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[polly_mer]

So WHY do I have two students proposing they do their research at Alcoholic Anonymous meetings?! More to the point, why are they naming the leaders and members by their real names?!

Compartmentalization strikes again!

Yeah, that is a head-desk moment.

[fancypants]

In a Creative Basketweaving course, I assigned a project that was something like "Submit three small baskets of your own creation, along with a one-page description of how you applied concepts from the course to the creation of these baskets."  Specific guidelines for the format and content of this description, as well as for the baskets themselves, followed.

A significant number of students turned in baskets with no description, or with an otherwise blank page featuring only a bullet-point list of the three baskets being submitted.  Most mysteriously, one student turned in something that looks like a cover for a circa 1995 corporate training manual that lists the students name and the names of the baskets, but nothing else.

I am thinking that those who did not complete the description are lacking an essential component of the project and will fail this assignment. This means that some students who created satisfactory baskets will fail. I begin to wonder whether asking for students to follow directions is completely unreasonable.

The baskets, which were largely haphazard and showed little to no consideration of what we've been doing so far this semester, are another story altogether.  Let's just say that the majority of the class has wasted my time and theirs for the past several weeks, which leaves me rather ticked off.

[octoprof]

I begin to wonder whether asking for students to follow directions is completely unreasonable.

Wonder no more! Rest assured, your requirement for students to follow instructions is completely reasonable.

[fancypants]

I begin to wonder whether asking for students to follow directions is completely unreasonable.

Wonder no more! Rest assured, your requirement for students to follow instructions is completely reasonable.

Thank you for the voice of sanity.  It is sad that the pervasiveness of this issue causes me to wonder. 

[llanfair]

I begin to wonder whether asking for students to follow directions is completely unreasonable.

Wonder no more! Rest assured, your requirement for students to follow instructions is completely reasonable.

Thank you for the voice of sanity.  It is sad that the pervasiveness of this issue causes me to wonder. 

I feel your pain, FancyPants.  Sometimes you just have to fail the lot of them, and then if they improve, pro-rate the marks.

[octoprof]

Speaking of "unable to follow instructions..." At the beginning of the semester, in fact, before it started, I emailed my online course students reminding them they have to pass an "online course orientation quiz" that is required of the university before they can proceed in any online course. I reminded them of this several times in early January. It is now late February and I have one emailing me wanting to know why he can't see learning module F. Well, dear, that's because you haven't passed the quiz. It's a university rule. I wasn't just blowing smoke when I told you about it several times at the beginning of the term. Go take the quiz and keep taking it until you get a passing grade. Then, miraculously, you'll be able to see everything in the online course. I don't make these rules. I'm just the messenger.

I checked and I have four students (of about 30) who still haven't passed the quiz. Hello? Haven't you noticed something missing in the course? Like ALL THE MATERIAL?

Yes, I did send email reminders...

[cc_alan]

I begin to wonder whether asking for students to follow directions is completely unreasonable.

Wonder no more! Rest assured, your requirement for students to follow instructions is completely reasonable.

Thank you for the voice of sanity.  It is sad that the pervasiveness of this issue causes me to wonder. 

I feel your pain, FancyPants.  Sometimes you just have to fail the lot of them, and then if they improve, pro-rate the marks.

I allow a lot of partial credit on calculations so I think some students believe that *any* work will earn some credit.

NEVER FEAR, BRAVE FORUMITES! I AM HERE TO HELP YOU HOLD THE LINE ON FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS!

I'm currently grading exams and I have quite a few results on a couple of questions like the following-

Q: How many licks does it take to get to the center of the tootsie pop?

A: Blue.

Uh, no soup for you!

Alan

[sciencegrad]

I allow a lot of partial credit on calculations so I think some students believe that *any* work will earn some credit.

If I'm taking an exam and I know that I have no clue how to solve a problem involving math, I used to leave it blank.  My thought process was that if I know for certain that I'm completely wrong, then I don't want to waste the grader's time.  I learned, however, that most of my professors would give at least 50% of partial credit for just having some math on the page, regardless of its relevance.  Now when I'm taking exams, I just write as much math as I can if I don't know what I'm doing.

[lohai0]

I allow a lot of partial credit on calculations so I think some students believe that *any* work will earn some credit.

If I'm taking an exam and I know that I have no clue how to solve a problem involving math, I used to leave it blank.  My thought process was that if I know for certain that I'm completely wrong, then I don't want to waste the grader's time.  I learned, however, that most of my professors would give at least 50% of partial credit for just having some math on the page, regardless of its relevance.  Now when I'm taking exams, I just write as much math as I can if I don't know what I'm doing.

I usually only award about 5%-10% for anything written down. 20-25% if the thing written down was the right start. 50% seems high.

[cc_alan]

I allow a lot of partial credit on calculations so I think some students believe that *any* work will earn some credit.

If I'm taking an exam and I know that I have no clue how to solve a problem involving math, I used to leave it blank.  My thought process was that if I know for certain that I'm completely wrong, then I don't want to waste the grader's time.  I learned, however, that most of my professors would give at least 50% of partial credit for just having some math on the page, regardless of its relevance.  Now when I'm taking exams, I just write as much math as I can if I don't know what I'm doing.

That's exactly what one would normally do to solve a problem. The difficulty with an exam is that it's time-limited. I'm ok with students trying anything because they might stumble across the solution. I don't really mean "stumble" as in randomly falling into a pit but trying things that seem to make sense.

For example, I'm working on using some HTML5 to do JavaScript graphing and I am really stumbling around until I find a solution. One problem that vexed me until yesterday was dynamically setting the upper and lower bounds of the bounding box for the graph based on two things- 1) what was plotted, and 2) was the option to include (0,0) toggled on. I wanted to do it in the tightest coding possible (for me, I'm not a rock star coder!) so I kept trying things until they worked. It took me quite a few attempts until I found one solution that I liked.

I had the benefit of instantly seeing my results which went something like- crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, oh... I like it. Some of the solutions had something good in them and had some partial credit. Some of the solutions were just wrong. I mean really wrong. But, I had the advantage of instantly evaluating the results.

I keep that last part in mind when assigning partial credit.

Alan

[llanfair]

... results which went something like- crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, oh... I like it.

This sort of thing happens in History, too - in amongst the BS, there'll be a tiny, shining crumb of correctness.  As Lohai0 says, 5-10% for that sort of thing, but no more.

[polly_mer]

Alan and I continue to share the brain.  Partial credit in my classes depends on whether someone who has been paying attention might start down that path.  So random numbers or equations are still no credit.  Going down a reasonable path, seeing it doesn't work, and abandoning it might be credit.

Example: What is the mass of a red car that is going 50 miles per hour east for 20 minutes on Mars and weighs 10000 newtons on Earth?

Writing W=mg is worth points because that's relevant as is F=ma.  Perhaps trying to convert the gravity on Mars would be useful or walking up from the law of universal gravitation.  However, calculating a as anything involving the speed of that car is not worth points since the relevant acceleration has nothing to do with how fast the car is going along the road.

[fullofscience]

What is the mass of a red car that is going 50 miles per hour east for 20 minutes on Mars and weighs 10000 newtons on Earth?

If I told you the car wouldn't be going at all because the internal infernal combustion engine needs oxygen to cycle and mars has a predominately carbon dioxide atmosphere, would you give me extra credit?

[bioteacher]

Nope, because the car still has mass. If you offer to travel to Mars and put bread and wine in the glove compartment since the car has mass and you think it should be prepared for Mass, too, then I might give you credit for making me chuckle. :-) And then I'd wonder if you had ever read Douglas Adams since it strikes me as the sort of thing he'd put in one of his books.

But that's just me.

[polly_mer]

What is the mass of a red car that is going 50 miles per hour east for 20 minutes on Mars and weighs 10000 newtons on Earth?

If I told you the car wouldn't be going at all because the internal infernal combustion engine needs oxygen to cycle and mars has a predominately carbon dioxide atmosphere, would you give me extra credit?

I would give you a smart aleck point and then explain that the problem said nothing about an internal combustion engine; cars can be powered by other things that will work well in a carbon dioxide atmosphere.  If you didn't calculate the mass, then the only point you would get would be the smart aleck point.