how to deal with covid denial remarks in assignment?

[rabbitandfox23]

I'm curious to hear how you all would deal with students who express statements in class or in their assignment that deny the seriousness of the pandemic, or which verge on conspiracy theories.

In my course on medieval history, I ask that my students submit regular reflections as part of their participation grade. I give them a lot of latitude in terms of what they write for these assignments as long as they touch on the materials for the course.  I also grade it credit/no credit, as the primary objective of the exercise is for them to articulate their thoughts in informal fashion.

In one reflection, a student disagreed with one of the articles assigned for the week and then veered toward a rant about how the coronavirus is no more serious than the flu and that those who submit to the lockdown regulations are sheep who don't look at the empirics.

Do I give the student credit since s/he did submit something, and esp. given hat I left the criteria quite flexible? Do I give half credit, suggesting that s/he stick more closely to the relevant topic next time?  Or do I give a zero on the basis of the rant?

Does it count as his/her freedom of speech to not believe in the virus or its seriousness? I obviously don't want to get into a debate with this students about conspiracies, especially since this is not related to the class.

Would appreciate to know how you would proceed!   

[dismalist]

Looks like the grading is not to be about substance, but rather about the ways of getting to a conclusion. Always use one's usual criteria.

For the next exercise, ask the kids to write about the Black Plague, and for Modern History about the 1918 [merely] flu!

Best of luck.

[fishbrains]

Give the student credit and move on. Don't go down the rabbit hole. If you are going to give them the latitude, you are going to get some funky responses.

[Langue_doc]

I would give the student credit if this is their first assignment, but point out that statements in all subsequent assignments must be supported by evidence from reliable sources. I would also point out the difference between academic discourse and what is seen as rants if this is relevant for your course.

[AvidReader]

In one reflection, a student disagreed with one of the articles assigned for the week and then veered toward a rant about how the coronavirus is no more serious than the flu and that those who submit to the lockdown regulations are sheep who don't look at the empirics.

If the engagement with the article is adequate, I would give credit. If not, I would not give credit and would instead explain how to connect future responses with the text to meet your rubric/guidelines.

AR.

[KiUlv]

I would give credit given that you have broad criteria, as long as the student touched upon the topic assigned adequately. You could always make a comment that indicated future reflections needed to stay more on topic.

[Parasaurolophus]

You need to grant the credit. You probably don't want to engage, but you can allow yourself a 'this is false' comment, or 'influenza has x morbidity, covid has y', or whatever. But I wouldn't bother, because it's not worth the energy or being dinged on your evals.

[Hegemony]

Yay for medievalists. Anyway, I would take off some points for statements not supported by evidence, just as I would as if they wrote, "The Plague arrived in England in 1205, the date of Shakespeare's birth" or "Columbus was lucky not to sail off the edge of the earth when he went to America, because that is what happened to the Vikings." I mean, facts are facts. Not all knowledge is relative.  And I would write a gentle but firm note giving some evidence about the seriousness of COVID-19. This is a lesson in not making unsupported claims about controversial or complex subjects. Anything they put in the essay is fair game for dinging points, in my view. And the views of an authority have weight; similarly not challenging erroneous views is (IMHO) a dereliction of duty. Again, I don't mean subjective views, like "Chaucer meant the Knight to be ironic." As long as they can support subjective views, well and good. But some things are not just wrong, but dangerously wrong. Also, be sure to wear a mask if you encounter this student in person.

[Caracal]

If the point of the assignment is just to get them to read and engage with the material in some form, then you shouldn't take points off for this kind of stuff as long as they are engaging. Would you take points off if a student compared something to the French Revolution and got important facts wrong about it? If the answer is no, then you shouldn't take points off for this either.

I'd probably only write comments if it was indicative of conceptual problems with the discipline and material. If the student, for example, said it was silly for us to worry about something with less than two percent mortality, since people in the medieval period had to deal with worse, you might want to point out that it is important to try to understand approaches to disease from the perspective of people at the time, rather than always trying to see things from a modern perspective.

[mamselle]

I agree with Hegemony, and also have in mind the current problem with right-leaning groups trying to create wildly revisionist interpretations of medieval events, ideas, and people, re-casting them to support their own stances about things.

This student isn't yet quite doing that, but it's a short step away from one sort of bumbling inaccuracy to the next, and it's easier to prevent the one by clearly but kindly (but with points subtracted) correcting the other.

I'm thinking of William Chester Jordan's book on medieval history (title escaping me at the moment) with its section on weather issues and population declines as a good antidote.  You might suggest the student do some follow-up work on that as a good example of how to understand the past and present on each others' terms.

It may be a chance to set a small boat going the wrong direction back on course.

M.

[AvidReader]

You probably don't want to engage, but you can allow yourself a 'this is false' comment [. . .]

I mean, facts are facts. Not all knowledge is relative.  And I would write a gentle but firm note giving some evidence about the seriousness of COVID-19. This is a lesson in not making unsupported claims about controversial or complex subjects. Anything they put in the essay is fair game for dinging points, in my view. And the views of an authority have weight; similarly not challenging erroneous views is (IMHO) a dereliction of duty.

I don't disagree with either of the above statements, but I just want to point out that the type of student likely to believe that "the coronavirus is no more serious than the flu" is fairly likely to have come from a background that believes all college professors are left-leaning people who perpetuate conspiracy theories like COVID. I grew up in conservative circles with friends like this, have taught students like this (and interacted with their parents) at a private religious secondary school, and have encountered similarly-minded students at college. Just stating "this is false" or offering "evidence about the seriousness of COVID-19" may actually cause the student to discount the instructor's future views and authority. If you do want to weigh in on COVID for a COVID-denying student, I would do so very carefully, along the lines of "please document sources" or Parasaurolophus' second suggestion ("'influenza has x morbidity, covid has y'"). But this student has probably heard parents, pastor, and maybe even a blogger/newscaster express the views the student has shared, so the student probably thinks the given statement *is* factual and authoritative (even if it is not). If you don't have the time to spend disillusioning the student in great depth, I would be very careful about how you framed a response, because it could well undermine your future authority.

AR

[Hegemony]

I think an emphasis on reliable supporting evidence is important. So I don't advocate just saying, "No, COVID is more serious than the flu," but providing actual evidence in a way that models the kind of decision process the student should be making. If kids aren't going to learn about weighing and providing evidence for claims in college, when in their future life are they going to learn it? That's a big part of what college is for.

If this kind of thing is not in the assignment instructions, those should be revised for next time around. "Respond to" may be too loosey-goosey if any kind of response at all gets them a good grade. Obviously you want authentic responses, but also you don't want them to think they can just free-associate randomly and have that count as a thoughtful response.

[teach_write_research]

Since it's an informal assignment and it sounds like the student adequately linked their thoughts to the reading then I say credit. I don't think you need to change anything. These are excellent assignments for doing exactly what you are trying to do, get their thoughts out so that they can be examined. Tangent rants are part of the risk but at least now you know. If you are meeting in person at all maybe give a separate reminder of the institutional COVID requirements as a follow-up. If you are remote online then ...be grateful you don't have to share a classroom with them?

[rabbitandfox23]

Thanks, everyone -- all of your comments have been very helpful. What took me by surprise is that I've had this student before and s/he has always been at the top of the class -- consistently produces high quality work, well-spoken, and intellectually driven, too.  Good teacher student rapport overall.  So I was a bit disappointed to see this.  My feeling is that s/he knows that the views expressed in the reflection are politically driven and meant to provoke and any attempt on my part to "correct" his/her views would only play into the game or reinforce previously held assumptions.

[Caracal]

I think an emphasis on reliable supporting evidence is important. So I don't advocate just saying, "No, COVID is more serious than the flu," but providing actual evidence in a way that models the kind of decision process the student should be making. If kids aren't going to learn about weighing and providing evidence for claims in college, when in their future life are they going to learn it? That's a big part of what college is for.

If this kind of thing is not in the assignment instructions, those should be revised for next time around. "Respond to" may be too loosey-goosey if any kind of response at all gets them a good grade. Obviously you want authentic responses, but also you don't want them to think they can just free-associate randomly and have that count as a thoughtful response.

If this was an essay, I'd obviously agree with you. However, often all you're trying to do with a response paper is get students to read the assignment and have some sort of thought about it, presumably as a way to improve class discussion. I sometimes have response papers where it is clear the student has completely misunderstood the reading. I don't dock points for that as long as it seems like they did read it. I don't want to penalize students because they misunderstood something before we discussed it in class. That's what class is for, after all.

There are also issues with grading and workload for both the students and the instructor to consider. Things like response papers add up if you have a bunch of students. You can move through them a lot more quickly if you're just giving students full credit for anything that is basically a good faith effort. If you start complicating things, it will really slow you down.

Now, if the student didn't even really address the reading and just went into a covid rant, that's different. However, it sounds like they had done the reading and had thoughts on it. Perhaps just put a note saying that while its fine to sometimes draw parallels, you don't want to veer way off topic in the future.