Creepy silence

[Baldwinschild]

One thing I recommend (which is hard to do) is to stop looking at who accessed the readings and when students logged into the LMS. I used to do this obsessively and panic about it. I got so wrapped up in their level of activity in the online class that is really got to me. My spouse told me to chill, and it actually has helped a lot with my stress. They are adults and choose whether or not to participate. What you can do is nudge them in grading comments/feedback, with something like "I encourage you to reference the readings more in your response" or "I noticed on the quiz you missed all the questions pertaining to XYZ reading. Can I help you understand this concept better? Let's set up a time to meet on the phone or video chat." That shows you care without worrying so much about their schedules. I teach students in my online classes who tend to be working full-time. I have to think about how they have different schedules and may be logging in only at night or on weekends. Anyway, I would say it is wonderful that you care, but as my spouse told me, I should not have to "care more about the class for them than they do."

I don't obsessively check the completion logs or their progress.  I keep an eye on the completion log because it gives me a sense of the overall progress.  Usually, I just glance at them to check for weirdness.   Once I saw that no one had completed anything and realized I had not made the reading "visible" to them.  I had to email them and tell them about it after I fixed it and give them an extra two days to complete the quiz.  So, checking those logs periodically can save me a lot of trouble later. 
I also don't care when they access the course.   But it helps me to see that info sometimes.  For instance, I learned that one kid always checks in around 3 am, so I extended the next set of quizzes beyond midnight so he can take them then.  I would not have thought of that otherwise.

I try to get out in front of stuff as much as I can.  Students who don't even access the readings tend to fail quizzes or plagiarize.  Or, they may need a gentle nudge or inquiry from me.  Or, I need to reconsider the pacing of the course.  So, I check—it takes three seconds.  Though I do try to stay away from their progress logs.  It feels invasive to view those details.  I looked at his because they above those of another kid who claimed she had tried to take a quiz—I suspected she was lying, so I went in and viewed her activity. 

[darkstarrynight]

I understand. I certainly notice if students have not participated or just disappear and file early alerts on those students.

[Baldwinschild]

Yikes, sorry about the quote box and the errors.  iPad writing . . . .

[Baldwinschild]

A quick update:  So, I think they just decided to bomb the test for today and also be mad at me.  The grades are terrible.  I've not posted them, but so far, so bad. 

And, I got this from one of ladies:

" I just finished my comprehensive exam, and in the middle of my exam, I realized I may have answered one of the questions wrong, but I was unable to go back. While I appreciate your efforts to replicate the classroom setting in our test-taking (I believe the time limit of 75 minutes was barely enough for me, but still reasonable), I was wondering why you had added the inability to go back and forth on questions, since that would be a possibility in a physical classroom. I personally believe being able to skip questions would allow me to navigate the test much more efficiently. "

This is a follow-up to the complaint about the time limits.  I should point out that she and others are actively sharing the exams by text message.  I know this because the one who plagiarized threw them under the bus.  She sent me screenshots to show they plagiarized more. 

I'm a bit annoyed. 

I don't want them to skip questions.  It is clear to anyone who completed the exam that paging backwards would reveal answers. 

[arcturus]

I am sorry to hear that you are having to deal with difficult students this term. It sounds like this student is not aware that she has enrolled in an online class that is designed to be an online class, including how the assessments are completed. There should be no expectation that "they replicate the classroom setting." I have no good advice on how to communicate to her that she has mis-placed expectations regarding this class, since a straightforward reply of "Thank you for your feedback. Please keep in mind that this is an online course. The required activities are designed with an understanding of the different conditions under which students learn and are able to demonstrate their knowledge in an online environment." is likely to be received poorly. Good luck with the remainder of the term. Sometimes we just have to power through.

[clean]

Cheating is a problem always.  It can not likely be stopped, only managed. 
We have been shown ways to use Webex to monitor the exams. It isnt pretty for large groups though.
I last used Respondis Monitor, but much prefer Examity, and will be using Examity for exams (and the monitor for quizzes) in the next term and for sure in the fall (assuming that I will be back online rather than face to face)

[Baldwinschild]

I am sorry to hear that you are having to deal with difficult students this term. It sounds like this student is not aware that she has enrolled in an online class that is designed to be an online class, including how the assessments are completed. There should be no expectation that "they replicate the classroom setting." I have no good advice on how to communicate to her that she has mis-placed expectations regarding this class, since a straightforward reply of "Thank you for your feedback. Please keep in mind that this is an online course. The required activities are designed with an understanding of the different conditions under which students learn and are able to demonstrate their knowledge in an online environment." is likely to be received poorly. Good luck with the remainder of the term. Sometimes we just have to power through.

Whew, you have no idea how much I needed that language.  I am getting really annoyed, and I did not know what to write back in response.  My first thought was that would ignore it, but then I realized that ignoring it could be a bad move.  I don't want it to come back and bite me later as "she didn't even respond when I asked politely about xyz."  But I was too angry to think of clear and measured response. 
She's just angry because she knows she did poorly on the exam.  She didn't even look at the texts until 3 hours before. 
Thank you for telling me how to word this email.  What you wrote is professional and respectful, and it's so far from where I am right now.  I'll write her back with this and move on.  Thank you. 

[Baldwinschild]

Cheating is a problem always.  It can not likely be stopped, only managed. 
We have been shown ways to use Webex to monitor the exams. It isnt pretty for large groups though.
I last used Respondis Monitor, but much prefer Examity, and will be using Examity for exams (and the monitor for quizzes) in the next term and for sure in the fall (assuming that I will be back online rather than face to face)

I am always unforgiving when it comes to cheating.  I have a reputation for it in the department.  But I am so tired, and this course is so short, I just want to get through it.  I noticed we have examity, but I wasn't sure it could be used online.  It sounds like it is working for you!  I'll look at it tonight and see what it is about. 
This is a downer.  I really thought I could manage this with creative assignments and tests.  I hope this doesn't become a huge problem.  This is a joyless way of teaching. Thank you. 

[arcturus]

I am sorry to hear that you are having to deal with difficult students this term. It sounds like this student is not aware that she has enrolled in an online class that is designed to be an online class, including how the assessments are completed. There should be no expectation that "they replicate the classroom setting." I have no good advice on how to communicate to her that she has mis-placed expectations regarding this class, since a straightforward reply of "Thank you for your feedback. Please keep in mind that this is an online course. The required activities are designed with an understanding of the different conditions under which students learn and are able to demonstrate their knowledge in an online environment." is likely to be received poorly. Good luck with the remainder of the term. Sometimes we just have to power through.

Whew, you have no idea how much I needed that language.  I am getting really annoyed, and I did not know what to write back in response.  My first thought was that would ignore it, but then I realized that ignoring it could be a bad move.  I don't want it to come back and bite me later as "she didn't even respond when I asked politely about xyz."  But I was too angry to think of clear and measured response. 
She's just angry because she knows she did poorly on the exam.  She didn't even look at the texts until 3 hours before. 
Thank you for telling me how to word this email.  What you wrote is professional and respectful, and it's so far from where I am right now.  I'll write her back with this and move on.  Thank you. 

Glad to be of assistance.

In regards to the cheating issues, my approach is to allow open note, open book, open internet, and open friend. This requires more creativity in writing exam questions, but makes it more fair, without requiring extra technology, since pretty much everything is permitted.  I do scramble my questions, randomize multple choice answers, and prevent going backwards to change answers to previous questions (and no opportunity to view the correct answers at the end of the test).  I think there may be a way to have random numbers inserted as well (my questions do not have much of a numerical component, so I have not investigated this aspect of our LMS). These strategies will not solve the problem of die-hard cheaters, but limited time on the exam often helps with that as well. If your three students are colluding on the exam (which would be permitted under my rules), they are probably assuming that they only need to master 1/3 of the work. If you scramble the questions and keep the 75 minute time restriction and no ability to go backwards, I suspect that your students will rapidly discover their mistake.  Of course, they could group-take the exam 3 times, sequentially, but that requires a level of effort that most students would not undertake (if they did so, however, they might accidently teach each other the content that they skipped...).

[Baldwinschild]

I am sorry to hear that you are having to deal with difficult students this term. It sounds like this student is not aware that she has enrolled in an online class that is designed to be an online class, including how the assessments are completed. There should be no expectation that "they replicate the classroom setting." I have no good advice on how to communicate to her that she has mis-placed expectations regarding this class, since a straightforward reply of "Thank you for your feedback. Please keep in mind that this is an online course. The required activities are designed with an understanding of the different conditions under which students learn and are able to demonstrate their knowledge in an online environment." is likely to be received poorly. Good luck with the remainder of the term. Sometimes we just have to power through.

Whew, you have no idea how much I needed that language.  I am getting really annoyed, and I did not know what to write back in response.  My first thought was that would ignore it, but then I realized that ignoring it could be a bad move.  I don't want it to come back and bite me later as "she didn't even respond when I asked politely about xyz."  But I was too angry to think of clear and measured response. 
She's just angry because she knows she did poorly on the exam.  She didn't even look at the texts until 3 hours before. 
Thank you for telling me how to word this email.  What you wrote is professional and respectful, and it's so far from where I am right now.  I'll write her back with this and move on.  Thank you. 

Glad to be of assistance.

In regards to the cheating issues, my approach is to allow open note, open book, open internet, and open friend. This requires more creativity in writing exam questions, but makes it more fair, without requiring extra technology, since pretty much everything is permitted.  I do scramble my questions, randomize multple choice answers, and prevent going backwards to change answers to previous questions (and no opportunity to view the correct answers at the end of the test).  I think there may be a way to have random numbers inserted as well (my questions do not have much of a numerical component, so I have not investigated this aspect of our LMS). These strategies will not solve the problem of die-hard cheaters, but limited time on the exam often helps with that as well. If your three students are colluding on the exam (which would be permitted under my rules), they are probably assuming that they only need to master 1/3 of the work. If you scramble the questions and keep the 75 minute time restriction and no ability to go backwards, I suspect that your students will rapidly discover their mistake.  Of course, they could group-take the exam 3 times, sequentially, but that requires a level of effort that most students would not undertake (if they did so, however, they might accidently teach each other the content that they skipped...).

Oh!  Oh my.  Okay.  This makes so much sense!  I did everything you mentioned:  scrambled, no paging, one per page.  And, I shuffled the individual questions as well, the multiple choice questions, that is.  The exam is mixed:  short-answer, written response, fill-in, and multiple choice.  And no retakes.  So, this must have hit them hard, Lololololol.  Wow, you are deep in this.  This is next-level stuff for me. 

I do allow them to consult the text, but there's no way they can find the answers if the first time they see the texts is during an exam.  I'm having difficulty with the open collaboration part.  If this were not a foundational course, I could consider it.  But they need to know all the things, not just the part they were responsible for in a group effort.  Also, the other students who have no group—they would get shafted.  One reason I let them use the texts is that I figure if they don't read carefully, they will catch the information the second time around when they have locate it for the exam.  So, the exam kind of supplements the readings. 

It is such a pain.  I am trying to keep some perspective here.  Maybe it's just one group, and everyone else is fine.  Students can just get under the skin and keep you (me) running in circles.  Just when I think I have the whole teaching thing down—something happens that makes me feel like I don't know a thing.  I used to think one day this just stopped happening.  Now I see it that goes in cycles and waves.  Thank you for your advice; I may need to open my mind to new ways and think of how to implement some of the "open" policies you use. 

Crud.  ((Kicks rocks))

[Hegemony]

"Dear Student, I do not allow going back to look at previous answers because in an online setting, this would allow students to cheat more easily. For instance, they could be sending each other text messages with the correct answers, and then other students could go back and plug the correct answers into previous questions. And if students did that, I would fail them for cheating. That may yet happen. So I want to prevent students from having even the temptation to commit such an egregious violation of university standards and cheat. Yours sincerely," etc.

And then I would submit their names to the Student Conduct office, and get ready to fail them, after due process.

Not kidding about any of this.  There's absolutely no need to beat around the bush about taking action to prevent cheating, or about the penalties if they cheat anyway.

[arcturus]

For context, my exam policies are designed for a large enrollment, introductory level, science class, where the students do not need to remember the details after they have passed the class. Thus, there is no long-term harm if they look up facts on the internet during the exam.  However, very few of my questions can be answered by looking things up, as they are mostly application-of-knowledge type questions. Even with my "open-everything" approach, my median exam scores are still in the low 70s for a fully multiple choice exam (i.e., the correct answer is directly in front of them and they still choose something else).

It did take me awhile to rationalize the open-friend aspect of my exam policies, but I decided ultimately that that policy saved a lot of grief (in terms of filing misconduct reports) for this specific course.  Scrambling the questions, and not allowing revisions, helps mitigate this problem, since the students encounter the questions at different times.  Nonetheless, I did have one case where the stronger student (in the known student pair) did not finish the exam. I think this was because she was helping her friend and did not realize how quickly the time was passing...

I agree that allowing students to collude in a class that is setting the foundational knowledge for the field is more problematic than in my GenEd course. However, it sounds like your anti-cheating measures have had their desired effect.  Keep up the good work. Realize that this too shall pass. And try not to let their whining get under your skin.

[marshwiggle]

It did take me awhile to rationalize the open-friend aspect of my exam policies, but I decided ultimately that that policy saved a lot of grief (in terms of filing misconduct reports) for this specific course.  Scrambling the questions, and not allowing revisions, helps mitigate this problem, since the students encounter the questions at different times.  Nonetheless, I did have one case where the stronger student (in the known student pair) did not finish the exam. I think this was because she was helping her friend and did not realize how quickly the time was passing...

I bet that was a learning experience for the stronger student.

[arcturus]

It did take me awhile to rationalize the open-friend aspect of my exam policies, but I decided ultimately that that policy saved a lot of grief (in terms of filing misconduct reports) for this specific course.  Scrambling the questions, and not allowing revisions, helps mitigate this problem, since the students encounter the questions at different times.  Nonetheless, I did have one case where the stronger student (in the known student pair) did not finish the exam. I think this was because she was helping her friend and did not realize how quickly the time was passing...

I bet that was a learning experience for the stronger student.

Yes. And she was gifted with another learning experience when she submitted a final project where her friend contributed plagiarized content.  My class provides so many learning opportunities!  [I also learned from the latter and no longer allow group projects, no matter how much the students plead that their project will be so much better if they can work together.]

[mamselle]

I haven't yet dealt with this in an online setting, so it's not perhaps as useful, but in terms of student learning in a fairly rigorous art history course f2f, I've always allowed open book/open note tests (as we were allowed in all the art history courses I ever took, grad or undergrad).

Assimilation of the material and application of theoretical ideas (color schemes, spatial illusions, design and composition structures) to actual objects (whether covered in class or not) is such a complex process that if they can achieve it, with or without additional aids, they will have learned what the class is set up to teach: "How to see what you're looking at, and how to look at what you see."

Standard acquisition of images by recognition is c. 100 objects per semester: they need that many to have a good base for comparanda and trend-spotting. I give out a table with the "5-point IDs" (name, artist, date, place, movement/era/style of work) and they can use that, too, since if they mis-identify the work and then copy all the wrong info down, then they've missed the original point--to have an internal visual library of images--they've clearly gotten it wrong, and there are usually no arguments.

I, too, had a case of plagiarism right before my eyes in-class...there were 2 students who'd been studying together, and one had forgotten her book.

I loaned her mine, and started circulating in the room.

While I was passing their desks, the weaker one wrote a ? beside a picture and passed it to the stronger one, who wrote the answer down and returned the book....my book.

I asked them both to stop writing, take their tests outside, and sit in the hall; we met as soon as the rest of the class had finished the test.

The stronger student accepted her failing grade, said she understood the seriousness of her actions, and that they'd studied so much together, she just forgot where she was and gave the answer without thinking. She still passed the class with a C, since the failed test offset a string of As and it seemed she had learned her lesson.

The other student fought me, appealed, and even after a meeting with the chair and myself (in which my book was the primary evidence) was unrepentant.

As we got up to leave, she said plaintively, "But can't I still get an "A"?"

As Pry would have said, she not only flunked the class, she flunked cheating...

M.