next »

[skeptical]

Personally, I like the way you handled the whole thing.

[wilbrish]

I think she's phobic about speaking in front of class and was just found out. :)

[profreader]

Regarding the length of presentation - that makes sense to me - so, question answered. I'm sure the groups appreciated not having a free rider - I remember always somehow being the one who had to deal with the tag-alongs when doing group work.

[snowbound]

By the way, Sissy decided she would rather give up 6% of her FINAL course grade rather than do an extra 10 minutes of presentation, "for personal reasons." I replied that of course I respect her decision and that sometimes, quite appropriately, life takes priority over courses and grades.

I don't understand.  The 6% penalty comes from getting a zero on the assignment, right? So she's opting for zero rather than give a 20-minute presentation.  So what's this about "an extra 10 minutes"?  Or are you giving her the option of doing a 10 minute presentation for partial credit? That seems overly generous.

[professor_pat]

Sorry, guess I didn't clarify, and I also wrote that last post too hastily and thus made a mistake in my description; it should have read that Sissy was willing to give up 6% of her final course grade rather than do 20 minutes of presentation. As part of the presentation assignment, students choose background reading for everyone to do before the presentation, so we can have an informed discussion. Sissy was planning to just submit the background paper, 40% of the presentation grade (= 4% of students' final course grade), which  I allowed, even though in retrospect I shouldn't have.

I did finally offer her partial credit to do just a 10-minute presentation, which she agreed to. So she's giving up 3% of her final course grade to avoid the extra 10 minutes of presentation. Still seems Like a short-sighted choice to me (especially since she's apparently willing to do some other form of extra credit), but it's her grade and her choice.