Online Courses and Going Over Exams!

[HigherEd7]

Since we have started online courses, I have several students emailing me and they want me to go over the exam with them. In my regular online courses, I do not go over their quizzes or exams, and I do not give them access to the answers that they missed so students can't take pictures of the exams to be used later to pass on to other students.

When I first started I would take the time to go over their exams with them and this turned into I am wrong the student is right and they started trying to talk their way into extra points.

Thoughts?

[Mobius]

Office hours are a great time for students to go over their exams.

[Caracal]

Since we have started online courses, I have several students emailing me and they want me to go over the exam with them. In my regular online courses, I do not go over their quizzes or exams, and I do not give them access to the answers that they missed so students can't take pictures of the exams to be used later to pass on to other students.

When I first started I would take the time to go over their exams with them and this turned into I am wrong the student is right and they started trying to talk their way into extra points.

Thoughts?

Not sure I understand. You normally refuse to go over exams with students? Or even allow them to know what the right answer was on a question they missed? How are they supposed to know how to improve? And what if a student really thinks their answer was right when you marked it wrong? Students are really correct about these things, but as a basic matter of fairness and transparency, a student should be able to know why they got something wrong and what would have been correct. In very rare cases they may even have a point.

[HigherEd7]

You bring up a great point, but how are you going to do that with over 100 students in online courses? I have done this in the past and it turns into a session of they are right and I am wrong or they make you feel like that so they can get extra points etc..Thoughts?

Since we have started online courses, I have several students emailing me and they want me to go over the exam with them. In my regular online courses, I do not go over their quizzes or exams, and I do not give them access to the answers that they missed so students can't take pictures of the exams to be used later to pass on to other students.

When I first started I would take the time to go over their exams with them and this turned into I am wrong the student is right and they started trying to talk their way into extra points.

Thoughts?

Not sure I understand. You normally refuse to go over exams with students? Or even allow them to know what the right answer was on a question they missed? How are they supposed to know how to improve? And what if a student really thinks their answer was right when you marked it wrong? Students are really correct about these things, but as a basic matter of fairness and transparency, a student should be able to know why they got something wrong and what would have been correct. In very rare cases they may even have a point.

[dr_codex]

You bring up a great point, but how are you going to do that with over 100 students in online courses? I have done this in the past and it turns into a session of they are right and I am wrong or they make you feel like that so they can get extra points etc..Thoughts?

You don't have an online issue. You have an issue either with test development (ambiguous questions, arbitrary answers, or unclear grading criteria), or an issue with establishing a working teacher-student relationship.

[Caracal]

You bring up a great point, but how are you going to do that with over 100 students in online courses? I have done this in the past and it turns into a session of they are right and I am wrong or they make you feel like that so they can get extra points etc..Thoughts?

You don't have an online issue. You have an issue either with test development (ambiguous questions, arbitrary answers, or unclear grading criteria), or an issue with establishing a working teacher-student relationship.

Exactly. If all 100 of your students want to dispute their grade with you, something is wrong. I tell students that I try to provide clear grading criteria and concise explanations for why points were and weren't given. If they look at those and they don't understand why they got the grade they did, they should come talk to me. That's exactly when you need to come talk to your professor if you want to do better on the next exam.

There's no reason these discussions need to be confrontational. I usually just explain in more detail than I can on grade comments what the problems were, and I try to get the student to think through how they might improve. Every once in a while, a student brings something in and tells me that they feel like they really should have gotten a higher grade based on their answer, I read their exam and decide they actually have a point and my grading was weird in some way. If that was happening twenty times a semester it would be a problem, but I'd say it occurs about once a semester, which seems about right. I can mess stuff up too and students should be able to bring it to my attention if they think I did.

[mamselle]

You can also just do a run-through of the exam after handing g it out in the first part of the next class.

Explain beforehand that you will not take questions before you're done (so, turn mute on, and chat off) and then have them IM their questions to you and answer the most common ones in the beginning of the next class--briefly.

I'd never return an exam without reviewing it in class after handing it back. It's the learning opportunity mentioned above, as well as your chance to quash 67 of the all-the-same-questions at one time.

It's  important to morph out of the polarizing "Me-them" mindset that one may start out with (I know I did, out of fear) and grow into a more shared, "we learn together" framework.

Let the cell wall dissolve a bit and allow for active transport across the membrane instead.

Students are not a poison you have to shut out....except on the rare, case-by-case basis, homeostasis can be maintained without squirting acid all over the place...

(With apologies to all cellular microbiologists, whom I'm certain my clunky metaphors have mightily offended...)!

M.

[the_geneticist]

You can always limit the "can we go over my exam?" questions by saying that if they think their answer was correct, to please write out their reasoning first.  They might be correct, or if not, the writing it out might make them realize they made an error.  I know I've written exam questions that were unclear or had an "unintended correct answer".
Plus this strategy makes them calm down if they are upset.  I used to teach at a SLAC and had a "Dr. Geneticist's 24 hour no whining rule".  Basically, all questions comments or concerns about their exam had to wait 24 hours.  As an exception, if I made a math error totally their score, I would fix that right away.  I didn't get any complaints, but your mileage may vary. Just some ideas for you to try.

[rxprof]

We have moved to remote classes for the remainder of the semester. Our unit decided that given the lack of integrity around test taking at home, all exams shall be returned to students. Basically faculty have the choice to write new questions this year and preserve their existing questions for future use or use their existing questions and write new ones for next year.

In my class, students normally have an in person exam review. They can look at their exam and I go through all the questions. No pictures, videos, audio recording, etc. They have 2 weeks to appeal grading by writing a rationale with supporting evidence. I do not make any changes based on a discussion alone. My only change now is that they receive their exam plus access to the key. I will not make any changes to scores until the end of the 2 week appeal period. I made an email folder and put all of the complaints in that folder to deal with in 2 weeks.

[marshwiggle]

When I used to have exams with essay-type questions, I made a point of photocopying a good student answer for each question. (I tried to get different students for each of the questions if possible.) Posting those answers has the advantages that/;

• This is an answer that got 10/10 (or whatever) so it was possible.
• It was by a student, so not just the over the top answer I may have fantacized about getting.
• The key point (or points) I was after have been expressed adequately in the student's words.

And if, on a question no-one got over 5/10, then something is wrong with the question, or my expectations, or both.