The grading thread

[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)?

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!

[Parasaurolophus]

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.

[smallcleanrat]

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.

[Sun_Worshiper]

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.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

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.

[kiana]

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.

[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.

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?

[spork]

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.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

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?

[the_geneticist]

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.

[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.

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!

[Sun_Worshiper]

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.

[ergative]

Done with final projects! Now about 12 final exams, before the next batch of exams comes in next week.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I'm taking a moment to procrastinate.

[AvidReader]

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.