Because I am hip and awesome and let my students submit their essays electronically, I was online for a couple hours last night to be available for them to chat with me if they were having last minute panic, or trouble with the submission process.
Here, for your amusement, is one such exchange.
Student: I am having real trouble getting my list of sources in the right order for my works cited.
Me: Oh, okay. Here's a video to help you.
If I had a nickel for every Sesame Street lesson my students failed to learn...
ReplyDeleteHere is an actual video of me teaching chem lab, but with an obviously fictionalized ending:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTnwTSe5H3Q
They don't come much hipper or more awesome than Ray Charles. But don't you find that electronic submission gives the students more excuses for why they didn't turn in their work on time? I tried this, back in my wild youth, but I did away with it because I found it more trouble than it was worth. I want paper copies turned in during class: it gives them an excuse to attend class.
ReplyDeleteI normally require paper copies in class, but this is an half and half online class, so I kind of feel obliged to let them use online submission. On the upside, I have a "no comments for late work" policy, so anything that wasn't there by the last tick of the deadline is just easier to mark when it does show up.
ReplyDeleteI find that it's much BETTER for maintaining deadlines to get them to turn in the work online; because then I know exactly when it came in, and don't have to deal with "but I gave it to the secretary on Tuesday I don't know why she didn't give it to you/ I slid it under your door just after class did you not see it?" conversations. And since there is a copy on their computer, my computer, and the gmail server, I don't need to deal with the "you must have lost my paper" conversations either; if it does evaporate I can download another copy. And if they tell me they tried and failed to upload it the system preserves the record of their attempt (or the fact that there was in fact no such attempt). It's pretty much snowflake-proof.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing it doesn't guard against is the ones who deliberately upload the wrong file (because they haven't written the right one yet) and then present innocently with "OMG I uploaded my chem notes instead I'm so sorry" and hope I won't take marks off for lateness. I don't run into this level of deviousness often enough to worry about it though.
That was an awesome video! I miss Captain Picard. Embarrassed that I don't know who all the singers were.
ReplyDeleteMy method is: turn in a paper copy in class during the first five minutes of class on the specified date. No mailboxes, no slipping things under doors, no e-mail, no submissions by fax. (Remember them?) If you can't, have a valid, written excuse, such as a signed note from the health center that says you were treated, not one that just says you were there. It's snowflake proof, too.
ReplyDeleteThis semester, I decided to try having students submit selected papers electronically, but I'm seeing the phenomenon that some others have noted: late submissions. And... how do I know they're late? I have Blackboard turn off the assignment (from view) at a certain time.
ReplyDeleteI actually got the following: "Please let me know the procedure to follow to turn in my mid-term. I noticed that the link on BB is now closed."
And... that particular person didn't come to class that night and the message wasn't until the morning AFTER the work was due.
So... One letter grade shaved off. And, it was a shame because it was a very decent commentary/analysis.
To avoid those who deliberately turn in the wrong thing, I require that my students double check the assignment after they have submitted it (our system allows them to see that it has properly been uploaded, and to open the document from the web right after they submitted it). So there isn't any "I submitted the wrong thing, I won't lose points, right?" because they know they have to double check it, and they lose a letter grade for each day it's late. I also have the assignment disappear from view like Dr. D. Therefore, they have to email it to me, and I get a nice time/date stamp that shows how late it was.
ReplyDeleteYou get the time/date stamp with Moodle or Blackboard whenever they submit it, and if you leave the assignment window open all the assignments are in one place (instead of some of them lurking in my email.) But I just subtract points for lateness, tell them about this in advance (of course) and don't worry about it one way or another. They hand it in late, they lose points, it's their problem. I have ceased to attach a moral value to lateness. This saves me a lot of energy wasted on outrage.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Frod. I go very low-tech, very strict. One full grade down if it isn't in "the pile" when I pick it up, and one full grade down for every day late thereafter.
ReplyDelete