Choice in the Classroom
I was actually looking up some information on John Aycock, the primary author of this paper, when this title caught my eye. I was lucky enough to hear Dr. Aycock give a presentation earlier today which I hope to discuss later, but I just wanted to make a couple of notes on this paper first.Aycock and Uhl suggest that it is reasonable to give students more Choice in the Classroom, specifically in a university setting. In particular, they look at flexibility for assignment deadlines and the weights assigned to each assignment to indicate how much of the final mark each comprises.
Assignment due dates are usually arbitrary within a fairly small set of possible dates. There are a number of constraints: there needs to be enough time between each and any tests/exams, there needs to be sufficient time for students to complete each assignment and for TAs to mark them, the students need to have learned the material in-class either before the assignment is given out or at least with enough time for them to finish it after the material's been covered in class, and so on. Usually there's a couple of days flexibility so that the prof can give an extension, though, and "assignment marking does not always happen with the eagerness of vultures descending upon a carcass." (What a metaphor!) So, given that this is true, why not allow students a little leeway?
What they attempted was a "Time bank" system, where each student starts the term with two banked days, and then if necessary, they could use those days to extend their assignment deadlines. That is, they could choose to turn in two of their assignments one day late, or they could use both days at once and turn in one assignment two days late (or, of course, they could turn everything in on time). There was no penalty or bonus for using the days or not, and days couldn't be used in fractions. This seemed to be very successful, and reduced the number of extensions requested by students. It even seems like a fairly simple thing to implement in conjunction with an online submission system -- I'd love to see it tried. I also wonder what would happen if you were allowed to put days back into your bank by turning in assignments a day or two early. You'd have to limit the maximum total to 2 days out of consideration for the marking TAs, but I wonder if people would take advantage of this?
For the marking weights, they used a contract system, where students chose the weights they wanted for each assignment, within the values required. (eg: two assignments, total worth 40% of the mark, each one worth 10%-30% depending upon the student's choice) This was apparently less well-received, and the authors comment that some students seemed to have anxiety about choosing such values. I suspect I'd see this with my students if I tried it -- some of them are very concerned about getting things exactly right, and would have fits assuming there was some "right" way to do this, even though as an instructor I know it's somewhat arbitrary. The other large problem with this is that students didn't know at the beginning of term how difficult the assignments would be for them, making it hard for them to make an educated guess. Giving more information about the assignments helped, but I have to say, this seems less like a benefit to the student than the time banks.
Between these two ideas, though, is the thought that students should be able to tailor their educations to suit them better: know you're going out of town the weekend before an assignment is due? Make sure that assignment is worth less so it won't matter as much if you're distracted. Two assignments due at the same time? Extend one of them a day or two using your banked days. Students always complain that instructors make decisions without thinking about other courses, and instructors know that it's hard to please everyone (although when most of your class is taking the same other course, I do think it's reasonable to expect a prof to try to adjust dates a bit -- many at least try to schedule midterms on different days by asking students). But these seem like they might be interesting techniques for customizing a course... worth thinking about for teachers!
posted by T @ 8:36 PM
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