I don't follow twitter or use it, so pardon my ignorance, but why are the people's addresses or user names blocked out? Shouldn't they be held up to the world for their ignorance?
Terry's right. There were some longtime members very unhappy with any of the Twitter stuff. We sort of agreed to retweet only on Twitter, and NOT to respond directly to the poor students who are somehow too stupid to know how stupid they're acting. Even that was a hard fought compromise. I don't like it either.
I remember people being very angry about it, and I never understood why. If I wasn't so busy trying to fix my half-crashed laptop I'd go in search of the comments. I'm sure someone who was wronged badly will post it.
Sorry, that was me. I thought the original CM twitter feed might be worth talking over, but my post on the subject blowed up real good. Feelings all round ran a lot deeper than I expected.
To be fair, it was not just you. There were other vocal parties in that thread and some more that came to us via email. And there were quite a few folks who wanted Terry to keep going.
Oh yes, excellent. I think it's important that we be able to instruct the moderators on what to do with their blog and their twitter. Fuck them if they don't like us being their bosses.
Our evals are done online. This fall, in my class of 70 students, 15 returned them. A normal person would understand that this response rate makes them useless for drawing any conclusions, and go back to paper evaluations, done in class. But not our admins.
We've been doing ours online for 5 years now. Most of my colleagues give extra credit if they get a certain response rate (i.e. if 100% of students do them, everyone gets 10 points). I refuse to reward them for doing something they're supposed to do, and I usually have a 15% response rate.
In my upper-division courses, I get 5% response (i.e. 1 in 20!); because every single class is evaluated every single quarter. That's 9-10 courses evals every year. The students stop caring about doing them after a while.
"This fall, in my class of 70 students, 15 returned them."
That's why you need to have muscle backing you; I have a squad of Uzbeks show up in their old Afghantsy uniforms and we tell the class "These men are Central Asians, they come from my former superstate.....they are horsemen who take their brides by stealing them, though they have been known to take the occasional pretty boy. Fill out the forms or I let them off the leash."
Cynic, I too have no interest in legitimizing the online system by increasing the response rate. On the contrary, I actually celebrate when the rate is low (U wide, it stands at 30%), as this undermines the system's credibility. In a rational world, we'd already be back to paper evals written in class (so only the students who are still showing up for class get to opine.)
I miss the ritual of going out of the room and then escorting the student volunteer back to the department with the forms. The atmosphere could certainly be enhanced, as товарищ Стрельников suggests, by having an Uzbekh honor guard greet the students on evaluation day, Kalashnikovs at the ready, and then stay in the room as they fill them out, to prevent undue pressure.
We were "encouraged" to "incentivize" students to fill out on line evals. They were also informed that they would be entered in a drawing for gift cards...
We did that. Got the returns up to 20-25% from 10%.
Gone back to paper now, but that STILL isn't producing great returns. However, we are not allowed to make the assumption that students don't do the forms because they are generally quite happy with the courses, oh no, it's all our fault.
We have the same administrative handwringing over online evaluations, however, we are permitted to have the students bring their laptops to class and complete them there. Why this is more efficient than paper, I do not really understand...though I've been told that all the data they glean from the things is rock solid.
I love the students who, with their full name and picture attached to their profile, tweet pictures of their actual evaluations. They obviously don't know that grades haven't come out yet. HASHTAG DUMBASS
I don't follow twitter or use it, so pardon my ignorance, but why are the people's addresses or user names blocked out? Shouldn't they be held up to the world for their ignorance?
ReplyDeleteIf you go to the CM Twitter page, you can see all.
DeleteBecause when we published them here, many of our own readers complained that we were "outing" students.
DeleteThis despite the fact that we pulled them from public Twitter pages available anywhere.
And we were asked by several community members not to tweet our own comments to students because in doing so we were representing the CM community.
I'm still not over it, if you can't tell.
Terry's right. There were some longtime members very unhappy with any of the Twitter stuff. We sort of agreed to retweet only on Twitter, and NOT to respond directly to the poor students who are somehow too stupid to know how stupid they're acting. Even that was a hard fought compromise. I don't like it either.
DeleteI remember people being very angry about it, and I never understood why. If I wasn't so busy trying to fix my half-crashed laptop I'd go in search of the comments. I'm sure someone who was wronged badly will post it.
DeleteSorry, that was me. I thought the original CM twitter feed might be worth talking over, but my post on the subject blowed up real good. Feelings all round ran a lot deeper than I expected.
DeleteIt's here if anyone wants it.
I've always felt bad that it was me that created the misery that week. Sorry Terry.
To be fair, it was not just you. There were other vocal parties in that thread and some more that came to us via email. And there were quite a few folks who wanted Terry to keep going.
DeleteOh yes, excellent. I think it's important that we be able to instruct the moderators on what to do with their blog and their twitter. Fuck them if they don't like us being their bosses.
DeleteWe PAY YOUR SALARIES, you crazy mofus!
Walt, you're always the shit-disturber, aren't you?
DeleteI re-read that post of yours where you talked about your office fridge. You da man, baby.
Pop Tarts??? Seriously?
ReplyDeleteOur evals are done online. This fall, in my class of 70 students, 15 returned them. A normal person would understand that this response rate makes them useless for drawing any conclusions, and go back to paper evaluations, done in class. But not our admins.
ReplyDeleteWe've been doing ours online for 5 years now. Most of my colleagues give extra credit if they get a certain response rate (i.e. if 100% of students do them, everyone gets 10 points). I refuse to reward them for doing something they're supposed to do, and I usually have a 15% response rate.
DeleteIn my upper-division courses, I get 5% response (i.e. 1 in 20!); because every single class is evaluated every single quarter. That's 9-10 courses evals every year. The students stop caring about doing them after a while.
Delete"This fall, in my class of 70 students, 15 returned them."
DeleteThat's why you need to have muscle backing you; I have a squad of Uzbeks show up in their old Afghantsy uniforms and we tell the class "These men are Central Asians, they come from my former superstate.....they are horsemen who take their brides by stealing them, though they have been known to take the occasional pretty boy. Fill out the forms or I let them off the leash."
Cynic, I too have no interest in legitimizing the online system by increasing the response rate. On the contrary, I actually celebrate when the rate is low (U wide, it stands at 30%), as this undermines the system's credibility. In a rational world, we'd already be back to paper evals written in class (so only the students who are still showing up for class get to opine.)
DeleteI miss the ritual of going out of the room and then escorting the student volunteer back to the department with the forms. The atmosphere could certainly be enhanced, as товарищ Стрельников suggests, by having an Uzbekh honor guard greet the students on evaluation day, Kalashnikovs at the ready, and then stay in the room as they fill them out, to prevent undue pressure.
We were "encouraged" to "incentivize" students to fill out on line evals.
ReplyDeleteThey were also informed that they would be entered in a drawing for gift cards...
We did that. Got the returns up to 20-25% from 10%.
DeleteGone back to paper now, but that STILL isn't producing great returns. However, we are not allowed to make the assumption that students don't do the forms because they are generally quite happy with the courses, oh no, it's all our fault.
We have the same administrative handwringing over online evaluations, however, we are permitted to have the students bring their laptops to class and complete them there. Why this is more efficient than paper, I do not really understand...though I've been told that all the data they glean from the things is rock solid.
DeleteI love the students who, with their full name and picture attached to their profile, tweet pictures of their actual evaluations. They obviously don't know that grades haven't come out yet. HASHTAG DUMBASS
ReplyDeleteInsert evil laugh...
Delete