Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Ummm...

... apparently I left myself logged in -- I didn't know the Queen could type. Odd...

I'm figuring out that there are always students who will miss the deadline buss.

My first round of on-line exams -- I realized that I had too small a window for them to take the exam -- since they didn't actually get class time off to take it. I extended the deadlines to include most of the weekend after the original deadline, and I still got "I thought it closed _______".

The thing is, it doesn't bother me. I'm sorry they missed the exam. I'm sorry they couldn't manage their lives better. I'm sorry they got a sniffle and couldn't concentrate. I'm sorry they had to go out of town and thus outside the range of the internet.... like, to the moon or something -- and I'm sorry they didn't think to take their exam before they went on our fall break -- etc... I'm sorry only because these are interesting students and I want them to do well.

I don't think I need to change -- and I've had no compelling reasons to permit a make-up. Meeting a deadline is a basic life skill, as is taking my advice when I say "check the deadline for yourself, it isn't important to me"....

I've also had a new twist...

Remember X -- the one who missed the exam and claimed computer problems? The one the dean backed me up on... etc..

It seems that X has a new twist -- WHILE X hand hir exam open, s/he randomly e-mailed people on the class e-mail list for help. A few people told me about it.

Dang -- I'd have never thought to e-mail someone to help me cheat. That stuff is now in writing.

I have no evidence that X got any help... but I haven't done all the grading either -- so, I'm going to look for evidence that X copied someone else's answer and nail hir -- and all future exams will have the lock-down features enabled.

Funny -- that X's computer/internet connection was so terrible that X couldn't do the last exam -- but, X can e-mail other students late in the evening (thus, X wasn't at school) AND complete this exam... hmmm.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I read this and can only think, "Technology is supposed to be HELPFUL," but then...much to be said for pen and paper and an assigned time in an assigned classroom. Trouble free every time.