The grading thread

[ciao_yall]

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?

[Parasaurolophus]

Managed half the participation counting, plus a pile of exams and a few straggler papers. I am very, very close to done.

[AvidReader]

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.

[Parasaurolophus]

Did a ton of exams and one more set of participation marks.  One to go!

[Parasaurolophus]

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.

[mamselle]

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.

[Sun_Worshiper]

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.

[Parasaurolophus]

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!

[OneMoreYear]

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.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

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)?

[RatGuy]

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.

[OneMoreYear]

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.

[Langue_doc]

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.

[AvidReader]

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.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

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...