Monday, August 08, 2011

Forgive Us Our Trespasses...

Course Evaluations are in from Spring. Let me put it this way: one bad review. This student also complained that my grading was inconsistent and unfair. I know exactly who this student is, and I need not check handwriting to confirm (besides I can't really do that very well anyway). This would be the crier- the student who twice came into my office in tears about some issue or other. Let me review my unfairness toward this student:

1) The student was given the mid-term take-home exam 10 days before any other student, and was allowed three more days time to work on it than anyone other student. The student turned in the midterm nearly 20 hours after the agreed upon time, and I still accepted it, despite not giving any leniency to other students regarding turning the test in late.
2) The student agreed to not discuss her exam with anyone, then discussed it with two of her cohorts. They all took (incorrect) answers off of wikipedia. Instead of charging them with academic misconduct, I allowed them to take the Final Exam. All three failed the Final anyway.
3) At no time did I responsibly file Academic Misconduct charges.
4) I allowed a total of two crying jags at a duration of nearly six minutes each. It was only after the second that I told the student to act like an adult and get her work done (in much nicer words).

I did indeed behave irresponsibly: my grading was inconsistent and unfair. It was unfair to the all the other students in my course who turned in chapter reviews, data assignments, portfolios, exams and presentations on time. I am deeply sorry to those students, who did not try to shortcut, bully, cheat or cry their way to a passing grade.

Glowing reviews from every other student. My personal favorite:
"This was one of the best courses I've had in the ECON department. He expected a lot from us, but clearly also expected a lot from himself. He is the fairest, most competent GTA I've ever had at KU. Thank you for a great class!"

Awwwww.

Still, I was harder on this Spring batch than I have ever been on a batch of students. I wonder how far I can push the Fall batch? Oh, and no more wheeling-and-dealing with plagiarizing students. I do not subscribe to the myth of accidental plagiarism anymore, or unintentional copy-pasting. It's going on my syllabus: "All plagiarism will be treated as intentional and malicious, and will be prosecuted as such." I'm not even going to meet with them to ask anymore. I'm just going to push it down to the admins at Liberal Arts and Sciences and they can slap them on the wrists, as they usually do. But at least that way there's a record.

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