The monthly research threads in a different part of this forum made me think that it might be nice to also have a place to share our progress on grading and other teaching-related tasks. I wish that we were all in a big room together grading our own piles of things while commiserating and eating candy, but this virtual room with virtual snacks will have to do for now.
I am grateful to past me for staggering the deadlines of major assignments in my classes. I just got a stack of things to grade from one class and have gone through about a quarter of it so far. I'm expecting two more stacks before the semester is over but focusing on this one for now. How about you?
I will have a stack of papers to grade as of this evening. The early submissions have been a mixture of "OMG, how could you have gone so wrong" and "OMG, how lovely - on target and correct length". The latter, of course, are so much easier to grade. My goal is to knock this out before Monday, so that I can take a genuine break for the holiday.
Apparently my past self did not talk to past nonsensical, as I have 2 grading piles that must be done RIGHT NOW! I feel like I am constantly grading this semester, which is in part due to some of the changes I made for classes to increase some scaffolding. And part due to changes in submissions formats with online classes. And part due to the fact that my brain is constantly foggy from being online constantly. I have been hosting virtual "grading parties" for my TAs in one of my classes. While no one would mistake it for an actual party, at least they are mostly turning things around in a reasonable time.
To cut down on the grading for some scaffolded assignments, which I've always looked at a little sideways as generating more work for the instructor than the worth the student could take from it (since the idea of getting them to do parts at a time still means lots of procrastination, just domino'ed on top of each other...), I've done things like the bibliography as an "exchange papers, grade in class" exercise.
They'd need to email their work to each other at the start of class to make it work virtually, but it could still be done online.
It's also a valid teaching moment because the reality of what others' work looks like can either serve as a shining example, or a heads'-up moment if it's not so stellar. And it broadens the grading pool so I don't do all that work.
In other words, they check each others work, looking to see, a) Are there at least three sources?; b) Are they alphabetized?; c) Are they formatted correctly (MLA, etc. styles are on a Ppt projection for them to check against); and d) Do the topics/Titles make sense in reference to the paper title?; and e) Is the owner's name on top of the page?
Each gets a point, and it counts for that day's quiz grade. I'd call them out, give a minute for checking each point, move to the next point, and be done in 5 min. They can annotate with red text and resale with a "graded" suffix, then email to me while the class is running.
When you record the grades, you can see if anyone missed anything, and you'll have the time stamp on the re-saved file, to ward off shenanigans.
Might save an hour or so for a class of, say, 50 art history students with a term paper to write.
M.
Bog forbid.
I finished marking the early essay submissions today. That still leaves 100 or so at the end of the semester.
Happily, I've automated the bulk of my other marking.
The idea of having students check their peers' papers is an interesting one. I did something like that at some points when I was an undergrad and had mixed experiences, but I'm glad that it has worked for you!
I've graded two more projects today. Still more left on my plate for the weekend or early next week, but hopefully I will finish this pile before Thanksgiving.
Quote from: nonsensical on November 20, 2020, 02:15:41 PM
The idea of having students check their peers' papers is an interesting one. I did something like that at some points when I was an undergrad and had mixed experiences, but I'm glad that it has worked for you!
I've graded two more projects today. Still more left on my plate for the weekend or early next week, but hopefully I will finish this pile before Thanksgiving.
It only works for the very straightforward stuff, like the 5 points I mentioned; "Are there three of this, and one of that?" etc.
Although it might be interesting to see if they could spot a thesis statement in other peoples' work, since they often seem to have trouble including one in their own...
M.
Just finished two sets of rather disappointing grad papers. We definitely need to work on supporting assertions. Quite a number of writers made grand generalizations based on limited perspectives. These are older students with experience, but they are new to this level of grad work (and have high pressure jobs), and I know they are exhausted. Still it is important that they use the opportunity.
This weekend I finished the stack from my first class, minus a couple of assignments that students turned in late and which I'll probably do next week. Now I have a bit of breathing space before I get a new stack from a different course.
I completed one set of grading/feedback. I have one set which must be done today. I will get another set tomorrow from class no one wants to take so they are all cranky about putting in any work. Then I'm hoping that my TAs for other class will send me their initial reviews of an assignment by Tuesday, so I can use Wednesday to get most of grading done before the official holiday (won't happen, but I'll at least take Thursday off).
My great plan of three small papers with feedback and then one slightly longer final paper has collided with students' pandemic exhaustion. What a mess.
I was making good progress on my stack of papers over the weekend but I got derailed by a major plagiarism case. After spending an hour tracking down the original sources, I just did not have the heart to go back to grading. Now I am well behind in my schedule to get these papers graded before the holiday. I am kicking myself for spending so much time on a clear-cut misconduct case, and for the lack of mental discipline to get back to grading the others after finishing the documentation with that one.
But it can be demoralizing and depressing to see such stuff--it's like the death of your trust in the class to do right and not wrong by their own learning opportunities.
Mourn first, then move on. Or move on as you mourn.
But you can't leave out the mourning.
M.
Thanks, Mamselle. That really helped put things in perspective!
I was making good progress over the weekend until my (brand new this semester) computer stopped working (again) and I spent three hours on the phone with tech support. :( I have ~260 papers left to grade this semester, as well as 54 annotated bibliographies. I need to grade at least 20 today.
Will check in later . . .
AR.
I'm only teaching one course at the moment, so not too much grading to do as the semester wraps up. I do have to grade about 20 essays (hopefully) by Monday, then will grade the final exam next week/weekend. From there, I'll just need to add up all the points and submit final grades.
You could do the count-down thing some people used to do on the PA thread:
20 19 18 17 ....etc., lining them out each time one was finished, or lining out two or three at a time if you got on a roll and got a batch done at once.
M.
After the 5 virtual meetings that will occur from 9-2 today (waiting for my student to show up in current one), I need to grade about 20 relatively quick assignments for one class, then begin the slog through 15 research paper drafts. I was informed that my feedback on the 1st round of drafts was "disheartening." I do not think this bodes well.
There's a balance between their expectations and yours, and you're the instructor.
Maybe always putting a positive statement before a negative one, or sandwiching them, making it clear that the negatives need to be addressed, but that there are strong positives to build on, could help?
Or maybe you already know and do this and they're just being whiny.
Sometimes it's hard to tell. Good luck.
M.
Quote from: mamselle on November 24, 2020, 08:28:51 AM
There's a balance between their expectations and yours, and you're the instructor.
Maybe always putting a positive statement before a negative one, or sandwiching them, making it clear that the negatives need to be addressed, but that there are strong positives to build on, could help?
Or maybe you already know and do this and they're just being whiny.
Sometimes it's hard to tell. Good luck.
M.
Yes, we try to have some positives. They are grad students. They clearly did not spend enough time writing. So, yes we want to tell them what was good and what to build on, but some of them needed a reality check that these papers were not up to standard.
Yikes, I missed the grad student part.
The velvet gloves don't have to be quite so plush, then.
M.
Quote from: mamselle on November 24, 2020, 02:47:04 PM
Yikes, I missed the grad student part.
The velvet gloves don't have to be quite so plush, then.
M.
I did not specify. Sorry, not cranky about your comment. I realize they are stressed also. We have made adjustments (moved deadlines, some work moved to in-class, I've held multiple virtual check-in hours for questions). Some did a great job and will need to make relatively minor revisions. They showed it can be done. I admit that I do not own velvet grading gloves (for my grad students). But, that is my reputation (confirmed by one of my TAs this year)--would not want to shock them too much by being too nice, right? Back to grading pile . . .
Grading these Astronomy free response questions has made me lose IQ points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQCU36pkH7c (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQCU36pkH7c)
I got another stack of things to grade and have graded about a fourth of them so far. Once I'm done with these, there will be another stack. And then the semester will be over.
If I can grade 5 more essays tonight, I will have only 200 left for the semester (and 18 works cited pages and 34 annotated bibliographies). Does that even count as "the end is in sight"?
Warm thoughts to everyone else worrying away at the grading piles tonight.
AR the weary
Me the weary as well.
The grading isn't too bad, but I have to write detailed comments and also remind some of the students to review feedback already given for previous assignments. Some of them keep repeating the same mistakes, thinking I won't notice that I've already commented on these.
Quote from: AvidReader on December 02, 2020, 03:28:24 PM
If I can grade 5 more essays tonight, I will have only 200 left for the semester (and 18 works cited pages and 34 annotated bibliographies).
*laugh-crying*
I'll be right there with you once I work up the courage to start looking at the essays!
Today I will try to grade 20 exams and, with that, I'll be completely done with my grading for this semester (except to put the letter grades to the system so they post on students' transcripts).
My stack's dwindling, but there's another one to tackle later today.
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on December 03, 2020, 07:15:03 AM
Today I will try to grade 20 exams and, with that, I'll be completely done with my grading for this semester (except to put the letter grades to the system so they post on students' transcripts).
If you are bored after today, I've got a set of exams, two sets of papers, and a set of individual skill lab check-outs still to go. Happy to send some your way.
Quote from: Langue_doc on December 02, 2020, 03:37:04 PM
Me the weary as well.
The grading isn't too bad, but I have to write detailed comments and also remind some of the students to review feedback already given for previous assignments. Some of them keep repeating the same mistakes, thinking I won't notice that I've already commented on these.
Agreed. I can grade these pretty quickly. It's the comments that take forever, though I am doing a lot of cut and paste of this comment:
You have not yet made the revisions requested on the previous draft. Please review comments on Draft #1 before submitting your final paper.
Quote from: OneMoreYear on December 03, 2020, 07:42:13 AM
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on December 03, 2020, 07:15:03 AM
Today I will try to grade 20 exams and, with that, I'll be completely done with my grading for this semester (except to put the letter grades to the system so they post on students' transcripts).
If you are bored after today, I've got a set of exams, two sets of papers, and a set of individual skill lab check-outs still to go. Happy to send some your way.
Quote from: Langue_doc on December 02, 2020, 03:37:04 PM
Me the weary as well.
The grading isn't too bad, but I have to write detailed comments and also remind some of the students to review feedback already given for previous assignments. Some of them keep repeating the same mistakes, thinking I won't notice that I've already commented on these.
Agreed. I can grade these pretty quickly. It's the comments that take forever, though I am doing a lot of cut and paste of this comment: You have not yet made the revisions requested on the previous draft. Please review comments on Draft #1 before submitting your final paper.
Perfect! I'm going to copy and paste your sentence. I've been trying to come up with polite ways of saying the same.
Quote from: OneMoreYear on December 03, 2020, 07:42:13 AM
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on December 03, 2020, 07:15:03 AM
Today I will try to grade 20 exams and, with that, I'll be completely done with my grading for this semester (except to put the letter grades to the system so they post on students' transcripts).
If you are bored after today, I've got a set of exams, two sets of papers, and a set of individual skill lab check-outs still to go. Happy to send some your way.
Quote from: Langue_doc on December 02, 2020, 03:37:04 PM
Me the weary as well.
The grading isn't too bad, but I have to write detailed comments and also remind some of the students to review feedback already given for previous assignments. Some of them keep repeating the same mistakes, thinking I won't notice that I've already commented on these.
Agreed. I can grade these pretty quickly. It's the comments that take forever, though I am doing a lot of cut and paste of this comment: You have not yet made the revisions requested on the previous draft. Please review comments on Draft #1 before submitting your final paper.
Ha I appreciate the offer, but I don't think I'll be so bored after I finish this grading. Actually I've been building my whole schedule around the hope of taking a personal, do-nothing day on Monday.
I finally made it through my large stack. There were some real gems in there - both on the positive (yay! you have really mastered the material associated with this class!) and negative (wow! I have rarely seen such abject BS. Did you really think I wouldn't notice?) side. My final exam is auto-graded multiple choice, so my remaining task is just to add the points and assign a letter grade. Yahoo! The semester is almost over!
Quote from: Langue_doc on December 03, 2020, 07:54:09 AM
Quote from: OneMoreYear on December 03, 2020, 07:42:13 AM
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on December 03, 2020, 07:15:03 AM
Today I will try to grade 20 exams and, with that, I'll be completely done with my grading for this semester (except to put the letter grades to the system so they post on students' transcripts).
If you are bored after today, I've got a set of exams, two sets of papers, and a set of individual skill lab check-outs still to go. Happy to send some your way.
Quote from: Langue_doc on December 02, 2020, 03:37:04 PM
Me the weary as well.
The grading isn't too bad, but I have to write detailed comments and also remind some of the students to review feedback already given for previous assignments. Some of them keep repeating the same mistakes, thinking I won't notice that I've already commented on these.
Agreed. I can grade these pretty quickly. It's the comments that take forever, though I am doing a lot of cut and paste of this comment: You have not yet made the revisions requested on the previous draft. Please review comments on Draft #1 before submitting your final paper.
Perfect! I'm going to copy and paste your sentence. I've been trying to come up with polite ways of saying the same.
I tell my students that they lose the points from their previous papers all over again if they don't make revisions. So if their last paper was a B, and they don't make any revisions, their starting point is a B. And it goes downhill from there.
I'm feeling a smidge better, so I'm attacking my lab reports. So far, I have graded two sets! Exciting!
Finished my grading yesterday, save for a single test that I allowed the student to reschedule for this afternoon. Looks like I'll be done grading soon, meaning that I can focus on research, a few admin tasks, and a bit of relaxation through Winter break.
I graded 56 lab reports yesterday. Don't know how I did it, but I did it.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on December 04, 2020, 09:30:30 AM
I graded 56 lab reports yesterday. Don't know how I did it, but I did it.
That is impressive!
I graded some more items from my second stack today. A little more than half left to go.
I have no grading this weekend! I do need to finalize a seminar final and set a lab final.
Then, there will be two finals and 1 paper to grade next week. There might be light at the end of the tunnel.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on December 04, 2020, 09:30:30 AM
I graded 56 lab reports yesterday. Don't know how I did it, but I did it.
Amazing! Hope you had a glass or mug of your favorite beverage to celebrate / as a reward.
AR.
Quote from: AvidReader on December 04, 2020, 06:11:01 PM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on December 04, 2020, 09:30:30 AM
I graded 56 lab reports yesterday. Don't know how I did it, but I did it.
Amazing! Hope you had a glass or mug of your favorite beverage to celebrate / as a reward.
AR.
I wish I could. Maybe later. Unfortunately, I haven't graded a thing today.
Um, you still average out to 28 a day, which is *still* impressive.
Congratulations also to arcturus and Sun_Worshiper, and anyone else I missed in my thread skim.
I am under 200 essays as of late last night but not by as much as I would like to be. My goal is always 20 a day, but I rarely make it past 12, and I get bleary after about 8. Going to try to grade 3 more before bed, and do a good chunk tomorrow morning when I am fresher.
AR.
Still 3 more virtual stacks of long grad papers, 2 of which aren't due for 2 more weeks. But not in 3-digit the numbers many of you mention.
I'm grading some Physics lab reports. These take a bit longer to grade than Astronomy. The # of reports graded/hour is much lower........
Halfway done! 23 research papers to go . . .
Three more essays to grade. The grading isn't tedious, but comparing the essays to the drafts gets to be time-consuming.
Not sure where to put this, but since I'm currently grading... I'll put it here.
Student gets 196,000 % error for moment of inertia. Did not email me. Gotta' wonder what they're thinking sometimes...
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on December 04, 2020, 09:14:38 PM
Not sure where to put this, but since I'm currently grading... I'll put it here.
Student gets 196,000 % error for moment of inertia. Did not email me. Gotta' wonder what they're thinking sometimes...
You would think that an answer that far out would be enough to make the student think to double check the result.
Scary thought--maybe the student
did double check the result.
Quote from: apl68 on December 05, 2020, 06:25:57 AM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on December 04, 2020, 09:14:38 PM
Not sure where to put this, but since I'm currently grading... I'll put it here.
Student gets 196,000 % error for moment of inertia. Did not email me. Gotta' wonder what they're thinking sometimes...
You would think that an answer that far out would be enough to make the student think to double check the result.
Scary thought--maybe the student did double check the result.
You would think...
No idea what happened. Student never emailed me this semester. I had review sessions outside office hours, posted announcements, tried to get students to engage with me, but- no dice.
Done.
I suppose I should mark one set of quizzes, and maybe a few essays. Ugh.
Hooray for those who got some grading done! Unfortunately, I am still behind, but I'm slowly creeping forward.
Me, too.
I managed 14 essays today--the end of a big stack of about 40 that have been weighing on me for days. Hoping to churn through some (essay) exams and works cited entries tomorrow.
AR.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 05, 2020, 02:57:21 PM
I suppose I should mark one set of quizzes, and maybe a few essays. Ugh.
Two quizzes, no essays. But a lot of emails and other bookkeeping tasks.
Also: it's really astonishing how many students are not capable of calculating their grade in the course so far. A number of my emails this evening were from students panicking about the final exam and needing to pass the course. But when you math it out, they'd need, like, 5% on the final to pass. It's really not hard to calculate for yourself. /rolleyes
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 05, 2020, 06:46:58 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 05, 2020, 02:57:21 PM
I suppose I should mark one set of quizzes, and maybe a few essays. Ugh.
Two quizzes, no essays. But a lot of emails and other bookkeeping tasks.
Also: it's really astonishing how many students are not capable of calculating their grade in the course so far. A number of my emails this evening were from students panicking about the final exam and needing to pass the course. But when you math it out, they'd need, like, 5% on the final to pass. It's really not hard to calculate for yourself. /rolleyes
I tried to make it easy, but I still have students who cannot figure it out. All of my course grades are additive (based out of 1000 points). The lowest quiz, hw and test is dropped and everything else adds together. There is a table in the syllabus which shows the range of numerical values for each grade. For example: 800-899 is a "B" and 700-799 is a "C" and so on and so forth. But, they JUST CAN'T DO IT!
When I taught high school, we had really odd grade calculations, so I spent a class period every semester teaching (or reminding) students how to figure out what grade they needed on the midterm or final exam to pass or to make a particular grade. They told me it was the best and most useful class of the term (even more than "review for the midterm or final exam"). I can only hope some of them have carried that lesson on into college, because most of my current college students--like yours--cannot figure out grades out of 1000 points. I don't officially "drop" the lowest grade, but I have 1030 points available, so they can just add all the points they have earned over the semester. This, I think, is not that hard (though my old CMS gave them a running total, and current CMS does not).
I have a colleague who makes fancy grading spreadsheets that auto-calculate; students can fill in actual and imagined grades over the semester to see what is still feasible at a given point. This seems like a lot of work, to me, for something that is essentially adding, but I am sure colleague's students are happier for it.
AR.
Kwell, today I should try marking all of the essays that've come in up until now (they're due early next week). I think it's only ten or so.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 06, 2020, 09:00:42 AM
Kwell, today I should try marking all of the essays that've come in up until now (they're due early next week). I think it's only ten or so.
Done, but one was thoroughly plagiarized. Sigh. There will be more.
One more set of Physics labs has been graded!!!
One set of revised essays has been graded!
Quote from: AvidReader on December 05, 2020, 06:24:55 PM
I managed 14 essays today--the end of a big stack of about 40 that have been weighing on me for days. Hoping to churn through some (essay) exams and works cited entries tomorrow.
AR.
Got through all the exams and 14 more essays. Exams are indeed faster. Happiness. Works cited entries today; they are my last small assignments to grade, and start on a new stack of essays.
170 essays (and some annotated bibliographies) to go. One batch of grades is due today, and I'm good on those. All the other courses run for 2 more weeks. Phew!
Finally finished grading research papers after four more hours on Sunday. Whew!
Some of you have mountains and mountains of grading. Wow! I am feeling much better about my comparatively small stacks now.
I've finished the second stack, finally. It seemed to take longer than in previous semesters, but I'm not sure whether that's because I'm tired and it's taking longer, or I have more things to do and it's taking longer, or it's taking the same amount of time but feels longer. I'm about to get my third and final stack this week, which I anticipate will be the easiest of the three to grade.
Interested in seeing how folks would grade an answer like this:
Question: How did Steve mend the fight he was having with Jackie?
Answer: He got rid of all the ducks that he was keeping in the backyard.
Student answers: He got rid of all the ducks, plus he gave her ten dollars, plus he helped her brother move the couch.
In the story, there's no ten dollars nor is there a couch. When I google those phrases, all three turn up on a CourseHero study guide for that story, as the answer to that question.
So I'm tempted to give the students zero credit for that question. Generally when students take a shotgun approach to such questions, I give them partial credit. Here, though, they're clearly getting their answers from a (bad) study guide. On the other hand, our university has a pretty rigid procedure for academic misconduct, and I feel like that office won't look kindly on me for sending them a ton of cases over this single question.
Smoking gun.
Bust 'em.
M.
Quote from: RatGuy on December 07, 2020, 03:34:20 PM
Interested in seeing how folks would grade an answer like this:
Question: How did Steve mend the fight he was having with Jackie?
Answer: He got rid of all the ducks that he was keeping in the backyard.
Student answers: He got rid of all the ducks, plus he gave her ten dollars, plus he helped her brother move the couch.
In the story, there's no ten dollars nor is there a couch. When I google those phrases, all three turn up on a CourseHero study guide for that story, as the answer to that question.
So I'm tempted to give the students zero credit for that question. Generally when students take a shotgun approach to such questions, I give them partial credit. Here, though, they're clearly getting their answers from a (bad) study guide. On the other hand, our university has a pretty rigid procedure for academic misconduct, and I feel like that office won't look kindly on me for sending them a ton of cases over this single question.
When I've encountered similar situations I direct the student to the correct response in the story/text and copy and paste the plagiarized sentence and paragraph with a note that the references to the ten dollars and the couch do not appear in the story, but only on this particular website. I also add a warning that I am required to report all instances of academic dishonesty. This, along with the zero for the assignment usually takes care of the problem.
I agree with Langue_doc's approach. Also, I am now done with all of my stacks of grading for this semester!
Did you use a rubric?
《...ducks and runs...》
M.
I use rubrics for grading essays as they save me time and spare me from complaints, whining, and grade grubbing. I allow rewrites for higher grades--actual revisions and not cosmetic touch-ups.
Congrats to everyone who is done, or close to done with their grading. I'm in a momentary grading lull. Final projects are due on Monday (first day of finals week) and I have rubrics for those. I also have final exams. The one good thing about the finals being online is that the T/F and multiple guess portions are automatically graded. I still have to go through the short answers and problem solving one at a time of course, and that's the majority of the exam, but any bit helps.
My boatloads of papers don't get submitted until 11 days from now. Happy holidays to me.
Quote from: Harlow2 on December 10, 2020, 08:47:05 AM
My boatloads of papers don't get submitted until 11 days from now. Happy holidays to me.
Wow! You don't get papers until the 21st? When do you have to grade them by?
Completed grading of a final exam. Have 2 more individual lab check-outs (virtually).
Then a batch of papers. For the 1st time ever, I have students doing the math (woot!) to determine if they can carry forward their grade from previous draft instead of revising and still maintain the grade they want (allowed in the syllabus; designed to encourage them to submit good quality penultimate drafts). I'm checking their calculations, which so far have been accurate. I'm taking this as a win for numeracy.
Quote from: RatGuy on December 07, 2020, 03:34:20 PM
Interested in seeing how folks would grade an answer like this:
Question: How did Steve mend the fight he was having with Jackie?
Answer: He got rid of all the ducks that he was keeping in the backyard.
Student answers: He got rid of all the ducks, plus he gave her ten dollars, plus he helped her brother move the couch.
In the story, there's no ten dollars nor is there a couch. When I google those phrases, all three turn up on a CourseHero study guide for that story, as the answer to that question.
So I'm tempted to give the students zero credit for that question. Generally when students take a shotgun approach to such questions, I give them partial credit. Here, though, they're clearly getting their answers from a (bad) study guide. On the other hand, our university has a pretty rigid procedure for academic misconduct, and I feel like that office won't look kindly on me for sending them a ton of cases over this single question.
I'd give it a zero plus Langue_doc's explanation of the zero.
For my part, I have two quizzes I should mark today.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 10, 2020, 09:52:16 AM
Quote from: RatGuy on December 07, 2020, 03:34:20 PM
Interested in seeing how folks would grade an answer like this:
Question: How did Steve mend the fight he was having with Jackie?
Answer: He got rid of all the ducks that he was keeping in the backyard.
Student answers: He got rid of all the ducks, plus he gave her ten dollars, plus he helped her brother move the couch.
In the story, there's no ten dollars nor is there a couch. When I google those phrases, all three turn up on a CourseHero study guide for that story, as the answer to that question.
So I'm tempted to give the students zero credit for that question. Generally when students take a shotgun approach to such questions, I give them partial credit. Here, though, they're clearly getting their answers from a (bad) study guide. On the other hand, our university has a pretty rigid procedure for academic misconduct, and I feel like that office won't look kindly on me for sending them a ton of cases over this single question.
I'd give it a zero plus Langue_doc's explanation of te zero.
For my part, I have two quizzes J should mark today.
Zero, with an explanation. "Please show me in the story where it says there is 10 dollars and a couch."
I had a student write as her answer "See Appendix B." In the teacher's edition, there was an Appendix B which gave sample answers. The student edition had no Appendix B.
S'pose I gotta mark a quiz today. Ugh.
Oy vey!
I'm in the middle of compiling final grades and a student keeps emailing me about a test where stu didn't answer most of the short answer questions. I feel for the student, but I can't grade what isn't there!
I'm frustrated, stu is frustrated, everyone is frustrated this semester.
I finally told stu to just wait until I finish grading this week.
I should probably mark five or so papers today. Sigh.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 14, 2020, 09:52:38 AM
I should probably mark five or so papers today. Sigh.
Done! One of today's five was plagiarized, and although I knew it almost immediately, it took a while to find the exact sources. It's the waste of time that bothers me most, and now I have to schedule a Zoom meeting with her. Sigh.
Graded 2 sets of lab finals and 2 sets of lab reports. What a pain in the butt.
I'm hoping to get the bulk of the final projects graded today, got a good start yesterday.
I have to scale up to marking ten papers today. Ugh.
Three sets of finals and four sets of lab reports. Can I do it???
6 research papers. I don't want to.
Student submits a file to turnitin that was written in Notepad. Wtf???
Waiting on my TAs to finish grading the last lab assignment. Did I mention that I said I wanted these grades last Friday???
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 15, 2020, 09:49:47 AM
I have to scale up to marking ten papers today. Ugh.
I did it! And the last quiz that needed marking, too. Ugh indeed!
Just finished a marathon exam grading on zoom with the TAs! Not making the grades visible until tomorrow though because I don't want to deal with student emails tonight.
I graded 3 sets of lab reports today and 1 final exam. Working on the last set of lab reports.
God give me strength!
Then, Calgon take me away!!!
Quote from: AvidReader on December 07, 2020, 05:03:20 AM
170 essays (and some annotated bibliographies) to go. One batch of grades is due today, and I'm good on those. All the other courses run for 2 more weeks. Phew!
Tough week with tech things, but I'm down to 120 essays and the annotated bibliographies. Of course, I don't even have all the essays yet! Some are due tonight, and the last deadline of the semester is Friday. Ugh.
AR.
I graded three final exams today and I am finally DONE!
I finished grading final projects yesterday. Have a final this evening.
Lab grades are compiled and done!
About 300 pages of grad papers to read at the beginning of the week -- down 200, maybe 100 to go. Fortunately for everyone, some students have really shone, which puts me in a better mood when I read the other, mediocre papers written by understandably tired people.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on December 16, 2020, 03:50:49 PM
I graded three final exams today and I am finally DONE!
Congratulations!
Quote from: the_geneticist on December 17, 2020, 09:45:27 AM
Lab grades are compiled and done!
Congratulations!
For my part, I need to mark 10-15 papers today. Our last day of the exam period is Saturday, and marks are due Sunday at 16h00. 0_o
Quote from: traductio on December 17, 2020, 10:08:43 AM
About 300 pages of grad papers to read at the beginning of the week -- down 200, maybe 100 to go. Fortunately for everyone, some students have really shone, which puts me in a better mood when I read the other, mediocre papers written by understandably tired people.
Nineteen papers down, seven to go. I love grad papers in some ways -- some of the students are really shining, people that I now wish had spoken up in class more often. But I also insist on giving meaningful feedback, and my brain craps out on me after about five papers.
So now I'm taking a break, and by "break," I mean I will be attending my PhD student's proposal defence by Zoom, because it is thesis season.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 17, 2020, 10:19:24 AM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on December 16, 2020, 03:50:49 PM
I graded three final exams today and I am finally DONE!
Congratulations!
Quote from: the_geneticist on December 17, 2020, 09:45:27 AM
Lab grades are compiled and done!
Congratulations!
For my part, I need to mark 10-15 papers today. Our last day of the exam period is Saturday, and marks are due Sunday at 16h00. 0_o
You can do it!
Good luck to everyone who is still grading! You can do it!
Thanks, friends. I marked 16 papers and caught up on the final exams which have been completed so far. So now I can leave the grading jail my partner set up for me!
Dear students: I realize that our LMS's text editor included for essay responses on exams has less functionality than a word processor from 1985, but it is still possible to break your essays into paragraphs!
Papers have been graded. There are still around ten essays that students were allowed to revise.
I submitted my grades today and am done with my semester. Woohoo!
Gotta get another 15 papers done today, and I'll be able to finish tomorrow and input grades Sunday.
DONE, at about 1:45 today. (Grades are due by 5:30 p.m. Monday.)
I'm going to try to get my spring classes all updated and loaded in Bb before it gets taken down starting Tuesday, not to return until January 3. The incentive is that, if I can manage it, I will have a glorious nearly month-long beak to crochet, clean house, piddle around, and do a lot of nothing before we return on January 19.
Grades are in. Woohoohoohoohoo!
Quote from: AmLitHist on December 18, 2020, 02:17:16 PM
DONE, at about 1:45 today. (Grades are due by 5:30 p.m. Monday.)
I'm going to try to get my spring classes all updated and loaded in Bb before it gets taken down starting Tuesday, not to return until January 3. The incentive is that, if I can manage it, I will have a glorious nearly month-long beak to crochet, clean house, piddle around, and do a lot of nothing before we return on January 19.
Not to be a wet blanket, but knowing how all-things-IT can go...is there a way to be sure they won't lose it between the bring-down and the take-back-up?
I don't imagine you'd want to do the same work twice...
M.
Finished today's 15! I start at 16h00 because things took up the whole beginning of the day, and I've had a headache for hours (though thankfully not a migraine, which is what I usually get), and I've uncovered two new plagiarists. Including my second-ever instance of someone copy-pasting a 1000-word chunk of the reading they're supposed to be discussing and changing a few words here and there. Sigh.
Nine more to go tomorrow, plus odds and ends.
Quote from: mamselle on December 18, 2020, 05:16:05 PM
Quote from: AmLitHist on December 18, 2020, 02:17:16 PM
DONE, at about 1:45 today. (Grades are due by 5:30 p.m. Monday.)
I'm going to try to get my spring classes all updated and loaded in Bb before it gets taken down starting Tuesday, not to return until January 3. The incentive is that, if I can manage it, I will have a glorious nearly month-long beak to crochet, clean house, piddle around, and do a lot of nothing before we return on January 19.
Not to be a wet blanket, but knowing how all-things-IT can go...is there a way to be sure they won't lose it between the bring-down and the take-back-up?
I don't imagine you'd want to do the same work twice...
M.
Oh man. Last year (or was it last summer?), IT deleted my course shell the day after I finished setting it up! =p
I'm going to archive my updated classes to my own media before the IT work. If they muck something up, I'll have my classes on a flash drive so they can be copied into the Bb shells. (And yes, this has happened in the past. I had archived versions to upload then, too, but enough people didn't and raised sufficient hell that I hope IT won't make a similar move this time.)
Great minds think alike......
Last nine essays today, plus whatever remaining odds and ends there are. Like tabulating attendance/participation (yuck).
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 18, 2020, 06:17:04 PM
Finished today's 15! I start at 16h00 because things took up the whole beginning of the day, and I've had a headache for hours (though thankfully not a migraine, which is what I usually get), and I've uncovered two new plagiarists. Including my second-ever instance of someone copy-pasting a 1000-word chunk of the reading they're supposed to be discussing and changing a few words here and there. Sigh.
I once had a plagiarist copy and paste two 500-word chunks from two separate websites with nary a change or even a transition word linking the two chunks.
Essays done, but Moodle is down, so I can't proceed until it's back. Sigh. I was hoping tomorrow all I'd have to do was enter the grades.
I've read all the papers from the last assignment. No one was even close to the target, even students who have been nailing it all semester.
I blame the Professor.
A student emailed what I regard as an attempt at extortion about a project grade. "Several of us are reaching out to administration regarding this matter, but if there's anything we can do to fix this grade without contacting the administration please let me know." The student has a final course grade of B, but is obviously too stupid to understand the numbers in the LMS gradebook. I am contemplating reporting this to the dean.
Quote from: spork on December 20, 2020, 11:27:05 AM
A student emailed what I regard as an attempt at extortion about a project grade. "Several of us are reaching out to administration regarding this matter, but if there's anything we can do to fix this grade without contacting the administration please let me know." The student has a final course grade of B, but is obviously too stupid to understand the numbers in the LMS gradebook. I am contemplating reporting this to the dean.
I would respond by referring the student to the grading policies in the syllabus and for this particular assignment, and copying the chair. I would also point out that the student has the option of appealing the grade.
Copying the dean in addition to the chair would also be effective in nipping this in the bud.
Whew, finally done and submitted.
(It's so much nicer now that we don't have to submit a handwritten gradebook in addition to the three-step electronic reporting.)
Congrats to everyone who finished grading!
I haven't had anyone contest grades (yet). Did I just jinx myself?
They are all finally in! Yeeeeeeeeeehaw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Note: A big thank you to our registrar who answered my desperate email while on her break.
I'm grading a project in which a student proposed expanding the age range of a group of experimental participants upwards to include 35-39 year-olds. Such a change, they advised soberly, would allow the experimenter to look at effects of aging and dementia on cognitive processing.
I considered and rejected several marginal comments before channeling Susan Collins and noting that I was 'concerned' about this bit of reasoning.
Quote from: ergative on January 10, 2021, 08:23:05 AM
I'm grading a project in which a student proposed expanding the age range of a group of experimental participants upwards to include 35-39 year-olds. Such a change, they advised soberly, would allow the experimenter to look at effects of aging and dementia on cognitive processing.
Yikes! Them's fightin' words!
First day of classes over here. So far, it has been quiet and uneventful. Now that I've jinxed myself...
We seem to be having a flurry of last-minute course cancelations - disturbing, since this should have happened prior to the first day of classes. Did the provost think that enrollments would magically increase today?
Now we're dealing with pissed-off students who need to find other classes and adjust their schedules.
I had a problem with lots of students hyper-focusing on something that was valid and important but not terribly interesting in their early term assignments. I encouraged them to look beyond that issue, valid though it was, to engage with the material at a deeper level, and they obliged. Now I'm grading their final projects, and they have all looked so far beyond the issue that they've entirely forgotten it. Argh.
Sounds like they may have used their amazing powers of subtle thinking to interpret your 'yes, that's important, but there's other stuff there too' as 'don't write about that anymore'. I have encountered something similar before.
I've hit the 50% mark for the pile of short essays I should have read and responded to last week, but (gestures at everything). . . .
I'll have homework and labs to grade starting next week. Unfortunately, I already have a student who doesn't read instructions (one file only) and decided to submit five files to me for a lab report. I know it's minor, but it still annoys me. Instructions are in multiple places and bolded.
I basically told stu to resubmit one file if stu wants me to grade the lab. Too harsh?
Harsh? Not at all.
I would assign the Zero for failing to submit in the specified format and wait for the wailing and gnashing of teeth. Only then would I point out the fail, and consider the resubmission policy depending on how long it took them to notice.
In my experience, good students only need one slap of the hand to learn the lesson. Poor students never seem to learn it.
Quote from: FishProf on January 19, 2021, 03:00:27 AM
Harsh? Not at all.
I would assign the Zero for failing to submit in the specified format and wait for the wailing and gnashing of teeth. Only then would I point out the fail, and consider the resubmission policy depending on how long it took them to notice.
In my experience, good students only need one slap of the hand to learn the lesson. Poor students never seem to learn it.
I think we have too much 'hand-holding' at my campus and it's convinced me that I'm being a meanie. I'm all for cutting students a little slack, but I have to draw the line somewhere.
Midterms at my place. Grading a (virtual) stack today.
6 more research papers to go!
Looooosing steeeeam......
My goal today is to grade 25 midterm papers (1000 words each), with feedback, at least in the form of a rubric, plus a few individualized comments. (I have about 70 people in the class -- if I get my 25 done today, I'll have about 60 total graded.)
But I'm 15 papers in, and they're starting to blur together.
Can I ask a quick question for those who have more experience grading?
I use a lot of writing assignments in my classes and I have some non-native English students in my class. Their writing is terrible. Now, I have been studying a second language and I know how difficult it is. I could not imagine studying other subjects in my second language and doing even half as well as these students seem to be doing.
But when it comes grading time, do I cut them slack because of this? If so, how much? I'm struggling because they are writing very poorly and not answering the writing prompts adequately. But from some of the things they write, I think they understand more of the material than they appear to be from their writings.
If it was a native English speaker, they'd be failing the assignments without a doubt. But how do you handle non-native English speakers?
My view is that unless your department or school has some policy about the grading of non-native English speakers, you should treat all students equally.
Before COVID, i used to have a bunch of Chinese students whose English was pretty bad. They had a hard time with the writing assignments. They did have writing resources available to them. They generally got by even if they had difficulty.
In my opinion, one always grades all the students to the same standard regardless of native language. Passing your course with a "C" should mean that each passing student has achieved the same level of proficiency overall, and it's unfair to Native English Speaker John from the inner city if I grade him more harshly than Native Spanish Speaker Juan from Spain just because it is Juan's second language and John's first. However, the weight you give to language skills might vary by discipline.
I teach mostly composition classes. There all students must achieve comparable levels of fluency at each grade level, because the goal of the class is to demonstrate ability to write a clear sentence/paragraph/essay/proposal. A student who cannot do that should not pass.
In a content-driven class in another field, I still would grade all students equally, but you may need to look more carefully at what the expectations are for upper-level classes in your field and, by default, at industry norms. If, in future, your students will need to write instruction manuals for English speakers, then fluency is essential. If mastery of the mechanics or facts is more important than writing skills, then you can still grade the writing for its flaws, but your weightings might allow the students to pass regardless. If the writing is so bad that you can't tell what the student meant, that should be an F regardless.
There's also a big difference between garbled language and repeated/quirky errors. I once received an entire essay written in future tense. I commented upon it, but it didn't fail. Students from several Asian countries often struggle with articles because their languages don't have an equivalent (and the rules are bizarre and inconsistent in English).
Is it possible that they are writing in their native languages and then giving you Google Translate? Will that work in your field as they progress through college and into the workforce?
Finally, don't forget that your university should have resources available. I've taught both native and non-native students alike who have taken/sent every single essay to the campus Writing Centre before submitting it to me. Some have taken multiple drafts. Yours can too. If writing skills are important to you/your field, grade accordingly, and remind your students of the resources that can help them improve.
tl;dr: what downer said.
AR.
Quote from: Charlotte on March 20, 2021, 04:38:46 AM
Can I ask a quick question for those who have more experience grading?
I use a lot of writing assignments in my classes and I have some non-native English students in my class. Their writing is terrible. Now, I have been studying a second language and I know how difficult it is. I could not imagine studying other subjects in my second language and doing even half as well as these students seem to be doing.
But when it comes grading time, do I cut them slack because of this? If so, how much? I'm struggling because they are writing very poorly and not answering the writing prompts adequately. But from some of the things they write, I think they understand more of the material than they appear to be from their writings.
If it was a native English speaker, they'd be failing the assignments without a doubt. But how do you handle non-native English speakers?
No.
They need to go to tutoring and learn the rules of written English. Unfortunately, they will be assessed in the real world on the perception of their thinking.
People who don't write well aren't perceived to think well. Yes, it's dumb to think that a highly intelligent Chinese or Russian person, because of their clunky English, does not formulate and articulate complex thoughts in their native language. Still, our job is not to change the world. It's to prepare people for that world.
The ESL issue is a challenging one. At this point, my position is that I'm not an English teacher and so I'm not going to grade students on the basis of grammar or spelling. However, if it is so poorly written that I can't understand the content then I will penalize the student, whether a native English speaker or a foreign student.
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on March 20, 2021, 04:50:37 PM
The ESL issue is a challenging one. At this point, my position is that I'm not an English teacher and so I'm not going to grade students on the basis of grammar or spelling. However, if it is so poorly written that I can't understand the content then I will penalize the student, whether a native English speaker or a foreign student.
I'm in a humanities field, but there are some assignments that I grade in the way you describe. If I'm grading an in class or take home essay exam, writing mechanics as such are only a point or two of the overall grade. I'm not asking or expecting students to go through drafts or proofread these assignments, so it doesn't make sense to emphasize that in the grading. However, its never totally possible to separate out writing from everything else. At the extreme end there are cases where the prose is so bad I can't actually figure out what someone is trying to say. But even when things aren't that dire, good, clear writing is how you explain and express complex ideas.
I've had non-native speakers who get Bs on my exams who I suspect would have done much better if they could write the essay in a language they were fully fluent in. These students prose was competent enough-sometimes it was actually technically than lots of the other students, but they struggled to develop their ideas fully. There's nothing I can do about that as an instructor, however. I can't grade the ideas in your head, only the ones you put on paper.
I did recently see a faculty member who had been an ESL student argue that you are not doing ESL students any favors by ingoring their grammar problems.
Quote from: downer on March 22, 2021, 07:05:09 AM
I did recently see a faculty member who had been an ESL student argue that you are not doing ESL students any favors by ingoring their grammar problems.
This could apply to all kinds of students and all kinds of errors. If there are students who honestly want to know how to improve, without grade-grubbing, I think most faculty would be happy to provide detailed feedback.
Quote from: downer on March 22, 2021, 07:05:09 AM
I did recently see a faculty member who had been an ESL student argue that you are not doing ESL students any favors by ingoring their grammar problems.
I'm sure this is true. However, I don't have the time to offer the kind of in-depth, line-by-line assistance that many students (both native-English speakers and ESL) need - and it is also harder to do that now that things are turned in via Zoom, instead of on blue books. I hope students visit the writing center from time to time for help with writing, and I hope that reading and writing lots of papers (which they have to do in my classes) helps them to become better writers.
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on March 22, 2021, 09:13:43 AM
Quote from: downer on March 22, 2021, 07:05:09 AM
I did recently see a faculty member who had been an ESL student argue that you are not doing ESL students any favors by ingoring their grammar problems.
I'm sure this is true. However, I don't have the time to offer the kind of in-depth, line-by-line assistance that many students (both native-English speakers and ESL) need - and it is also harder to do that now that things are turned in via Zoom, instead of on blue books. I hope students visit the writing center from time to time for help with writing, and I hope that reading and writing lots of papers (which they have to do in my classes) helps them to become better writers.
I might take 10% off if the writing is bad and tell them to go to the writing center for help with their English. I tell them I don't want to take off points but they do need to practice their writing. Sometimes they shape write up - they were getting careless.
Now that students post online discussions in this 100% Zoom environment instead of handing them in, they are more careful about proofreading. They seem to care more about each other's opinions of their writing than mine!
Quote from: AvidReader on March 20, 2021, 05:09:15 AM
There's also a big difference between garbled language and repeated/quirky errors. I once received an entire essay written in future tense. I commented upon it, but it didn't fail. Students from several Asian countries often struggle with articles because their languages don't have an equivalent (and the rules are bizarre and inconsistent in English).
This tends to be my approach as well. Also, I'm in a region where spoken English often doesn't conform to established grammar rules, so a regional quirk like dropping the "ly" off of adverbs is something I note, but don't punish to any great degree. After all, we just talk different around here. The students do complain about the struggles of code-switching at times.
Quote from: fishbrains on March 22, 2021, 11:34:17 AM
Quote from: AvidReader on March 20, 2021, 05:09:15 AM
There's also a big difference between garbled language and repeated/quirky errors. I once received an entire essay written in future tense. I commented upon it, but it didn't fail. Students from several Asian countries often struggle with articles because their languages don't have an equivalent (and the rules are bizarre and inconsistent in English).
This tends to be my approach as well. Also, I'm in a region where spoken English often doesn't conform to established grammar rules, so a regional quirk like dropping the "ly" off of adverbs is something I note, but don't punish to any great degree. After all, we just talk different around here. The students do complain about the struggles of code-switching at times.
Yeah, and if you're talking in class, or even writing something informal, that isn't a problem. But in formal writing there are expectations around writing in a certain register and its something students will do well to grasp.
Quote from: Caracal on March 22, 2021, 11:38:55 AM
Quote from: fishbrains on March 22, 2021, 11:34:17 AM
Quote from: AvidReader on March 20, 2021, 05:09:15 AM
There's also a big difference between garbled language and repeated/quirky errors. I once received an entire essay written in future tense. I commented upon it, but it didn't fail. Students from several Asian countries often struggle with articles because their languages don't have an equivalent (and the rules are bizarre and inconsistent in English).
This tends to be my approach as well. Also, I'm in a region where spoken English often doesn't conform to established grammar rules, so a regional quirk like dropping the "ly" off of adverbs is something I note, but don't punish to any great degree. After all, we just talk different around here. The students do complain about the struggles of code-switching at times.
Yeah, and if you're talking in class, or even writing something informal, that isn't a problem. But in formal writing there are expectations around writing in a certain register and its something students will do well to grasp.
True that.
OMG, I just finished grading the most horrific lab reports. So many points were lost for not following directions on how to structure and organize the lab report. Geez. Does anyone read the syllabus anymore? Guess not.
I'm ahead on essays, and kind of far behind on quizzes. Sigh.
I'm using Canvas for the first time and I really do not like that you can't customize the exam/quiz settings as much as you can in Blackboard.
For one, I can't figure out how to make it give partial credit on some question types where it should be easy (like matching). And the "grade by question" feature that my TAs LOVED in Blackboard is in "Beta testing" on Canvas and not always available. Why????
Grumble.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on April 08, 2021, 08:35:01 PM
OMG, I just finished grading the most horrific lab reports. So many points were lost for not following directions on how to structure and organize the lab report. Geez. Does anyone read the syllabus anymore? Guess not.
I wouldn't read most contemporary syllabi either, as there is so much useless boilerplate spam forced onto them by the college administration that the document loses much of its actual value.
Heck, many of my colleagues don't even refer students to the "official syllabus" anymore. Instead, these professors release "course documents" that read more like traditional, functional syllabi.
Quote from: Aster on April 09, 2021, 10:06:47 AM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on April 08, 2021, 08:35:01 PM
OMG, I just finished grading the most horrific lab reports. So many points were lost for not following directions on how to structure and organize the lab report. Geez. Does anyone read the syllabus anymore? Guess not.
I wouldn't read most contemporary syllabi either, as there is so much useless boilerplate spam forced onto them by the college administration that the document loses much of its actual value.
Heck, many of my colleagues don't even refer students to the "official syllabus" anymore. Instead, these professors release "course documents" that read more like traditional, functional syllabi.
To be fair*, a lot of that "syllabus bloat" has come from all kinds of areas within the institution that "have to" have their stuff included because it's so "vitally important". And of course, having to repeat the same information for every course makes it totally redundant. They only have to hear about Counselling services, the Writing Centre, etc. once each term, if that.
*So admins are lobbied by all of these other groups to include stuff.
Quote from: marshwiggle on April 09, 2021, 10:49:34 AM
To be fair*, a lot of that "syllabus bloat" has come from all kinds of areas within the institution that "have to" have their stuff included because it's so "vitally important". And of course, having to repeat the same information for every course makes it totally redundant. They only have to hear about Counselling services, the Writing Centre, etc. once each term, if that.
In this digital age, we are required to (hyper)link to a series of university policies: academic integrity, student accommodations, policy on (not) bringing children to class, etc. There are maybe ten.
Fine. Easy. This is great--and also makes it very clear that these are not just my guidelines, but universal.
Then my department says:
But the statement on academic integrity is really important, so you should also include that in the syllabus itself.
But the statement on student accommodations is really important, so you should also include that in the syllabus itself.
etc.
AR.
I am glad that my institution only requires the syllabus to include instructor contact information, textbook information, grading methods, attendance policy (if any), course learning outcomes, and "other necessary information" according to the instructor's judgment.
I include a bunch of my own boilerplate about academic integrity, healthy respectful class community, late work policy, study strategies, etc., but it's all stuff that I have written to suit my own instructional style/preferences/personality, and it's not too long.
I only post my "Syllabus" on the CMS. There is a Syllabus Item, and my actual syllabus is a single document. Each required boilerplate is a separate file with its own link. I have provided all I am required to provide, but not quite in the manner they expect.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 08, 2021, 09:14:34 PM
I'm ahead on essays, and kind of far behind on quizzes. Sigh.
Am caught up.
Quote from: FishProf on April 10, 2021, 05:09:36 AM
I only post my "Syllabus" on the CMS. There is a Syllabus Item, and my actual syllabus is a single document. Each required boilerplate is a separate file with its own link. I have provided all I am required to provide, but not quite in the manner they expect.
I've done the same thing. But a colleague claims that my institution could get in trouble with accreditors. We have a syllabus repository they can access. They, however, won't be able to access my course management page easily with these separate files.
It just kills me, though, to include all this boilerplate stuff in the syllabus. Pages of bloat make the document too hard to navigate, as any document design expert would note.
Quote from: lilyb on April 11, 2021, 03:27:07 PM
But a colleague claims that my institution could get in trouble with accreditors.
Um, how?
Quote from: lilyb on April 11, 2021, 03:27:07 PM
Quote from: FishProf on April 10, 2021, 05:09:36 AM
I only post my "Syllabus" on the CMS. There is a Syllabus Item, and my actual syllabus is a single document. Each required boilerplate is a separate file with its own link. I have provided all I am required to provide, but not quite in the manner they expect.
I've done the same thing. But a colleague claims that my institution could get in trouble with accreditors. We have a syllabus repository they can access. They, however, won't be able to access my course management page easily with these separate files.
It just kills me, though, to include all this boilerplate stuff in the syllabus. Pages of bloat make the document too hard to navigate, as any document design expert would note.
We are required to file a syllabus for every class with our dept. secretary, though I don't think anyone checks them. I have been taking an opposite approach as FishProf. I upload a full syllabus with all the bloat, and then I make a separate PDF with the class schedule. I post it directly beneath the syllabus.
AR.
Quote from: AvidReader on April 12, 2021, 04:16:28 AM
We are required to file a syllabus for every class with our dept. secretary, though I don't think anyone checks them. I have been taking an opposite approach as FishProf. I upload a full syllabus with all the bloat, and then I make a separate PDF with the class schedule. I post it directly beneath the syllabus.
For the file that goes to Dept Secretary, I just combine the syllabus and all the boilerplates into a single (egregiously) long file, which NO ONE ever reads.
We finally wised up and for all the boilerplate stuff, we can now put a link to a website where someone (probably a work-study student) put all the stuff we're required to add to our syllabi like School of Engineering policies, University policies, access to accommodations, etc.
But as to grading... my whole day is going to be dedicated to getting caught up on grading all the stuff that was due at the end of last week **whinge moan** I'm SO tempted to go through and grade at least part of these as credit/no-credit. Oh, look! You turned something in! Points for you!
Quote from: FishProf on April 11, 2021, 04:49:49 PM
Quote from: lilyb on April 11, 2021, 03:27:07 PM
But a colleague claims that my institution could get in trouble with accreditors.
Um, how?
Admin claims that all the ADA material, in particular, needs to be on the syllabus for compliance with federal regulations. There's also material that has to be on there for assessment. (We got in big trouble with accreditors because no one wanted to do assessment). Perhaps my institution is a bit paranoid because of this history.
Eventually, the entire student handbook will end up on the course syllabus.
Quote from: lilyb on April 12, 2021, 09:20:29 AM
Quote from: FishProf on April 11, 2021, 04:49:49 PM
Quote from: lilyb on April 11, 2021, 03:27:07 PM
But a colleague claims that my institution could get in trouble with accreditors.
Um, how?
Admin claims that all the ADA material, in particular, needs to be on the syllabus for compliance with federal regulations. There's also material that has to be on there for assessment. (We got in big trouble with accreditors because no one wanted to do assessment). Perhaps my institution is a bit paranoid because of this history.
Fair enough. Do hyperlinks count?
I break my syllabus into Course Information, Course Schedule, Course Policies, Institutional Policies, and Other Information the College Wants You To Know. The Syllabus Quiz covers the first three, and maybe one or two institutional policies (plagiarism, classroom conduct). The schedule is presented separately on the CMS as well. My syllabus for most courses is now 9 or 10 pages long, so putting the important stuff (at least to me) first and focusing the Syllabus Quiz on this helps keep it all somewhat functional. Kind of.
Quote from: Aster on April 12, 2021, 09:26:43 AM
Eventually, the entire student handbook will end up on the course syllabus.
We have one institutional policy that actually says, "Refer to Student Handbook" with a link to the entire Handbook.
Quote from: FishProf on April 12, 2021, 12:03:28 PM
Quote from: lilyb on April 12, 2021, 09:20:29 AM
Quote from: FishProf on April 11, 2021, 04:49:49 PM
Quote from: lilyb on April 11, 2021, 03:27:07 PM
But a colleague claims that my institution could get in trouble with accreditors.
Um, how?
Admin claims that all the ADA material, in particular, needs to be on the syllabus for compliance with federal regulations. There's also material that has to be on there for assessment. (We got in big trouble with accreditors because no one wanted to do assessment). Perhaps my institution is a bit paranoid because of this history.
Fair enough. Do hyperlinks count?
They should, as long as the document and linked items are easily accessible without a password.
This week my students are completing an major exam in one class and a major essay in another. This means that I will spend next week in grading hell.
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on April 13, 2021, 08:23:39 AM
This week my students are completing an major exam in one class and a major essay in another. This means that I will spend next week in grading hell.
Gah! Next time, see if you can stagger them at least to a Monday vs Friday due date.
Two of my classes have a paper due today, so I'll see you in grading jail. Maybe we can pass notes or something.
(I did manage to mark five today, so that's a start.)
I finished a stack of 40 today. I didn't grade them all today--I was trying a new multi-pass approach to see if I could make the newly required inline comments more efficient, so I went through the stack 3 times over 3 days. But the 40 are finished. I believe that leaves me with only about 320 essays left to grade between now and mid-May (minus a few from students who give up in the meantime). Right now I only have 50 sitting in my figurative pile, though, so I don't feel as behind as I might.
AR.
320! Pffft! ;)
(I have 80, of which about 60 are left. The rest is all just finals that mostly mark themselves.)
I suppose I should do 5-6 today. Ugh.
Last exam today. Grades due Monday at noon.
I'll make it, but it won't be fun.
Quote from: dr_codex on April 16, 2021, 03:45:11 PM
Last exam today. Grades due Monday at noon.
I'll make it, but it won't be fun.
Ugh, that's a rough timeline.
My reward for today's procrasti-grading was a plagiarism case to report. At last Dear Student chose relevant text to copy and had to at least glance at some pretty high level scholarly content.
Quote from: teach_write_research on April 16, 2021, 04:45:04 PM
Quote from: dr_codex on April 16, 2021, 03:45:11 PM
Last exam today. Grades due Monday at noon.
I'll make it, but it won't be fun.
Ugh, that's a rough timeline.
My reward for today's procrasti-grading was a plagiarism case to report. At last Dear Student chose relevant text to copy and had to at least glance at some pretty high level scholarly content.
Maybe instead of prosecuting plagiarism, we can give "research points" according to how well chosen the content was to answer the question! Then students who plagiarise badly (which is probably most?) can fail on "poor research" without all of the pesky disciplinary process hassle.
I've got to think about this.......
Quote from: marshwiggle on April 17, 2021, 05:35:20 AM
Quote from: teach_write_research on April 16, 2021, 04:45:04 PM
Quote from: dr_codex on April 16, 2021, 03:45:11 PM
Last exam today. Grades due Monday at noon.
I'll make it, but it won't be fun.
Ugh, that's a rough timeline.
My reward for today's procrasti-grading was a plagiarism case to report. At last Dear Student chose relevant text to copy and had to at least glance at some pretty high level scholarly content.
Maybe instead of prosecuting plagiarism, we can give "research points" according to how well chosen the content was to answer the question! Then students who plagiarise badly (which is probably most?) can fail on "poor research" without all of the pesky disciplinary process hassle.
I've got to think about this.......
I'd err of the side of still reporting them. Chances are they have tried this in other classes or will try this again if there aren't serious consequences.
Quote from: the_geneticist on April 17, 2021, 09:38:18 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on April 17, 2021, 05:35:20 AM
Quote from: teach_write_research on April 16, 2021, 04:45:04 PM
Quote from: dr_codex on April 16, 2021, 03:45:11 PM
Last exam today. Grades due Monday at noon.
I'll make it, but it won't be fun.
Ugh, that's a rough timeline.
My reward for today's procrasti-grading was a plagiarism case to report. At last Dear Student chose relevant text to copy and had to at least glance at some pretty high level scholarly content.
Maybe instead of prosecuting plagiarism, we can give "research points" according to how well chosen the content was to answer the question! Then students who plagiarise badly (which is probably most?) can fail on "poor research" without all of the pesky disciplinary process hassle.
I've got to think about this.......
I'd err of the side of still reporting them. Chances are they have tried this in other classes or will try this again if there aren't serious consequences.
It's not ideal. Luckily the bulk of my grading came in earlier in the week. But I don't love the turn-around.
My own plagiarist (so far?) is both clumsy and ripping off Wikipedia. No points, and you can be sure it's going to be sent up the chain.
I have been doing some mulling about the Turnitin reports for my classes. They show some interesting patterns. I don't mean that in any sinister way; it just has me reflecting upon how some kinds of assignments and prompts encourage either rote responses or creative mixing of information.
Grading question. I gave a midterm exam that had 3 problems. It was a closed book, closed note exam administered over Canvas (and "proctored" on Zoom). One student uploaded the same problem twice but didn't upload one of the problems. This could be an honest mistake in a remote class.
TA who was grading reached out, no response. I reached out, telling the student we needed to have the problem by X time when solutions would be released/grades posted. No response. Solutions were posted, 4 days after exam given and ~40 hours after TA first made contact and 24 hours after I did. 6 hours later the student sent the TA the correct problem. Notably the problem the student submitted was nearly correct but not completely and was solved slightly differently than the posted solutions (some correct steps done in a different order which was also correct). I do thus know the student didn't just copy the posted solutions line by line and this could very well have been the work he did during the timed exam.
What do I do with this problem? I know in retrospect I should have been more clear it was a 0 if we didn't receive it by X time. Do we just grade it as normal and move on? The student did reasonably well on the remainder of the exam but since there were 3 problems giving him a 0 on this one would mean a D on the exam v. A-/B+ if we count this problem. Seems harsh to give a 0 but also unfair to allow full credit when the solutions had been posted.
Quote from: doc700 on April 18, 2021, 07:22:52 AM
Grading question. I gave a midterm exam that had 3 problems. It was a closed book, closed note exam administered over Canvas (and "proctored" on Zoom). One student uploaded the same problem twice but didn't upload one of the problems. This could be an honest mistake in a remote class.
TA who was grading reached out, no response. I reached out, telling the student we needed to have the problem by X time when solutions would be released/grades posted. No response. Solutions were posted, 4 days after exam given and ~40 hours after TA first made contact and 24 hours after I did. 6 hours later the student sent the TA the correct problem. Notably the problem the student submitted was nearly correct but not completely and was solved slightly differently than the posted solutions (some correct steps done in a different order which was also correct). I do thus know the student didn't just copy the posted solutions line by line and this could very well have been the work he did during the timed exam.
What do I do with this problem? I know in retrospect I should have been more clear it was a 0 if we didn't receive it by X time. Do we just grade it as normal and move on? The student did reasonably well on the remainder of the exam but since there were 3 problems giving him a 0 on this one would mean a D on the exam v. A-/B+ if we count this problem. Seems harsh to give a 0 but also unfair to allow full credit when the solutions had been posted.
Does your syllabus have a clause concerning how often students are expected to check their email? For example, my syllabus says students should check their email every day at least once by 8:00 PM until they receive their final grade for the course. If this isn't spelled out in some detail, I would just grade the problem and move on with my life. Life's too short there.
Quote from: fishbrains on April 18, 2021, 09:43:57 AM
Quote from: doc700 on April 18, 2021, 07:22:52 AM
Grading question. I gave a midterm exam that had 3 problems. It was a closed book, closed note exam administered over Canvas (and "proctored" on Zoom). One student uploaded the same problem twice but didn't upload one of the problems. This could be an honest mistake in a remote class.
TA who was grading reached out, no response. I reached out, telling the student we needed to have the problem by X time when solutions would be released/grades posted. No response. Solutions were posted, 4 days after exam given and ~40 hours after TA first made contact and 24 hours after I did. 6 hours later the student sent the TA the correct problem. Notably the problem the student submitted was nearly correct but not completely and was solved slightly differently than the posted solutions (some correct steps done in a different order which was also correct). I do thus know the student didn't just copy the posted solutions line by line and this could very well have been the work he did during the timed exam.
What do I do with this problem? I know in retrospect I should have been more clear it was a 0 if we didn't receive it by X time. Do we just grade it as normal and move on? The student did reasonably well on the remainder of the exam but since there were 3 problems giving him a 0 on this one would mean a D on the exam v. A-/B+ if we count this problem. Seems harsh to give a 0 but also unfair to allow full credit when the solutions had been posted.
Does your syllabus have a clause concerning how often students are expected to check their email? For example, my syllabus says students should check their email every day at least once by 8:00 PM until they receive their final grade for the course. If this isn't spelled out in some detail, I would just grade the problem and move on with my life. Life's too short there.
No policy on checking email. I do say they need to have Canvas notifications turned on for urgent messaging however no explicit requirement about checking email every day.
Student has been turning in all the work for the course and did well on the first midterm. I'll just grade the problem and move on. Giving the student a 0 for the problem/a D on the exam would whack his overall course grade; grading the problem as is would be consistent with the grade he was otherwise earning in the course.
What happened to using paragraphs? I have a pile of admittedly short essays (500 words), but about 1/3rd of them are only one paragraph despite making several distinct points.
Ufda. I'm grading an assignment for a class that I had a section in the Fall and now a section this Spring. In the Fall, only one student failed the assignment. Now, I'm looking at an assignment failure rate of 60%. We did an example in class. The lectures are recorded. No one asked any questions about the assignment before it was due. What gives?
Quote from: Anon1787 on April 18, 2021, 02:42:29 PM
What happened to using paragraphs? I have a pile of admittedly short essays (500 words), but about 1/3rd of them are only one paragraph despite making several distinct points.
Put good paragraph use on the grading rubric!
Quote from: Anon1787 on April 18, 2021, 02:42:29 PM
What happened to using paragraphs? I have a pile of admittedly short essays (500 words), but about 1/3rd of them are only one paragraph despite making several distinct points.
I get this too. I'll never understand how students get to be seniors in college (even grad students) without knowing how paragraphs work. It really is a sad commentary on our education system.
Quote from: downer on April 18, 2021, 04:09:56 PM
Quote from: Anon1787 on April 18, 2021, 02:42:29 PM
What happened to using paragraphs? I have a pile of admittedly short essays (500 words), but about 1/3rd of them are only one paragraph despite making several distinct points.
Put good paragraph use on the grading rubric!
I give students examples of essays, explanations of thesis statements and topic sentences, videos of introductory and body paragraphs, and checklists for each assignment. I also give directions on how to indent paragraphs. It still takes some students several assignments to understand the structure of an essay. Rubrics are your friend.
Quote from: Langue_doc on April 19, 2021, 05:44:57 AM
Quote from: downer on April 18, 2021, 04:09:56 PM
Quote from: Anon1787 on April 18, 2021, 02:42:29 PM
What happened to using paragraphs? I have a pile of admittedly short essays (500 words), but about 1/3rd of them are only one paragraph despite making several distinct points.
Put good paragraph use on the grading rubric!
I give students examples of essays, explanations of thesis statements and topic sentences, videos of introductory and body paragraphs, and checklists for each assignment. I also give directions on how to indent paragraphs. It still takes some students several assignments to understand the structure of an essay. Rubrics are your friend.
Along that line, I had a student complain about a lower than expected grade due to "not having been told" about certain requirements. I pointed Stu to the checklist, (which had been pointed out long ago), and the project explanation document, both of which outlined all of the requirements, so the lost points were due to certain requirements being completely absent. After that, Stu never responded.
Quote from: Langue_doc on April 19, 2021, 05:44:57 AM
Quote from: downer on April 18, 2021, 04:09:56 PM
Quote from: Anon1787 on April 18, 2021, 02:42:29 PM
What happened to using paragraphs? I have a pile of admittedly short essays (500 words), but about 1/3rd of them are only one paragraph despite making several distinct points.
Put good paragraph use on the grading rubric!
I give students examples of essays, explanations of thesis statements and topic sentences, videos of introductory and body paragraphs, and checklists for each assignment. I also give directions on how to indent paragraphs. It still takes some students several assignments to understand the structure of an essay. Rubrics are your friend.
It is good that you do that. That said, it isn't the job of (for example) an economics professor to teach students how to write a comprehensible paper. It is wild to me that students at 18-22 years old haven't learned how paragraphs work and are upset that they have been penalized for writing something that is unreadable.
Gonna have to step up and do some marking this week. I should do one quiz and a few essays today. Ugh.
I'm in the downslide of the semester, so grading is no longer drudgery. Every grade that I submit to the LMS is symbolically one step closer to the end of the semester!
In spite of the compressed schedule, and squeezed grading period, I'm done for the Spring.
Two grade complaints already. So, they can write persuasive arguments quickly. Just not during the semester.
*sigh*
Fortitude to all you other graders!
dc
Well, I learned the hard way that some question types automatically get partial credit on Canvas, but not others. Now I have to go through just over 500 exams to adjust the score on a "categorize" question. I think it's a good question, and most students got most of it correct. But the dratted default is 0 points for any error.
Sigh.
It's going to be that sort of week.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 19, 2021, 09:46:25 AM
Gonna have to step up and do some marking this week. I should do one quiz and a few essays today. Ugh.
Did two sets of quizzes (~70 total) and now I give up.
Quote from: the_geneticist on April 19, 2021, 01:45:32 PM
Well, I learned the hard way that some question types automatically get partial credit on Canvas, but not others. Now I have to go through just over 500 exams to adjust the score on a "categorize" question. I think it's a good question, and most students got most of it correct. But the dratted default is 0 points for any error.
Sigh.
It's going to be that sort of week.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on April 19, 2021, 08:50:48 AM
Quote from: Langue_doc on April 19, 2021, 05:44:57 AM
Quote from: downer on April 18, 2021, 04:09:56 PM
Quote from: Anon1787 on April 18, 2021, 02:42:29 PM
What happened to using paragraphs? I have a pile of admittedly short essays (500 words), but about 1/3rd of them are only one paragraph despite making several distinct points.
Put good paragraph use on the grading rubric!
I give students examples of essays, explanations of thesis statements and topic sentences, videos of introductory and body paragraphs, and checklists for each assignment. I also give directions on how to indent paragraphs. It still takes some students several assignments to understand the structure of an essay. Rubrics are your friend.
It is good that you do that. That said, it isn't the job of (for example) an economics professor to teach students how to write a comprehensible paper. It is wild to me that students at 18-22 years old haven't learned how paragraphs work and are upset that they have been penalized for writing something that is unreadable.
Since I am not a big fan of rubrics I have only used them sporadically, but am considering using them more often (back when I was an undergrad, I had to chisel my essays on stone tablets and didn't receive any rubrics!). However, I resist the idea of including a detailed rubric on the basics of English composition (especially when I don't teach composition).
Friggin' late submissions. I had finished grading weeks ago and now two more essays pop up like zits.
Time to go pop some zits, I guess.
Quote from: ergative on April 20, 2021, 12:13:05 AM
Friggin' late submissions. I had finished grading weeks ago and now two more essays pop up like zits.
Time to go pop some zits, I guess.
The mentality is left over from their high school days. High school teachers generally allow late submissions.
It used to be that college professors were the ones that taught these students about deadlines, the hard way.
Quote from: ergative on April 20, 2021, 12:13:05 AM
Friggin' late submissions. I had finished grading weeks ago and now two more essays pop up like zits.
Time to go pop some zits, I guess.
Haha, I hear you! My pile of late work always ends up being fairly significant, and it's really demoralizing. I suppose I should be harsher. Maybe I will, once I'm permanent.
Quote from: lightning on April 20, 2021, 07:14:37 AM
Quote from: ergative on April 20, 2021, 12:13:05 AM
Friggin' late submissions. I had finished grading weeks ago and now two more essays pop up like zits.
Time to go pop some zits, I guess.
The mentality is left over from their high school days. High school teachers generally allow late submissions.
It used to be that college professors were the ones that taught these students about deadlines, the hard way.
To be fair to the students, we have a pretty standard extension policy, with paperwork and everything that must be submitted to request one. These were legitimate extensions, requested and granted in advance. But, y'know, even if you can feel a zit developing under your skin, it's still not fun when it erupts on schedule.
Yesterday I graded a pile of exams; tomorrow a pile of research papers. Next week will bring more papers and more exams, but at least the end of the semester is near.
It's finals week. So far this week I have graded 25 lab reports, 6 grad research papers, and 15 undergrad research papers. 20 more undergrad papers to go and then the exams arrive, 36 in one class and 55 in another. All due by Tuesday at 10 am.
Oh and I guess the 3 emails of woe so far count as the equivalent of a partridge in a pear tree!
Someone on the old Jedi Mind Tricks thread taught me this gem:
Make the final project/essay due a week earlier than normal. Have that date on the syllabus. A few weeks before the due date, announce "You can have an extension if you'd like it. The due date is now a week later. But since it's right before finals, I won't have time to offer feedback or comments."
It's a win-win! The good students do it early and take the feedback. The slacker students take the extension, thinking they've won, but really I don't spend a lot of time grading their submissions. It also means that the week before exams, usually frantic with grading, is currently smooth sailing. Thanks Fora Jedi!
Quote from: RatGuy on April 20, 2021, 03:47:14 PM
Someone on the old Jedi Mind Tricks thread taught me this gem:
I love this. I wish my dept. did not require inline comments on all graded essays. They are for the people who apparently "spot check" all faculty work--I know most of my students won't be reading comments. Grr.
AR.
Quote from: ergative on April 20, 2021, 08:22:14 AM
Quote from: lightning on April 20, 2021, 07:14:37 AM
Quote from: ergative on April 20, 2021, 12:13:05 AM
Friggin' late submissions. I had finished grading weeks ago and now two more essays pop up like zits.
Time to go pop some zits, I guess.
The mentality is left over from their high school days. High school teachers generally allow late submissions.
It used to be that college professors were the ones that taught these students about deadlines, the hard way.
To be fair to the students, we have a pretty standard extension policy, with paperwork and everything that must be submitted to request one. These were legitimate extensions, requested and granted in advance. But, y'know, even if you can feel a zit developing under your skin, it's still not fun when it erupts on schedule.
Update: the plagiarism cases have now been decided. I must now grade those essays, while 'disregarding the plagiarized portions'. Argh.
(This is not a miscarriage of justice; they also get grade penalties on top of whatever their non-plagiarized portions earn, and a permanent red flagon their academic record. For baby first years this is fine.)
If there's a lot of plagiarized material, there may also be very little left to grade, resulting in an "incomplete fulfillment of assignment requirements" check on the rubric, and so a lowered grade on what's left.
M.
I have to manually grade 2 of the 12 questions in an exam because Canvas apparently can't do partial credit on certain question types.
I've finished 6 of the 20 lab sections.
Next time, I'm making sure that grading exams is part of the TA contract!
GnG: Glance and grade. It is the way.
Open the assignment in speed grader (on Canvas, anyway). Read the first page. Skim the rest. Paste a comment from the document of generic paper comments you have open in another tab. Submit. Next. Spend no more than 3 minutes per assignment.
As you are grading have another document where you make notes about common strengths and problems. Then make a course announcement about these. Give global feedback, not individual feedback. A friend who keeps up on pedagogical research tells me this is proven to be more effective because they don't take it personally. I just stumbled into it. Lately I have been recording these global feedback sessions as a short video, students seem to like that.
Here is the huge advantage of GnG: Because you spend less time grading, you can assign far more writing. I get through 40-50 four-page essays in two hours.
I am in the humanities, YMMV.
Quote from: larryc on April 21, 2021, 09:42:21 AM
GnG: Glance and grade. It is the way.
Open the assignment in speed grader (on Canvas, anyway). Read the first page. Skim the rest. Paste a comment from the document of generic paper comments you have open in another tab. Submit. Next. Spend no more than 3 minutes per assignment.
As you are grading have another document where you make notes about common strengths and problems. Then make a course announcement about these. Give global feedback, not individual feedback. A friend who keeps up on pedagogical research tells me this is proven to be more effective because they don't take it personally. I just stumbled into it. Lately I have been recording these global feedback sessions as a short video, students seem to like that.
Here is the huge advantage of GnG: Because you spend less time grading, you can assign far more writing. I get through 40-50 four-page essays in two hours.
I am in the humanities, YMMV.
Ooo! I like the idea of "global feedback". There are some common themes of concepts that students are misunderstanding. And looks like folks are also losing points due to not looking at the diagrams. I'm in STEM so it's not too hard to write challenging multiple-choice questions; choose all correct; complete the statement; calculated-based, etc.
Quote from: the_geneticist on April 21, 2021, 11:13:23 AM
Quote from: larryc on April 21, 2021, 09:42:21 AM
GnG: Glance and grade. It is the way.
Open the assignment in speed grader (on Canvas, anyway). Read the first page. Skim the rest. Paste a comment from the document of generic paper comments you have open in another tab. Submit. Next. Spend no more than 3 minutes per assignment.
As you are grading have another document where you make notes about common strengths and problems. Then make a course announcement about these. Give global feedback, not individual feedback. A friend who keeps up on pedagogical research tells me this is proven to be more effective because they don't take it personally. I just stumbled into it. Lately I have been recording these global feedback sessions as a short video, students seem to like that.
Here is the huge advantage of GnG: Because you spend less time grading, you can assign far more writing. I get through 40-50 four-page essays in two hours.
I am in the humanities, YMMV.
Ooo! I like the idea of "global feedback". There are some common themes of concepts that students are misunderstanding. And looks like folks are also losing points due to not looking at the diagrams. I'm in STEM so it's not too hard to write challenging multiple-choice questions; choose all correct; complete the statement; calculated-based, etc.
I also use global feedback for most of the assignments in my large general education online course. We provide a numerical score for each student, but no comments on the individual weekly assignments, just a global course announcement regarding common misconceptions or difficulties.
@larryc The one hiccup in the above is for scaffolded activities, where I want students to incorporate the feedback into the next step in the project. For that, I use copy-paste from a list of applicable comments for each individual student (with a few individually written, for the students who are way out in left field). However, I find the scaffolded projects to be much more time intensive to grade, not only due to the additional copy-paste step, but also because I find that I need to look at the previous assignment to verify that we did, indeed, provide appropriate feedback that the student subsequently ignored. Do you have advice on how to approach grading scaffolded assignments efficiently?
6 exams, 7 papers, and 36 quizzes down today. Not bad for a few hours' work!
Plus, it turns out my deadline is May 3, not April 27! Wheeee@
I'm caught up on grading, but I have a dozen papers coming to me tomorrow night and 40 exams coming to me on Tuesday of next week.
Netflix 'n' Grade.
Am I right?
Marked 15 papers and three straggler quizzes. That's enough for today!
I have 2 sets of tests to grade and another set that is half done. Today is the day to grade lab reports. Yuck.
Woke up early this morning and couldn't sleep so I graded for awhile and got several term papers completed. I have 11 more to go this weekend and then Sunday night about 25 more will roll in. But I can see the end of the semester in sight!
Quote from: downer on April 23, 2021, 08:00:02 AM
Netflix 'n' Grade.
Am I right?
I didn't know Netflix made bourbon. You really do learn something new every day.
Quote from: fishbrains on April 24, 2021, 08:23:58 AM
Quote from: downer on April 23, 2021, 08:00:02 AM
Netflix 'n' Grade.
Am I right?
I didn't know Netflix made bourbon. You really do learn something new every day.
Netflix 'n Grade, with a side of Makers.
I was under the weather yesterday. so I didn't really grade much. Today is the day to grade. I just finished grading a Physics test and I'm about to grade lab set #1 out of 4. Ugh.
I didn't manage anything yesterday either, but I should also buckle down today and get a chunk done. I'd like to be all done early in the week.
Just graded discussion responses from 3 classes. Same classes submit papers tomorrow then longer ones in 2 weeks. Fingers crossed that they are well done.
Done with manually fixing the partial credit for 3 questions in just over 500 exams!
Note to self: remember how long this took you when you write the next exam. It was not trivial!
I'm grading my third set of labs and one of my students (the one who wants to spend ALL the time in the world with me asking questions) is checking feedback a minute after I post it. It's a little unnerving. Granted this student doesn't have to worry since stu's grades are in the A range (except for that 1 B that threw stu over the edge).
Managed 10 essays, 3 quizzes, and 10 exams. That's it for today!
Ugh. I'm grading a small final project and so many students took a big step down in the quality of their work compared to how they were doing during the term. Grading these is largely boring, sad, and irritating. I used the same assignment in the Fall and its a definite contrast. Such a clear signal of how worn out everyone is. Myself included! I'm thankful for the few students who put a strong effort into their project and showed the knowledge they gained.
I graded about 80 lab reports yesterday. Now I get to do it again today. Yay.
And I've learned the hard way that you can't regrade a multiple-choice question in Canvas if you put it in the "Item Bank" of questions.
Why?!?!?!
The only work-around is to manually go through all of the student answers and use the "fudge points" option.
This was possible (and easy!) in Blackboard. Remind me again, why are we switching?
Ugh! Every single paragraph in the essay I am grading at the moment is in a different font from the preceding paragraph. Some paragraphs have 2 or 3 different fonts. The paragraphs alternate between serif and sans-serif fonts, so this isn't just a student struggling to tell the difference between several similar fonts. I have had the student for two semesters, and we have drilled MLA and formatting guidelines. Student has never done this before. What is this madness!
AR.
Quote from: AvidReader on April 26, 2021, 03:24:18 PM
Ugh! Every single paragraph in the essay I am grading at the moment is in a different font from the preceding paragraph. Some paragraphs have 2 or 3 different fonts. The paragraphs alternate between serif and sans-serif fonts, so this isn't just a student struggling to tell the difference between several similar fonts. I have had the student for two semesters, and we have drilled MLA and formatting guidelines. Student has never done this before. What is this madness!
AR.
Copy and paste?
Quote from: Langue_doc on April 26, 2021, 03:25:50 PM
Quote from: AvidReader on April 26, 2021, 03:24:18 PM
Ugh! Every single paragraph in the essay I am grading at the moment is in a different font from the preceding paragraph. Some paragraphs have 2 or 3 different fonts. The paragraphs alternate between serif and sans-serif fonts, so this isn't just a student struggling to tell the difference between several similar fonts. I have had the student for two semesters, and we have drilled MLA and formatting guidelines. Student has never done this before. What is this madness!
AR.
Copy and paste?
Exactly my thought. It's one of the first tip-offs. Time to go a-Googling ....
+1
Definitely a clue.
M.
I thought plagiarism at first, too. It is a research essay on a topic of my choice, and it was pretty heavily scaffolded, and the student has adequate citations throughout. I think that the student copied and pasted the various bits of scaffolded work in interesting but sloppily formatted ways. It was still unpleasant to read, though!
AR.
Managed 20 presentations, 5 exams, and 7 essays today. Should be able to finish the essays tomorrow.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 26, 2021, 09:02:10 PM
Managed 20 presentations, 5 exams, and 7 essays today. Should be able to finish the essays tomorrow.
Yay! Well done!
AR.
I didn't meet my grading goal yesterday, so I need to make up for it today. :(
I'm grading research papers from my masters-level methods class. For this assignment each student had to collect some publicly available data and analyze it. Consistent with the class content and assignment expectations, each of the students ran a simple regression with three or four x-variables covering a single year of data. So far so good...
...Then I get to a student who has created a panel dataset covering ~40 years and a dozen variables. The analysis is way beyond what we have done in the class and the presentation is similar to what you would see in an academic journal: Journal ready regression tables, a host of robustness tests (models with unit and year fixed effects, dummies for key historical years, etc.). This analysis would be excellent for a PhD level class paper and would have a shot at a decent academic journal. Needless to say, I am quite suspicious that this student did not write this paper and instead had somebody to do it for them, but the plagiarism checker doesn't detect anything and I don't have any other evidence except that the paper is miles ahead of than anything we've done in the classroom (and the students' own work up to this point has been fine, but no indication that they have had advanced stats training).
So what should I do?
Ten papers into my goal of 19 (which will finish off the class and my semester!).
Weird plagiarism case this morning -- has anyone else seen this? The student cut and pasted from a webpage, rearranged a few words, and then tacked on a parenthetical citation for a different source. The different source was almost plausible, so I looked it up (despite the incomplete bibliographic reference). It did not in any way support the claims the student attributed to it, even though it was on an adjacent topic.
This seems like a lot of work to hide plagiarism. In fact, if the student hadn't added the spurious citation, I would have returned the paper saying "fix yr citations, ya scoundrel!" and left it at that. (That's my usual approach.) But this felt so much more deceptive and was consistent throughout the paper, once I started looking. If the student had just cited the source they pasted from, and if they had put as much effort into rephrasing as they put into finding plausible but spurious articles, they could have walked away with a B instead of a zero.
Quote from: traductio on April 27, 2021, 08:17:41 AM
Ten papers into my goal of 19 (which will finish off the class and my semester!).
Weird plagiarism case this morning -- has anyone else seen this? The student cut and pasted from a webpage, rearranged a few words, and then tacked on a parenthetical citation for a different source. The different source was almost plausible, so I looked it up (despite the incomplete bibliographic reference). It did not in any way support the claims the student attributed to it, even though it was on an adjacent topic.
This seems like a lot of work to hide plagiarism. In fact, if the student hadn't added the spurious citation, I would have returned the paper saying "fix yr citations, ya scoundrel!" and left it at that. (That's my usual approach.) But this felt so much more deceptive and was consistent throughout the paper, once I started looking. If the student had just cited the source they pasted from, and if they had put as much effort into rephrasing as they put into finding plausible but spurious articles, they could have walked away with a B instead of a zero.
Yes, I have seen this before. Students who have been through our (mandatory, if you have been caught once) how-to-identify-plagiarism workshop learn that they must cite sources. So, they copy-and-paste from one source and cite others to avoid the most obvious plagiarism detection.
I learned this through the example of a student who followed this approach for a very low stakes assignment in my class. Since it was a second case of reported plagiarism (and more egregious through this deceptive practice), for what could have been a 0 (for not handing it in) on an assignment worth 0.2% of the total grade (yes, less than a percentage point!), he risked expulsion from the University.
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on April 27, 2021, 08:11:23 AM
I'm grading research papers from my masters-level methods class. For this assignment each student had to collect some publicly available data and analyze it. Consistent with the class content and assignment expectations, each of the students ran a simple regression with three or four x-variables covering a single year of data. So far so good...
...Then I get to a student who has created a panel dataset covering ~40 years and a dozen variables. The analysis is way beyond what we have done in the class and the presentation is similar to what you would see in an academic journal: Journal ready regression tables, a host of robustness tests (models with unit and year fixed effects, dummies for key historical years, etc.). This analysis would be excellent for a PhD level class paper and would have a shot at a decent academic journal. Needless to say, I am quite suspicious that this student did not write this paper and instead had somebody to do it for them, but the plagiarism checker doesn't detect anything and I don't have any other evidence except that the paper is miles ahead of than anything we've done in the classroom (and the students' own work up to this point has been fine, but no indication that they have had advanced stats training).
So what should I do?
This is one of the reasons I appreciate my University's academic integrity process. We are required to have a meeting with the student *before* we file any paper work. These meetings do not have to be labelled as an academic integrity meeting in advance, so I do not have to accuse the student before getting additional facts. I usually just refer to wanting to meet about their recent work in my class. During the meeting I ask about their process of working on the paper or the assignment. Did they consult with anyone (I emphasize that in my classes I want students to work together, etc). Did they have any difficulties finding source material, etc. This usually provides a moment in the conversation where it is appropriate to ask the more detailed questions that would likely reveal cheating/plagiarism/etc. I try to make it as non-confrontational as possible. Most students confess to cheating/plagiarism/etc without much prompting. If I find that the evidence (or confession) indicates a violation of the University's academic integrity policy, I file a report, which includes a summary of our meeting and a record of the sanction imposed (no report needed if I decide there isn't sufficient evidence). Student's have the right to appeal, but I find that most just accept the results of our meeting.
Powered through final exams from class everyone hates, now on to the set of papers from class everyone hates. Gonna need more chocolate, but unless someone truly crashes and burns (or someone panics and plagiarizes), everyone who is currently passing should still pass.
And one last individual competency exam for tomorrow!
I will never be so happy to be put a semester in the rear view as I will be with this semester (I think it's a combination of the specific courses and my general level of burn-out).
Marked around 20 exams today, plus my last eight essays. So: I'm all done with essays, barring a straggler or two! Yay! All that's left are the exams which get completed between now and the end of the exam period, plus all the participation marks.
I really wish I could get away with writing 'WTF' on some of these lab reports.
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on April 27, 2021, 08:11:23 AM
I'm grading research papers from my masters-level methods class. For this assignment each student had to collect some publicly available data and analyze it. Consistent with the class content and assignment expectations, each of the students ran a simple regression with three or four x-variables covering a single year of data. So far so good...
...Then I get to a student who has created a panel dataset covering ~40 years and a dozen variables. The analysis is way beyond what we have done in the class and the presentation is similar to what you would see in an academic journal: Journal ready regression tables, a host of robustness tests (models with unit and year fixed effects, dummies for key historical years, etc.). This analysis would be excellent for a PhD level class paper and would have a shot at a decent academic journal. Needless to say, I am quite suspicious that this student did not write this paper and instead had somebody to do it for them, but the plagiarism checker doesn't detect anything and I don't have any other evidence except that the paper is miles ahead of than anything we've done in the classroom (and the students' own work up to this point has been fine, but no indication that they have had advanced stats training).
So what should I do?
Set up a meeting and ask them to walk you through their process. Ask why they chose to use analysis [this type] instead of [other type]. Have them walk you through a figure or two. That should make it really obvious if it's their own work or not.
Who knows, maybe they have passion for this particular topic & already knew a lot? Chances are slim, but we've seen it before.
(honesty, my money would be on purchased paper, but I'm willing to be surprised).
Half done with Big Assignment 1. Only 2 people who read and heard directions and did the opposite, but even they still managed to make their points adequately.
Welp--time to get on the final projects.
Quote from: the_geneticist on April 27, 2021, 06:03:50 PM
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on April 27, 2021, 08:11:23 AM
I'm grading research papers from my masters-level methods class. For this assignment each student had to collect some publicly available data and analyze it. Consistent with the class content and assignment expectations, each of the students ran a simple regression with three or four x-variables covering a single year of data. So far so good...
...Then I get to a student who has created a panel dataset covering ~40 years and a dozen variables. The analysis is way beyond what we have done in the class and the presentation is similar to what you would see in an academic journal: Journal ready regression tables, a host of robustness tests (models with unit and year fixed effects, dummies for key historical years, etc.). This analysis would be excellent for a PhD level class paper and would have a shot at a decent academic journal. Needless to say, I am quite suspicious that this student did not write this paper and instead had somebody to do it for them, but the plagiarism checker doesn't detect anything and I don't have any other evidence except that the paper is miles ahead of than anything we've done in the classroom (and the students' own work up to this point has been fine, but no indication that they have had advanced stats training).
So what should I do?
Set up a meeting and ask them to walk you through their process. Ask why they chose to use analysis [this type] instead of [other type]. Have them walk you through a figure or two. That should make it really obvious if it's their own work or not.
Who knows, maybe they have passion for this particular topic & already knew a lot? Chances are slim, but we've seen it before.
(honesty, my money would be on purchased paper, but I'm willing to be surprised).
I think the approach described is a good one because it avoids anything adversarial.
I had an extremely unpleasant experience in undergrad where a professor told me they suspected I hadn't written the paper and proceeded to ask me to define various words and terms I had used. I had written the paper myself and I knew what the terms meant, but I didn't really have a lot of experience talking about my work at that stage and I was flustered and he didn't think my answers indicated I knew what the paper was about.
I think you can avoid this by following the suggestions above and just make sure you keep things friendly and open ended. For example, if you just started with "I was really surprised by how advanced the stats work was, have you taken classes on this stuff before?" you might well get an answer from a student who didn't do anything wrong that would alleviate all your concerns. If the student's response to that doesn't make any sense you could move on to asking them to take you through the process.
The one thing to keep in mind is that talking about your work is really a skill most of us hone in grad school. Undergrads don't really do that much of it, so you really want to be careful to not assume that just because a student doesn't do a great job of explaining their process that must mean they didn't do the work. Basically, I think you have to have a very high bar before you would want to make any accusations or take anything further. If the student is clearly completely unaware of what is in their paper or can't provide even the most basic explanations of their work, you have grounds to go further.
Today I count up "participation" marks. Dreary, but easy. Plus whatever exams have come in.
Quote from: Caracal on April 28, 2021, 06:58:04 AM
Quote from: the_geneticist on April 27, 2021, 06:03:50 PM
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on April 27, 2021, 08:11:23 AM
I'm grading research papers from my masters-level methods class. For this assignment each student had to collect some publicly available data and analyze it. Consistent with the class content and assignment expectations, each of the students ran a simple regression with three or four x-variables covering a single year of data. So far so good...
...Then I get to a student who has created a panel dataset covering ~40 years and a dozen variables. The analysis is way beyond what we have done in the class and the presentation is similar to what you would see in an academic journal: Journal ready regression tables, a host of robustness tests (models with unit and year fixed effects, dummies for key historical years, etc.). This analysis would be excellent for a PhD level class paper and would have a shot at a decent academic journal. Needless to say, I am quite suspicious that this student did not write this paper and instead had somebody to do it for them, but the plagiarism checker doesn't detect anything and I don't have any other evidence except that the paper is miles ahead of than anything we've done in the classroom (and the students' own work up to this point has been fine, but no indication that they have had advanced stats training).
So what should I do?
Set up a meeting and ask them to walk you through their process. Ask why they chose to use analysis [this type] instead of [other type]. Have them walk you through a figure or two. That should make it really obvious if it's their own work or not.
Who knows, maybe they have passion for this particular topic & already knew a lot? Chances are slim, but we've seen it before.
(honesty, my money would be on purchased paper, but I'm willing to be surprised).
I think the approach described is a good one because it avoids anything adversarial.
I had an extremely unpleasant experience in undergrad where a professor told me they suspected I hadn't written the paper and proceeded to ask me to define various words and terms I had used. I had written the paper myself and I knew what the terms meant, but I didn't really have a lot of experience talking about my work at that stage and I was flustered and he didn't think my answers indicated I knew what the paper was about.
I think you can avoid this by following the suggestions above and just make sure you keep things friendly and open ended. For example, if you just started with "I was really surprised by how advanced the stats work was, have you taken classes on this stuff before?" you might well get an answer from a student who didn't do anything wrong that would alleviate all your concerns. If the student's response to that doesn't make any sense you could move on to asking them to take you through the process.
The one thing to keep in mind is that talking about your work is really a skill most of us hone in grad school. Undergrads don't really do that much of it, so you really want to be careful to not assume that just because a student doesn't do a great job of explaining their process that must mean they didn't do the work. Basically, I think you have to have a very high bar before you would want to make any accusations or take anything further. If the student is clearly completely unaware of what is in their paper or can't provide even the most basic explanations of their work, you have grounds to go further.
Reminds me of a jerkface advisor who tried to explain to me that I "didn't know enough about certain terms to be using them in my paper." Even though we were on the phone I could see his face when I told him I had a BA and a Master's in the subject. So, which aspects of the terms did he think I needed to explain more clearly to a broader audience?
Managed half the participation counting, plus a pile of exams and a few straggler papers. I am very, very close to done.
Finished a huge batch of research essays today. Took an extra two days because I was asked to format my feedback "to department standards," about which I have already complained elsewhere.
With these complete, I'm down to about 140 pieces of major work still to grade before the end of the semester. They aren't all submitted yet, but it's feeling more manageable.
AR.
Did a ton of exams and one more set of participation marks. One to go!
All done everything except for one exam which got an extension. Whew!
The submission deadline is in a few days, so this is the earliest I've ever been done. Which is good, because we ave a new and theoretically more efficient submission system that I need to figure out.
I met a friend in a Panera's (several years ago) because her "new, wonderful" grade submission system had apparently just eaten the last hour's worth of grades she'd put in.
Turned out the server was just gagging and couldn't show all the previous entries with the latest one--because everyone else was using the server to do the same stuff at the same time.
She sat there going "Oh, no. Oh, no, oh, no. Oh, no, oh, no. Oh, no, oh, no...." for the longest time, until I walked over to her booth to ask if she were OK.
We waited and it righted itself and all was well.
But, yeah. "New, improved."
Unh-hunh.
M.
This weekend I need to grade 30 essays and resolve the cheating issue that I mentioned above (thanks for the advice!)... can't wait till this semester is officially in the rearview mirror.
Quote from: mamselle on April 30, 2021, 11:43:05 AM
I met a friend in a Panera's (several years ago) because her "new, wonderful" grade submission system had apparently just eaten the last hour's worth of grades she'd put in.
Turned out the server was just gagging and couldn't show all the previous entries with the latest one--because everyone else was using the server to do the same stuff at the same time.
She sat there going "Oh, no. Oh, no, oh, no. Oh, no, oh, no. Oh, no, oh, no...." for the longest time, until I walked over to her booth to ask if she were OK.
We waited and it righted itself and all was well.
But, yeah. "New, improved."
Unh-hunh.
M.
Oh, man! That's why I'm glad to have a few days!
One set of research papers and one set of case studies are on deck for today. Have made a sacrifice to the grading gods in an attempt to ward off any more plagiarism issues.
Monday will be a review of returned lab materials and a grade norming meeting.
Then grades can be posted, and the semester can finally be over.
Does anyone else have a department rule which requires final grades to be submitted 24 hrs after the final exam (despite official College grade due dates)?
What's your "favorite" kind of grade grubber:
- The F student who wants to argue over partial credit from a homework assignment in Week 3 when they didn't take two of the three major exams
- The A- student who coasted all semester despite warnings who later demand that you round up a 92.2% (A-) to a 93% (A)
- Other
I have more #1s this semester, but the #2s are also louder and more insistent.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 01, 2021, 07:10:00 AM
Does anyone else have a department rule which requires final grades to be submitted 24 hrs after the final exam (despite official College grade due dates)?
That sounds crazy! It also seems like it would encourage a lot of multiple choice / autograded exams, since it would be difficult to grade essay exams in that time period. Does your department provide a reasoning?
We tend to get double reminders to submit grades (from the university
and the department) as the grade submission deadline approaches, but as long as grades are submitted by the university deadline, everything's good.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 01, 2021, 07:10:00 AM
Does anyone else have a department rule which requires final grades to be submitted 24 hrs after the final exam (despite official College grade due dates)?
We do, but I don't think it's been enforced.
Quote from: RatGuy on May 01, 2021, 07:29:07 AM
What's your "favorite" kind of grade grubber:
Definitely the current F student (200 of 1000 points to go, so could technically squeak a D) who decided not to submit the last major essay because it was "not up to [Stu's] standards" but would like to do extra credit to get an A. Submitting it might have gotten Stu to possible C-range. Stu has been begging, at least bi weekly, for extra credit and extra time and extra anything else since missing a 10-point assignment in Week 2. I do not understand, Stu explains, how much Stu
needs an A.
Stu does not need an A enough to submit the actual class work, apparently.
AR.
Quote from: Langue_doc on May 01, 2021, 07:45:05 AM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 01, 2021, 07:10:00 AM
Does anyone else have a department rule which requires final grades to be submitted 24 hrs after the final exam (despite official College grade due dates)?
We do, but I don't think it's been enforced.
Unfortunately, our Department will harass us via email, which is stressful, so I estimate grades and then go back and change what I need to change (since the official grade due date is about a week after the Dept. wants them). They used to email a list of names in the past. So much shaming...
Quote from: OneMoreYear on May 01, 2021, 07:41:44 AM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 01, 2021, 07:10:00 AM
Does anyone else have a department rule which requires final grades to be submitted 24 hrs after the final exam (despite official College grade due dates)?
That sounds crazy! It also seems like it would encourage a lot of multiple choice / autograded exams, since it would be difficult to grade essay exams in that time period. Does your department provide a reasoning?
We tend to get double reminders to submit grades (from the university and the department) as the grade submission deadline approaches, but as long as grades are submitted by the university deadline, everything's good.
My short answer is that the Dept. is fricking nuts. Their official reasoning is that they want us to have time to deal with any issues regarding grade changes. In other words, the customer is always right. It drives me up the wall and YES, I think it does encourage other people to create autograded exams, which I think waters down the content and rigor of testing- especially for Physics!
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 01, 2021, 07:10:00 AM
Does anyone else have a department rule which requires final grades to be submitted 24 hrs after the final exam (despite official College grade due dates)?
That's the university requirement here, except it's 24 hours after the last exam--so, the last day of the exam period. For summer courses, that's 24 hours after your exam, but in the regular semester it's usually at least a weekend.
Curious about other people's opinions on this.
Had a student answer a True/False quiz question by writing one of those half-and-half characters that could be a 'T' or an 'F' depending on how you squint at it. Asked the prof if unclear responses like this should be marked wrong, and was told to give student the benefit of the doubt. Reason: 'maybe that's the way they were taught to write; no need to embarrass them about it."
???
I wanted to add a requirement for future quizzes that the entire word ("true" or "false") be written to avoid confusion, but didn't have authority to make rules like this.
Quote from: smallcleanrat on May 01, 2021, 11:21:08 AM
Curious about other people's opinions on this.
Had a student answer a True/False quiz question by writing one of those half-and-half characters that could be a 'T' or an 'F' depending on how you squint at it. Asked the prof if unclear responses like this should be marked wrong, and was told to give student the benefit of the doubt. Reason: 'maybe that's the way they were taught to write; no need to embarrass them about it."
???
I wanted to add a requirement for future quizzes that the entire word ("true" or "false") be written to avoid confusion, but didn't have authority to make rules like this.
I always tell students that it is up to them to make their work coherent and that I'm grading based on what they write, not what they meant to write. So I would mark the answer wrong. I also agree that requiring the whole word is a good idea, but sounds like that isn't up to you.
Quote from: smallcleanrat on May 01, 2021, 11:21:08 AM
Curious about other people's opinions on this.
Had a student answer a True/False quiz question by writing one of those half-and-half characters that could be a 'T' or an 'F' depending on how you squint at it. Asked the prof if unclear responses like this should be marked wrong, and was told to give student the benefit of the doubt. Reason: 'maybe that's the way they were taught to write; no need to embarrass them about it."
???
I wanted to add a requirement for future quizzes that the entire word ("true" or "false") be written to avoid confusion, but didn't have authority to make rules like this.
Using scantrons, or having the student circle true or false may help in the future. I agree, it's frustrating.
Quote from: smallcleanrat on May 01, 2021, 11:21:08 AM
Curious about other people's opinions on this.
Had a student answer a True/False quiz question by writing one of those half-and-half characters that could be a 'T' or an 'F' depending on how you squint at it. Asked the prof if unclear responses like this should be marked wrong, and was told to give student the benefit of the doubt. Reason: 'maybe that's the way they were taught to write; no need to embarrass them about it."
???
I wanted to add a requirement for future quizzes that the entire word ("true" or "false") be written to avoid confusion, but didn't have authority to make rules like this.
I compare it to their other T/F. If it's halfway in between their usual handwriting then I mark it wrong. But I do check first to see if they just write their F's funny.
Quote from: OneMoreYear on May 01, 2021, 05:40:52 AM
One set of research papers and one set of case studies are on deck for today. Have made a sacrifice to the grading gods in an attempt to ward off any more plagiarism issues.
Monday will be a review of returned lab materials and a grade norming meeting.
Then grades can be posted, and the semester can finally be over.
My sacrifice to the grading gods was not accepted, and I'm now dealing with plagiarism case #3 (in a class of 20 grad students). Obviously I need better gifts to the grading gods. Who can give me some ideas?
Quote from: arcturus on April 27, 2021, 08:51:06 AM
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on April 27, 2021, 08:11:23 AM
I'm grading research papers from my masters-level methods class. For this assignment each student had to collect some publicly available data and analyze it. Consistent with the class content and assignment expectations, each of the students ran a simple regression with three or four x-variables covering a single year of data. So far so good...
...Then I get to a student who has created a panel dataset covering ~40 years and a dozen variables. The analysis is way beyond what we have done in the class and the presentation is similar to what you would see in an academic journal: Journal ready regression tables, a host of robustness tests (models with unit and year fixed effects, dummies for key historical years, etc.). This analysis would be excellent for a PhD level class paper and would have a shot at a decent academic journal. Needless to say, I am quite suspicious that this student did not write this paper and instead had somebody to do it for them, but the plagiarism checker doesn't detect anything and I don't have any other evidence except that the paper is miles ahead of than anything we've done in the classroom (and the students' own work up to this point has been fine, but no indication that they have had advanced stats training).
So what should I do?
This is one of the reasons I appreciate my University's academic integrity process. We are required to have a meeting with the student *before* we file any paper work. These meetings do not have to be labelled as an academic integrity meeting in advance, so I do not have to accuse the student before getting additional facts. I usually just refer to wanting to meet about their recent work in my class. During the meeting I ask about their process of working on the paper or the assignment. Did they consult with anyone (I emphasize that in my classes I want students to work together, etc). Did they have any difficulties finding source material, etc. This usually provides a moment in the conversation where it is appropriate to ask the more detailed questions that would likely reveal cheating/plagiarism/etc. I try to make it as non-confrontational as possible. Most students confess to cheating/plagiarism/etc without much prompting. If I find that the evidence (or confession) indicates a violation of the University's academic integrity policy, I file a report, which includes a summary of our meeting and a record of the sanction imposed (no report needed if I decide there isn't sufficient evidence). Student's have the right to appeal, but I find that most just accept the results of our meeting.
At a previous employer, I used this technique to good effect -- after a while the student could not answer any questions about their "work," and they'd break down and confess. Then I'd have them sign a written confession, which I would send along with the mandatory form.
Quote from: OneMoreYear on May 01, 2021, 12:17:58 PM
Quote from: OneMoreYear on May 01, 2021, 05:40:52 AM
One set of research papers and one set of case studies are on deck for today. Have made a sacrifice to the grading gods in an attempt to ward off any more plagiarism issues.
Monday will be a review of returned lab materials and a grade norming meeting.
Then grades can be posted, and the semester can finally be over.
My sacrifice to the grading gods was not accepted, and I'm now dealing with plagiarism case #3 (in a class of 20 grad students). Obviously I need better gifts to the grading gods. Who can give me some ideas?
What did you offer? Maybe they just want some ribs and beer?
Quote from: smallcleanrat on May 01, 2021, 11:21:08 AM
Curious about other people's opinions on this.
Had a student answer a True/False quiz question by writing one of those half-and-half characters that could be a 'T' or an 'F' depending on how you squint at it. Asked the prof if unclear responses like this should be marked wrong, and was told to give student the benefit of the doubt. Reason: 'maybe that's the way they were taught to write; no need to embarrass them about it."
???
I wanted to add a requirement for future quizzes that the entire word ("true" or "false") be written to avoid confusion, but didn't have authority to make rules like this.
The prof sounds like an idiot. I'd mark them wrong.
My freshman high school Biology teaching says that a "could be either T or F = wrong". He made us write out the words "Yes" or "No".
I second the suggestion of having them bubble in or circle an answer.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 01, 2021, 01:21:47 PM
Quote from: OneMoreYear on May 01, 2021, 12:17:58 PM
Quote from: OneMoreYear on May 01, 2021, 05:40:52 AM
One set of research papers and one set of case studies are on deck for today. Have made a sacrifice to the grading gods in an attempt to ward off any more plagiarism issues.
Monday will be a review of returned lab materials and a grade norming meeting.
Then grades can be posted, and the semester can finally be over.
My sacrifice to the grading gods was not accepted, and I'm now dealing with plagiarism case #3 (in a class of 20 grad students). Obviously I need better gifts to the grading gods. Who can give me some ideas?
What did you offer? Maybe they just want some ribs and beer?
Hmm, perhaps all that binging of Vikings episodes during grading was not a good plan. Maybe the grading gods are not related to the Viking Pagan gods, and I should rethink my gifts. Ribs and beer it is! Hopefully they like a raspberry porter and ghost pepper barbeque sauce on their ribs, as those are the options in my fridge. Now, off to complete more academic integrity reports and watch more of season 4.
I hope everyone is getting their finals grading done quickly!
Today I will grade the final 15 exams for one class, a final paper for another class, and (if time and mental wherewithal permit) a student's final paper for an independent study. I will clean up loose ends and submit final grades tomorrow.
Looking forward to Tuesday.
Done with final projects! Now about 12 final exams, before the next batch of exams comes in next week.
I'm taking a moment to procrastinate.
Delighted to announce that I am in the double digits at LAST! I estimate that I have ~95 pieces of major work (and ~120 small things) left to grade for the semester. I have a final checklist and am crossing things off with glee as I finish each batch.
AR.
I've sent it all in. I'm done. See you in December, marking thread!
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on May 02, 2021, 08:39:49 AM
Today I will grade the final 15 exams for one class, a final paper for another class, and (if time and mental wherewithal permit) a student's final paper for an independent study. I will clean up loose ends and submit final grades tomorrow.
Looking forward to Tuesday.
Done.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 03, 2021, 04:05:15 PM
I've sent it all in. I'm done. See you in December, marking thread!
December?! My grades are due Wednesday, and the summer term starts Monday! What's this about December?
Quote from: OneMoreYear on May 03, 2021, 05:06:08 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on May 03, 2021, 04:05:15 PM
I've sent it all in. I'm done. See you in December, marking thread!
December?! My grades are due Wednesday, and the summer term starts Monday! What's this about December?
Same. I've got to teach this summer!
I'm 2/3 of the way through the freshpeep final design projects, their final exam is later today. I still have my senior tech elective final projects to grade but those are almost universally good so shouldn't take long.
One class left to go. Unfortunately, I have a couple of students who want to go from a "D" to a "C." One of them seems to think that turning in a late homework is enough to raise stu's grade, but it won't. Stu has a 61% and each homework is only 2% of the final grade. The other student wants me to give stu a "C" because stu needs it for a work certification. Stu has a 65%.
My grades are done, but the system will not accept them. The error message is "that final grade is not valid." For my graduate class, the system did not like grades of A, B, C, or D. So, am I supposed to assign everyone an F? I know we are tuition-driven here, but randomly making an entire class fail so they need to repeat the class seems a little excessive, even for our administration. Or maybe there is another alphabet I'm supposed to be using? Argh! I need this semester to be over, already!
Does it want you to enter points or percentages that it will then convert to a letter grade?
It's running very dimly in my memory that something like that has various settings and that may be the default.
But I could be wrong.
M.
Quote from: mamselle on May 05, 2021, 05:34:52 AM
Does it want you to enter points or percentages that it will then convert to a letter grade?
It's running very dimly in my memory that something like that has various settings and that may be the default.
But I could be wrong.
M.
We tried it multiple ways--the system itself is supposed to have drop-down menus--they are missing. We tried exporting directly from the LMS grade book, which we have both the percentage grades and the finalized letter grades--no dice--that caused the "that grade is not valid" error message. I have sent email to the registrar and pushed a service request to our IT folks, but so far, they have not responded. I did, however, receive a helpful automated email this morning telling me that my grades are due. Yes, I know that! Fix the frakkin' problem, and I'll submit them. I submitted grades for my 3 other classes; it's just this one--and of course it has the be the class from hell that had 4 students plagiarize the final paper and caused a slew of student complaints about how unreasonable we were being.
Still 10 days until grades are due, with papers due this Monday. (We began very late this year and had no spring break)
I'm almost done grading my last final exam. A student just sent me an email suggesting that I use a different grading system for stu.
Really?
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 05, 2021, 08:31:05 AM
I'm almost done grading my last final exam. A student just sent me an email suggesting that I use a different grading system for stu.
Really?
Well, don't leave us in suspense! What creative grading system was proposed? If I use it, will it make my life easier? Maybe your student is proposing the grading system that will solve my grade submission problem. Where there emojis involved?
Quote from: OneMoreYear on May 05, 2021, 08:38:02 AM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 05, 2021, 08:31:05 AM
I'm almost done grading my last final exam. A student just sent me an email suggesting that I use a different grading system for stu.
Really?
Well, don't leave us in suspense! What creative grading system was proposed? If I use it, will it make my life easier? Maybe your student is proposing the grading system that will solve my grade submission problem. Where there emojis involved?
You would think that I'd at least get
some emojis. Nope.
Stu suggested that I not drop the lowest hw and test for stu because it would make the grade a "C." Yeah, I bet it would!
Finished with my senior grades, they've been posted, yay! Finished the final projects from the freshpeeps this AM and am now slogging my way through their exams. Hope to finish them today, let them marinate overnight, then I'll take a look and decide if any overall adjusting will occur (we started the semester remotely and this particular class is not one well suited to remote learning) and post those final grades tomorrow morning and cross my fingers for minimal whinging and grade grubbing.
I am done with grades! Just sent the last, 'Sorry, I'm not changing your grade' emails.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 05, 2021, 08:43:54 AM
Quote from: OneMoreYear on May 05, 2021, 08:38:02 AM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 05, 2021, 08:31:05 AM
I'm almost done grading my last final exam. A student just sent me an email suggesting that I use a different grading system for stu.
Really?
Well, don't leave us in suspense! What creative grading system was proposed? If I use it, will it make my life easier? Maybe your student is proposing the grading system that will solve my grade submission problem. Where there emojis involved?
You would think that I'd at least get some emojis. Nope.
Stu suggested that I not drop the lowest hw and test for stu because it would make the grade a "C." Yeah, I bet it would!
Student is adamant that my system 'makes the grade go down too much.'
Reading bright student's undergraduate capstone project. Student is very fond of expressions such as 'former' and 'latter'; and also likes to us 'but' to mean 'only', e.g: 'This is but one example of [phenomenon]'.
Student is also not terribly skilled at these writing styles, and it's getting on my nerves a bit. Like, I get it, student: you feel this is important and want your writing to puff up to match the pomposity of the situation. But I had to read that paragraph three times to figure out the intended antecedent of 'former'. Methinks you have overproofed the sourdough.
Turned in grades about an hour ago, already received an "I only need five points for a C" email. No, son, you don't need five points for a C, you need five PERCENTAGE points for a C. This explains a lot about your D. Fingers crossed that emails of this sort will be few and far between this semester.
Quote from: EdnaMode on May 06, 2021, 07:04:31 AM
Turned in grades about an hour ago, already received an "I only need five points for a C" email. No, son, you don't need five points for a C, you need five PERCENTAGE points for a C. This explains a lot about your D. Fingers crossed that emails of this sort will be few and far between this semester.
Unfortunately, I get that a lot too.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 06, 2021, 09:06:21 AM
Quote from: EdnaMode on May 06, 2021, 07:04:31 AM
Turned in grades about an hour ago, already received an "I only need five points for a C" email. No, son, you don't need five points for a C, you need five PERCENTAGE points for a C. This explains a lot about your D. Fingers crossed that emails of this sort will be few and far between this semester.
Unfortunately, I get that a lot too.
I got one of these emails, last week. Since then, I sometimes only check email every 48 hours, in the later afternoons, to keep me from going insane. Commencement, the symbolic end of the academic year at my university, can't come soon enough.
And I got my first grade appeal. Stu 'forgot' to turn in a formal lab report and let me know 2 weeks after it was due (which was outside the time frame that I would even accept it). Stu would probably get a C if I accepted it. We'll see how this goes...
Student is writing a paper about work X, and then out of the blue mentions a character from work Y. I highlight the character and say in a marginal note, 'Who?' Student requests a regrade because the grader obviously didn't have sufficient knowledge to mark the text.
In the future, I will write in my marginal notes, 'For goodness sake, introduce your characters properly by saying where they come from and why you're drawing this comparison, so that I don't get rhetorical whiplash trying to follow your reasoning!' But then they would submit a complain that I made them feel bad.
Argh.
Quote from: ergative on May 07, 2021, 02:14:09 AM
Student is writing a paper about work X, and then out of the blue mentions a character from work Y. I highlight the character and say in a marginal note, 'Who?' Student requests a regrade because the grader obviously didn't have sufficient knowledge to mark the text.
In the future, I will write in my marginal notes, 'For goodness sake, introduce your characters properly by saying where they come from and why you're drawing this comparison, so that I don't get rhetorical whiplash trying to follow your reasoning!' But then they would submit a complain that I made them feel bad.
Argh.
Is this a course with multiple graders, or are they just telling you that you don't know enough to grade their paper?
Quote from: Caracal on May 07, 2021, 10:30:03 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 07, 2021, 02:14:09 AM
Student is writing a paper about work X, and then out of the blue mentions a character from work Y. I highlight the character and say in a marginal note, 'Who?' Student requests a regrade because the grader obviously didn't have sufficient knowledge to mark the text.
In the future, I will write in my marginal notes, 'For goodness sake, introduce your characters properly by saying where they come from and why you're drawing this comparison, so that I don't get rhetorical whiplash trying to follow your reasoning!' But then they would submit a complain that I made them feel bad.
Argh.
Is this a course with multiple graders, or are they just telling you that you don't know enough to grade their paper?
Actually, they aren't wrong about that! This is a Year 1 survey course of the entirety of our extremely broadly construed field, with multiple graders. I organize it, but don't do any of the teaching myself, and only a small handful of the grading for the one discussion section I lead, so I'm just the point person for students to complain to. And the student is in fact entirely correct in identifying that my subdiscipline does not align with their paper topic. I don't begrudge them that.
The student does not even know that I was the one who graded the paper. It was originally allotted to one of our TAs, but because the TA didn't grade it (or four fifths of her other allotment of papers) and didn't tell me until it was far too late to find other TAs to do it, I had to step in and do it myself, in addition to the papers for my own discussion section. The upshot of this whole mess is that there is no record that I was ever the person to grade the paper.
Anyway, I just sent the whole correspondence off to the subject specialist who taught that part of the course and assigned that essay topic, and blandly commented that a student had requested a regrade, please take a look. I guess we'll see if the subject specialist agrees with me, but I am not letting myself care one way or the other.
The grade in question, by the way, was a B.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 06, 2021, 09:06:21 AM
Quote from: EdnaMode on May 06, 2021, 07:04:31 AM
Turned in grades about an hour ago, already received an "I only need five points for a C" email. No, son, you don't need five points for a C, you need five PERCENTAGE points for a C. This explains a lot about your D. Fingers crossed that emails of this sort will be few and far between this semester.
Unfortunately, I get that a lot too.
Got one today wanting a B, but nine percentage points away from that. Turning in a few missed quizzes won't make up that gap. Student was begging for a C just yesterday.
Quote from: ergative on May 07, 2021, 03:00:36 PM
Quote from: Caracal on May 07, 2021, 10:30:03 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 07, 2021, 02:14:09 AM
Student is writing a paper about work X, and then out of the blue mentions a character from work Y. I highlight the character and say in a marginal note, 'Who?' Student requests a regrade because the grader obviously didn't have sufficient knowledge to mark the text.
In the future, I will write in my marginal notes, 'For goodness sake, introduce your characters properly by saying where they come from and why you're drawing this comparison, so that I don't get rhetorical whiplash trying to follow your reasoning!' But then they would submit a complain that I made them feel bad.
Argh.
Is this a course with multiple graders, or are they just telling you that you don't know enough to grade their paper?
Actually, they aren't wrong about that! This is a Year 1 survey course of the entirety of our extremely broadly construed field, with multiple graders. I organize it, but don't do any of the teaching myself, and only a small handful of the grading for the one discussion section I lead, so I'm just the point person for students to complain to. And the student is in fact entirely correct in identifying that my subdiscipline does not align with their paper topic. I don't begrudge them that.
The student does not even know that I was the one who graded the paper. It was originally allotted to one of our TAs, but because the TA didn't grade it (or four fifths of her other allotment of papers) and didn't tell me until it was far too late to find other TAs to do it, I had to step in and do it myself, in addition to the papers for my own discussion section. The upshot of this whole mess is that there is no record that I was ever the person to grade the paper.
Anyway, I just sent the whole correspondence off to the subject specialist who taught that part of the course and assigned that essay topic, and blandly commented that a student had requested a regrade, please take a look. I guess we'll see if the subject specialist agrees with me, but I am not letting myself care one way or the other.
The grade in question, by the way, was a B.
Ah, I see. Honestly, I wish there was an easy way to do this for other classes. If a student really is convinced that their grade is unfair, it would be easier to just have someone else regrade it, with the stipulation that if the regrade is lower than the original grade, the student is stuck with it. My guess is that most of the time the grade would be lower. When I'm grading one crummy paper in the context of all the other crummy papers I'm grading, I tend to be a bit more generous.
I can't really see it working on a large scale, however, unless the re-grader was anonymous and there wasn't a sense that it could be a black mark if something was regraded higher.
You could just say, "OK, I'll grade it..."
M.
Quote from: EdnaMode on May 06, 2021, 07:04:31 AM
Turned in grades about an hour ago, already received an "I only need five points for a C" email. No, son, you don't need five points for a C, you need five PERCENTAGE points for a C.
Heh. Unless the grading system has more than 500 points to it, even "five points" is still not a borderline grade.
Quote from: mamselle on May 08, 2021, 09:51:47 AM
You could just say, "OK, I'll grade it..."
M.
The thought did cross my mind! But it's easier just to forward it all off to someone else than to pretend to 'regrade' it and have to come up with a whole new set of comments that explain why my previous comments were justified.
I wish there was a way students could understand why their grades increase or decrease. They don't see to understand how weighted averages work, and why a 93 (for example) could lower their grade since they had a 100% in that grade category before I graded the assignment they got a 93% on.
Quote from: Mobius on May 08, 2021, 06:38:29 PM
I wish there was a way students could understand why their grades increase or decrease. They don't see to understand how weighted averages work, and why a 93 (for example) could lower their grade since they had a 100% in that grade category before I graded the assignment they got a 93% on.
Unfortunately, there's a big problem with math illiteracy. I thought that my grade formula was simple. It's additive. Just add up points and drop the lowest grade. Students still don't get it.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 08, 2021, 07:08:44 PM
Quote from: Mobius on May 08, 2021, 06:38:29 PM
I wish there was a way students could understand why their grades increase or decrease. They don't see to understand how weighted averages work, and why a 93 (for example) could lower their grade since they had a 100% in that grade category before I graded the assignment they got a 93% on.
Unfortunately, there's a big problem with math illiteracy. I thought that my grade formula was simple. It's additive. Just add up points and drop the lowest grade. Students still don't get it.
I think most students understand perfectly. Its just that you hear from the minority who seem to be perpetually confused.
Quote from: Caracal on May 09, 2021, 04:33:14 AM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 08, 2021, 07:08:44 PM
Quote from: Mobius on May 08, 2021, 06:38:29 PM
I wish there was a way students could understand why their grades increase or decrease. They don't see to understand how weighted averages work, and why a 93 (for example) could lower their grade since they had a 100% in that grade category before I graded the assignment they got a 93% on.
Unfortunately, there's a big problem with math illiteracy. I thought that my grade formula was simple. It's additive. Just add up points and drop the lowest grade. Students still don't get it.
I think most students understand perfectly. Its just that you hear from the minority who seem to be perpetually confused.
I think most students understand perfectly. It's just that you hear from students who are faking ignorance and confusion to try and influence you into artificially bumping up their grades.
Quote from: Aster on May 09, 2021, 05:40:24 AM
Quote from: Caracal on May 09, 2021, 04:33:14 AM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on May 08, 2021, 07:08:44 PM
Quote from: Mobius on May 08, 2021, 06:38:29 PM
I wish there was a way students could understand why their grades increase or decrease. They don't see to understand how weighted averages work, and why a 93 (for example) could lower their grade since they had a 100% in that grade category before I graded the assignment they got a 93% on.
Unfortunately, there's a big problem with math illiteracy. I thought that my grade formula was simple. It's additive. Just add up points and drop the lowest grade. Students still don't get it.
I think most students understand perfectly. Its just that you hear from the minority who seem to be perpetually confused.
I think most students understand perfectly. It's just that you hear from students who are faking ignorance and confusion to try and influence you into artificially bumping up their grades.
That too. I get the impression that there are students who have really adopted an ethic of confusion. Its a way to deny your own agency. If everything is confusing then it isn't your fault that you don't know what's going on and it isn't your responsibility to figure it out.
Quote from: Caracal on May 09, 2021, 05:56:15 AM
I get the impression that there are students who have really adopted an ethic of confusion. Its a way to deny your own agency. If everything is confusing then it isn't your fault that you don't know what's going on and it isn't your responsibility to figure it out.
Oh yes. I had a student this semester who missed a class. Stu did not do the assigned reading for that class, which included directions for the next essay the class was writing and a sample essay in that genre. When Stu came back, Stu said. "I missed class last week, so I didn't do any of the reading because I wouldn't be there to discuss it." I suggested that Stu should still do the reading so Stu would know what to do for the essay, but Stu
patiently explained to me that that was
old work and Stu wanted to focus on
upcoming work.
Two weeks later, Stu complained that Stu was hopelessly confused about how to approach the essay. Stu still refused to read the directions or the sample, since Stu "wouldn't get any credit" for doing so (doing well on the essay apparently not counting as "credit").
The Fora readers will be shocked to hear that Stu did not, in fact, do very well on the essay, and was
very confused about why the submitted work fared poorly.
AR.
Grades for graduating students are due Monday. Luckily only 6/18 students in my seminar are graduating, but I really have to make myself grade term papers for those six today (turned in Friday). They take about half an hour each so not that bad I'm just not feeling very motivated, so posting to keep myself on track.
1 down, 5 to go.
You can do it, Puget! Hope they are already done and you are celebrating with a little breather.
I'm trying to enter grades for all small activities today so that the students who are taking my final tomorrow will know exactly how many points they need to earn to pass.
AR.
Quote from: AvidReader on May 09, 2021, 01:57:05 PM
You can do it, Puget! Hope they are already done and you are celebrating with a little breather.
I'm trying to enter grades for all small activities today so that the students who are taking my final tomorrow will know exactly how many points they need to earn to pass.
AR.
You're too nice. The students don't deserve you.
Quote from: lightning on May 09, 2021, 02:22:49 PM
You're too nice. The students don't deserve you.
I don't think that's what they think. ;) But this also benefits me: I'm completely finished with 3 of 5 classes except for the final exams! The end is in sight!
AR.
Ugh. Up until 1am grading papers underserving of the effort. Unbelievably bad.
Some were OK. But the bead ones were comically bad.
Hey student: If I am more than half-way through your text and I don't yet know what your paper is about, that is a problem.
Quote from: ergative on May 07, 2021, 03:00:36 PM
Quote from: Caracal on May 07, 2021, 10:30:03 AM
Quote from: ergative on May 07, 2021, 02:14:09 AM
Student is writing a paper about work X, and then out of the blue mentions a character from work Y. I highlight the character and say in a marginal note, 'Who?' Student requests a regrade because the grader obviously didn't have sufficient knowledge to mark the text.
In the future, I will write in my marginal notes, 'For goodness sake, introduce your characters properly by saying where they come from and why you're drawing this comparison, so that I don't get rhetorical whiplash trying to follow your reasoning!' But then they would submit a complain that I made them feel bad.
Argh.
Is this a course with multiple graders, or are they just telling you that you don't know enough to grade their paper?
Actually, they aren't wrong about that! This is a Year 1 survey course of the entirety of our extremely broadly construed field, with multiple graders. I organize it, but don't do any of the teaching myself, and only a small handful of the grading for the one discussion section I lead, so I'm just the point person for students to complain to. And the student is in fact entirely correct in identifying that my subdiscipline does not align with their paper topic. I don't begrudge them that.
The student does not even know that I was the one who graded the paper. It was originally allotted to one of our TAs, but because the TA didn't grade it (or four fifths of her other allotment of papers) and didn't tell me until it was far too late to find other TAs to do it, I had to step in and do it myself, in addition to the papers for my own discussion section. The upshot of this whole mess is that there is no record that I was ever the person to grade the paper.
Anyway, I just sent the whole correspondence off to the subject specialist who taught that part of the course and assigned that essay topic, and blandly commented that a student had requested a regrade, please take a look. I guess we'll see if the subject specialist agrees with me, but I am not letting myself care one way or the other.
The grade in question, by the way, was a B.
Vindicated! Subject specialist agrees that the essay was appropriately graded.
Quote from: AvidReader on May 09, 2021, 06:39:34 AM
Quote from: Caracal on May 09, 2021, 05:56:15 AM
I get the impression that there are students who have really adopted an ethic of confusion. Its a way to deny your own agency. If everything is confusing then it isn't your fault that you don't know what's going on and it isn't your responsibility to figure it out.
Oh yes. I had a student this semester who missed a class. Stu did not do the assigned reading for that class, which included directions for the next essay the class was writing and a sample essay in that genre. When Stu came back, Stu said. "I missed class last week, so I didn't do any of the reading because I wouldn't be there to discuss it." I suggested that Stu should still do the reading so Stu would know what to do for the essay, but Stu patiently explained to me that that was old work and Stu wanted to focus on upcoming work.
Two weeks later, Stu complained that Stu was hopelessly confused about how to approach the essay. Stu still refused to read the directions or the sample, since Stu "wouldn't get any credit" for doing so (doing well on the essay apparently not counting as "credit").
The Fora readers will be shocked to hear that Stu did not, in fact, do very well on the essay, and was very confused about why the submitted work fared poorly.
AR.
Another rude job market surprise coming.
Quote from: arcturus on April 21, 2021, 11:24:30 AMDo you have advice on how to approach grading scaffolded assignments efficiently?
My apologies for missing this question--but I really don't! I agree that it is far more time consuming, at each step of the way.
I turned in my last class' final grades just before noon today. The other two classes were submitted early last week; this was a second-8 weeks Comp II, and I gave them until 11:59 Saturday night to submit the final paper. (Not like it helped, but at least they got the full 8 weeks, rather than just the 7 before final exams week.)
I'm free for two weeks, until the summer session begins June 7. Of course, I need to update my schedule and Bb for those two classes, but not today. I'm toast.
I submitted all my students' grades on Saturday. No complaints yet, though a few did forget how I round and emailed me in a panic about their 598 and 898 points, respectively.
AR.
Spring grades are submitted! Except for the EIGHT sections that have one or more students reported for dishonesty & still no reply from Student Conduct. Drop dead deadline is 5:00pm tomorrow. . . .
I graded about 42 lab reports today. I don't know how I did it, but I did it.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on June 19, 2021, 08:19:25 PM
I graded about 42 lab reports today. I don't know how I did it, but I did it.
Ugh. My grading queue feels overwhelming, but if EPW can grade 42 lab reports in a day, maybe I can grade these 50 assignments.
Quote from: OneMoreYear on June 20, 2021, 10:26:42 AM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on June 19, 2021, 08:19:25 PM
I graded about 42 lab reports today. I don't know how I did it, but I did it.
Ugh. My grading queue feels overwhelming, but if EPW can grade 42 lab reports in a day, maybe I can grade these 50 assignments.
You can do it! I'm currently working on spreading my grading out during the weekdays. I'd like to have free weekends again, but that hasn't happened yet.
I was not even close. It's going to be a long couple of days. Next year, multiple choice tests during short summer terms! (no, not really, but must reduce grading load).
Today I will attempt to grade 40 lab reports again and some late homework. I have a student who was supposed to meet with me today and hasn't turned in any lab reports since the beginning of the semester. I'm pretty sure that's why the stu wanted to meet and I do not want to add more lab reports to my pile.
Double post.
I fell asleep this afternoon and woke up feeling groggy and icky, so I didn't finish grading. Instead, we ordered out pizza! Hopefully tomorrow will be more fruitful.
Speaking of grading... I met a professor this week who tells me he gives a B for meeting all assignment requirements and expectations. He only gives an A to students who go above and beyond, submitting outstanding work. He was quite critical of professors who give an A for students who meet course requirements.
I can see his point, but I'm not sure how I feel about this. Does anyone else give a B for meeting assignment requirements?
Quote from: Charlotte on June 26, 2021, 05:53:11 AM
Speaking of grading... I met a professor this week who tells me he gives a B for meeting all assignment requirements and expectations. He only gives an A to students who go above and beyond, submitting outstanding work. He was quite critical of professors who give an A for students who meet course requirements.
I can see his point, but I'm not sure how I feel about this. Does anyone else give a B for meeting assignment requirements?
Meeting expectations: C
Above expectations: B
Above and beyond expectations: A
The prof you talked to might have a point though as he might not have to field complaints about being a "harsh grader".
Quote from: Charlotte on June 26, 2021, 05:53:11 AM
Speaking of grading... I met a professor this week who tells me he gives a B for meeting all assignment requirements and expectations. He only gives an A to students who go above and beyond, submitting outstanding work. He was quite critical of professors who give an A for students who meet course requirements.
I can see his point, but I'm not sure how I feel about this. Does anyone else give a B for meeting assignment requirements?
I had a prof who said exactly that as an undergrad. I hated it then, and I've spent my whole career trying to avoid doing anything like that.
The big problem, as I see it, is that "above and beyond" is
totally undefined and
totally subjective. My prof was talking about lab reports. So what would "above and beyond" mean?
- Include all kinds of background theory related to the lab? How much?
- Do more mathematical analysis of the results? How much?
- Write more discussion and conclusions? How much?
You might as well add "Get the report typed and bound" and even "Wash his car", since they're still "above and beyond". And what about precedent; once I've done one thing that is "above and beyond"
today, will I need to do
that and more tomorrow?
To my mind, it's just arrogance that wants to be smug and superior. If there's something that you think students ought to be doing automatically,
TELL THEM!
Quote from: marshwiggle on June 26, 2021, 06:10:44 AM
The big problem, as I see it, is that "above and beyond" is totally undefined and totally subjective. My prof was talking about lab reports. So what would "above and beyond" mean?
You might as well add "Get the report typed and bound" and even "Wash his car", since they're still "above and beyond". And what about precedent; once I've done one thing that is "above and beyond" today, will I need to do that and more tomorrow?
To my mind, it's just arrogance that wants to be smug and superior. If there's something that you think students ought to be doing automatically, TELL THEM!
I think this is why I feel a bit doubtful of it. I understood the idea behind it and even agree that an A student should be the one who does more than the required work. However, it is the subjective part that bugs me. Presumably, a list of assignment requirements is just that: what the assignment requires. To expect students to figure out what above and beyond means seems a little unfair. I read one of his assignments and I wasn't clear on what he wanted. If I am unsure what he wants on an assignment, would his students be able to figure it out?
Quote from: Charlotte on June 26, 2021, 06:32:50 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on June 26, 2021, 06:10:44 AM
The big problem, as I see it, is that "above and beyond" is totally undefined and totally subjective. My prof was talking about lab reports. So what would "above and beyond" mean?
You might as well add "Get the report typed and bound" and even "Wash his car", since they're still "above and beyond". And what about precedent; once I've done one thing that is "above and beyond" today, will I need to do that and more tomorrow?
To my mind, it's just arrogance that wants to be smug and superior. If there's something that you think students ought to be doing automatically, TELL THEM!
I think this is why I feel a bit doubtful of it. I understood the idea behind it and even agree that an A student should be the one who does more than the required work. However, it is the subjective part that bugs me. Presumably, a list of assignment requirements is just that: what the assignment requires. To expect students to figure out what above and beyond means seems a little unfair. I read one of his assignments and I wasn't clear on what he wanted. If I am unsure what he wants on an assignment, would his students be able to figure it out?
Exactly. And if some's good, more's better. Why not just give students the textbook at the beginning of term, and tell them when the exam will be? Or even better, don't give them a text; just show them the course description in the calendar and let THEM figure out what to read, study, etc. for the exam.
The arbitrary limits on what they're told and what they need to
figure out guess on their own is what makes it just a stupid shell game. I think the motivation is some profs hate giving out A's but know that good students will actually pay attention and do exactly what they're told. Thus they have to make unspecified hoops to jump through so they don't have to award them.
I give a D for meeting course requirements barely. A C for meeting them solidly. A B for good work and an A for very strong work.
At least, that's my basic approach for 4 year colleges. I tend to be a bit more liberal at the community college.
Quote from: Charlotte on June 26, 2021, 06:32:50 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on June 26, 2021, 06:10:44 AM
The big problem, as I see it, is that "above and beyond" is totally undefined and totally subjective. My prof was talking about lab reports. So what would "above and beyond" mean?
You might as well add "Get the report typed and bound" and even "Wash his car", since they're still "above and beyond". And what about precedent; once I've done one thing that is "above and beyond" today, will I need to do that and more tomorrow?
To my mind, it's just arrogance that wants to be smug and superior. If there's something that you think students ought to be doing automatically, TELL THEM!
I think this is why I feel a bit doubtful of it. I understood the idea behind it and even agree that an A student should be the one who does more than the required work. However, it is the subjective part that bugs me. Presumably, a list of assignment requirements is just that: what the assignment requires. To expect students to figure out what above and beyond means seems a little unfair. I read one of his assignments and I wasn't clear on what he wanted. If I am unsure what he wants on an assignment, would his students be able to figure it out?
I provide examples of essays and research papers that earn As , Bs, and Cs, along with explanations.
Quote from: downer on June 26, 2021, 06:54:43 AM
I give a D for meeting course requirements barely. A C for meeting them solidly. A B for good work and an A for very strong work.
Having been in this business for almost 4 decades, I still have no idea what the difference is between these. How is "solidly meeting course requirements" NOT "good work"????? If it isn't, then WTF does "course requirements" mean????
If you don't know by now I won't be able to explain it to you.
I will admit there is a good deal of abitrariness to the standards for most courses.
Quote from: downer on June 26, 2021, 07:14:47 AM
If you don't know by now I won't be able to explain it to you.
I will admit there is a good deal of abitrariness to the standards for most courses.
This is why a lot of STEM students avoid humanities like the plague; if I get every problem on a calculus test right it's 100%. PERIOD.
The "requirement" of correctly getting all of the answers isn't the slightest bit subjective.
QuoteI think this is why I feel a bit doubtful of it. I understood the idea behind it and even agree that an A student should be the one who does more than the required work. However, it is the subjective part that bugs me. Presumably, a list of assignment requirements is just that: what the assignment requires. To expect students to figure out what above and beyond means seems a little unfair. I read one of his assignments and I wasn't clear on what he wanted. If I am unsure what he wants on an assignment, would his students be able to figure it out?
It's like specification grading without the specifications.
Sometimes, I've had assignments where I lay out what students need to complete successfully to achieve a B. And I describe it in those terms, including the fact that students who don't complete all aspects successfully get C, D, or F depending on quality of work. Then I describe the additional work they need to do successfully to achieve an A and how they will demonstrate that they did that work. It does really cut down on the grade grubbing and makes things faster to mark. I've had one complaint that it was unfair, but it's really no different from a rubric.
Quote from: marshwiggle on June 26, 2021, 07:17:32 AM
Quote from: downer on June 26, 2021, 07:14:47 AM
If you don't know by now I won't be able to explain it to you.
I will admit there is a good deal of abitrariness to the standards for most courses.
This is why a lot of STEM students avoid humanities like the plague; if I get every problem on a calculus test right it's 100%. PERIOD.
The "requirement" of correctly getting all of the answers isn't the slightest bit subjective.
I don't know. Most of my professors in STEM courses gave partial credit, which makes the grading a bit subjective.
Some of the problems here might be semantics. Lets look at an actual question:
Lets say that I have an assignment that requires using a case to explore a concept or theory: how does one case (Choose from Norway, Venezuela, Botswana, or Qatar) support or fail to support the resource curse literature we have studied in class. What insights do your findings have for the fictional country or company you are advising in our scenario?
A D answer is probably missing one part of the question, and does the others at a rather mediocre level. a C answer may have some of the basics of each part questions but does not engage with some key authors or has only part of the concept or is missing something in the case or application. A B level is solid in that is has all of the key parts of all sections, particularly the upper part of the band. An A answer has more depth, provides insights beyond the fundamentals, makes creative links between different parts of the question etc. When I talk about going above and beyond this is what I mean--but going beyond the fundamentals is certainly something discussed in class.
At the graduate level, I would grade this harder.
No matter what the subject, the issue of what counts as competency is a matter of values: Whether it is 100% correct answers or 60% correct answers. And the professor has to decide how hard to make the questions.
Science-types who think their subjects are totally objective are fooling themselves, and will benefit from some insight by taking courses that help them probe what objectivity means.
Quote from: downer on June 26, 2021, 09:27:10 AM
No matter what the subject, the issue of what counts as competency is a matter of values: Whether it is 100% correct answers or 60% correct answers. And the professor has to decide how hard to make the questions.
Science-types who think their subjects are totally objective are fooling themselves, and will benefit from some insight by taking courses that help them probe what objectivity means.
I agree that there is almost always some subjectivity, (outside of many purely mathematical assignments), but the range of grades based on undefined criteria seems to be much smaller.
Quote from: Langue_doc on June 26, 2021, 06:56:02 AM
I provide examples of essays and research papers that earn As , Bs, and Cs, along with explanations.
This makes lots of sense. Good students will be able to figure out what is expected from the examples, and perhaps more importantly, will make it possible for them to
eliminate all kinds of possibilities for what
might be meant by "above and beyond".
Hello, any tips on how to build an evaluation grid in the social sciences ? Students have to produce a reflection (so there's technically no right or wrong answer) as long as they cite the course material and link it to their own experiences/practice in my field.
I have five criteria (for a total of a 100 points), but I am unsure how to create a scale for each criteria. My first time teaching btw.
Any tips?
Quote from: adel9216 on June 26, 2021, 06:08:19 PM
Hello, any tips on how to build an evaluation grid in the social sciences ? Students have to produce a reflection (so there's technically no right or wrong answer) as long as they cite the course material and link it to their own experiences/practice in my field.
I have five criteria (for a total of a 100 points), but I am unsure how to create a scale for each criteria. My first time teaching btw.
Any tips?
I have a couple grading rubrics for reflection papers I can send you in a private message if you'd like to look at them for ideas.
Quote from: adel9216 on June 26, 2021, 06:08:19 PM
Hello, any tips on how to build an evaluation grid in the social sciences ? Students have to produce a reflection (so there's technically no right or wrong answer) as long as they cite the course material and link it to their own experiences/practice in my field.
I have five criteria (for a total of a 100 points), but I am unsure how to create a scale for each criteria. My first time teaching btw.
Any tips?
These are how I set up my student's reflection paper - based on Kohl's experiential learning.
1. Describe a real-life example
2. What term/concept from the text does it relate?
3. Is this a good or bad example - does it prove or disprove, agree or disagree?
4. Could the lesson learned apply to other examples? Why or why not?
On this holiday Monday, the grading gods gave to me:
42 homework assignments
24 poster presentations
14 role-play projects
---and a total lack of motivation to grade any of it.*
*I've been sick, I'm behind, and I have to get this done. If anyone has any extra grading mojo that you are not using this holiday, please send.
I'd be interested in the role-playing projects, and might start there just to see what they came up with.
M.
Quote from: OneMoreYear on July 05, 2021, 09:14:17 AM
On this holiday Monday, the grading gods gave to me:
42 homework assignments
24 poster presentations
14 role-play projects
---and a total lack of motivation to grade any of it.*
*I've been sick, I'm behind, and I have to get this done. If anyone has any extra grading mojo that you are not using this holiday, please send.
Sending super terrific positive electromagnetic waves your way.
I'm reviving this thread as I need some grading accountability.
first up, 30ish intro course projects. "grade 'em high and grade 'em fast!"
I think there's a sprint-grading thread somewhere here....
People check in every--10 min, 1 hr, whatever, so say what they've done; or else after every 10 or 15 papers, or whatever.
I'll poke around, see if I can find it...
ETA: Found it, here:
http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=183.msg7568#msg7568
M.
Half done, but the final exam really reveals how much they struggle to apply our content to particular scenarios when I'm not holding their hands. Sigh.
I'm also halfway done, but the feeling is half-empty and not half-full. I'm cranking up the nostalgia music from my youth.
What I'm really dreading are the journal article reviews that I have been putting off.
I'm already done, but that's because grades were due to the Registrar yesterday.
Now for the panicked dash towards the next next round of classes. Nothing like trying to prep when half of campus has already left.
Here, grades were due today. So, after a last-minute fight with the online grading system (it ate the grades the 1st time, then would not let me back in to resubmit), I'm done!
And, I already have a grade appeal brewing.
Grading to-do's:
Class A:
>Has a bow on it.
Class B:
>Garnished with parsley.
Class C:
> Complete grading final papers
> Grade final exams
> Post grades
> Post SLOs
Class D:
> Grade final papers
> Grade final exams
> Post grades
> Post SLOs
Grading to-do's:
Class A:
>Has a bow on it.
Class B:
>Garnished with parsley.
Class C:
Cherry on top.
Class D:
> Grade final papers
> Grade final exams
> Post grades
> Post SLOs
Class E:
> Grade final papers
> Grade final exams
> Post grades
> Post SLOs
- Class 1 § 1
written exams graded- oral exams graded
- final grades calculated
- final grades submitted
- Class 1 § 2
- written exams graded
- oral exams graded
- final grades calculated
- final grades submitted
- Class 1 § 3
written exams graded- oral exams graded
- final grades calculated
- final grades submitted
- Class 2
- written exams graded
- final grades calculated
- final grades submitted
- Class 3
- final assignments graded
- final grades calculated
- final grades submitted
- Theses
- Thesis #1 graded
- Thesis #2 graded
- Thesis #3 graded
Cheering everyone on.
M.
- Class 1 § 1
written exams gradedoral exams gradedfinal grades calculated- final grades submitted
- Class 1 § 2
written exams gradedoral exams gradedfinal grades calculated- final grades submitted
- Class 1 § 3
written exams gradedoral exams gradedfinal grades calculated- final grades submitted
- Class 2
- written exams graded
- final grades calculated
- final grades submitted
- Class 3
- final assignments graded
- final grades calculated
- final grades submitted
- Theses
- Thesis #1 graded
- Thesis #2 graded
- Thesis #3 graded
Grading to-do's:
Class A:
>Has a bow on it.
Class B:
>Garnished with parsley.
Class C:
>Cherry on top.
Class D:
>Tank gun is polished for the parade.
Class E:
> Grade final papers
> Grade final exams
> Post grades
> Post SLOs
Class 1
7/7 essays done
Class 2
2/14 final projects done (+4 more to come in with extensions)
Class 3
0/6 final projects done (+2 more to come in with extensions)
I did finish the 30 projects and made progress on other grading mountains. I am so ready for this weird hard term to be over.
- Class 1 § 1 -- DONE
- Class 1 § 2 -- DONE
- Class 1 § 3 -- DONE
- Class 2
- written exams graded
- final grades calculated
- final grades submitted
- Class 3
- final assignments graded
- final grades calculated
- final grades submitted
- Theses
- Thesis #1 graded
- Thesis #2 graded
- Thesis #3 graded
Grading to-do's:
Class A:
>Has a bow on it.
Class B:
>Garnished with parsley.
Class C:
>Cherry on top.
Class D:
>Tank gun is polished for the parade.
Class E:
>Sprinkled powder on that little baby butt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does that mean you're done?
;--》
My note: for all those who despair of students who don't read the syllabus....
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/us/tennessee-professor-syllabus-money-trnd/index.html
M.
Still waiting on one student who asked for an extension, and news of another who's in the hospital (he'll get an Incomplete if I don't get a status update). Then, after the submission deadline, I get to chase down those faculty who didn't post their grades...
FINISHED! (Later than I'd hoped, but still nearly 3 full days before the deadline--I'll take it!)
Quote from: mamselle on December 18, 2021, 07:31:58 AM
Does that mean you're done?
;--》
My note: for all those who despair of students who don't read the syllabus....
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/us/tennessee-professor-syllabus-money-trnd/index.html
M.
I saw this when it was going around on twitter. But, to be honest, the note in the syllabus wasn't terribly enticing. It gave the locker number and combination, but didn't tell me whether it would be worth my time to track it down. Also, it was a parenthetical in the middle of an unrelated sentence, so it looks an awful lot like an accidental copy-paste error. I can easily imagine students looking at that weird parenthetical, and shaking their heads and moving on.
Done, but for a few stragglers with a hard deadline of 08h00 tomorrow. And then I can finally submit them all.
Submitted. Now I'm on parental leave, so everyone can bugger off while I clean out the inbox!
Been playing Whac-a-Mole with late assignments and groveling emails all day. Due tomorrow. It's odd, but usually my students are scrambling for the "A," but this year they are content with their "B"s and "C"s. They are just letting easy assignment points and rewrites languish. Not sure what has changed. Probably COVID, but I don't quite know why.
Quote from: Wahoo Redux on December 19, 2021, 10:19:59 PM
Been playing Whac-a-Mole with late assignments and groveling emails all day. Due tomorrow. It's odd, but usually my students are scrambling for the "A," but this year they are content with their "B"s and "C"s. They are just letting easy assignment points and rewrites languish. Not sure what has changed. Probably COVID, but I don't quite know why.
Yeah, I've had a few who got to a passing grade before the exam and just didn't write the exam--even after I wrote to them to extend the time period.
I also have a lot who forwent two pretty much free 10% components.
- Class 1 § 1 -- DONE
- Class 1 § 2 -- DONE
- Class 1 § 3 -- DONE
- Class 2
- written exams graded
- final grades calculated
- final grades submitted
- Class 3 -- DONE
- Theses
- Thesis #1 graded
- Thesis #2 graded
- Thesis #3 graded
And I'm back with a "can you double-check this please" email.
Not from the student, but from financial aid advising. Apparently if you fail ALL of your classes, they check to see if you attended/attempted most of the course.
I made a major mistake on two combined classes of about 50 students. Oops. I thanked the student who pointed it out to me. My bad only affects about a dozen students, but I guess grade grubbing and "I don't understand" emails serve a purpose. I emailed both classes and apologized, explained that some of their grades will change. Argh. I am getting weary...
Who's being extra forgiving out of pity for those poor young'uns who have to go through things we didn't, not as much? (pub lic health crisis, inflation, etc)
Quote from: mahagonny on December 20, 2021, 06:15:03 PM
Who's being extra forgiving out of pity for those poor young'uns who have to go through things we didn't, not as much? (pub lic health crisis, inflation, etc)
...I admit to struggling to find the right balance at this time.
Today is the final day to take the final exam WITHOUT WHICH STUDENTS CANNOT PASS MY COURSE.
Less than 50% have taken it thus far.
Quote from: FishProf on December 21, 2021, 04:05:32 AM
Today is the final day to take the final exam WITHOUT WHICH STUDENTS CANNOT PASS MY COURSE.
Less than 50% have taken it thus far.
Yep. Gave a lot of Incompletes to students who never did the final exam. Let's see if the big I on their transcript is the 999th reminder that they need...
The class decided we now live in a "Pick your own due date" world. It took a surprising amount of pleading to get everything submitted at all.... forget about on time. But grade them I did and the grades have all been uploaded to the appropriate server.
And, mirabile dictu, not a single complaint about "Can't you just please add N points so I get an A?". Those who got a B should be on their knees thanking the deity of their choice I took pity and did not penalize those who submitted (waaaaaayyy) late. I know some had Covid issues and being all rigorous and sh!t seemed a bit unkind.
- Class 1 § 1 -- DONE
- Class 1 § 2 -- DONE
- Class 1 § 3 -- DONE
- Class 2 -- DONE
- Class 3 -- DONE
- Theses
- Thesis #1 graded
- Thesis #2 graded
- Thesis #3 graded
Quote from: filologos on December 21, 2021, 03:59:34 PM
- Class 1 § 1 -- DONE
- Class 1 § 2 -- DONE
- Class 1 § 3 -- DONE
- Class 2 -- DONE
- Class 3 -- DONE
- Theses
- Thesis #1 graded
- Thesis #2 graded
- Thesis #3 graded
Impressionante!!
Especially since, as I recall, you were very worried about getting everything done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHgc8Q6qTjc
;--}
M.
I'm not submitting them until tomorrow. I don't relish ruining anyone's Christmas Day.
ETA: Nor my own.
Class 1 done and submitted
Class 2 done and submitted
Class 3 about 1/4 done.
Just got the papers last week: my institution has a weird calendar
Finally done.
Grading a very overdue (overdue grading--not overdue submission) MSc thesis. But it's going to go fast, because, just based on the first two pages, it's really good! Good writing, very smoothly constructed motivation for the study, sophisticated flow of ideas. I really, really hope I can cruise through this, give it an A, and move on with my day. 'Light touch' grading is so much easier when there's very little to criticize.
Congrats! Do such theses actually get a letter grade, or just pass/fail? Neiter my MA thesis nor PhD diss, at different schools, were graded on anything but a pass/fail basis.... what is common?
They get a letter grade. Our MSc program involves six classes + dissertation, and the dissertation project is (I believe) three times as many credits as a class. The final degree classification is the average of the coursework grades and dissertation grade, weighted by number of credits.
Ok, what is the minimum passing grade, and can the student try again if he does not meet it?
Resurrecting the old grading thread to help with my motivation to get through this, given everything else going on right now that is taking my attention away from getting the grading off my plate from stuff that was due (or submitted) at the end of the short summer term from multiple summer courses. Technically, I can submit final grades through August, as we have multiple summer term lengths with one grading deadline, but this must be done.
In my grading queue:
44 quick reading responses
25 short research presentations
15 group projects (never again!)
11 role-plays
1 dissertation review
Anyone else on a grading binge?
I am.
Ten more essays to go, then about 20 exams. Today is the last day of the exam period, and all our marks are due tomorrow. Ugh.
The reporting system is currently down, so I can't report anything.
I hope you got your grading done Para, and the system is letting you submit.
I'm in the weeds still:
44 quick reading responses DONE!
25 20 short research presentations
15 group projects (never again!) DONE!
11 role-plays
1 dissertation review
I have to grade:
1 set of lab midterms
1 set of lab reports
1 set of homework
1 set of tests
I think I can get it all done by Friday???
Quote from: OneMoreYear on June 27, 2022, 12:33:56 PM
I hope you got your grading done Para, and the system is letting you submit.
I'm in the weeds still:
44 quick reading responses DONE!
25 20 short research presentations
15 group projects (never again!) DONE!
11 role-plays
1 dissertation review
All done, thanks! Hope you will be soon, too!
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on June 27, 2022, 06:32:29 PM
I have to grade:
1 set of lab midterms
1 set of lab reports
1 set of homework
1 set of tests
I think I can get it all done by Friday???
Currently working on lab reports. :P
Oh, FFS, I gave individual feedback to all the students' exam responses! Surely that obviates the need to write up a generic exam answer key to distribute? But nooooo, we must ensure that all students have the same feedback experience in all classes. I really freaking hate this policy so, so much.
Quote from: ergative on June 28, 2022, 12:42:16 PM
Oh, FFS, I gave individual feedback to all the students' exam responses! Surely that obviates the need to write up a generic exam answer key to distribute? But nooooo, we must ensure that all students have the same feedback experience in all classes. I really freaking hate this policy so, so much.
Obviously the solution to this inane requirement is to stop giving individualized feedback, because if you individualize it, students are not getting the same experience, right? So just mark answers right or wrong and post the generic answer key. Is that what TIIC intend?
Quote from: OneMoreYear on June 28, 2022, 12:56:13 PM
Quote from: ergative on June 28, 2022, 12:42:16 PM
Oh, FFS, I gave individual feedback to all the students' exam responses! Surely that obviates the need to write up a generic exam answer key to distribute? But nooooo, we must ensure that all students have the same feedback experience in all classes. I really freaking hate this policy so, so much.
Obviously the solution to this inane requirement is to stop giving individualized feedback, because if you individualize it, students are not getting the same experience, right? So just mark answers right or wrong and post the generic answer key. Is that what TIIC intend?
Yes, it's what was intended, but I had to make notes to myself when deciding how to grade everything, so it was easy enough to adjust them into feedback for students. So, instead of the easy adjustment to something I'm already doing while grading, I have to write up the generic answer key, which is much more tedious and accomplishes the identical purpose.
Quote from: ergative on June 28, 2022, 12:42:16 PM
Oh, FFS, I gave individual feedback to all the students' exam responses! Surely that obviates the need to write up a generic exam answer key to distribute? But nooooo, we must ensure that all students have the same feedback experience in all classes. I really freaking hate this policy so, so much.
Wait a minute. There's a policy that instructors must distribute an answer key? How does that work?
Many of the faculty in my department don't return exams to students at all so they can reuse them. They will allow students to come to office hours to look at exams but that's it. Is that allowed at your place?
In most of my classes, I do give exams back to students with written comments, but I haven't given them an answer key for years. For multiple choice questions, I often give an optional assignment to correct wrong answers for partial credit. Students are welcome and encouraged to talk to each other to confirm their answers but I want them to talk about the answers and write explanations, not just get the answers from me. For questions with written answers, I don't want to hand them the answers. I want them to think about what is missing or incorrect and how they could write a better answer.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on June 27, 2022, 06:32:29 PM
I have to grade:
1 set of lab midterms
1 set of lab reports
1 set of homework
1 set of tests
I think I can get it all done by Friday???
Quote from: ergative on June 28, 2022, 02:34:47 PM
Quote from: OneMoreYear on June 28, 2022, 12:56:13 PM
Quote from: ergative on June 28, 2022, 12:42:16 PM
Oh, FFS, I gave individual feedback to all the students' exam responses! Surely that obviates the need to write up a generic exam answer key to distribute? But nooooo, we must ensure that all students have the same feedback experience in all classes. I really freaking hate this policy so, so much.
Obviously the solution to this inane requirement is to stop giving individualized feedback, because if you individualize it, students are not getting the same experience, right? So just mark answers right or wrong and post the generic answer key. Is that what TIIC intend?
Yes, it's what was intended, but I had to make notes to myself when deciding how to grade everything, so it was easy enough to adjust them into feedback for students. So, instead of the easy adjustment to something I'm already doing while grading, I have to write up the generic answer key, which is much more tedious and accomplishes the identical purpose.
To be clear, I think it's stupid what they are making you do. I also wonder why they think it's better for students to sift though a generic answer key to figure out their mistakes rather than to review individualized feedback. Did something happen that led to this standardization policy?
Quote from: OneMoreYear on June 28, 2022, 04:02:20 PM
Quote from: ergative on June 28, 2022, 02:34:47 PM
Quote from: OneMoreYear on June 28, 2022, 12:56:13 PM
Quote from: ergative on June 28, 2022, 12:42:16 PM
Oh, FFS, I gave individual feedback to all the students' exam responses! Surely that obviates the need to write up a generic exam answer key to distribute? But nooooo, we must ensure that all students have the same feedback experience in all classes. I really freaking hate this policy so, so much.
Obviously the solution to this inane requirement is to stop giving individualized feedback, because if you individualize it, students are not getting the same experience, right? So just mark answers right or wrong and post the generic answer key. Is that what TIIC intend?
Yes, it's what was intended, but I had to make notes to myself when deciding how to grade everything, so it was easy enough to adjust them into feedback for students. So, instead of the easy adjustment to something I'm already doing while grading, I have to write up the generic answer key, which is much more tedious and accomplishes the identical purpose.
To be clear, I think it's stupid what they are making you do. I also wonder why they think it's better for students to sift though a generic answer key to figure out their mistakes rather than to review individualized feedback. Did something happen that led to this standardization policy?
The generic answer key was developed as a way to handle our several-hundred-student intro courses, where it was not feasible to provide personalized feedback. That's fine. The standardization is because everyone loves to make all the procedures across classes consistent in our department to ensure 'comparable student experience' across the classes. For the most part, that works quite well. We have sufficient buy-in across the department that there are genuine tangible benefits about things like extensions and missing assignments and grade disputes. There is
very little student whining about these course policies because everyone holds to them so firmly.
it's just sometimes I have to write up stupid documents for an exam that only eight students completed. And so I come here and whine.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on June 27, 2022, 06:32:29 PM
I have to grade:
1 set of lab midterms
1 set of lab reports
1 set of homework
1 set of tests
I think I can get it all done by Friday???
Well, that didn't happen! I plan to work on the tests and midterms soon. I'll see how much I can do today.
All students could have te same exam feedback experience by getting no feedback at all, which is entirely normal for exams.
I would balk pretty hard at distributing answer keys. They cheat enough as it is.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on July 02, 2022, 03:26:33 PM
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on June 27, 2022, 06:32:29 PM
I have to grade:
1 set of lab midterms
1 set of lab reports
1 set of homework
1 set of tests
I think I can get it all done by Friday???
Well, that didn't happen! I plan to work on the tests and midterms soon. I'll see how much I can do today.
And I'm done. I should have more labs and homework to grade this week.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on July 05, 2022, 01:30:25 PM
All students could have te same exam feedback experience by getting no feedback at all, which is entirely normal for exams.
I would balk pretty hard at distributing answer keys. They cheat enough as it is.
Students here complain if they don't receive enough feedback on their exams (in classes above 100-level). In addition to providing feedback, I create a discussion board detailing some of the more common mistakes along with an invitation to ask questions (that few take advantage of), but some students still complain that I don't "go over" the entire exam during class.
A friend used to handle that by saying that he would do comments for anyone who turned in an SASE with their exam.
That meant he only spent time writing comments for those who indicated in advance that they would take the effort seriously.
M.
I just submitted summer grades.
One student in the online asynchronous course did ZERO work after the Syllabus Quiz, until the very last day possible. Then they took the final. They almost passed. Almost.
That big fat ZERO on the lecture quizzes turns out to be a poor strategy.
I guess I'll see them again in the fall.
That's about a $1k mistake.
I had a student in a summer class who ended up with a grade 0.2% from passing. If I'd been feeling more generous, I would have given the student a D. But they had put little effort in, and didn't submit a couple of assignments, with no explanation. My grading had been generous anyway, and I didn't really think the student deserved to pass.
Quote from: downer on July 08, 2022, 02:11:50 PM
I had a student in a summer class who ended up with a grade 0.2% from passing. If I'd been feeling more generous, I would have given the student a D. But they had put little effort in, and didn't submit a couple of assignments, with no explanation. My grading had been generous anyway, and I didn't really think the student deserved to pass.
Based on almost 4 decades of teaching labs and courses to
thousands of students, NOT ONE has ever failed who handed everything in.
And as my son summarized about how to succeed at university, "Go to all your classes and hand everything in." If only somehow students could learn about these deep, dark secrets of academic success.
I can't say I have 100% match with Marshwiggle; I've had the rare gem who did everything so badly that they still failed. But they constitute a rounding error.
If this muttonhead had taken ANY of the lecture quizzes, and just guessed, he would have passed.
My rule for bumping up grades - If you did not do EVERYTHING in your power to pass my class, don't look to me t get you across the finish line.
This week is the last week of class. I have to grade the following by Friday.
3 sets of homework.
1 set of labs.
1 set of tests.
1 set of discussion posts.
2 sets of final exams.
I just graded a set of formal labs. Yuck.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on July 24, 2022, 01:32:31 PM
This week is the last week of class. I have to grade the following by Friday.
3 sets of homework.
1 set of labs.
1 set of tests.
1 set of discussion posts.
2 sets of final exams.
I just graded a set of formal labs. Yuck.
And now it's all done!!!
You get the 'Little Engine that Could' Award:
An oiler...
https://www.amazon.com/Plews-LubriMatic-50-337-Oiler-Spout/dp/B000CCM4ZK
Congrats!
M.
Summer grades are due by midnight Monday night. I filed mine about an hour ago. Yay!
Now, off to wrestle with Canvas for fall. Canvas is fine, but while I have 4 sections of Comp I, each is a different length/delivery method--with 1 virtual and 3 online, the content/activities are different, and the 3 online sections are 16, 12, and 8 weeks long. So no class copying for me; I have to enter each of the many deadlines separately in each section. Pfft. I've already gotten cross-eyed working on it a little bit this week.
Quote from: mamselle on July 29, 2022, 02:57:26 PM
You get the 'Little Engine that Could' Award:
An oiler...
https://www.amazon.com/Plews-LubriMatic-50-337-Oiler-Spout/dp/B000CCM4ZK
Congrats!
M.
Toot! Toot!
Quote from: AmLitHist on July 30, 2022, 07:54:58 AM
Summer grades are due by midnight Monday night. I filed mine about an hour ago. Yay!
Now, off to wrestle with Canvas for fall. Canvas is fine, but while I have 4 sections of Comp I, each is a different length/delivery method--with 1 virtual and 3 online, the content/activities are different, and the 3 online sections are 16, 12, and 8 weeks long. So no class copying for me; I have to enter each of the many deadlines separately in each section. Pfft. I've already gotten cross-eyed working on it a little bit this week.
Yay for grades. Boo for having to deal with Canvas. Honestly, I thought about starting prep for my classes, but the way things have been on my end, my schedule could totally change by the time class starts.
Are you going to take a little break?
I am. I've got about half of my classes set up, so I'm taking a couple of days and then will finish up later this week. That will give me 2 weeks Canvas-free (until some lunkhead decides to change something that requires further attention!).
I have to say, after this first summer semester on Canvas, I'm OK with it. (Of course, check back in the fall--there will probably be something that doesn't work that sets me off then!) After 20 years of wrestling with and cussing Bb on a regular basis, I think I'm just happy to be out of all that.
The only thing I've been less than happy about is the upload time for video feedback in the SpeedGrader. I have DSL, but it still seems to take forever to get those </2 minute videos to upload; that could be on the college's end, though. Since they've pushed so much more use of LMS, Teams, etc., we may be outstripping our much-improved server capacity.
Hope you get a bit of a break, too, EPW!
Wow, that's a complicated schedule for your Fall! Any chance you could hire an intern/IT person to put in all of the deadlines for the different sections?
I'm in the midst of course prep for Fall for four courses, one of which is a new prep. Two classes are high intensity. Class sizes are increased. I have reasonable control over my syllabi as long as I'm meeting course objectives (except for one class with multiple sections). So, as I'm going through my notes from last year on what worked, what needs adjustment, and what to never, ever do again, it's time to play: don't assign more work that you are going to be able to grade effectively.
Quote from: OneMoreYear on August 03, 2022, 10:15:06 AM
I'm in the midst of course prep for Fall for four courses, one of which is a new prep. Two classes are high intensity. Class sizes are increased. I have reasonable control over my syllabi as long as I'm meeting course objectives (except for one class with multiple sections). So, as I'm going through my notes from last year on what worked, what needs adjustment, and what to never, ever do again, it's time to play: don't assign more work that you are going to be able to grade effectively.
Yep. I learned this the hard way.
Follow the Coco Chanel rule: Look in the mirror and remove one accessory.
Set it up the way you think is doable, and then remove one assignment! For each course. You can thank me at crunch time.
Hmmm...
A friend of mine says that about presentations: "Write it all, then take out one section."
I wonder if that's where she got it from...
M.
Not sure where to post this link, but here it is anyway:
QuoteProsecutor: Iowa teens killed Spanish teacher over bad grade
https://apnews.com/article/crime-homicide-iowa-des-moines-fairfield-42eba22bc42bf9e52a165478916072c4
Quote from: Langue_doc on November 02, 2022, 05:39:11 AM
Not sure where to post this link, but here it is anyway:
QuoteProsecutor: Iowa teens killed Spanish teacher over bad grade
https://apnews.com/article/crime-homicide-iowa-des-moines-fairfield-42eba22bc42bf9e52a165478916072c4
Fairfield has a substantial population of Transcendental Meditation folk. Maharishi International University is there where courses may include "Yogic Flying" which is essentially sitting the Lotus position and bouncing around on yer arse. It's not exactly the kind of community where you would expect a couple of kids to bludgeon a teacher to death.
I currently have a red hot gunner for medical school as an advisee. I would not be surprised at all if he murdered somebody who tanked his GPA and lowered his chances for the almighty MD degree. Wonder if these 2 were of the same mindset.
Miracle of miracles... I think I'm relaxing a little over Break- AND I'm grading lab reports!
I plan to:
1. Finish grading some tests.
2. Catch up on grading lab reports (1.5 sets left).
3. Prep for next week.
I'm grading pre-labs and some of the answers are so very, very wrong that I'm suspicious the students didn't pay any attention in the previous class. Or didn't do the work themselves and relied too much on their team.
Getting answers that are beyond "blue, rhinoceros, triangle".
Quote from: the_geneticist on November 22, 2022, 10:47:31 AM
I'm grading pre-labs and some of the answers are so very, very wrong that I'm suspicious the students didn't pay any attention in the previous class. Or didn't do the work themselves and relied too much on their team.
Getting answers that are beyond "blue, rhinoceros, triangle".
That's always disappointing. I'm teaching an intro Astronomy lab and a lot of the kids do not know basic Math which is necessary for most of the labs.
Quote from: evil_physics_witchcraft on November 22, 2022, 10:56:27 AM
Quote from: the_geneticist on November 22, 2022, 10:47:31 AM
I'm grading pre-labs and some of the answers are so very, very wrong that I'm suspicious the students didn't pay any attention in the previous class. Or didn't do the work themselves and relied too much on their team.
Getting answers that are beyond "blue, rhinoceros, triangle".
That's always disappointing. I'm teaching an intro Astronomy lab and a lot of the kids do not know basic Math which is necessary for most of the labs.
I also have quite a few students who don't know the basic math needed for my class. I've gotten the mathematical equivalent of "blue rhinoceros triangle," but no punctuation or proper spelling. Basically, they took random combinations of the numbers they had, hoping they'd hit on the proper operations. Supposedly, they have the math pre-req, but I don't see how.
I have an exam to write and I need to figure out a way to make it easy enough for my current group. For the previous exam, they set a new record in low averages for that test.
Really resisting the urge to ask a student if they wrote the paper while high. The instructions were to go into a specific room at the museum and analyze a work of art in that room. This student went into the wrong room (has never happened before) and wrote an essay that wanders around repeating itself and jumping between topics. For background, this student often comes to class reeking of a certain herbal substance. *facepalm*
Grading all day... Only silver lining is that this should open next week up to work on more interesting things.
"Set Default Grade" is a blessing from Canvas.
Emails from students asking me to tell them what they have remaining.
Look at the syllabus. Look at the gradebook. Tracking that is YOUR responsibility.
Grading essays and I now believe some (most?) of the students were visiting a different galaxy listening to a different Waterboy say things 180 degrees from myself. Can't think of anything more plausible...
Classes end this week. I do not have the energy for all of the emails, especially about work that's due. Answering them all will suck up all of my working time for the next few days. Ugh.
I, Dr. OMY, pledge to never assign this amount of work due near the end of the semester again. I think if I grade straight through Tuesday when I am not sleeping or conducting oral exams, the grading might get done. Maybe.
This is our final exam week. My patience is nearly out. My prep time to get ready for next term is running short.
I'm going to copy and paste "Your Final Exam was automatically scored by [LMS system]. There were no errors in the answer key." as a reply to all questions about the final.
Do students honestly think that a grading algorithm will just randomly make errors?
Quote from: the_geneticist on December 06, 2022, 02:11:36 PM
This is our final exam week. My patience is nearly out. My prep time to get ready for next term is running short.
I'm going to copy and paste "Your Final Exam was automatically scored by [LMS system]. There were no errors in the answer key." as a reply to all questions about the final.
Do students honestly think that a grading algorithm will just randomly make errors?
Yes. Even when you point out that a question was right off a previous assignment, (i.e. one where the answer was already clearly identified to them.)
I don't know if it's the effects on the ongoing pandemic, or what, but I've never had so many GRADUATE students completely ignore assignment directions. No, you can't use a different framework. No, you can't go over the word limit even if you apologize for doing so. So, you can't ignore one step in the required framework. No, you can't simply not address a portion on the assignment.
Ugh. I know the past several years have been hard on all of us, and things continue to be hard for many, but how hard is it to follow instructions for a graduate level course?
^ Yes, my masters classes this year include the good students comprising the top half of the class who are as good as ever while the bottom half of the class is the worst I've seen. Those students seem content with not doing the readings, not keeping up so they can submit the problem sets on time.
I am grading lab practicals.
Students, how can you guess "Gall Bladder" on the Kidney model? We never ever covered the digestive system in this class!
And you did dissect hearts, right? Why are most of you utterly clueless about the labelled parts on the hearts y'all dissected?
Quote from: Dismal on December 08, 2022, 01:52:04 PM
^ Yes, my masters classes this year include the good students comprising the top half of the class who are as good as ever while the bottom half of the class is the worst I've seen. Those students seem content with not doing the readings, not keeping up so they can submit the problem sets on time.
That seems to be the case. I have some excellent papers and some that just have me shaking my head. The good students seem to be as good as ever. The poor students are worse than usual for a graduate course. I haven't finished grading, but I've given one 90, a bunch of 80-84s, and a few 86s-89s.
I'm still puzzled by the fact that students don't seem to read the instructions. Some would be great papers, but are missing one or two of the items that are clearly required if you read the assignment instructions and associated resources. I took this class years ago, and with some edits, my paper was good enough to get published in a peer reviewed journal.
Grading all weekend, but at least I'll be a free man by early next week.
Same here, Sun Worshiper:
-19 final Comp I papers graded this week
-30 more final Comp I papers sitting in Canvas, to grade today
-~15 Comp I final papers coming on Wednesday (hopefully some will submit earlier)
-~5 Comp II final papers due on Tuesday
There are also some discussion boards (which will get the "posted on time = full credit" treatment at this late date) due by tomorrow night, and about 20 "gimme" reflection papers due Wednesday/Thursday.
Everything is getting half-assed/minimal commentary at this point. If they want detailed feedback, they can ask, but since most have gotten and ignored that all fall, I doubt m/any will pursue it now.
Onward. . . .
Yup, tis the season for binge grading. To do by Tuesday:
14 recorded group assignments (likely will be good per initial TA review)
25 skills assignments (likely be mostly good, usually have only a couple flame-outs)
1 delayed 3-hour competency exam (could go either way)
30 short papers (eh, probably OK)
30 longer papers (will be the worst; holding to the end where I will care less. Need to make simpler rubric).
If I do nothing but grade for the next 4 days, I think I might make it.
Happy grading, everyone!
Years ago I employed a jedi mind trick because I was tired of the last-minute panic/excuses/whinging/etc. for first-semester students turning in their final projects. I really want them turned in by Friday before finals so I can start grading over the weekend as there are typically 75-100 of them to grade and they take 20 minutes or so each to grade, even with rubrics and me making "mostly right / mostly wrong" choices when I'm assigning points. So... what I do is give the students a "bonus point opportunity" that amounts to less than 5% of the total project grade if they turn the project in by Friday at midnight so I can start grading Saturday morning. To earn the bonus points, they have to turn in all parts of the final project, and notify me via Canvas message that they wish to be eligible for the bonus points.
The official due date is Monday morning at 8 AM, with a late penalty applied to work that is submitted after 8 AM. Not only has it cut out 99% of the excuses, I rarely get late work, and also if I open the project files to start grading over the weekend and find a substantial error (usually because they forgot to submit part of it) I notify the students and they can resubmit until Monday morning with no late penalty, but no bonus points either, and they're almost always extremely grateful for the 'second chance.' I plan on working for another couple hours, should get about halfway through grading since nearly half the students submitted 'early,' and so far only a couple students have to resubmit. Should be able to finish up next Monday and Tuesday before they have their final exam.
I should do an entire batch of some assignment or other today. Ugh.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 10, 2022, 01:00:53 PM
I should do an entire batch of some assignment or other today. Ugh.
One down.
Y'know, for the last three years I've asked my critical thinking students to analyse the same sportsball statistics question, based on a real instance of commentator doofusing. Only one (out of about 500) has ever recognized that the events in question are independent.
I'll at least get two assignments out of the way. Three would be nice, but that's not gonna happen.
Finally finished grading. Overall better than last year but wow, one student went so far off course I had to consult with the prof (I'm a TA). Back to hopefully finishing my dissertation by the end of the month.
Nice split of As and A-s (I'm in Canada). One A+, one B+, one D. Last year I had more B+s. The online session we had that outlined pitfalls seems to have worked as only one student (the D) didn't address the assignment framework. This is a graduate course.
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 11, 2022, 11:29:29 AM
I'll at least get two assignments out of the way. Three would be nice, but that's not gonna happen.
Managed four!
Grading is done and grades are posted. Grade grubbing may now commence!
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on December 11, 2022, 04:17:41 PM
Grading is done and grades are posted. Grade grubbing may now commence!
Yay!
Same. I already got a request for 'something else to do' from a student who got an F. Nope. You should have passed more than 1 out of 5 tests this semester.
Quote from: OneMoreYear on December 10, 2022, 07:51:51 AM
Yup, tis the season for binge grading. To do by Tuesday:
14 recorded group assignments (likely will be good per initial TA review)
25 skills assignments (likely be mostly good, usually have only a couple flame-outs) FINALLY DONE!
1 delayed 3-hour competency exam (could go either way)
30 short papers (eh, probably OK)
30 longer papers (will be the worst; holding to the end where I will care less. Need to make simpler rubric).
If I do nothing but grade for the next 4 days, I think I might make it.
Happy grading, everyone!
I am sooooo jealous of everyone on this thread who is done. I've got a long couple of days ahead.
Quote from: OneMoreYear on December 11, 2022, 08:32:11 PM
Quote from: OneMoreYear on December 10, 2022, 07:51:51 AM
Yup, tis the season for binge grading. To do by Tuesday:
14 recorded group assignments (likely will be good per initial TA review)
25 skills assignments (likely be mostly good, usually have only a couple flame-outs) FINALLY DONE!
1 delayed 3-hour competency exam (could go either way)
30 short papers (eh, probably OK)
30 longer papers (will be the worst; holding to the end where I will care less. Need to make simpler rubric).
If I do nothing but grade for the next 4 days, I think I might make it.
Happy grading, everyone!
I am sooooo jealous of everyone on this thread who is done. I've got a long couple of days ahead.
If it makes you feel any better, my classes only ended on Friday, and the exam period goes until the 16th.
Quote from: AmLitHist on December 10, 2022, 06:38:11 AM
Same here, Sun Worshiper:
-19 final Comp I papers graded this week
-30 more final Comp I papers sitting in Canvas, to grade today
-~15 Comp I final papers coming on Wednesday (hopefully some will submit earlier)
-~5 Comp II final papers due on Tuesday
There are also some discussion boards (which will get the "posted on time = full credit" treatment at this late date) due by tomorrow night, and about 20 "gimme" reflection papers due Wednesday/Thursday.
Everything is getting half-assed/minimal commentary at this point. If they want detailed feedback, they can ask, but since most have gotten and ignored that all fall, I doubt m/any will pursue it now.
Onward. . . .
Progress.
I'll try to get through one set of papers today.
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on December 11, 2022, 04:17:41 PM
Grading is done and grades are posted. Grade grubbing may now commence!
Here as well! Now, back to the dissertation.
I am tallying scores on practical exams. It is not pretty
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 12, 2022, 10:53:24 AM
I'll try to get through one set of papers today.
Did a bit more than that. Unfortunately, the grade tally-er is broken for two of my courses, so I'll have to fill them in by hand.
Got one class done today, plus ten or so papers from another.
Another class done today. Three more to go.
Research papers graded today. Just a few straggling oral presentations to listen to over Zoom and respond to, and final exams (easy to grade) on Monday.
Presentations graded, exams graded.
Tomorrow, final at the Aquarium.
Friday, final papers and then I.AM.DONE.
Grading presentations. Most are really good & easy to score. But yikes, the ones that are not good are really bad.
I finished grading exams and projects last night. Let things percolate overnight to give me time to decide if I wanted to change any of the cutoff points, I didn't. This afternoon I posted final grades on Canvas and then input grades into our official system. So far only two emails and both received (after I double-checked that there was not a mistake) "you received the grade you earned" replies. So glad to be done. I even put my email on auto-reply.
Graded a small pile, and got two new courses shipshape for next semester. Four essays in a row, in one class, were really, really good, and they all got 100%. Although I give out a perfect score or two every semester, this many is unprecedented.
It makes for a nice change from the FML dross that usually makes up most of my piles!
Graded the first set of grad papers last week (my theory course). First one I read was clearly (but not demonstrably) bought or AI-generated, which set my grumpy mood for the rest of the papers.
Just started my second set of grad papers (method this time). First one I read knocked it out of the freakin' park. I mean -- wow! This is a quiet and shy student who has really come out of her shell over the course of the semester.
Now the bar is really high for the rest of the papers, but I'm in a much better mood.
Quote from: traductio on December 16, 2022, 07:03:43 AM
Graded the first set of grad papers last week (my theory course). First one I read was clearly (but not demonstrably) bought or AI-generated, which set my grumpy mood for the rest of the papers.
Just started my second set of grad papers (method this time). First one I read knocked it out of the freakin' park. I mean -- wow! This is a quiet and shy student who has really come out of her shell over the course of the semester.
Now the bar is really high for the rest of the papers, but I'm in a much better mood.
Drawing a shy student out and encouraging her to do very well in the course sounds like a classroom victory to me. Congratulations!
Everything graded; final grades posted in Banner; out-of-office reply up on email!
YAY.
Quote from: AmLitHist on December 16, 2022, 11:31:37 AM
Everything graded; final grades posted in Banner; out-of-office reply up on email!
YAY.
+1! I've had good students overall, but it's been a long semester.
I have three more days before grades are due. This is probably my last semester as a teacher, and probably the last three days at my current school. The grading is fast, superficial, and generous.
That's 5 classes worth of grading done, and grades submitted. The flow of email "queries" from students has largely stopped.
One other class graded but not submitted. I'm waiting to see if there will be more emails. And some final papers coming in for the last class on the weekend.
Only 28 more papers left, and a few straggler exams. Oof. Three more days to do it all.
Quote from: apl68 on December 16, 2022, 08:29:23 AM
Quote from: traductio on December 16, 2022, 07:03:43 AM
Graded the first set of grad papers last week (my theory course). First one I read was clearly (but not demonstrably) bought or AI-generated, which set my grumpy mood for the rest of the papers.
Just started my second set of grad papers (method this time). First one I read knocked it out of the freakin' park. I mean -- wow! This is a quiet and shy student who has really come out of her shell over the course of the semester.
Now the bar is really high for the rest of the papers, but I'm in a much better mood.
Drawing a shy student out and encouraging her to do very well in the course sounds like a classroom victory to me. Congratulations!
Indeed! I reached out to her at a certain point in the semester -- just an email to say, hey, your contributions in class are great! (And they were.) After that, watching her gain confidence was the high point of the semester.
Done! Grades are submitted!
This was the Fall term that would not end. I'm so glad it's over.
Now to wait for the email from students . . .
Twelve more essays to go.
I somehow finished the night before the grades were due, before ten. Very nice to not have to be waking up this morning with various leftovers to grade and things to input.
Done.
Three reflection essays left to grade. I've offered Incompletes to three students. They need to digitally sign the paperwork from the Registrar to accept the plan I proposed — if they don't do so by the end of the month, they get F's. If they sign but don't turn in the work by mid-January, they get the F's. Given their inability to turn in work in the first place, I have my doubts that the extensions will help, but it's on their shoulders now.
Grades are in. Several got rounded up to the next grade. Let's see if anybody complains.