing besides scientific publications. I feel I don't produce enough material to practise effectively.

Could you elaborate a bit on how come the feedback your advisor gave you in the past was "not all that helpful"? Did you try to work through a part of your writing in some detail? Could you ask them to be more verbose? :)

Most of the comments were about grammatical errors and inaccurate statements. These were definitely helpful.
As for the part where I struggle right now, I mostly received directions like "write more on this" as a comment to a paragraph. I often think about how to write more on a specific topic and don't see how to do that.
I will try to ask my advisor for more guidance on this.

To extend on what GEdgar correctly said - imitate (good) recent papers. I think that is, far and away, the most pragmatic and best way to get started writing scientific papers. The time to innovate will come, but it should probably not be when you are writing your first article and don't really know how to.
Specifically:

Find one or two papers that are close to yours, not just in terms of topic but also (maybe even more importantly) in the applied research method and target community. Papers in the same journal / conference as where you are planning to submit are a good starting point.
Read this paper. Don't just skim it, don't only look at the tables for specific results, or the method for specific steps. Really read it. Go over each section, paragraph, maybe even sentence and ask yourself why this paragraph or sentence needed to be there. Make notes. Try to reconstruct how the authors are building their argument, what they report, what they don't report, and in which order. This is an exercise that many writing classes use, and it's incredibly useful as a beginning writer.
Set up your own paper draft in the very first iteration as a structural carbon copy of the paper you are imitating. Write headlines for all the sections and subsections the paper should need. Write detailed notes (maybe as TEX comments if you are using LaTeX) about the flow of your argument within in each section. Refer to the notes you made when analyzing the existing paper and don't be afraid to copy their structure and how they construct their story (but don't copy the words, obviously!). Make notes which figures and tables you are going to use where - if you already have them insert them, otherwise insert a placeholder or early version.
At this point you should have a fairly complete mental image in your head how the paper will eventually look like, and what gets explained where. Now you can start to draft the text. Since you already started writing (but your advisor felt it was no good) you can of course recycle some of the text, but try to do it only when the text is almost exactly what you wanted to write in this place and improve the text you are writing so that it fits the notes / outline you wrote above. Start drafting a short part of the paper first (e.g., the introduction - I like writing papers in order of reading, but opinions on this differ) and send it to your advisor to review. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the paper.

This is really excellent and clear advice! +1

Your advisor is the first line for this.  Becoming an independent researcher is immensely more difficult without a good advisor to steer you.
Other common advice is: look at recent papers in your area, and imitate their style.
If there are other more senior (and English-speaking) members of your international collaboration, then of course they will comment on what you write and help you make it better.

Before writing my first paper, I bought a book called "How to write a scientific paper". It was a great resource and helped me immensely in structuring the paper and other aspects. Maybe you don't even have to buy the book, but find one in your local library.
That being said, developing a nice and concise writing style will take lots of practice, and it is completely normal to have problems with it at first.
My university offers free scientific writing courses for PhD students, maybe yours does too? I have friends who took such a course and they completely recommended it for people struggling with writing.


text:
Teaching Large Graduate Level Classes Online - Information Technology / Computer Science
I am expected to teach a large (80-100 students) graduate level class in AI this spring. The class is offered exclusively online, and students from various backgrounds are expected to join. It is not possible to meet face to face, as they are spread all around the world. Office hours are also virtual. I am very interested in learning about effective ways to manage and motivate this class.

Are you planning on teaching synchronously or asynchronously?

It would help if you were more specific about the class, that will make a big difference.

From my own (limited) experience with teaching online and offline, I found that the number of people that are really engaging with you, showing initiative and asking questions is mostly a small fraction of the whole group and when moving to online teaching, that fraction decreases even further.
But what seems to work in terms of engaging the students and adding interactive elements is incorporating surveys or quizzes into the teaching structure, the latter could even be used competetively (who solves it the fastest?), adding a gamification element. There are great online tools to use for that prpose, e.g. this or this.
Another issue with online teaching is that people often aren't as concentrated and tend to do other things on the side or even stop listening altogehter. I recently participated in an online conference as a speaker. That conference was organized by a university and students could get credit for attending the whole conference. To get the credits, they had to take a short survey at the end of each block that asked several questions regarding the content of the lectures of that block, ensuring (to some extent, as a system like that doesn't prevent cheating) that the students actually listened to what was said. Maybe a similar solution can also be introduced when teaching a class.

Some things will be very similar to in-person. Don't speak in a monotone and such-like advice. Speak neither very fast nor very slow, but find that "sweet spot." And so on. All the little things that make speaking to a group more than just reading off your slides.  Make sure they have time to write down stuff if they need to.
Pick your software and learn the quirks. If you wind up spending 20 minutes of a 1 hour class messing with the software it will be annoying. Make sure you understand how to make your camera and microphone work and other mundane stuff. Make sure you are reasonably well lit so you can be seen, if you are using a camera. Make sure in advance that your microphone works. If you are recording make sure you understand how to start and stop that. And other such "mechanical" stuff.
Usually you want to mute everybody else's microphone during your presentation.
With 100 people it might be a problem to have questions during. Or maybe not. Some software lets a text chat go on during the presentation. Maybe they can ask questions and answer each other. Keep an eye for it becoming disruptive.
Make sure you know how to distribute extra material, files and such. Email to the group? Stick it in the chat? Make sure you know what works so it does not delay the class.
If you are going to show computer screens of info, or show them how to do stuff on screen, make sure you know how to show your screen, and how to get back to your camera.
Make sure your location is free from interruptions. If the dog and the cat and the toddler wander through, each getting their 15 minutes of fame, it uses up time that presumably your students paid for.
After that it's how to fit stuff into a computer screen so that it is interesting, informative, and covers the class material.
My personal bias is avoid PowerPoint and anything that looks like it, but that's just me. Every PPT presentation winds up looking like every other one, rows and rows of bullet points.
Make use of drawings, tables, graphs, etc., as makes sense.
With a group of 100 you might need an assistant. You might not see a question while you are busy explaining technical details. Your helper can keep an eye on the chat and whatever your software uses to indicate a raised hand. They can nudge you when there is a good time to stop and answer questions.